I'm not sure when the term liberal became a bad word. At one point in world history, the word liberal was associated with a political philosophy that was similar to today's "conservatism." Those liberals fought for individual rights, private property and smaller government during the Age of Enlightenment when they were up against the abuses of the growing monarchical nation-states. Today the word liberal is associated with a belief in big government, the redistribution of wealth and group rights. Group rights are important to liberals.

From time to time you will hear the term "classical liberalism." This refers to the original philosophy of liberalism and is used to distinguish from today's ideology of liberalism. Note the difference between the term philosophy and the term ideology. Philosophy is the seeking of truth (this is difficult). Ideology is the seeking of preferred results (this is easy). Todays liberals have chosen the easy way.

The hijacking of the term liberal and the descent into its modern meaning was probably a political move made by the socialists. Socialism became popular throughout the academic world in the late 19th and early 20th century. When the socialists decided it was time to expand out of academia and gain some political power they realized they had a problem. They were too closely related to their extreme brethren, the communists. You wont win elections if you are associated with the communists. (Note today that all communist societies are dictatorships, e.g. China, Cuba, North Korea, and the former USSR). So the socialists figured out that if they wanted to move into the political arena they would need a new label. They probably thought that the term liberalism was a good choice due to its historic association with the fight for the common man. But the bottom line was that they really needed to cloak their close association with communism. Today you may also hear socialists use the term populism or progressivism.

Today the word socialism is slowly beginning to lose its evil reputation and slip into the mainstream. This is due to the death of the worlds chief social empire, the USSR, and the short memory span of modern man. We tend to forget all that evil. You can get elected today as a socialist if you are a politician in the old Soviet Republics, old Europe (Germany, France, Sweden), or if you are a Birkenstock Bolshevik from Vermont.

Hijacking the meaning of historic terms is an example of owning the language. Owning the language is necessary when you are promoting an ideology. The use of euphemisms is another method of language control. You use a euphemism when you need to get rid of a disagreeable term and substitute a more palatable one.

We all use euphemisms, but those on the left are masters of the trade. For example, if you are pro-abortion you substitute the term pro-choice. Now I'm not going to argue abortion here, but this is a good example of a euphemism and it is silly. Have you ever seen a pro-choicer supporting a woman who chooses to carry her baby to term? The term pro-choice infers that you consider alternatives. If you are only interested in promoting one of the alternatives (abortion), then by definition you can't be pro-choice. But the pro-choicers cannot call themselves by their real names (pro-death or pro-abortion) so they use a euphemism. Another good example is how the liberals deal with the term homosexual lifestyle. Most people find that term to be objectionable. So they substitute the euphemism "alternate lifestyle."

Euphemisms are also good for your self-esteem. If you are indifferent about a controversial issue you can label yourself with the euphemism tolerance and take the moral high ground. Euphemisms works for your favorite radical environmentalist causes too. If you want to make a living out of saving swamps, but the masses wont help you by donating money to save a swamp, you substitute the term "wetland." If the masses won't send you money to save the jungle, rename it "rainforest" and the money will pour in.

Euphemism is an intimidating. I wonder if there is a euphemism for euphemism.

One last note, since liberals are extremely intolerant they have a euphemism for that too. It is called political correctness. If you disagree with them you are dismissed with political correctness and labeled as cold-hearted, selfish and biased. Or you are given an "ism" (racism, sexism, classism), or phobia (homophobia). You are rarely challenged with an intellectual argument. This dismissive attitude is intellectually lazy and extremely short sighted. If the liberals don't listen to criticism they will not develop their ideas and improve upon them.