I'm aware of who he is, and the context of "liberal" when referring to him and his views. I'm offering an explanation as to why someone might describe him as "liberal", because if anyone outside the US listened to his viewpoints they would describe him as "liberal". I'd be willing to bet that the original commenter is not American, and that's why they chose "liberal", not to be misleading, but because literally the entire rest of the world uses the word differently.

"USA: the primary use of the term liberal is at some variance with European and worldwide usage. In the United States today, it is most associated with the definition of modern liberalism, which is a combination of social liberalism, public welfare and a mixed economy,[12] which is in contrast to classical liberalism."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_parties_by_country#The...

> because literally the entire rest of the world uses the word differently

This assumed cultural hegemony by some US citizens is frustrating as hell; they are incredibly quick to assume (or demand even) the rest of the world knows their cultural references/idioms/etc., yet make zero effort to discover what the rest of the world is doing. Unfortunately they are also loud and so it's easy to come to the false conclusion all US citizens are like that.

I'm a Brit, I would no think of Joe as a liberal, and I only read this thread as I was so shocked to hear he might be a left leaning commentator. Obviously reading this, he is not.

I'm also a Brit, and to be honest, the term "liberal" in a political context has lost all meaning for me since everyone seems to have their own definition of what it actually entails.

I blame Jeremy Thorpe

This seems to be the case for a lot of words these days.

That exemplifies the cultural hegemony. In the UK, liberals historically stood for laissez-faire economics and minimal government intervention (among other things). Before the rise of the Labour Party, the main second party in the UK was the Liberal Party, which supported laissez-faire capitalism, in contrast to the Tories of the day, who tended to oppose free market capitalism and support paternalistic social and economic programs that benefited the nation as a whole, not just the rich (obviously that's changed—classic liberals now dominate the Tory Party). Lots of people still use liberal in this way (classically liberal), but the meaning has gradually changed under the influence of the US, so many people are unaware that liberal could mean anything but vaguely left-leaning and progressive.