The joke @cosecantphi@hexbear.net is making is that originally liberalism was broadly construed as anything in opposition to the rule of kings, which includes a whole bunch.
sort of, the purest form of the joke is that the distinction between western conseravtives and ‘liberal’ left wing westerners who vote for mainstream, left wing parties is that you’re only choosing a different flavour of neo-liberalism
for example, the rhetroic in the top panel was mirrored by the UKs left ‘new-labour’ during the gulf war; we had our ‘left’ liberal in power at the time and we still jumped both feet into that war.
That works too, especially when it comes to imperialism.
I guess I’m less of a “both sides are the same” guy and more of a “of course libs are better than reactionaries, but that’s comparing a pile of shit with a $20 in it to a pile of shit with a used needle” guy. I think it helps avoid some of the mental shutdowns you see when you challenge the idea that libs are better than reactionaries.
