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Notes -
Obviously policy is elite driven not public driven. And the public's attitutes have changed in relation to the influence of the elites and censorship laws. The British electorate is pretty liberal and rising authoritarianism has been done by social liberals in the name of social liberalism. Including by people who were liberals as part of conservative party and pushed things to a liberal direction on all sorts of issues that are part of social liberal agenda. Like gay marriage, hate speech laws, affirmative action type of policies, including in political party leadership like torries. And such attitutes didn't just come yesterday as mana from the heaven, but have a root and a history.
This idea that one can separate liberalism with authoritarianism we have seen is definitely distorting history. Especially when you do it in favor of a tribe of social liberals as the champions of freedom. It's people like Tony Blair, Cameron, continuing on trajectory of previous people who pushed attitutes and even hate speech laws in a certain direction who were key protagonists in bringing things in current direction. Prior to them, the new left and in Britain Fabian types always had their influence and being wolf in sheep clothing selves. Something extreme. They just couldn't push their more extreme policies through immediately. Or some of the elites were less extreme but had attitudes willing to compromise and allow more extreme of the liberal faction get their agenda through. Including allowing the influence of particular lobbies and activists to expand.
The reality is that authoritarian social liberalism is a very real ideology, and more representative of what social liberals, and therefore the liberal tribe and elites have been historically and especially even more so now than any association of them with freedom. And a part of what is taken to be part of social liberalism package includes the protected groups idea. To an extend, authoritarianism for cultural progressivism has been an aspect of even the USSR, especially before Stalin.
Maximalist freedom seekers are also not going to be satisfied by the age prior to social liberalism of course. When this tribe dismantled the conservative order, they weren't doing it to erect a free society, but to erect their order. At such, any advantages of "freedom tm" relating to dismantling restrictions of the old order, were always going to be temporary.
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