Shade of gray. We are not all conservative or all liberal. I am fiscally conservative and socially liberal. IOW, don't spend money we don't have and I don't give a fuck about which adult you have sex with.

Classical liberalism is not like social liberalism. It has elements of conservatism with economics, but liberal towards people. It leans left on people, but has Libertarian aspects of small government and a smaller welfare state, it looks to negative rights vs positive rights, e.g, protect citizens from harm and focus more on working for themselves to prosper. Originally Libertarian came from the left, but is now morphed to more a far right thing. Classical liberalism is kind of like a centerist Libertarian in ways. Although I don't think free trade is as easy as it sounds, it can be abused as the market finds child and slave labor cheap. The Economist describes its editorial style as Classical Liberalism.

I don’t know what you mean.

Correct. Throughout the 1900's the likes of Hayek, von Mises, Rand, et al, kind of took over it, bringing a lot of right-wing stuff into it.

For the worse, in my opinion.

I dont like far left wing or far right wing. I like some of the Classical Liberalism views, and I like news that doesn't confirm my biases but makes me think. Some sites I read have said things that initially annoyed me, but provided various perspectives. I realized I need to read stuff that challenges my beliefs and biases. If I agree with everything i am reading, Im not challenging myself.. I guess that's also why I come here to the Lavender Room...