Why do people equate "Left Wing" with "Liberal"?

The term “liberal” in the political context describes the ideology that today is known as “libertarianism” and to a lesser degree “conservatism.” The history of its usage as a political label is pretty simple in fact. Political Liberalism is an outgrowth of the Anglo-Scottish Enlightenment. Their attention was on combating the collectivism/socialism of the French Enlightenment and the economic ideas of Mercantilism and Feudalism and its natural by-product, slavery. Until the early 20th century, those who described themselves as Liberals were those who opposed all forms of Socialism. However as the Socialists had successfully appropriated the term “Democrat” during the 19th century they began appropriating the term “liberal” in the early 20th. Socialist even coined the term that described the economic philosophy of Liberals, “capitalism” to imply that the motive factor for the Liberal Market system was the accumulation of capital (profit). It reached the point that any movement that described itself as “democratic” or “liberal” was automatically assumed to be Socialists.

The Austrian School was opposed to this newspeak and cautioned Liberals not to abandon the term to the Socialists. Ludwig von Mises wrote a book entitled “Liberalism” in defense of Classical or Gladstonian Liberalism. But the transition continued with even more Socialist intellectuals drafting books and essays extolling the virtues of “liberalism” and describing the Liberals as “conservatives” and/or “capitalists”. By the 1940’s the term was all but abandoned by the Right and became synonymous with Socialism. But even within the ideology of Socialism there was still a bitter dispute as anti-Stalinists objected to the use of that label by Stalinists.

Liberal Left Wing

From wikipedia "The term originates from the French Revolution, when liberal deputies from the Third Estate generally sat to the left of the president's chair, a habit which began in the Estates General of 1789. The nobility, members of the Second Estate, generally sat to the right. It is still the tradition in the French Assemblée Nationale for the representatives to be seated left-to-right (relative to the Assemblée president) according to their political alignment."

I could go into a rant about right versus left; but, that wasn't your question.

Someone actually asks an intelligent question and receives idiotic political answers.

Liberal means fewer laws and conservative means more laws. Modern American politics confuses them with leftist and rightist, which mean progressive and traditionalist, respectively. However, from what I see, progressives are somewhat more liberal in the true sense than traditionalists are.

We are trying to educate the upcoming young voters like yourself that liberal is a very dirty word, and that no one in their right mind would ever want to be one.

The dictionary definition doesn't really apply to modern political thought, at least in the U.S.

Because liberals are left wing. Funny how liberal left wingers hate to be called what they are.

Don't worry soon it will be equated to "progressive" as well, kind of shows how despicable they are doesn't it?

That they have to change their name every generation.

Because it's easier to equate.

Would you prefer Socialist or Communist? You pick, they're all the same.