Interesting reply....coming from a Borg.
I don't condone painting an entire group with a broad brush. But, when you have the group(s) itself proclaiming to be a collective "hive mind" I must acquiesce to their wishes. Most modern liberals have hijacked the classical name in the hope of being perceived as "enlightened" above the masses. Any past connection to "liberty" or even "library", a place of enlightenment, are gone. It has morphed into an opposite for "conservative" taken from conserve meaning: to keep something, especially an important environmental or cultural resource, from harm, loss, change, or decay. It has not lost its meaning, but is frequently used by modern liberals to identify all who disagree with them or used incorrectly to refer to Republicans (of which all are not conservatives, some are classic liberals or Libertarians, among others). The same is true in liberal/Democrat associations, however most conservative Democrats were driven out of the party in the 1990's, leaving mostly liberals and progressives.
Progressives. As Anthony stated, the name sounds forward thinking and it some ways it was. It began in the USA in the early 1900's. President Teddy Roosevelt was a conservative progressive (possibly a nonexistent form today), creating our national park system and taking on the robber barons and corporate corruption. Woodrow Wilson was a progressive. He insured that the Army remained segregated prior to entry into WWI, possibly dealing a great blow to race relations for decades to come. The Progressive movement was extremely popular in 1930's Germany, especially the progressive tenets that included segregation and euthanasia.
With the demise of the Nazis, so the progressives moved into the shadows and embraced socialism, fascism's surviving cousin, to slowly work it's way into the public again. Margret Sanger became a heroine of the progressive movement being a champion for abortion rights (never mind she intended it as a control device for minorities). Odd to see minority women carrying her photo during the 2017 Women's March in Washington DC. As time passed the progressive movement pulled even further to the left to achieve their goals, abandoning any movement toward the right as a much harder road to travel. By the 1990 the movement was again in the open, proudly supporting socialist ideals and instrumental in removing conservative Democrats from office over the same period.
The Nation, a progressive "news" aggregate and opinion source have even purged Teddy Roosevelt from their ranks, and added FDR and Eleanor Roosevelt. Later cementing their Communist/Socialist leanings, they include Saul Alinski and even Micheal Moore as adherents to their philosophy. Their reach now includes most of the media services and they routinely target those they consider enemies (conservatives, libertarians, Republicans, and even some Democrats) with smear campaigns, staged protests, boycotts, and intimidation. Now embracing the minorities they once wanted to keep in check, they use their grievances as victimization, along with any other special interest group that wants to get in on the identity politics action. They are adept at ingratiating into government positions, and ensuring replacements are cut of the same cloth. This is easy to see with recent years scandals with major government agencies, EPA, IRS, FBI, DOJ, NSA, and possibly others that came or will come to light.
