Sometimes the evolution of language isn’t so much organic as it is a political project, such as a century of red scares and socialist purges.

Ok. But regardless of the cause, organic or political project, it doesn't change the fact that the language has moved on correct?

We can’t simply use their terms, because their terminology is both muddled and lacking.

But there's the rub. You/we ARE using their terms and the message is muddled and lacking BECAUSE OF the difference in perceived definitions. And as the past couple decades have shown there is zero chance of getting the American people to learn things, or unlearn as the case may be.

I assume very few people this far down a thread into a political discussion, on Lemmy, don't know what the Overton windowS are and how fucked the US is because of the current far right position on the left/right scales. I find it lacking and dislike it's libertarian origins. We are even now discussing the difference of a word being used for social vs economic ideas and these two scales do not necessarily overlap.

~~What? That's literally the opposite of what I'm saying... I'm saying words can have multiple meanings depending on context.
But the point of this was how does "liberal" having a different colloquial definition from how op was using it have anything do with "developing class consciousness" which can be done regardless of this single word?~~

Yes