The three things that floored me in my study of Partisan History was the fact that the Kings of England were German. Royalists funded the universities that produced Kant, Hegel and that group. This is probably why these ideologies tend to dictatorships.
The second thing that floored me was that the Tories rebranded their party as the Conservative Party. The Tories were the people who fought against the Revolution.
Conservatives in America are supporting the ideology of the people who fought against the US Founders in the Revolutionary War.
The last thing that astounded me was that the Liberal Party and the Republican Party were both founded in 1850s and had a similar platform.
The Republican Party was the Liberal Party and the Democratic Party was the Conservative Party up until the Civil Rights Movement.
The reason we equate the terms "liberal" and "socialism" is simply that the Liberal Party fell apart and Conservatives took to calling members of the Labour Party "Liberal."
The Politicians destroyed our lexicon.