OK, joking aside, but how in the name of God can a teacher get up on his hind legs

[Burney]

Yes, in the 19th century began a conflation of liberal thought -- as characterized by enthusiasm for Enlightenment concepts -- with the emergence of the middle class. This conflation was not an accident: the middle class sought to bedeck itself in principled lofty garb, in part to achieve its ends. The Revolution of 1848 is one such manifestation. Because of the only-moderate success of that revolutionary event, a natural splintering occurred. The middle class grew tired of certain lofty concepts, and others, artists, members of marginalized groups, took upon themselves the mantle of liberal beliefs. You point up some particular segment of these artists or marginalized groups, this guy up on stage. I hardly listened to the clip. But I would not describe these splintered elements as "illiberal," merely as a product of a long history.

But when I come on here, there seems to be a long harangue against these groups, a harangue in favor of Brexit, which may express the mood of the middle class. I don't know that you can say these middle class moods are liberal necessarily. Basically -- I don't insult you by saying that you're middle class. But you may have sympathy for said class -- your point of you represents a churlish hodge-podge, a kind of scabrous carping. I for one do not approve.

For me, Britain should step forward and reinvade India. End of story.

Your idea of liberalism seems to include membership of the EU - which is a profoundly illiberal organisation dedicated to protectionism, state regulation and technocratic and bureaucratic supremacy over the demos. My issue with you is that you appear to think the EU is something it is not and predicate your arguments about Brexit on that palpably false premise.

So for instance, today the EU Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality called for the EU to be allowed to regulate the press on the grounds that she (a woman who grew up in Communist Czechoslovakia) thinks the oldest free press on earth dares to say nasty things about EU Commissioners and leaders, which 'sows division' (rather the point of a pluralist society, I'd have thought) and ought to be stopped.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/20...u-commissioner

Which bit of 'liberal' would you say state regulation of a free press comes under?