I think where YOU are confused is that you are using the words liberalism and liberTARIANISM interchangeably even though they are very different things. Liberals are quite fond of the state because they think it has a role is distribution wealth, at the more moderate end of liberalism they think taxation should be used to provide social safety nets and at the more extreme end they think that all wealth should be evenly distributed by the state. Liberalism and Libertarianism do have some things in common, a lot of liberals are against the war on drugs (although not usually to as much of a degree as libertarians: liberals tend to be particularly in favor of marijuana being legalized but they don't have as strong of feelings about other drugs, whereas libertarians are in favor of complete drug legalization, liberals want any legalized drugs to be regulated by the government and taxed whereas libertarians want the free market to regulate itself and are generally against taxation (particularly anarchists who are entirely against any taxation, some libertarians think that nation states can exist and tax for national security though). Pretty much all liberals and libertarians are in favor of gay marriage being legalized. Liberals think that guns should be illegal or extremely regulated by the state, libertarians think that guns should be readily available with very little to no state regulation. I am not a socialist or a liberal, I am a libertarian, which seems to be a new word for you so I suggest you look it up instead of confusing it with liberalism. Liberals are all socialists, a defining characteristic of the liberal philosophy is that society should be forced to provide a financial safety net for everyone else in society, although only extreme liberals are actually communists in that they think all wealth should be evenly distributed. Indeed communism and anarchism are pretty much complete opposites. On the political chart I would go by, which is a bit different from the Nolan chart, it is a four point diamond, the highest point is totalitarianism the lowest point is libertarianism the left most point is liberalism and the right most point is conservatism. Liberalism is signified by being to the left, if it is upper left it tends toward communism, if it is lower left it tends toward liberal libertarianism. Libertarianism is defined by being down, at the furthest point down it is Anarchism. Communist Liberals: Are against gun rights, are against drug legalization as it translates into higher health care costs which none drug users must pay and also can lead to lower productivity which means there are less resources available to the collective, are against any private industry and want everything to be run by the state, are less concerned with legalizing gay marriage but are not as opposed to it as conservatives, are very nationalistic, generally are pro science but in favor of information censorship, largely against immigration as it puts stress on the collective finances and infrastructure, largely against ex-patriotism (leaving is banned) Libertarian Liberals: Are against gun rights, are moderately in favor of drug legalization although they want it taxed and regulated, are strongly in favor of legalizing gay marriage, are in favor of social safety nets such as socialized healthcare but are not in favor of total wealth redistribution, are in favor of government regulations on industry for things such as environmentalism but are against government running all industry, they tend to be pro science in general although there are some exceptions, generally are against censorship with a few exceptions, generally are AGAINST intellectual property rights, largely in favor of immigration being easy and leaning towards neutral on ex-patriotism (changing citizenship is not banned, but should be highly taxed) Conservatives: Are pro gun rights, are against drug legalization, are against gay marriage, are against social safety nets and in favor of significantly reduced taxation, are against government regulations on industry or much government involvement in the market, and additionally they tend to be quite religious and in favor of government and church mixing, for example they make up the vast majority of people who are in favor of teaching creationism in government schools, generally they are pro censorship and quite nationalistic, generally are in favor of intellectual property rights, largely against immigration, leaning towards neutral on ex-patriotism (changing citizenship is not banned or taxed, but is seen as bad) Fascist Conservatives: Are generally against gun rights for the masses, against drug legalization, against gay marriage, against social safety nets for the people but in favor of providing safety nets to industry/corporations, quite religious and often in favor of government and church mixing, pro censorship, in favor of strong police presence within society, quite fascinated with military building, extremely nationalistic, sometimes in favor of eugenics, generally are in favor of intellectual property rights although generally for corporations more so than individuals, largely against immigration and ex-patriotism (leaving is banned) Libertarian Conservatives: Pro gun rights, pro gay marriage legalization, pro drug legalization especially for marijuana but unlike liberal libertarians they are against its taxation and strict regulation, against social safety nets, against taxation in the vast majority of cases although they may support it for infrastructure or national defense, less religious than other conservatives, against censorship in most cases, have no opinion on teaching creationism in public schools as they think there should be no public schools, less nationalistic than other conservatives, generally are in favor of intellectual property rights, neutral on ex-patriotism (leaving is not banned or seen as bad) immigration is not banned but is strictly regulated And then at the very extreme end of libertarianism it becomes less a matter of left or right, and is better defined as simply Anarchy imo Anarchy: Pro gun rights, pro gay marriage legalization (as there should be no state to sanction marriages in the first place), pro drug legalization (and it shouldn't be regulated or taxed by the state as the state should not exist), a bit of a mixed bag regarding intellectual property rights but quite a lot view pay walls to information as a form of censorship and they tend to be against intellectual property rights as they are against all forms of censorship, against any form of taxation, no opinion on teaching creationism in public schools as they are against public schools, do not believe in national borders or in the concept of illegal immigrants (however they do believe in individuals having control over who enters their own land), extremely relaxed views regarding what should be considered criminal (essentially it boils down to: If it does not initiate force against another person, it should be legal, and this includes controversial things such as child pornography distribution), there should be private defense agencies and infrastructure should be handled by the free market, essentially government should be seen as banditry and outlawed.