Lemmy is populated by far left Americans who were banned from Reddit for extremism. Strict ideological conformity is required or you’ll get actual death threats. Don’t go there unless you want violent communist revolution and hate discussing interesting ideas.
Liberal, to me, is the opposite of authoritarian. No idea what other people consider it to be, but IMO it’s entirely disconnected from the left/right spectrum. You can have authoritarian left, right or center, same way with liberal.
I think it’s connected to unregulated capitalism in the eyes of its opponents here.