In my view this is an entire debate based on a ridiculous assumption, that a "liberal vs conservative" axis is something that usefully maps to real-world phenom

In my view this is an entire debate based on a ridiculous assumption, that a "liberal vs conservative" axis is something that usefully maps to real-world phenomena. I think the entire debate is just the politics of a first-past-the-post voting system spilling out into academia. Because first-past-the-post trends towards two parties, and it's in each party's interest to maintain the status quo, everyone who picks a side in the battle has an interest in acting as if political discussions can be usefully framed as "us vs them" Any "debate" that acts as if "liberal" vs "conservative" is missing the forest for the trees, in my view at least