Leftists HATE capitalism. They want to replace it altogether with some alternative economic system (market socialism, planned economy or a combination of the two) depending upon the type of leftist. Differences in leftists also exist based on the HOW of replacing capitalism (violent revolution, democratic reformation and so on).

Liberals ARE NOT leftists. Liberals believe that capitalism, with all its flaws is still the least bad economic system. They recognise some flaws of the free market and think that capitalism must be regulated to a certain extent by the government.

So again, all leftists HATE capitalism. Liberals dislike a free market, but think that regulated capitalism is the least bad form of governance.

Note: I know you didn't ask this, but just wanted to clarify - capitalism ≠ market. There's a large group of leftists called "market socialists" who want a market without the means of production owned privately.

The left starts at anti capitalism.

Beyond that, for this meme, liberals are guilty capitalists the same way a Catholic porn addict is a guilty Catholic. They'll feel bad about homelessness, and spend billions "fixing" homelessness but never address the root cause... As that would interfere with their addiction. They'll feel terrible about drug addicts existing and spend billions "fixing" it by selling them different drugs and for profit rehab... But will never address the root of the problem. Liberals feel awful about x, but will never solve x of it interferes with capital. It's why they love rainbow capitalism, they get to feel good about finally doing the right thing... While making profit.

Leftists want to solve the problem, no matter the cause. They don't support gay people because it's cheap, easy, and allows for profit; they do it because all people have inherent rights. They don't want to build all inclusive, hyper expensive, heavily monitored and limited access housing for the homeless, they just want to build homes and ensure those effected have food and water.

Liberals are not left wing. Socially they only hold a vague mirage of left wing ideals as long as it doesn't harm capitalism. Economically, they're as right wing as any conservative or fascist. Fun fact fascism has only ever sprung from liberals.

None of the answers you've received are really correct.

Liberalism has a specific meaning in political science. Modern Liberals support market economies, strong individual rights, and the right to own private property (not personal property like your house, car, or toothbrush - private property means capital).

I'm going to use socialism as a proxy for Leftism broadly because Socialism + Anarchism is too broad. Socialism is a political philosophy characterized by public ownership of capital (aka the means of production). That is the primary thing that binds leftists together.

Leftists view Liberalism as an improvement over feudalism, the system that it replaced, but criticize Liberals for protecting the status quo of neoliberal capitalism and the injustices, inequities, and evils it has perpetuated (slavery, colonialism, white supremacy, patriarchy, labor exploitation, etc.). They also assert that any Social Democratic reforms Liberals champion are ineffectual at addressing the core problems of capitalism.

The reason that the leftists in the meme have guns is because Leftists have historically been violently opposed to fascism and have engaged in revolutions to overthrow feudal, liberal, and fascist regimes.

After the French Revolution, they arranged the seats in the legislature with the most progressive on the left, and the most conservative on the right.

This left-right axis is often still used in modern politics.

On the American politics version of this spectrum, "liberal" defines those in the center who are in the middle and who accept whatever they are given. Leftist progressives fight for a better future.

Liberal plays by the established rules.

Leftist revolts and fights back.

Liberals die on their knees, leftists die standing.

To me, a leftist is someone who looks at the status quo and goes this is fucked up. We need to fix it.

A liberal looks at the status quo and goes "this isn't this bad." Think Bill Clinton or Tony Blair. Politicans who continued to maintain the status quo after their conservative predecessors.

If a leftist politician served after a conservative politician. The leftist politician would be like "fuck this" and upend the status quo.

Liberal is the opposite of authoritarianism. Left politicies are less capitalism and more socialism. What America calls Liberal is more authoritative than what should be considered central party. Like in the political compass "Liberals" are middle middle top right, while "conservatives" are upper middle top right.

Not a visual learner eh.

No because a lot of it is bullshit people just drawing lines in the sand of an already silly way to plot political stances.

The truth is all liberals should be leftists. Politics leans left and right and people are broken down from there.

Currently people use the term "leftist" in too many ways but generally it suggests being against the system or capitalism. A liberal or liberalism is easy to Google but usually people mean it as left leaning folk who buy into the system, capitalism or neoliberal politics.

I’m the good kind and those idiots are the bad kind.

Leftists want full auto space communism.

Liberals want rights and liberties for all.

Both can overlap or not depending.