Are many of the concepts enshrined in western liberalism (things

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Are many of the concepts enshrined in western liberalism (things like free speech, democracy, 'do what you want so long as it doesn't harm others') bad memes? I don't mean memes in the internet sense, I mean in the traditional sense. Ideas that can easily and effectively transmit to others.

Most of these things seem more able to cannibalize themselves and less capable of proselytizing themselves than memes such as religion, which tend to enshrine certain beliefs and discourage questioning them. Say what you will about religions like Islam, when you enshrine that a certain set of rules is protected by a divine figure and harshly punish apostasy you can prevent people from questioning / rejecting it, even in the face of rational argument. Whereas concepts like free speech, by their nature, permit contrary ideas to survive and sometimes thrive, to the point where they can grow in strength and then abolish it (whether it's something like fascism, theocracy, etc). It seems clear enough that the ideal that rational ideas will ultimately prevail is giving the average individual's reasoning skills too much credit, especially as we learn more and more how easily manipulated populations can be. Democracies can potentially elect authoritarians, those who ignore the behavior of others so long as it doesn't affect them can allow certain ideologies to grow under their noses, etc.

Are all these ideals destined to fail in the long run, or do they have the capacity to spread to a degree that outdoes their flaws?