To understand liberal ideology, just look at it from the perspective of a developing country. You want modern technology, the source of the West's wealth and power, but the West wants you to control you. Liberal ideology aims to blur the boundaries between these two goals.
In order to develop technologically, you need compatible political and economic organization. The West's goal is to convince you that the only political and economic organization that can produce development is one that involves opening to Western trade, investment, media, etc.
Every component of liberal ideology, from free markets and free trade to free speech, free assembly, academic freedom, multiparty elections, and human rights is aimed eroding your sovereignty, so Western institutions can move in, gain control, and extract your wealth.
The attempts to reform socialist countries are a perfect example of this. "You want development? Okay, you need to get prices right, that means you need markets, to have markets you need property, for property you need a fair legal system, that demands political liberalism", etc.
Of course, this doesn't just work on developing countries, it functions as a way for the ruling elite in the developed world to 'justify' their rule (or, better, to obscure who rules). It's just easier to see from the perspective of a developing country.
Note that the way ideas like 'free speech' are used to mislead people domestically is exactly the same as the way they're employed imperialistically: They ignore asymmetries of power. Incumbent Western media corps, networks of think tanks, etc, dominate discourse in both cases.
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