There is absolutely an inverse relationship here, but it's between "post-modernism," incorrectly labeled liberalism, and education. Most students attending American/West European universities have unfortunately been indoctrinated by New Left ideology instead of being "educated."

What you call liberalism today is proof of the absolute stranglehold of the New Left and post-modernist ideology over Western intellectuals. Allan Bloom wrote about it in "The Closing of the American Mind" discussing how Frankfurt School nihilists such Herbert Marcuse and Michele Foucault and post-modernists such as Jacques Derrida burrowed into the Ivy League (later the rest of academia) beginning after WWII, fully taking off in the 60s.

New Left liberalism and post-modernism are unfortunately the bastard children of Nietzschean Nihilism. The belief that truth is relative is contrary to Enlightenment values of reason and fact based observations. Of course, post-modernists believe that Enlightenment thinkers were racists because they were white Europeans and math is racist because Europeans systematized modern math (never mind that the founding fathers of Algebra and Trigonometry were mostly Persians). Be that as it may, please spare us the lecture about how Liberals "believe in science" and conservatives are close minded.

There is nothing Liberal about mainstream American culture, as it is the product of Frankfurt School ideology (Please read Herbert Marcuse essay on A critique of Pure Tolerance)and what you call "Conservatism" is actually classical liberalism. So dear Alice, welcome Through the Looking-Glass aka America in 2022!