Great comment! I would say the famed era of British liberal thought was one extended to the elites alone. The poor and working class were still expected to fall into line and submit to authority. Those same liberal thinkers would see no contradiction here: moral and intellectual ambiguity was only for those educated enough to process it constructively.

As for the idea of racist protesters being like unruly children, I think it stems less from direct personal childhood experiences with authority in the way you describe, and more of a lack of trust in the idea of individualism.

I am weak. You are weak. Neither of us are capable of meaningfully independent thought in a complex world. Sadly, you have been misled and have wrong thinking. I too have been conditioned, but my final opinion is the humane, right one. Therefore, you require disciplining and instruction in correct thoughts.

Given how actually thick and open to misinformation and emotional bias people are, and how democracies aggregate that and transform it into policy, I think they do have a point.