Whatever “conservatism” is, it does not involve the conservation of a stable climate, or the polar ice caps, or the coral reefs, or the global food supply.

  • essell@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    Conservatism may look irrational, outdated and destructive. In fact I’m fairly confident it is all those things *right now * in many places.

    Look bigger though, imagine why it exists.

    It is the natural end point of any push for change. Any system that manifests in the world will inevitably be challenged by further future. Each revolution is faced with the next one.

    It is inevitable that when a system comes to dominance there are those who wish to preserve and conserve it, all the energy that was put into change is focused on conserving the system.

    The problem is the context keeps changing and the revolution never fits reality for long.

    • Signtist@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      This is literally it. The thing they want to conserve is the way society is, or rather, the way it was back in the mid-1900’s. That’s why they’re on the other end of the spectrum from progressives, who want progress and change.

  • JesseoftheNorth@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    “Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.” Francis Wilhoit

  • liv@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    I had a funny experience of this recently. I was looking for conservation and found what I thought was an empty “Conservative” community over on kbin so I started posting conservation articles there.

    Turns out it did have one poster but they are banned by Beehaw so I only saw them when I was logged out. Anyway he was annoyed and told me Conservative is a political term meaning conserving traditions.

    So I started posting articles about conserving traditions, especially about how conserving the traditions of Indigenous people is good for the environment. But he still complained.

    They ended up polling the !conservative@kbin.social community to see what it should be about, majority voted for environmental conservation anyway.