Conservatives Want to Preserve Some Traditions
Conservatives favour traditions that maintain inequity and oppose traditions that reduce inequity.
By Ryan McGreal.
175 words. Approximately a 0 to 1 minute read.
Posted November 22, 2022 in Blog.
It's common to describe conservatism as a preference for traditions and a resistance to change. But this shorthand is not quite correct. It's actually a preference for traditions that maintain inequity and a resistance to change that reduces inequity.
For example, the labour movement had its origins in the late 18th century and its early achievements include the five-day workweek and the eight-hour workday. Yet conservatives are only too happy to change those traditions.
In this sense, the online trope "cope harder" is the perfect rallying cry for the conservative: it is a self-centred celebration of injustice and harm that instructs people to learn to accept it instead of seeking to remedy it.
In case there was a sliver of doubt about what I’m saying here, consider this quote from the father of the Colorado Springs nightclub shooter in November 2022:
And then I go on to find out it’s a gay bar. I said, ‘Shit, is he gay?’ And he’s not gay, so I said, ‘Whew.’
The father went on to state, “I am a conservative Republican.”