Conservatives Want to Preserve Some Traditions
Conservatives favour traditions that maintain inequity and oppose traditions that reduce inequity.
By Ryan McGreal
Posted November 22, 2022 in Blog (Last Updated November 22, 2022)
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.”