• SkyNTP@lemmy.ml
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    6 months ago

    Conservatism is a distinct political ideology that basically says not all change is for the better, nothing more–it’s in the name: conserve. This is a separate concept from authoritarianism, which is all about how power flows. It’s possible to be conservative and liberal at the same time if society is losing its liberal values.

    US republicans are fascists through and through that wear a disguise of conservatism on select issues to convince people to relinquish their political power so that they can do whatever they want.

    • Tar_Alcaran
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      6 months ago

      Sure, it’s theoretically possible, but I’ve never met a conservative anywhere who actually wants to conserve what they have today. In practice, they all want to go back to the past, and most prefer some kind of fictional 1960s past.

      • rhombus
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        6 months ago

        That’s the tricky part about conservatism. If their values never change, they are eventually left behind by progress and they become reactionaries. Unfortunately, people just keep accepting their use of the label “conservative” when it stopped fitting them decades ago, which is a convenient cover for the more reprehensible ones.

      • Barbarian
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        6 months ago

        They don’t describe themselves this way, but you could accurately call modern Hungarian liberals conservatives, as post-Soviet Hungary was a lot more liberal than it is today.

        • NeptuneOrbit@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          I think you could call most all liberals, conservative. Liberalism has been the main driving force in the US for decades. To be liberal is to try and conserve that liberalism. For example, voting for Clinton in 2016 felt pretty conservative. “Continuing the Obama years with something as similar as possible seems the best of the alternatives right now” is inherently a conservative decision. Alas.

    • Tinidril@midwest.social
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      6 months ago

      Conservatism is a distinct political ideology that basically says not all change is for the better, nothing more

      Based on what? Conservatism’s roots go back to royalists after the French Revolution. Conservatives were the American colonists who objected to the war of independence calling it treason against the crown. It’s not about change in a general way, it’s about resisting democratic movements and preserving autocratic rule.

      It’s possible to be conservative and liberal at the same time

      Liberalism is an offshoot of Conservatism that favors empowerment of the economic elite and institutions over kings and politicians. It’s economic totalitarianism instead of political totalitarianism. These become indistinguishable when the economic elite capture the body politic.

      US republicans are fascists through and through that wear a disguise of conservatism

      This is backwards. The disguise is the thing that turns conservatism info fascism. It’s the dressing up of conservative totalitarianism with nationalism, religious fundamentalism, racism, and other forms of identitarianism.