Conservativism 1.0

Yesterday, DocBrain blasted the liberal stereotype. Today, the conservative stereotype comes into the crosshairs.

Conservativism is defense of the status quo: so called traditional values and the current state of legality. Unlike liberalism, which pushes for change, conservativism believes that the changes that have been made are far enough, or perhaps even too far.

Here are some hits at conservatives.

1. What a conservative opposes today is likely something a conservative will strongly defend in 50 years. The center of thought moves to the left in a free society.
2. Punishing a criminal may feel good, but doesn't really solve a problem.
3. While many of the founding fathers were Christian, the United States was established on the grounds of religious freedom and no national religion.
4. The United States was not founded by conservatives. Many were liberal, free thinker types.
5. Conservatives are linked in many people's minds to racism, segregation, ethnic and religious biases, anti-woman, anti-poor, anti-working class, and anti-gay. When a liberal sees a conservative, they think "Well, just a few years ago, you were OK with x."
6. When a conservative acts like a bureaucrat, saying "no" because "that is just the way it is", the conservative should not be surprised when he is a target of an ad hominem attack. Conservatives are often as short on logic and data to support their positions as are liberals. Their only defense is that "this is the way it has always been done."
7. Conservatives confuse morality with ethics. Where liberals often see moral relativism, something DocBrain strongly disagrees with, conservatives often see Judeo-Christian morality as the gold standard, also something DocBrain disagrees with.
8. DocBrain is as amazed at the defense of personal wealth and the attack on personal lifestyle freedom by the conservatives as he is at the attack on personal wealth and the defense of personal freedom by the liberals.
9. Conservatives often don't think outside the box.
10. Conservatives often do not walk the walk. When you deny reality, you find conflict and suffering.
11. Some solutions to problems are liberal, even by today's standards.

As the center of thought moves to the left, more people will be satisfied with the status quo. This will marginalize liberals, but should not lead conservatives to think they have the high moral ground. Just because some unfairness has not been previously addressed doesn't make it absurd.