Has started to grind my gears, since there is no way to quickly explain that I’m happy with the current situation (I live in the nordics, not the US). Historically I would be considered a conservative, since I don’t see a need to progress (atleast at an accelerated rate). However that term is now used to define reactionaries, which are people who reacting to the changing society wants to regress to a earlier time.
Why must we change the meanings of such obvious words?
When you find yourself happy with the status quo, it is a good idea to look around your community and make sure that you aren’t just part of a privileged group.
You know what grinds my gears? People who believe in the false meaning of “conservative” that conservatives pushed as propaganda to try to whitewash their abhorrent worldview, then get mad when people start using the term correctly.
“Conservatism” has always been reactionary. You’ve been duped.
The only thing conservatives have ever wanted to “conserve” is autocracy. When the status quo is autocracy, they don’t want to change it. When the status quo isn’t autocracy, they want to change it to autocracy as quickly and radically as possible.
Living in the US, I think a large part of why we can’t seem to agree on anything politically is because we’re using separate definitions depending on which perspective it’s from. It makes conversations impossible.
That is the deliberate strategy of the right. They weaponize language and use it disingenuously to obfuscate meaning and confuse debate.
Everyone else more or less tries to communicate honestly.
