cmsellers wrote:gisambards wrote:An immediate example is if the hierarchy is clearly going to be replaced with something worse - as bad as modern America can be, it's definitely not the worst it could be.
But more commonly, if the changes are very radical but ill thought-out, then I think there's a solid possibility that maintaining the status quo in the short-term will be better, to allow for a more orderly long-term transition.
So basically, the ancien regime is preferable to the Jacobins and the czar is preferable to the Bolsheviks?
However those and all the similar cases I can think of, it was the defenders of the SQ resisting moderate change that lead eventually to violent radicalism.
I feel compelled to note that resisting any and all new changes no matter how moderate or well-supported by evidence is what I would class as
extreme social conservatism. Just as most liberals can appreciate that sometimes the tried-and-true is better than the new hotness, conservatism (including social conservatism) as I understand it doesn't necessarily rule out new untried reforms, it's merely skeptical of them. Toward the moderate middle of the spectrum this merely manifests as a preference for gradual and carefully-considered reform over radical, ill-considered revolution, not as a stubborn refusal to change under any circumstances.
A Combustible Lemon wrote:Serious discussions such as:
"In my opinion, social conservatism is when religious people do things, and the more religious they are the more social conservatist it is"
"Oh no, it's when people act conservatively on a social matter"
You'd have to believe Sellers is a complete idiot to engage with him by describing how socially conservative /might just mean/ socially conservative. That it's treated as a valid opinion is a huge indicator of the problem in the first place.
So you object because you feel Sellers is mischaracterizing the views of social conservatives, and you don't think anyone who mischaracterizes other people's views like that is worth taking seriously?
"If it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them; but the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?"
- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn