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Comment by wing-_-nuts | Hacker News Reader

I posted this comment elsewhere but it's better moved here:

I honestly think modern conservatism could now be classified by a counterculture, because they define themselves more by what they're against than what they are for.

Seriously, over the years I've wracked my brain wondering why conservatism has moved so far to the radical fringe to the point where they simply seem to stand in opposition to even the most uncontroversial stances on things like global warming, healthcare, vaccines, basic human rights, etc. This is all I got.

The right has become a counterculture, and the best way to see what their next cause de jure will be is to see what's become commonly accepted as reasonable truth on the left.

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> Seriously, over the years I've wracked my brain wondering why conservatism has moved so far to the radical fringe to the point where they simply seem to stand in opposition to even the most uncontroversial stances on things like global warming, healthcare, vaccines, basic human rights, etc.

Has conservatism "moved?" And if it has, has it moved to the right? If we were to time travel three generations ago, would the mainstream liberal culture then be more similar to the present day conservative culture or the present day liberal culture on the issues mentioned?

I submit that a present-day conservative would likely be a staunch liberal in those days. The Left has simply moved much further to the left.

Well, disclaimer, I used to consider myself 'conservative', as the conservatives I knew were more likely to take a hard nosed look at the facts and the science than whether or not the truth made someone feel good.

As I got older, I eventually started to notice conservatives starting to blatantly ignore the science and facts in a way I had previously only seen from the left. Today, I feel like the situation has completely reversed itself, and the right is more likely to completely ignore reality, fact and science if it clashes with their current beliefs. I do see some of this on the left, but it seems like it's gotten so much worse on the right in the past 20 years.

> I submit that a present-day conservative would likely be a staunch liberal in those days. The Left has simply moved much further to the left.

... on social issues. The mainstream left and right, as far as those in power, remain about as similar on economics as they have since the right neoliberal movement took over both parties in the 80s—a position that both parties' extremes strongly disagree with, and that isn't particular popular among their electorate more generally (which is why Trump's just-say-what-R-voters-say platform fell, remarkably, outside that consensus) but which nonetheless drives most of both parties' activity, on that front.

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