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> Conservative ideology is often advocating for change > the incrementalist praxis you describe can be found in ideologies that are very far from conservatism

> Conservative ideology is often advocating for change > the incrementalist praxis you describe can be found in ideologies that are very far from conservatism If your argument is that conservative politics in practice aren't very conservative (in the incrementalist fashion, as you describe), then I'm not sure if any political ideology is really self-consistent in that way. As an example, some majority-progressive (perhaps "radicalist", as an opposite of "incrementalist"?) municipalities around the country behave in a frustratingly incrementalist manner when it comes to land use changes, such that high rents and increasing homelessness result due to the supply of housing not being able to keep up with demand. This country being dominated by two parties -- which is a mathematical inevitability given a first-past-the-post voting system -- we necessarily end up with one big-tent "conservative" party and one big-tent "progressive" party, for many senses of those words. And because those tents are so big, there are people with many conflicting ideas under them. So it stands to reason that the conservative party does some non-conservative things, or things in a non-conservative manner, and vice versa for the progressive party.

dragonwriter 3y ago
> f your argument is that conservative politics in practice aren't very conservative (in the incrementalist fashion, as you describe), then I'm not sure if any political ideology is really self-consistent in that way. No, it has nothing to do with self-consistency. “Conservative” as an ideological label refers to something other than than incrementalism, though in contexts other than ideology, it can refer to that. It is simply words having different meanings in different contexts. Conservative ideology and incrementalist praxis have nothing to do with each other, though they can be mistaken for each other when the status quo is near the goals of ideological conservatism. (In the US, that apparent overlap with incrementalist praxis is currently more common with neoliberal ideology today than conservative ideology—it can be hard to tell an incrementalist who doesn't seek neoliberal ends from a neoliberal of any praxis, because the status quo is mostly neoliberal.)

dragonwriter 3y ago

> f your argument is that conservative politics in practice aren't very conservative (in the incrementalist fashion, as you describe), then I'm not sure if any political ideology is really self-consistent in that way. No, it has nothing to do with self-consistency. “Conservative” as an ideological label refers to something other than than incrementalism, though in contexts other than ideology, it can refer to that. It is simply words having different meanings in different contexts. Conservative ideology and incrementalist praxis have nothing to do with each other, though they can be mistaken for each other when the status quo is near the goals of ideological conservatism. (In the US, that apparent overlap with incrementalist praxis is currently more common with neoliberal ideology today than conservative ideology—it can be hard to tell an incrementalist who doesn't seek neoliberal ends from a neoliberal of any praxis, because the status quo is mostly neoliberal.)