13 July

Modern conservatives mostly believe government restricts individual freedom, and in most ways (that don't disadvantage themselves) they would rather government be dismantled. These are usually beliefs of those who are born into privilege, and think they got there by their own hard work. Or those who were lucky and attribute their success entirely to their own genius and hard work. Conservatives in history would have been flabbergasted by these beliefs, they're not conservative at all. I think if we reduced most social arguments back to core beliefs, the debates would make more progress. We need to debate the core beliefs.