• ZkhqrD5o@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Maybe not the right place to ask this, but why are American conservatives called conservatives? Where I live, in one of the EU countries, they would be considered extremists and the Democrats would be considered right wing.

    • k_rol@lemmy.ca
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      2 months ago

      The right and left are subjective terms. It really depends where you live and people will be more or less left/right.

      As a Canadian I think the American conservatives are right religious nuts rather than just right extremist.

    • BurntWits@sh.itjust.works
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      2 months ago

      At least in Canada, most people I know think Liberal = anything left, Conservative = anything right. Maybe Americans are the same.

    • MTZ@lemmy.worldOP
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      2 months ago

      It comes down to how American conservatives are extremely hostile to any kind of change whatsoever. In more extreme cases, like MAGA, QAnon, TeaParty, etc. that hostility towards change can lead to fear, which can lead to things like violence, terrorism, hate groups, etc. In short, they are called conservatives because they wish above all else to “conserve” the status quo (as they see it), that often being racism, sexism, slavery, xenophobia, hate groups, misogyny, white supremacy, Christian fascism, etc.

    • frog_brawler@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      You’re 100% right but we repealed the fairness doctrine in 1987, and ever since that, we’ve had politicized information cycles. Republicans in 1987 knew they’d have to lie to continue holding power; but they also have been enshitifying education too. In turn, a lot of people are just simply undereducated and comforted by their echo chambers. Have that happen for 40 years. Here we are.