If you're a man performing traditional manhood, it's not performance. It's only performance if it diverges from conventional power hierarchies. If you're a lawmaker passing laws & regulations that enforce sprawl, it's not social engineering. It's only social engineering if the result is different.

If you're angry & belligerent, it's not emotional. It's only emotional if you evince vulnerability or sadness. If you force clerks in stores to say "Merry Christmas, it's not imposing your values. It's only imposing your values if you ask them to say "happy holidays" to accommodate other faiths.

If you attack the capital with a mob, you're still "law & order." You're only against law & order if you agitate in favor of egalitarian policy. And so on. I could list parallel examples all day. The point is that conservatism only has one mode of analysis & engagement.

There are things that are done the traditional way, that respect traditional power hierarchies & traditional practices -- which are right & good & normal -- and there are things that are done to reform & improve things -- which are radical, communist, empty signaling, fake virtue.

Conservatives are shitty & selfish, they only care about people like them, their own tribe, and they believe deep in their guts that everyone else is like that too, so they must -- for their own psycic comfort -- dismiss all efforts at helping other people as somehow fake, false, inauthentic.

Conservatives, individually & as a group, have built up enormous psychic defenses & justificatory worldviews to avoid confronting the simple truth that their fear & selfishness are not inevitable or natural or "authentic" -- it's a choice they're making that others make differently.