> is an ideology like conservativism what it claims to outsiders or to what its adherents actually do and say to one another? Professed vs revealed preferences.
We could say the same about "liberalism" when we look at deadly riots, fires started at police stations with people inside, people executed on the street, ideas like "f** x" based largely on x's race or profession.
It's clear that the majority on both sides are relatively moderate. They aren't the loud minority you hear the most of. Why do both sides use this defense, but neither side believes it about the other?
Likewise, I was not talking about the minority of far-right extremists who murdered and attempted to murder protestors, who set some of those police station fires (see: https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/23/texas-boogaloo...), etc. Nor was I even pinning blame for violent police misconduct on conservatives. I was simply answering the question about why an outlet like NPR doesn’t consider this a vindication of conservatives with the answer that most conservative voices are clearly not committed to addressing clear over-reaches of the government (ie police brutality) and instead play games like “whataboutism” and doing everything possible to blame the victim of the government instead (as well as those who protest this injustice). This is the majority of conservative voices who have condemned even completely and objectively peaceful efforts to protest police brutality (like Kaepernick).
It is, I fully admit, vindication of distrust of the government. It is not, however, vindication of /conservatives/, for all the reasons given here. And that is what the question was asking.
We could say the same about "liberalism" when we look at deadly riots, fires started at police stations with people inside, people executed on the street, ideas like "f** x" based largely on x's race or profession.
It's clear that the majority on both sides are relatively moderate. They aren't the loud minority you hear the most of. Why do both sides use this defense, but neither side believes it about the other?