There’s a lot here, and a lot that can’t be said regarding the original discussion since we are not in ATMB. I do appreciate the effort you went to type all of this out and I’ll try to return and engage with more of it later. Since you brought up, my point is that I am not a conservative by any useful definition of the word.
*The only Republican I voted for in the last 20 years was Marco Rubio in the 2016 primary. I live in a state where you do not have to register by party and you may choose whichever party’s primary ballot you wish each cycle. I perceived that Trump was an existential threat to the United States, knew I would vote for either Clinton or Sanders over him in the general so didn’t have a particular investment in that race, and thought that any sane person should try to take the additional chance to stop Trump by voting the Republican primary ballot and picking the most viable-seeming alternative instead of worrying about the slapfight on the other side. I think I may have voted for the Republican candidate in a Senate race in 2000, which I sorely regretted upon seeing his job performance. I estimate that I have voted for about 80 Democrats and 5 Libertarians in my life so the ratio is about 16:1 in favor of non-“conservative” candidates.
*I support open borders, police oversight, criminal justice reform, LGBT equality, the teaching of established science such as evolution and climate change in schools, the right to birth control and abortion, and protection of voting rights. I think people who fly the Confederate flag are racists and we need to take the statues down. I think that most of the Trump administration and the leaders of the 1/6 riots need to be in prison for a good long while, and Congress should have expelled the members who refused to certify the election results when it had the chance. Joe Biden and Andrew Yang are probably the national-level politicians with whom I agree on the most things, let’s say 70% or so.
I also happen to think that the 20th-century model of the American family and the values it aspired to are good things. I think that kids have better outcomes with two attentive parents than with single moms or people who are still trying to sexually “find themselves” in adulthood. I think that equality of opportunity for races means just that, equality of opportunity, not engineering equality of outcomes. I think that the notion of “biological” race or “genetic” differences in intelligence are pseudoscience, but that culture matters and that some cultures produce better outcomes than others.
The point regarding the current political environment is - because I differ from CRT orthodoxy on these latter points, I am automatically labeled a “conservative” and every possible “conservative” belief is then attributed to me. This definition of “conservative” that includes the vast majority of the Democratic Party and self-identified liberals is obviously incompatible with the notion that “conservative” stances are so absurd as to be ipso facto trolling or worthy of a double standard in treatment.
I shouldn’t have to give my whole personal philosophical history to “prove” that I am not e.g. a homophobe or an anti-abortion crusader when I have never posted on those topics. I should be able to argue from foundational liberal premises (that race is not a biological reality and people should be treated equally) to make points about current issues without constantly being accused of being a secret Nazi. But neither I nor anyone else actually can do those things, because a vocal minority of far-left absolutists sees 99% of the world as being part of a “conservative” conspiracy against them and wants to simultaneously believe they have the one final and correct answer to all issues, yet at the same time participate in a “debates” forum.
It’s not tenable.