Chesterton's Fence is about ensuring you understand the reason a specific choice was made in the past before undoing it. The modern right has no interest in understanding that choice and then making carefully considered improvements. The modern right yearns for a fictional past, one that if it ever existed benefited only the most elite members of society.
In the past in my home country of Canada the Tory party roughly represented this idealized view of conservatism. I believe the UK Tories have been like this during parts of their history, but I'm much less familiar with their history. Here in Canada the red tories merged with social conservatives in the early 2000s. It was a hostile takeover, with all the party members who embraced rational, considered progress pushed out by the modern right, who have increasingly embraced conspiracy theories and populist positions.
Climate change has been decisively shown to be the result of human-caused emissions. Chesterton's Fence has been satisfied; clearly emitting greenhouses gases cannot continue, yet the right is, if anything, gaining hostility to efforts to reduce emissions. A last-gasp red tory style leader was recently pushed out of Canada's conservative party for, among other things, daring to acknowledge climate change required action in the official party platform.
Many social policies were demonstrably enacted to limit opportunities for people of colour, like red-lining in the US. There are perfectly reasonable debates to be had about the best way to correct this historic injustice, but many on the modern right deny these policies had any detrimental impact, or if they did, the effects are no longer being felt.
I can respect leaders who want to carefully consider change before enacting it, but once the science is in, denying the problem exists is not leadership, nor is it respecting Chesterton's Fence. That's just painting your own reality.
Chesterton's Fence is about ensuring you understand the reason a specific choice was made in the past before undoing it. The modern right has no interest in understanding that choice and then making carefully considered improvements. The modern right yearns for a fictional past, one that if it ever existed benefited only the most elite members of society.
In the past in my home country of Canada the Tory party roughly represented this idealized view of conservatism. I believe the UK Tories have been like this during parts of their history, but I'm much less familiar with their history. Here in Canada the red tories merged with social conservatives in the early 2000s. It was a hostile takeover, with all the party members who embraced rational, considered progress pushed out by the modern right, who have increasingly embraced conspiracy theories and populist positions.
Climate change has been decisively shown to be the result of human-caused emissions. Chesterton's Fence has been satisfied; clearly emitting greenhouses gases cannot continue, yet the right is, if anything, gaining hostility to efforts to reduce emissions. A last-gasp red tory style leader was recently pushed out of Canada's conservative party for, among other things, daring to acknowledge climate change required action in the official party platform.
Many social policies were demonstrably enacted to limit opportunities for people of colour, like red-lining in the US. There are perfectly reasonable debates to be had about the best way to correct this historic injustice, but many on the modern right deny these policies had any detrimental impact, or if they did, the effects are no longer being felt.
I can respect leaders who want to carefully consider change before enacting it, but once the science is in, denying the problem exists is not leadership, nor is it respecting Chesterton's Fence. That's just painting your own reality.