Progressive ideas almost always win out. It might take a while, but they do. Things that we take for granted now - and that even conservatives agree with or at least HAVE to give lip service to unless they want to reveal themselves as the troglodytes they are - were once fought against as hard as people are fighting against marriage equality today. Women's suffrage, civil rights, even very specific historical moments like whether we had a geocentric or heliocentric solar system - all were fought against by conservatives of their day. All these ideas and ideals are now considered normal. Yes, we may stumble and regress a little, but it's a steady progression forward.
In fact, we take things today so for granted that it's almost impossible for the majority of society to even understand the mindset of the people who were against them, and part of the reasons conservatism survives is because of that disconnect, most people don't make the connection that it was always conservatives standing in the way of change. So even today's conservatives can look back and laugh at what our ancestors did.
Not that there aren't holdouts, of course, but they're in the minority of society and are afraid to speak out for the most part for fear of being seen as idiots.
A perfect example is womens suffrage. No SANE person would say it was a bad idea. Most of us look back and even if we read historical analyses of why people would be against it, the times are so alien to us that we still can't wrap our heads around the anti-suffragettes thinking. The last person I heard taking a stand against women having the right to work was in the documentary made by Nancy Pelosi's daughter during the 2008 election. Some guy who fit (and was probably proud of it) the redneck stereotype exactly talked about how he didn't want his daughter to vote because women couldn't be trusted with the privilege. He also cried when Obama won because he felt like it heralded the end of the white man rule.
Anyway, sorry to babble, but one day, these times will be looked back on with shame and disbelief just like we do at the anti-suffragette movement, anti-civil rights groups, etc.
TlalocW
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