Have Right-wingers always been conservatives and Left-wingers always been liberals?

[Parththakkar12]

Is this just a product of the current times? Or has the right always been conservative vs left always being liberal? What does left and right mean?

[Apparition of Jack]

I’m not sure I follow, this is obvious isn’t it?

If you’re wondering where the terms left-wing and right-wing come from, they come from the French Revolution, when people in favour of the Republic, liberalism and the workers sat on the left side of parliament, whereas people in favour of the Monarchy (or a more conservative Republic), tradition and the wealthy sat on the right side of parliament.

But to answer your question, there have always been liberal-minded people and conservative-minded people throughout history. Of course it’s more complex than that simple spectrum but differences in political worldview are as old as civilisation itself.

[Consept]

2 hours ago, datamonster said:

Right-wingers often want back a past that once was, be it Nazi Germany or "Make America Great again". This makes them conservative by definition.

In contrast, leftists usually want something new and aren't happy with the status quo.

Just speaking very generally here. I've met conservative leftists too, especially those who idealize communism. So, it's possible.

Yeah this pretty much sums it up, right wing want to keep things how they are or even go back and left wing wants to change things. 

Those that want to keep things they are tend to be those with money and power, obviously as they want to preserve things for their benefit. Those that want a change are those who believe they're not getting a good deal but also those that feel compassion for those not getting a good deal. 

The amazing trick the right wing play is to convince those not getting a good deal to vote for them, usually by blaming others that are getting an even worse deal or by fear mongering that things will be even worse if the left get their way. Demonising socialism for example. Left wing can also get caught up in the game and base policies around fear as they know they may be more likely to get voted in, they can also be corrupted by those in power. Its a devilish game 

[Roy]

The Liberals of today are the Conservatives of tomorrow. This is the general trend for nearly every society, across all of humanity.

Liberals push for change, progress, and improvement. While Conservatives maintain tradition, order, and the status quo. Once that progress and improvement becomes "normalized" over many years (decades, centuries), it becomes the traditions of Conservatism.

Liberals make society better, while Conservatives keep things stable and hold society back just enough so that the changes don't become too radical and chaotic. If you progress too fast people can't keep up and they backlash, which actually regress things and makes you worse off than where you started.

This is why democracies have been so successful historically compared to every other system, because when you oscillate back and forth between Left and Right progress is healthy and actually attainable.

If Conservatives won every single election for 25 years in a row society would stagnate to a halt and rot, while if Liberals won every election for 25 years things would nearly collapse because you would leave too many people behind which is a really bad idea, because obvious you can't just kick them out of society.

[Forestluv]

1960s conservative position: Marriage is between a man and a woman of the same race.

1960s liberal position: Marriage is between a man and a woman of any race.

2000s conservative position: Marriage is between a man and a woman of any race. 

2000s liberal position: Marriage is between two adult humans of any sex or gender.

2100s conservative position: Marriage is between two adult humans of any sex of gender.

2100s liberal position: Marriage is between two conscious entities, including humans and androids.

2200s conservative position: Marriage is between two conscious entities, including humans and androids.

2200s liberal position: Marriage is between dynamic states of integrated consciousness within one holistic consciousness.

[Nahm]

@Forestluv ?