YUROP

I'm convinced the reason the US doesn't have universal anything is because "but then the blacks would get it."

Always has been

"Healthcare funding, supporting higher education, and funding transit projects [unless you're a foreigner]"

Ah, you see," he says, "They're racist. That's the whole thing - they're just racist."

That's fundamentally the same everywhere, much the same in Australia but to an extent only part of the story

Gets fuzzier around womens, LBQTI rights, lot of religious shit baggery there, as there is in Poland, Hungary etc

They don't want universal healthcare in the US because brown skinned people might use it.

They'd also be able to express how they believe an immigrant doesn't deserve healthcare. Either that they deserve the healthcare of their homecountry, or that they aren't a part of 'everyone', be that German, or otherwise.

Without any congitive dissonance.

I really don't think this is an accurate description of what an average ageing conservative German is.

Conservative means what it means - people who want to conserve rather than change, and are comfortable with how things are and, in their opinion, have always been. It's a naïve world view based on a lacking understanding of how society changes. The people who hold it tend to be of privileged groups who can afford to be blind to injustice. That doesn't mean they are fans of it - their privilege has just left them with a blind spot, and when injustice is pointed out to them they tend to blame those showing it to them for creating it in the first place. Again, they are not brilliant people, but they're generally not evil, just a bit dumb.

When American self-proclaimed conservatives storm the Capitol building and make an active effort to fuck up their country as much as humanly possible they are not conservative in the same way some Günther riding the Deutsche Bahn is conservative. Similarly, I'm not a socialist in the same way Pol Pot was a socialist.

American fascists have intentionally stripped the word "conservative" of meaning, and if we accept their narrative we allow them to make us dumber.

I'm not saying CDU and CSU are brilliant parties, but the fundamental idea of German conservitivism is not the idea of "conservatives" as a select group of people for which society should work. If anything this is a description of populism.

Conservatism is an ideology, and has been one since the time of the French Revolution.

There is no difference here in Germany… 🥺

Why do you consider yourself a conservative if you don't actually support the goals of the conservative movement?

Progressive.

Centrist

Labels are useless as their meanings keep changing across time and contexts, and as soon as you adapt one for yourself people will either resent you for your choice of label or for not being holy enough (you're a progressive but you believe people should be allowed to own guns and you honestly think free trade isn't killing the planet and you believe in death penalty? Blah blah blah).

It's more useful to think in terms of ideological cleavages. On the scale of authoritarianism to personal freedoms you believe in LGBTQ+ and women's rights to control their own bodies. Properly vetted immigration could mean many things but is generally indicative of being on the right. Believing in death penalty and emphasizong strong military further pushes you to the right on this scale. Sounds like somewhere centre right on that dimension.

Along the economic dimension you believe in taxing the rich and providing universal welfare, placing you left of centre. "Lower taxes if possible" I guess then goes for low income folks, and is very much in line with taxing the rich in a society like the US - the "if possible" is key, as it seems you're willing to prioritize the wellbeing of your neighbours. Investment in education and science is also left on this dimension.

Another useful dimension is secular/religious, where you appear to be pretty secular. I guess that explains your opinions about abortion and LGBTQ+ in spite of being more on the authoritarian spectrum, as the religious parts of conservativism seems less important to you.

If the word "conservative" hadn't been ruined I'd say you're closer to a conservative than a progressive. But in the political climate of current-day America I guess you're a dangerous far-left radical.