Conservatism is often a rationalization of unconscious destructive impulses

Evidence

I have placed the distinction between unconscious and rationalized or pre-conscious motivations in the foreground. My somewhat barbaric thesis is that `destructive’, rebellious impulses are actually unconscious ones, and that conservatism and conventionality are their rationalization. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1585

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Fromm’s rebel-vs-revolutionary distinction in the Weimar worker study and to the F-scale methodology already highlighted in earlier chapters. — connects to: Pseudo-conservatism masked destructive impulses beneath conventional values, unlike genuine conservatism — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1800; Anti-enlightenment ideology unconsciously reveres what it seeks to destroy; Adorno’s pseudo-conservative distinction added psychological depth to the political concept of conservatism — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1587 (+1 more)
• DEEPTHINKING: A genuinely uncomfortable, paradigm-shifting methodological premise: that the socially presentable self is a defense against repressed destructiveness.

Broader Connections

• Pseudo-conservatism masked destructive impulses beneath conventional values, unlike genuine conservatism #expands (0.90) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1800
• Adorno’s pseudo-conservative distinction added psychological depth to the political concept of conservatism #expands (0.85) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1587
• Deep childhood psychodynamic conflicts drive people toward conservative politics. #corroborates (0.80) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 2278
• Anti-enlightenment ideology unconsciously reveres what it seeks to destroy #corroborates (0.75)