Pseudo-conservatism rationalizes destructive impulses behind conventional values.

Evidence

The pseudo-conservatives' suffered from a failed identification with conventional values and institutions, and their conservatism and conventionalism merely represented a rationalizing cover for destructive, rebellious impulses. The genuine conservatives’ had succeeded in making the identification, and this went hand in hand with a devotion to liberal, individualistic forms of capitalism and with serious democratic attitudes and behaviour. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 444

Categorization

• DEFINE: Adorno’s key distinction: pseudo-conservatives failed to identify with conventional values, while genuine conservatives succeeded — the label names a psychological structure, not a policy position.
• XREF: Connects to the F-scale’s authoritarian personality battery and to The Authoritarian Personality’s overall project of typing character structure rather than opinion content.