Aren conservatives racist sexist homophobes?
That depends on what those words mean. They are often used very broadly. • “Racist”–Conservatives consider community loyalty important. The communities people grow up in are generally connected to ethnicity. That’s no accident, because ethnicity is what develops when people live together with a common way of life for a long time. Accordingly, conservatives think some degree of ethnic loyalty and separateness is OK. Ethnicity is not the same thing as “race” as a biological category; on the other hand, the two are difficult to disentangle because both arise out of shared history and common descent. • “Sexist”–All known societies have engaged in sex-role stereotyping, with men undertaking more responsibility for public affairs and women for home, family, and childcare. There are obvious benefits to such stereotypes, since they make it far more likely that individual men and women will complement each other and form stable and functional unions for the rearing of children. Also, some deg
