[Badandy]

This is the original quote:

"In fact, if Galileo hadn't spoken up, 16th century conservatives would have had us go on believing that the earth stands still as the sun revolves around us. He was imprisoned for life, but at least he got the ball rolling. More recent progressive voices have lead to the end of slavery,"


I propose a change to this. It is very misleading. First let me tell you that I have a background in history. I know what I am talking about when it comes to factual history, but you can think whatever you would like about my opinions.

There are two revisions here. "Conservatives" in the 16th century are NOT applicable to our modern terms. Conservatives meant those who did not want a change of the social hierarchy and were against any kind of democracy/republic. So, if you could rephrase that to something else that would be great. The most frightening lack of facts is your statement of how recent progressive voices have lead to the end of slavery.
This is just not true, no matter which way you look at it. In the 1800's when slavery was on the forefront of American politics, the democratic party was established pro-slavery and to keep the status quo. Throughout the period of slavery, it was the democrats who were for slavery and who were against its abolition. Yes, there were exceptions, but it was the republicans who were generally against slavery, and the opposite for democrats. As you can see, this is a blatant lie (which I don't think you did intentionally at all).


Thanks for listening.

[-V-]

Your points are well taken. However, for lack of a better label, I believe "conservative" is contextually appropriate for today's reader even if not the best choice historically.

I did make sure not to use "Democrats" in that paragraph and I maintain that "Progressives" is used correctly. Any Republican who favored putting an end to slavery was indeed a progressive thinker.

Thanks for the observations.

P.S.
I gave you a Republican icon to add some color to your posts. You can choose something different from the list of nearly 100 pre-loaded images, but most of them are symbolically liberal. Or you could upload a small image of your own.

[Badandy]

I noticed the avatar. Thanks.


But conservatives really isn't applicable to the modern time, which is obviousely what is being insinuated. You can keep it if you like, but conservatives back then were nothing like conservatives now.