Let's begin with a caveat: the reader should set aside any evaluative assumptions. This is especially important with the term “progressive” because the term implies a positive evaluative judgment: i.e. progress. But as I use these terms, they are wholly neutral descriptors. This will become clearer as we proceed.
The terms progressive/conservative are regularly invoked to assert rigid in-group out-group boundaries. However, when properly understood they do not function well as boundary markers given that, as I will now explain, they are relative terms in at least four ways.
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