I think "conservatism" is a wide spectrum. A long time ago it merant people who wanted to preserve natural environments. It ranges from those who are willing to change but carefully and slowly, to those who use the label to cloak an almost rabid resistance to change.

In addition to rates of change and tolerance thereto, it seems as well to describe a spectrum of belief about how much tolerance toward other points of view an individual actually practices. The belief that every human being is part of the same rigid box and should comply with one's own moral precepts or perceptions is a hallmark of hard-over conservatism, in some labeling systems.

So it strikes me that one would have to identify exactly what behavior or conviction one was referring to in applying such a label,because the word itself has so many semantic branches attached to it.

A