Conservativism isn't an ideology based on principles. It's built on the identity of the conservative as the good guy. You cannot apply rationality to conservatives, because they aren't holding rational positions. Whatever they say is good because they are the good guys. Anyone who opposes them is the bad guy, and anything the bad guy does is bad because they are the bad guy. If the good guy conservative and the bad guy progressive do the exact same thing, the conservative believes that it is good when the good guy does it and bad when the bad guy does it. It's not hypocritical because it isn't a conflicting viewpoint, it's just an entirely subjective viewpoint that changes based on where the conservative is standing. Like imagine playing NFL football with a team that has defined the end zone as wherever they are standing on the field. Wherever they are, Touchdown! Because touchdowns happen wherever they are standing. If you take the ball from them, then it is no longer the end zone because they don't have the ball anymore. If you push their defense back, you still can never score because the end zone moves with them.

That's the game Conservatives play, and that's why you will never convince them they are wrong. You cannot compromise with a conservative, and you cannot show them the flaws in their positions because they have no positions. If they realize they were wrong, they will simply move three feet to another position and decide that they were justified in their false belief at the time they held it.

That's why you see so many leopards eating their faces, but you never see them grow or learn from the experience. It's why they can condemn abortion and then demand an abortion when they want one. It's why they can support violence against immigrants while being immigrants, because they believe themselves to be "the good ones." It's why they can insist on small government when it comes to their industry or lifestyle choices, but they will insist on regulating and taxing into oblivion anything they don't like.

Imagine how comforting that must feel, to be playing a game where you're always winning because you are defined as the winner. As long as you remain within the identity of the in-group, and support the same delusion in others, you can never be wrong. It's seductive and easy. You don't have to learn anything, or question anything, or prove anything. Your goodness insists upon itself, and everything else is evil trying to knock you off your game. You're not selfish, you're conservative. You want to preserve and protect the "good" which is coincidentally yourself. You want to change the "bad" which is conveniently anything uou don't like.

It's a pattern that always results in fascism, oligarchy, corruption, and oppression.