Progressive, Liberal, Conservative, Traditionalist

"A polyhedron is just a deformed Platonic sphere ..." (Cogitator, September 26, 2014):

A conservative Catholic believes that all the doctrines and precepts of the Church must be held as a whole or not at all. A liberal Catholic believes that at least some of the doctrines and precepts of the Church can be jettisoned or fundamentally altered, while a progressive Catholic believes that many, if not most of them, must be so reconstructed. As for a traditionalist Catholic? He just believes that the liberals envy the progressives, and that the conservatives vastly underestimate the liberals, since the liberals aren’t even Catholic, and thus aren’t even worthy of collaboration.

In other words, traditionalist Catholics are essentially conservative Catholics, with the added feature that they are willing to admit that the conservative Catholic status quo is gone, baby, gone; and thus it must be fought for and restored. Meanwhile, any hint that the status quo is out of whack is anathema to conservative Catholics, who seem unwilling to admit that their majority status has long since flown the coop.

This is why traditionalist and conservative Catholics are the most contentious subgroups: they are fighting over the same mutually beloved turf, yet without recognizing a common enemy. Absent such clarity, they more often than not turn on each other, much to the glee of the liberals and their progressive masters. Ultimately, the conservatives are not wrong, but the traditionalists are more right. [Emphasis added by JM]

[Hat tip to JM]