
Druidry is communicated (and occasionally practiced) in a wide variety of media, and one of them that I use is Tumblr [1]. You can find me over there under the username Chronarchy [2]. I also recommend the ADFDruidry Tumblr [3] and tags [4]. Recently, an anonymous user asked my opinion about a particular tough nut to crack, where there appeared to them to be an increase in people of a "conservative" nature entering ADF and OBOD.
Here's the question from Anonymous:
"What do you think about the growing number of conservatives in Druidry (like ADF or OBOD) and in Paganism as a whole? Especially amongst the Gen Y set?"
I ruminated on this for a little while, and came up with the following answer (I have some questions about the thrust of the original questions, but because the person is anonymous, I can't ask them for clarification). It's not perfect, but I hope it sheds some light on the topic.
For the most part, I tend to think that Druidry, like any religion, is apolitical, but that does not typically satisfy anyone (myself included). On the other hand, I also feel that Druidry requires a level of activism in both social and political spheres (though exactly what that level really is may be up for debate).
"Conservativism" is not a bad thing, I think: people become more conservative as they age and look fondly on the past. They want to protect the things that made their path easy and ensure it does not become corrupted. It makes things both stable and brittle: the trick is to find enough stability to survive, and to be flexible enough to bend in the wind.
But I suspect that the question is all about political conservatism, not the general idea of being conservative, and you are right: that is growing within Paganism in general (certainly not just Druidry).*
In many ways, I am fine with most educated, socially-forward conservative ideals: I hold many myself. But without getting too political, there are a few things that I find personally incompatible with Druidry, though others may differ:
I don’t know if that is exactly what the anonymous querent was looking for, but it is what I have. Also, I'm assuming I answered the original question well enough for the person asking, since I haven't gotten a follow up message (anonymous or not) about the question. I hope it is helpful to you as well.
I encourage you to view the original Tumblr post [5], and share in the conversation there, as well.
Notes
* - In 2003, a survey was conducted that included political leanings of individuals identifying as Pagan. In it, by political party, 42% of Pagans identified as Democrats, 6.6% identified as Republicans, and 27.9% identified as independents. Since then, the increase in "conservative-leaning" individuals entering Paganism is an informal observation that I appear to share with the Anonymous user, but there's no data I know of to back this up. See Berger, Helen, et al. Voices From the Pagan Census: A National Survey of Witches and Neo-Pagans in the United States. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 2003. Print.
Links
[1] https://www.tumblr.com
[2] https://chronarchy.tumblr.com/
[3] https://adfdruidry.tumblr.com/
[4] https://adfdruidry.tumblr.com/tagged/adfdruidry
[5] https://chronarchy.tumblr.com/post/106785802692/what-do-you-think-about-the-growing-number-of