reactionary

adj

1. Extremely conservative; opposing revolution (such as the French Revolution); favoring a return to a "golden age" of the past.

   “There's a fairly simple reason for the embrace of radicalism on the right, and it has to do with the reactionary imperative that lies at the core of conservative doctrine. […] If he is to preserve what he values, the conservative must declare war against the culture as it is.”

   “[Jeffrey] Epstein was interested in transhumanism, a theory of human perfection via technological manipulation that—like its predecessor, eugenics—is shot through with racist and reactionary ideas.”

   “Within certain MAGA circles, to criticize someone for being too racist or reactionary is a betrayal, signaling an acceptance of the very liberal morality that the movement’s vanguard seeks to destroy.”

2. Of, pertaining to, participating in, or inducing a chemical reaction.

   “Psychiatry extends the theory into biology in the belief that all human behavior is nothing more than a series of reactionary chemical processes in the brain that determine pre-coded genetic responses built up from the conditioning of one’s environment.”

3. In reaction to; as a result of.

   “The regulator noted that reduced service levels and passenger numbers helped deliver strong performance, with fewer reactionary delays.”

noun

1. One who opposes revolution, wanting to reverse it, favoring a return to a past golden age, often used derogatorily by revolutionaires.

   “Hindu reactionaries, whose conception of a well-ordered society had not moved beyond the laws of Manu, fell into line for the moment with the intellectual products of the modern Indian University.”

   “He was not a drunkard, not a chronic bankrupt. For the rest, Mr. Woodward depicts [Thomas] Paine as a highminded controversialist, persecuted by reactionaries on both sides of the Atlantic for no more than liberal political views.”

   “It is not simply a conservative preference for things as they are, with a few nudges back, but a passionate loathing of the status quo and a desire to return to the past in one emotionally cathartic revolt. If conservatives are pessimistic, reactionaries are apocalyptic.”