Varieties of criticism
Conservative criticism has nothing much to do with "left-wing" or "right-wing", because left-wing people are often very conservative, in the defined sense, while right-wing people can also be very radical, in the defined sense. The difference between "radical" and "conservative" has more to do with the belief in whether "a change to something genuinely new" is really possible and necessary. Radicals typically believe strongly that such change is highly desirable and necessary, and that it can be achieved. Their criticism is that there is "not enough" change. Conservative critics, by contrast, are very skeptical about any such change, because they feel the change is really "just another form" of something that already exists.
Conservative wave
According to Roberto Schwarz, the left has historically had cultural hegemony. It can be considered its peak in the 1990s, a period that coincides with the beginning of the left turn in Latin America). In his essay "Culture and Politics in Brazil (1964-1969)", literary critic and professor Roberto Schwarz already observed the phenomenon. In full military regime, he writes:
Schwarz feared that the left would lose its cultural hegemony after the hardening of the military regime, but that did not happen. With the return of democracy, the left's cultural and intellectual hegemony was still enormous. In his work entitled "Literature" (1988), sociologist and writer Antonio Candido already observed the phenomenon. It was rare to find any politician or entrepreneur who risked defining himself as conservative as they were all "invariably centered, even center-left, including the frankly reactionary".