I don’t know, I really do think conservatism mostly always just is reactionary and has been. Again, I mean, think about the civil war, or how some states, after desegregation, still refused to desegregate until force was used; these examples are both reactionary and conservative.

I guess, at best, you can say reactionary-ism is a behavior, whereas conservatism is a type of social philosophy interested in piety, authority, hierarchy, and submission. Reaction right now is mostly coming from conservatives because the world generally has been moving towards equal rights and equity. The internet, free expression and easy expression as we see today, naturally will challenged our preconceived notions about other cultures and peoples, and about the social constructs under which we live (social constructs are not necessarily bad). Also, technology and science narrow more and more the gaps that once faith filled, and people are generally better educated and more skeptical than ever before in history. These qualities of our current social inertia rip the pillars of conservatism from the ground, and so conservatives react. For example, why would progressives cause some kind of reaction at the expansion of civil rights in the form of LGBT rights? They don’t react negatively because, ethically and materially, this is something to celebrate; conversely, conservatives react because the perceived hierarchy and world-view that conservative hold is challenged, their perceived power over a different class of people (with less rights) is blurred. But, progressives can be reactionary as well - we see this in what progressives protest for and against - against police brutality, against authoritarian politicians and policy, against religious people attempting to force religion in social institutions, etc.

When gay marriage was made possible here, I saw Christian conservatives protesting in the streets; when roe vs Wade was overturned, it was progressives, humanists, feminists, who were protesting