“Progressive” seems like an imperfect antonym to “Traditionalist”. A progressive is usually just someone who wants to make a currently weaker thing the foundation for a new traditionalism (not an oxymoron though it looks like one).
The right antonym is probably anarchist.
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My thinking: traditionalists can revere their past traditions yet modernize them for a new age. Nostalgists literally want the past to reappear.
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I don’t think they do. That’s “reactionary”. Nostalgia is content to live in the past rather than striving to make it the present or future.
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