At its core, liberalism is about individuals wanting the group to meet their needs and wanting other individuals and their interest to be subservient to the overall groups needs and wants.s
At its core, being a conservative is individual freedom being the norm and individual freedom only being subservient to the needs of the group in limited circumstances.
The first situation is much more dangerous than the latter. It is the first situation that leads to cults and mass killings and authoritarianism and communism. The second situation allows individuals to primarily control their own fate and it also provides a means for coming together for the common good where it's in everyone's interest to do so. Things like roads, schools, military, safety net. The default however is freedom, not demonizing it or the consequences of individuals poorly exercising freedom, as liberals do. That some folks will suck at freedom, without more, is not reason enough to make the rest of us give up some of ours, including financial freedom.