Yeh, Copernicus, Giordano Bruno, Galileo, Darwin, Judith Levine, Bloom, Bowie all conservative types that went with the flow. Friends of the church, they all were
The fact that you are aware of the exceptions only shows that you understand the rule...
99% of history is individual ethnic and/or religious groups competing for resources and/or power. Most societies throughout history were lead by minoritarian interests and the intelligentsia of said society at the time, and suggesting otherwise is just pure ideological talk.
Trying to force historical societies to conform to modern philosophical and political outlooks is stupid on face value. The concept of the left/right, progressive/conservative, political dichotomy wasn't even created until the French Revolution and modern post-war conceptualisations of conservatism wouldn't be recognisable to them. It'd be completely unintelligible in basically all other historical contexts.
Viewing history through an oppressor/oppressed lens is particularly dangerous. It's a simplistic and dysfunctional way of viewing modern societies, let alone historical ones.