Its always an interesting thing to speculate about. Realistically, if we actually went back in time, we might well transmit lethal viruses. We'd also have to learn the native language, including English if we went back further than, I suppose, the 15th Century.
I'd like to check out about 8-9 Mya, to see the ape at the chimp-hominid split (which I have a pet theory was rather gibbon-like, with a slightly larger brain)
It would be fun to bop around all over the place, past & future. I expect great things, huge peaks in valleys ahead for humanity, in the long run. We tend to be a slash-and-burn species - some day that's really going to bite our descendants in the ass - it might only be in a century or two. Many aspects of our current culture, regarding diet, footprint, the province of the individual vs the state, will be tried & tested over the coming ages. This will definitely change. There will be wars, pestilence, famine, invention, progress, social evolution, the primacy of sustainability coming to the fore - all of it. That's my view.
I didn't dig the OP message about the 'virtue' of conservatism, though in terms of vulgarity I suppose I do sympathize. Most of the progress made in US society happened in the decades previous, laying the groundwork for woman & gays later on, hardly a hallmark of 'conservatism'. You'd almost have to be a white male (as I am myself) to be so complacently naive. Also, the 70s was still a time of dying in Vietnam, genocide in Cambodia, rightist slaughter in Indonesia & South & Central America.
In its favor, I had no trouble getting laid during the 70s.
Something else to consider - since I would have a hard time sharing even contemporary cultural currency with a 20-30 year old, I can imagine conversation out of our own time, even with language skills - would be very challenging, along with very interesting.
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