Sure, no one copes well to losing their place at the top of the totem pole - he sees his power slipping and he's not happy about it. However, if he's just point blank in another time and place, the dynamic's different. It's not "pick a pro or con side to the new social revolution," it's "this is the way it is over here, adapt." You see it all the time with expats who, 20-30 years ago left the states to Asia, South America, or other less socially liberal places. They come back and they've been absent for all those bits where the USA and west Europe was hashing out how to behave towards women and racial/sexual minorities, but they pick it up pretty fast - faster than, often, their counterparts who stayed in the states.