You avoid the word "conformity" because it has acquired an overwhelming negative connotation that overshadows all other meanings that the word once had & may have again. The OED lists a number of meanings of the verb "to conform":
***** conform, v.
1. trans. To form, shape, or fashion according to some pattern, model, or instruction; to make of the same form or character, to make like.
b. To fashion in accordance with right, to set right, to order, regulate. Obs.
c. To fashion by disposition of parts (for a purpose): cf CONFORMATION 3. Obs.
2. To bring into harmony or conformity, to harmonize; to make accordant to, adapt.
3. refl. To make oneself like or in harmony with (a pattern or example); to bring oneself into conformity, adapt oneself to (with); = 4.
4. intr. (for refl.) To act in accordance with an example or pattern; to act conformably or in conformity to; to yield or show compliance.
b. spec. in Eng. Hist. To comply with the usages of the Church of England, as prescribed by the Acts of Uniformity, esp. that of 1662.
c. To show obedience or complaisance to.
5. Of things: To become the same in form; to follow in form or nature; to be conformable to.
6. trans. To bring into accord or mutual agreement. Obs.
7. To bring into form or shape; to bring about. *****
Among the above meanings, leftists would rightly object to 4b & perhaps 4c (if showing obedience or complaisance to X has to necessarily mean not "to be polite & agreeable to X" but only "to be servile to X"), but the rest are not necessarily bad things. It is intriguing that the more agreeable meanings of the verb "to conform" -- e.g., to bring into accord or mutual agreement -- became obsolete & went out of usage. Nowadays, we are led to think that "to conform" to _anything_ -- be it good or bad or indifferent, it doesn't matter -- is "to become a conformist":
***** conformist
1. One who conforms to any usage or practice.
1651 BAXTER Inf. Bapt. 122 A Conformist to the old Superstitious Ceremonies. 1697 C. LESLIE Snake in Grass (ed. 2) 255 Thoroughly a Conformist to every the least..Custom or Fashion among the Quakers. 1754 RICHARDSON Grandison (1781) VI. xxix. 183 In my own dress, I am generally a conformist to the fashion. 1827 HALLAM Const. Hist. (1876) I. iii. 110 Several pliant conformists with all changes. 1834 MEDWIN Angler in Wales I. 124 He was a conformist of the Church of England, but rather lax in his devotions.
2. One who conforms in matters religious or ecclesiastical; spec. in Eng. Hist. one who conforms to the usages of the Church of England as required by the successive Acts of Uniformity, esp. that of 1662; the negative Nonconformist is now in more common use. occasional conformist: one who practised 'occasional conformity'; see CONFORMITY 3.
1634 CANNE Necess. Separ. (1849) 43, I must confess that the Conformists keep much better to their grounds than the other do. a1640 J. BALL Answ. to Can i. (1642) 101 The Conformists (I use that Word because you are pleased so to speake). 1703 DE FOE Shortest Way to Peace Misc. 444 When I speak of the Church of England, I mean the General Body of Orthodox Conformists. 1709 SACHEVERELL Serm. 5 Nov. 22 The Whiggs...are Conformists in Profession, Half-Conformists in Practice, and Non-Conformists in Judgment. 1710 Let. to New Memb. Parl. in Select. Harl. Misc. (1793) 568 Our occasional conformists, if not well looked after, will swallow up our government by this cunning hypocrisy. 1805 W. TAYLOR in Ann. Rev. III. 286 The coronation oath binds the sovereign to be a conformist. 1855 MACAULAY Hist. Eng. III. 60 In that year began the long struggle between two great parties of conformists...the High Church party and the Low Church party. 1880 A. R. ELLIS Sylvestra II. 56 The rector kept a sharp eye on occasional conformists.
3. Collector's name for a moth (Xylina conformis).
1869 E. NEWMAN Brit. Moths 427 The Conformist Moth.
4. attrib.
1641 R. BROOKE Eng. Episc. 90 The Church of England hath three maine Divisions, the Conformist, the Non-Conformist and the Separatist. 1885 Manch. Exam. 8 May 5/3 Either in Conformist or Nonconformist pulpits. *****
When everyone becomes a "non-conformist" with no "conformist" left in the world, however, "non-conformism" doesn't mean anything; when everyone becomes "heterodox" with no "orthodoxy" left, "heterodoxy" is likewise meaningless.
What is left to do? Commodify Your Dissent.
"Think Different."
:-/
Yoshie