How much do modern Persians care about pre-Arabic Persian?

[Khayyam]

The more Persian I learn, the more curious I become about what the language was like before its Arabization. Are any of you in a position to have some idea of to what extent Persians concern themselves with this question? Is there a strong contingent, or any sort of contingent, of patriotic, and you might say ultraconservative, Persians who want to keep that old flame burning? Or has it been so long since the Arab conquest, and has that conquest been so complete, that most Persians don't even have this on their radar--the same way most modern Mexicans would never even think about pre-European Mexico?

[Odair]

https://ajammc.com/2018/01/08/parsig-and-pahlavi/

[Khayyam]

https://ajammc.com/2018/01/08/parsig-and-pahlavi/

You always come through for me!

[Beli Tsar]

On a more anecdotal basis - a lot of them really, really care.

There's a continuous, rumbling discontent from a lot of Persians about the Arabic influence in general, a feeling that this is imperialism of a sort, that any free, proud country should have a pure version of its own language. When I mentioned the influence of French on English to some Persian friends, they were stunned - stunned by the idea that a free country like ours could be so indebted to another language. Obviously it is all a lot more intense with the feeling that the current government is furthering the language's Arabisation .

Others take it a (long) step further, and will very graciously correct your Persian - telling you not to use Arabic loanwords, steering you towards 'pure' Farsi. Since even 'Salam' is such a loanword, this means a lot of changes.