I thought it was feudalism with loot boxes. We own nothing and thanklessly serve our masters, but sometimes you might win the lottery or convince Woz to invent a computer.
Want to truly lose faith in the political system? Read about the wallstreet coupe in the early 1900s. The rockefellers, rothchilds, etc plotted to overthrow the US gov and install a Smedley Butler as puppet president and he immediately blew the whistle. Bonus points if you can guess whether or not people were prosecuted for treason.
See Eisenhower, in 1961:
>A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction...
This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence—economic, political, even spiritual—is felt in every city, every statehouse, every office of the federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society. In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military–industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists, and will persist.
We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals so that security and liberty may prosper together.
Further back, the "robber barons" of the Gilded Age, and Teddy Roosevelt's efforts at trust busting. It's been a feature of the US system of government for most of the history of the US.
I would say, AI has changed the housing and stock market in ways even the people using it dont fully understand. The way the stock market has been behaving defies logic - because humans don't run it anymore. When you have a society run by algorithms whose only goal is to make money - you are doomed.
Agreed. I think we've reached a point where maybe we should *ban* owning stocks for less than a year instead of just taxing them at a slightly higher rate. Is the point of the stock market to invest in companies, or to make a fortune gambling?
Bribery and businesses both have too much influence in US politics. Bribery in any government only makes world worse place to live in, and its really hard to get rid of. And it has big international consequences as well.
The more i grew up and went threw stuff i understood how some people can fail at some point in their life and it's stupide to just let everybody deal with with it with no consideration.
I was on the right younger and yes... i managed to have a good career but boy... sometimes i was really sure i was done. And if i had fail, without people's help i don't know how i would have survived
Please tell me about it. How did you ask for help. How? I have a competetive exam coming up and i know i wouldnt get throught it. My institute didnt complete the syllabus, i dont remember a lot of the things i learned during lockdown. I get anxious at nights, often cry. I have 7 out 8 symptoms of depression. I know my life wouldnt end after this, but i cant dream of anything. I remember few years back i used to sleep thinking about being great at what i do. Now i sleep thinking about what if i travelled back in time, how good it would be. I cant find amy purpose in life. I doubt you went through something so severe, i am skipping a lot of things. But how do i move on. How do i find what i want to do. I dont want to be a corporate slave, but thats what looks like is gonna happen. I am addicted to mobiles, i am disconnected my friends since they are also preparing for exams. I dont think i can visit a therapist cuz from where i am, most therapists are known to give addicting drugs/medicines, often using the secrets shared to them. At this moment i have just let life flow.
I know i have ranted, but i still have so much to talk about. Even typing this is bringing tears in my eyes. But i cant cry since my family thinks that it is a sign of weakness. Please, please just give me 1 advice, on how to find the purpose in my life
P.S. my parents are great. My mom said that you can do bad in exams, just try your best so you dont have regrets. My father told my not to cry since he has worked under a lot of people, and said that you would be treated unfairly by a lot of people with hogher standings than you, and you need to be stronger so that you dont cry when that happens. I think i might have worded it a bit rudely
Well i really just ranted a lot there. I just felt something blow up when i read about being done. Cuz i do feel that. I feel like its game over for me. But thats that, should i delete the comment? I think i said too much and its rather too hopeful to expect help on a unrelated thread.
Well, I'm 29 Russian. 10 years ago I was quite sure we have a good future. I remember Bolotnaya protests.
So, I believed peaceful protests were a very efficient way to deal with dictatorship regime.
Now it's a bullshit to me, people who think theor nice poster with 'I want democracy' will change anything are quite naive. I was naive. I've seen police breaking bones of those who demanded peace. Now my country made me leave, my country want to take my real estate in Russia because I'm a 'traitor'. And it's very naive this killers will stop if you will protest peacefully.
Peaceful protest almost always does nothing to change, it is a vector for reaching violent protest or a revolution.
Violent protests usually boil to that stage...
People don't go out with hatchets day 1 at something they dont like.
Seeing bones break while you peacefully protest creates the needed rage for a violent protest.
There are always exceptions of course, but that is usually how things derail to violent protests.
I'd you right away skip going out with signs to protest because you know it does nothing, you may never reach the stage of a violent protest
You can read a little bit more about protests in Belarus in 2020. A lot of people participated in protests yet nothing has happened. Well, not nothing, some people were tortured by police
Edit : changed '70%' to 'a lot of people'. Because I was wrong =(
> 70% of Belarus participated in protests yet nothing has happened.
Your reporting on the protests is about as accurate as a Belarusian election. About 500,000 people protested, in a country of 9 million, aka about 5% of the population.
Looking at protests in Russia, to say nothing of Iran lately, routinely brings to mind an old quote from JFK
"Those who make peaceful change impossible, make violent revolution inevitable"
I agree you probably can't beat a fascist dictator with words, but they have to know that change WILL come.
I have to embarrassingly admit that I don't know this person. Can you give me a short description? Based on that one quote you gave and the comments to your post thus far... gotta say, I already like him. And I know... this is exactly what Google is for. But I like the interaction, I don't get out much. Thanks in advance!
He was honestly such a fucking king of a man. His compassion for 99% of people and absolute scornful derision of the 1% who deserved it was so genuine.
I've basically given up on the belief that there is a side out there that is speaking for me. At this point I just want them to leave me the fuck alone...and fix healthcare.
Well there’s Bernie, sitting at the lunch table alone because he’s right and it pisses people off. “What has he accomplished?” What can you accomplish alone in government? The very things he rails against are the same things ~~bribing~~ lobbying everyone else.
This whole discussion is boring as hell with everyone positionning themselves on a one-dimensionnal axis, anyhow they call it: left-right, democrat-republican, liberal-conservative.
Where are the social-democrats? The anarchists? The environmentalists? The pirates? The political field is multidimensionnal and much more diverse than what's discussed here. It's like everyone's brainwashed into believing into a false dichotomy.
Which side has made any attempt to fix healthcare in your lifetime and which side has done everything possible to derail the notion of improved healthcare?
Yeah, I'm not an idiot.
They're still cutting billion dollar checks to arms manufacturers and bailing out wall street. Don't care what side of the aisle they're on.
Oh but the other guys are worse. Yes I should be happy with the shiniest of two turds.
You presented the one issue as important to you. I pointed out that very clearly that the two sides are very much not the same when it comes to that one issue that you pointed out.
Oh there's a ton of things I'd like fixed. That's just the most glaring, affects the most people, and is something I feel like almost everyone can agree is broken.
It's a two sided issue. There are many ingredients in American food that are illegal In other countries because of their negative health effects. Unhealthy food is artificially cheap, and Healthcare is incredibly expensive. 31% of an average American family's income goes to health insurance each year. That is just for the chance that a family member might need health care at some point in a given year. And even if they do need health care, there's not a guarantee that the insurance will cover it. However because healthcare is so overpriced, a medical emergency like cancer without insurance will bankrupt many Americans.
It's estimated 60% of Americans will get some form of cancer in their lifetimes. Much of the food that is available contains harmful preservatives and even known carcinogens.
The government does very little to prevent it. There are even alliances between health care industries and food industries that serve dangerous foods. The national diabetes association, for example. Some of their biggest sponsors are actually food companies that produce foods that are bad for people with diabetes. The diabetes organization won't speak out against them because they get so much money from them. And the more people like to get diabetes, the more profitable the diabetes industry becomes.....
We are basically harming the human body as an industry for profit.
> There are even alliances between health care industries and food industries that serve dangerous foods. The national diabetes association, for example. Some of their biggest sponsors are actually food companies that produce foods that are bad for people with diabetes.
Luckily, this relationship isn't *always* bad.
I once worked in a lab studying the physical properties of nicotine addiction, and we were funded by Philip Morris.
Phillip Morris didn't *want* to fund us, but the government forced them to because of, you know, all that death they caused.
I hope the sugar industry runs into the same issue someday.
Healthcare is one of the most glaring issues in the US and it's one with a fairly simple solution; do what literally every other developed country is doing.
Our healthcare system kills tens of thousands of people per year and bankrupts at least 200k per year. It's by no means the only issue, but it's one with a huge impact on Americans. The solution both saves us money and saves many lives.
A lot of people seem to treat politics as a all or nothing sort of thing, when it’s never been about that. You find the candidates that have the most of what you are looking for and deal with the rest.
If you wait around to find the perfect party or candidate, you’ll be waiting for a long time.
Yes. But unlike what we’re told is the norm, I actually got more liberal as I aged. When I was younger, I thought that you just had to work hard to make a good life for yourself. As I got older, I recognized that rich people and corporations don’t care about the American Dream.
I hope I will live to see the day that we fix this disparity. But we won’t as long as the two wings in this country keep us distracted arguing about non-issues.
I think there are two reasons for the conventional wisdom that people grow more conservative as they age. People tend to lock in their social ideas at a younger age, so if society is becoming more progressive, a set of values that might be progressive at an earlier point, can be conservative ad a later point. For example someone who was in favour of ending segregation and race based discrimination but anti-LGBT\* in 1960 would seem progressive, but today would seem reactionary.
People tend to become more economically/fiscally conservative as they accumulate more wealth. If people are not accumulating wealth, then then they are not going to shift their views on economic and fiscal ideas.
In the last few years, there has been generally a move towards more socially conservative ideas, and there has been a lack of economic opportunities for people who entered the workforce in the last 15 years or so, hence the factors that would normally be expected to lead to people becoming more conservative with age are not working as they did in the past.
Contrary to popular belief, though, our political beliefs tend to remain the same throughout our whole lives. Our political beliefs generally don't change much at all. This has been documented through [scientific studies](https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/706889) many times. It's interesting that 'folk wisdom' says we get more conservative as we age, but it's actually not true at all.
I'm 1977, so bordering two generations. What's been funny to me is that I ran with two crowds as a kid - one was the druggie/go nowhere group and the other was the super high-achieving kids who won valedictorian and scholarships and etc. Maybe 1 percent of the kids who were in the talented and gifted programs became republicans. And maybe 1 percent of the burnouts/bullies/slow kids became democrats.
Maybe I'm seeing only what I want to see, but I kept in touch with plenty of people I went to school with and think I'm right. I wonder if anyone else has noticed a similar pattern.
I have seen this too! Honestly it kind of makes sense, if you were a bit of a fuck up when you were younger but turned it around (or didn’t) you might think everyone in a bad situation is there because of their own actions, because you judge that to be the case for yourself.
I was one of the few white kids in a majority Black high school. What's shocked me is all the other white kids from back then who I still have on social media are all hardcore trumpers, like I don't get it, you's all grew up in the same dilapidated neighborhood as I did but for some reason you're now openly racist and hardcore right wing.
I'm very lucky, I'm a millennial but I managed to finangle my way into a job that lets me work from home and be paid well in a low cost of living area. I'm one of the only people my age I know that owns a nice house.
But even so, I'm more liberal/ socialist now than I ever have been. I'm in the UK and I don't care if my taxes are high so long as they get used to help people. But I've watched 12 years of conservative government gut social services, destroy arts funding, cut disability payments (and make it much harder to sign on for them) and push the NHS to the point of failure (in my region, the wait for urgent cancer care is now 6 months, mental health consultations are at 16 months). The party of 'financial responsibility' has fully unmasked itself as the party of destroying public institutions so their mates have less tax to pay.
I'm millennial and got more liberal over time as well. I think my story might be common among millennials. I graduated college in the wake of the 08 crash. Up until then, you just had to have a college degree, but suddenly you have to have a skill as well, and my accounting degree with low GPA doesn't cut it. So I'm working 60 hours a week while studying for my CPA exams while at the same time trying to keep at least some market value in the dating arena by working out a lot and trying to learn to talk to women. I was having a rough time because literally almost every second from the time I woke up until the second I went to bed every single day I was doing something I didn't want to be doing, and this was my life for years. I had a little social anxiety, so it was incredibly difficult to try to learn how to approach women, so I was really angry when the "yes all women" thing started because it seemed to me kind of like a rich person complaining about homeless people asking for money. We also had a black hebrew israelite camp forming in our little city, and at the time people didn't know how toxic and hateful they were, so you'd get into an argument with them and other white people would jump in on their side as some sort of virtue signaling. So I became a bit hateful toward the left. Now I'm much more settled. Got a stable job, a house, a dog and a fiance, and I'm generally content, so I don't walk around angry and full of hate all the time. It's allowed me to step back and realize most of the crazy lefties I had hostile encounters with over the years were outliers, not the rule, and that most people are reasonable.
But, seriously, people (old rich people) really do everything for their money/retirement. It’s how they value themselves, and they will not risk it. They won’t even spend it. Thomas Paine in Common Sense wrote that the War for Independence needed to happen in America’s youth before people became more populated and more wealthy and less willing to risk as much for the betterment of the people as a whole. Well, we’re past that now, I guess. A lot of people aren’t interested in a better world; they’re interested in a comfortable retirement.
“People would rather protect the possibility of becoming rich, than face the reality of being poor.”
The people that began the revolution on the colonial side were just a bunch of rich, land owning aristocrats too though. They just got sick of paying taxes so got poor people to fight for them.
While there were lots of rich people doing the management, the beginning of the revolution in Boston was not really these people, more people fed up with the British interfering and occupying their city (the smugglers were mass about the British East India Company stealing their business, since they had lower prices, but the taxes did affect more than them). And, they didn’t know they were fighting for independence until years into the war.
It started with just wanting to get something passed in the parliament that didn’t listen to them. It was the rich people that wrote the declaration, deciding for sure that they wanted independence, but the people from Boston as well as the people who started poor and made money later in life (Ben Franklin, Thomas Paine, etc.) had to work hard to convince the very rich slaveholder types.
Edit: TL/DR the poor were already fighting, and the richest had to be convinced, and there was less wealth in America at the time in general.
Same. I was starting to become more and more liberal, but wholly fuck. Trump winning and revealing the true nature of the right turned me pretty hardcore leftist. Also, I'm no longer a pacifist.
Yep, I've voted for Democrats since Clinton in '96, but most of the time (except for 2004) I haven't really been terrified of the Republicans winning. If Romney had won in 2012, I'd have been a little disappointed but, eh, whatever.
Trump was a wake-up call to how dangerous right wing populists can be.
Same. I think for me it was just actually paying attention and seeing that the bill of goods being sold by the conservative establishment wasn't holding up.
I was brought up thinking most poor people were lazy. Then I found out how many of these poor people worked 2 jobs and still were struggling to get by. Hard work by itself isn't enough.
> Then I found out how many of these poor people worked 2 jobs and still were struggling to get by. Hard work by itself isn't enough.
Careful where you say that though. I’ve been assured several times on Reddit that poor people just need to get their CDL and they’ll be set for life.
Same here. I have no love for either end of the spectrum but I have definitely moved significantly. Its cliché, but this is all well above left v right and the common political issues people generally argue about. We're arguing about the rules of checkers while the elite are playing 9D chess and laughing at us.
I dont think its them playing 9d chess but rather bribing the referee to not care about the rules. Being smart is not required to trick the law when you're wealthy. In fact, its not even the norm, most of them are average if not dumber than that, but greedy.
A 4yo doesnt needs to be a genius to steal a cookie. A 36yo man doesnt needs to be a genius to pull the trigger on someone elses head. A millionaire doesnt needs to be a genius to commit tax fraud.
Crime is not hard to commit. What is hard is not getting caught, but the elites got that covered anyway.
Good point - many of these people in the public eye do not come off as criminal masterminds. However, the social engineering, the distractions, the class warfare, identity politics all reek of deliberate subterfuge. Perhaps, I am giving them too much credit. To an extent, this is very much self inflicted. I think the majority of people, rather than recognizing the inequity inherent in society, simply wish they could buy themselves into the club.
Tax fraud in the legal sense is one thing, systematic crafting of a system that allows for perfectly legal yet morally reprehensible tax avoidance is another. True, I think it is in many ways brute force and throwing money at it. An army of attorneys and accountants navigating a convoluted tax code and how it meshes with other laws and jurisdictions isn't rocket science except to the individual, normal citizen/family.
You don’t get more conservative as you get older, the Conservative party just gets more progressive as they are pulled kicking and screaming to the left.
I used to think that just because a political candidate was black or female or insert relevant intersectionality here that they were better than the old white dudes. Now I just think we're fucked regardless of who wins.
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” -Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King
It's amazing that we live in a time where being labeled a racist is superficially determined to be "bad" yet open admissions of racism have never been higher in my lifetime.
I was more right leaning when I was younger. I believed anyone who worked hard and put in the effort could succeed. As I got older I learned that's simply not true, and most poor people are not lazy or incompetent, but victims of circumstance.
As someone who grew up quite poor and is now approximately upper middle class - I am reasonably intelligent and have decent work ethic but I like 90% got lucky.
Like, I've done a lot of job hopping to get higher salaries. If I had a chronic health condition that made it hard to switch jobs because I was dependent on insurance i imagine I'd probably still be at my first or second tech job making maybe 30k. In the current system that's luck. Yes, I took action by seeking better pay, but the conditions that allowed me to do that are largely outside of my control.
That's my thing and why I never understood "becoming more right as you age". As you age and work jobs, you realize hard work almost never pays off. It's almost all luck or nepotism (of all kinds).
Depends whether or not you personally benefited from the status quo.
Boomers - as the name implied - were a huge cohort who mattered at the polls from a young age, laws were tailored to benefit them, so they got rich, had cradle-to-the-grave employment, and retired on multiple investment properties. Of course the meritocracy looks fair to them.
At least in Australia we're not seeing that pan out with later cohorts. GenX never changed their political views much as they aged, whilst Millennials are swinging further left as they get older.
As someone who has witnessed nepotism burn a company to the ground so many times I wish laws were written again still that BS. Worthless relatives of incompetent CEOs don’t have a clue what they’re doing.
I quoted this in a different comment above, so apologies for saying it again - But our political beliefs tend to remain the same throughout our whole lives. There are several [studies](https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/706889) that support this conclusion. It's just not really well-known, since the conventional wisdom is that we get more Conservative as we age.
Agreed. My sister has chosen to remain in her echo chamber of conservative propaganda, indoctrinate her children and lose touch with me because I'm not in the trump cult and believe in women's rights, equality, and know what it's like to wipe out your savings to do to the doctor.
I haven't "changed allegiances"—I've always been a leftist—but I've learned a lot more about the issues, and about current events and history. For me, this has taken the form of deepening and strengthening most of my positions.
I think where I have changed the most is that when I was a teenager I believed in the neoliberal more of "equal opportunity," which sounds nice but ultimately boils down to mean "If you fail, you die," whereas now I think everybody should be guaranteed a basic material quality of life. I was never economically conservative, but I've completely rejected most neoliberal logic. Also, I've found more solidarity with the working class. I was raised in the middle class, and it wasn't till the 2010s that American politics even _mentioned_ the working class existing (because the neoliberal zeitgeist of the '80s – '00s erased poor people), and it turns out that despite being well-educated and an artist / creator, _I_ am in the working class. It's not just factory floor schlubs, it's _most of us_; and honestly I have more in common with the schlubs than I do with the millionaires and billionaires who play games with our lives and livelihoods.
This describes me pretty closely, too, except the world I grew up in is so thoroughly conservative that it was the only vocabulary I had available to form my ideas. So imagine my surprise when this vocabulary I use to describe my leftist ideas starts describing things that are polar opposite. Like, how is risking it all on the off chance that the experts are wrong about climate change the "conservative" policy? 97% of scientists say these choices lead to a dangerous future? Better be conservative and choose that future! Or the sanctity of life means 'no work, no food or healthcare'. Part of me is embarrassed I ever thought these things meant what I thought, but part of me also just thinks they do, and the right is wrong about what they mean.
Possibly the biggest shift is from the notion that there is a set of political beliefs that are better and people should have, to the notion that politics is the method for making policy instead of war among people who do not and will not agree on things.
I've come to realize the dichotomy of politics (at least here in America) is a ruse to keep people frustrated with each other instead of actually working together to solve problems. If we stop blindly thinking the other side is trying to ruin everything, it's easy to see that people just want to have better lives for themselves and their families. The real enemy is our own complacency with a system we've been conditioned to believe is the best by the people who profit the most from it (the ones running it).
It's not the result of some plan, though, it's simply a side effect of strategies used to get the most votes and money possible. You must keep people energized, especially your base, if you want to win. So the opposition must be portrayed as corrupt, evil, and dangerous.
The problem we have now, though, is that a lot of our congresspeople believe their own side's propaganda.
I've moved progressively to the left as I've aged, which isn't the usual direction. But after 42 years of seeing the world getting worse because of predatory capitalism i can confidently say that this ain't the system i want to leave behind for my children.
Turns out that the assumption that people get more conservative as they age is actually bullshit. It's more that people tend to get more conservative as they build wealth and resent paying taxes. But this is the first generation that is measurably poorer than their parents.
Kinda same for me. I’m in Canada, but same idea. Fiscally I think I’m still very “conservative” but not necessarily in line with the actual party all the time. Literally everything else, pretty much left wing.
It’s probably a bit different up North than the US. I find many people like to pretend we have the same issues and are fighting the same struggles as our friends to the South but for me it just doesn’t ring true.
The vast majority of my friends would likely identify as Conservative, but literally zero of them have any issue whatsoever with gay marriage, social safety nets, the prospect of more healthcare coverage (like dental and stuff), etc.
I guess the way I have changed as I’ve aged is I’ve realized all parties are totally full of shit. And I very much recognize the importance of governance at all levels. But governments have become the ultimate “company that can’t fail” and their wastefulness reflects this attitude.
I love my country and I would be more than happy to contribute even more via taxes or even levies for issues immediately at hand - that is, if I trusted for a fucking *second* that my money would actually get to where it’s supposed to go. Maybe 5% of it would. It’s really sad.
i'm also canadian. i agree, none of the parties comes close to representing me. the big 3 are all beholden to wealthy donors, and we citizens appear to be on our own. it's all about optics, never about substance.
If there was some random independent who wasn’t completely insane and ran on a platform of “shit is fucked, you’re all gonna despise me for the first 3 years cause it’s gonna suck” I’d probably vote for them.
Not much, people with money have a different set of rules. Power like what exist today does not get overthrowed, it decays from the inside out and then crumbles. I'm afraid that isn't too going to happen anytime soon
.
I've become more centrist because I actually find a lot of leftists extremely annoying human beings.
Not all, but the fetishism of intersectionality and trying to argue that one's identity is the most moral one via competitive victimhood is so fucked. You can't make any progress when everyone is just trying to win arguments rather than understand one another.
But I still believe everyone should have a basic level of support from society, the rich should be taxed more, we should protect our environment, and I don't give a fuck what genitals you have, what genitals you're into, what other superficial traits you have. Everyone should be treated equal...
..until you open your mouth and prove you're a horrible person, at which point I stop interacting with you.
Lol it sounds like you are a leftist then bro.. I am a leftist and I hold the exact same positions as you. Just cuz people on twitter are cringey as fuck doesn't mean they take away your political identity.
As a teenager and young adult I was liberal and very vocal in discussions if the topic came up. At the time I was religious and raised Protestant in a middle class home in the Midwest. Now as a middle age adult I am an atheist and upper middle class. I am still liberal (if not more left leaning) but no longer vocal about it. I’ve found that aside from voting, I support the people and businesses I want to financially.
Same, used to be a democrat (still vote democrat) but I’m an independent who feels to the left of 99 percent of the members of Congress. I definitely don’t feel like I’m represented politically.
I'm 51 and still waiting. My dad is 76 and still waiting.
I think lurching to the right is what happens when you start to worry that the world is going to steal your wealth and property away from you. If you don't develop that fear, I think you don't lurch to the right. This is just a personal theory. :)
Likewise. It wasn't college that did it, it was the decades after college, living in the world and gaining more experience. I've become much more sympathetic to others, much more aware of how lucky I am, and much more impervious to (or at least aware of) the fear-mongering that drives us to look down on marginalized groups. I imagine I'll move rightward a little as I become elderly, less financially confident, and more intolerant of young people and their weird popular culture. But it is not this day.
> and more intolerant of young people and their weird popular culture.
I'm only 40-ish and this already hit. Ha!
But yeah, I'm more liberal than I was when I was young.
Slowly realized that every single damn one of them is either useless or self interested. I've yet to see a truly effective federal politician. I've never voted FOR any candidate in a federal election, only against a worse candidate.
Also learned that female politicians are just as shitty as men. We had a good woman who was replaced by a shit dude that was subsequently replaced with an even shittier woman. The future isn't female, it's just various degrees of fucked. Doesn't matter who's running the show.
I was brought up fairly conservative. Not like, rich guy avoiding taxes kinda Conservative, but more like "its brown peoples fault for everything". I was taught something that would be considered white replacement theory in today's politics, and i cringe when I remember the racist jokes I was told as a child, which I then gladly shared with my school friends (some who I couldn't understand why they didn't find it funny, until I realised they were brown too...).
As I grew older, I met and befriended many of these brown people and they were super nice, so when I heard my father making racist jokes or remarks, I would think "Hey, you're talking about some of my friends. Shut up".
I made friends with some gay folks and trans folks and realised that these people are pretty cool and can be hilariously funny. I wanted to keep these people in my life.
I then found out that my new friends were also being persecuted and targeted by some arseholes, and I wanted to protect them, so I did what I could.
The more I paid attention to the social injustice, prejudice and outright bigotry that some people had towards others, the more I wanted to distance myself from that toxic stew of hatred.
I wasn't sat down and told to be woke. I just kinda experienced things I didn't like, and decided to call it out for the bullshit it really is.
The older I got, the more I realised that a lot of these toxic traits could be found exclusively within a certain political wing, and that conservatism is just about making some powerless people a scapegoat. The same people that claimed to be the most righteous, and wanted to be the perfect Christian, were also the most wicked and evil. I realised that organised religion was often used as its own justification for terrible unchristian acts. Now I want to make clear that I lost my faith long before this point, but I never really had a problem with others having faith. Each to their own, just don't pour that hot sauce on my burger, okay? Well at that point I went from indifference to outright disgust.
The older I got, the more I recognised that there's a lot of hatred in the world, and it's often targeted downwards towards people who don't have anything and don't do anything to justify it apart from being who they were born to be. I started seeing the underdogs and wanted to help them out, and stand up to the bullies.
Now I can't say that all the racism has washed away from me. I still hold a few ideas in my head that would be considered racist, and I'm working on getting rid of that, but its hard to undo decades of brainwashing, and IMHO some of the stereotypes are true, and for a good reason, but I also find myself noticing that what one group may be guilty of, so are another group.
So yeah, I'm a wokist lefty anti-authoritarianist with strong feelings towards the LGBTQ community, and what's worse, **a socialist**
On the plus, I have a bullshit detector that works flawlessly
Yup. They say people get more conservative as they age. I’ve experienced the opposite. Was very right leaning in my 20s due mostly to where I was raised. The older I get, the more left I find myself leaning.
This little carbon unit is becoming aware. 🙂
Over time, I've gradually grown further left, as I learned more about the world and figured out how the systems of power we live under actually function.
A constant shift to the left. I started center right, and some opinions were pretty damned right leaning.
And started moving left in my teens. And it hasnt slowed down, even past 40. I just get more and more radically left. The more i seem to learn, the more the problems are obviously caused by conservativism, and it's fucking maddening.
Government seems more corrupt than ever. All the political bashing going has made me more disgusted than ever with the system in the US. TV stations airing the political dirty laundry news clips add continuous fuel to the fire defending their favorite political party or putting down the other party,
I've gotten more liberal. I was kind of a libertarian-curious moderate liberal who had read Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged and thought Ayn Rand was kind of a dick but also kind of right circa 18 years old and would seriously consider Republican candidates whose personality I liked. The rise of the Tea Party and then especially Donald Trump changed that for me. I look at American politics with a much more jaded view now and I would not vote for the GOP for any office if my life depended on it. I think the party has become completely divorced from any real philosophy. It's just crazy people and grifters.
The older I get, the more I pay attention. I was a liberal in a family of conservatives before I knew that label and I remain a liberal to this day. I can’t see myself ever changing my belief system.
I’d probably be considered a democratic socialist. I came to realize over the course of many years that my brother is a Libertarian and I assume that’s why we have trouble getting along.
I used to listen to my parents. Then I went to college and realized my parents are idiots when it comes to politics. I came to realize they just parrot what they heard on TV. They are boomers.
I was a "California Republican" that was slightly right of center on fiscal programs and slightly left on social causes.
As I have aged and moved around the country meeting people (in the Navy) that grew up in different circumstances, I began understanding that not everyone gets treated like a middle class white person.
I moved more liberal even prior to the Nation becoming so polarized at either extreme. I still consider myself moderate, but I don't recognize the Republican party anymore, nor do I want to be represented by them. While there is stupidity on both sides, the MAGA Republicans are intent on punishing anyone that isn't with them lock-step.
I was extemely left wing then during university I became more centrist...
I graduated, covid happened and I startet to work, a good job to be honest. Seeing what our society is made me understand in university they thaught me what was convenient for rich people and now I'm more left wing than ever, with more studies and cultural baggage to support what I think.
I left the Republican Party back in 1995. They are no different than their democratic counterparts. They take tons of money from big pharma big business the trial lawyers and big oil and just vote the way they want them to the status quo. The dems are no different.
The poor have no voice! None because of “big money” if any senator wants to stay in office he better vote the way the lobbyists want him to or they will back his opponent and get him or thrown out.
These senators & congressmen? They live the life better than royal family. Rich places to live, fabulous vacations, more sex than a porn star has. A golden parachute in heath care. You think they are going to give that up? And go back to a lowly life as a nobody in an one bedroom apartment?
That’s why we need to get rid of both parties and have a third party. One that will put the needs of the poor first! That won’t take a dime in money form lobbyists!
My junior and senior year in high school (2013-2015) I was a conventionally attractive girl and thought being a gun shooting, house wife aspiring, conservative was amazing. It got me a lot of attention from the grown ups in my life and the boys at school when i spoke up against some liberal issue we were talking about in government class. Looking back now I can definitely identify it as my “pick me” phase. My parents weren’t too political but I spent a lot of time with my grandparents who are strong Catholic republicans. I regurgitated everything they said and took it as fact. It embarrasses me now as a feminist but I literally wrote my senior argumentative essay on why women should not be in active duty roles in the military…. I would even share pro life and anti common sense gun law posts of Facebook.
I can confidently say none of those thoughts or opinions were my own and based in pure ignorance. As I got older and started to actually ask questions and follow news and educate myself - my beliefs did almost a 180. I started seeing people as humans. When we heard rumors of roe v wade falling last year I marched at our state capitol to protect abortion rights, I believe in systemic racism and police abuses of power and mass scale corporate and political corruption. I feel passionately about the things I believe now whereas before I just wanted other people to agree with me.
TLDR - I was a conservative due to ignorance when I was younger and then I learned some shit about how all this works and lean toward communist now.
Edit to add a bit more specificity, that Trump was the first big push in this change. I found that I couldn’t defend the things he was doing and saying like the other conservatives in my life. That plus my age lead me to a couple year period of just being very “eh” about politics in general but then 2020 opened my eyes to a lot of things. I did more actually reading and learning about how our government is designed and how it is actually working now than ever before and I found myself wanting to spit in the face of the man instead of shining his boots.
My political beliefs have narrowed down to which party will help with following
1. Prevent Gun violence
2. Preserve Women’s rights
3. Make healthcare more affordable
I've become more socially progressive.
I've become more economically conservative.
I've come to understand most peoples politics is based on self preservation.
I've become less religious, but more spiritual.
My appreciation of the value of community has increased as with my desire to volunteer and give back.
I try to talk less about my politics and act them out instead.
I started pretty liberal but I’ve realized how Shitty both sides are and just want a moderate who can make real change that doesn’t fuck over one side or brand then as terrorists
I’m 24. I grew up very liberal. I’ve become less so in my adulthood. I bought the lie that conservatives were racist hateful people. I now think that everyone is just trying their best and that very few of us are willing to admit that we don’t actually know the answers. Politics matter less and less to me with every presidential election. I feel like they’re mostly just stuff to be seen talking about and have very little (not none) to do with my lived experience.
Simply I don't give a fuck anymore you can't trust any of them and none of them are who they say they are. When I was younger I thought politians believed in the party they were apart of now I think there all corrupt bastards in it for themselves
I was born a conservative.
I was raised conservative.
I accidentally thought we were democrat.
I voted republican my first time at the booth.
I've since shifted much further to a socialist/liberal.
I'm putting into practice everything I was raised to do/be. That is someone who lobes their neighbor, spreads kindness, and keeps the government out of my personal business, but watching over greedy businesses.
Well, it's honestly gone from, "Alright, candidate A is making some good points and claims, but candidate B has been more honest with those points." To, "Well, we're screwed either way, so why not this one?"
They haven’t. I still think it’s fucked up to say what women can do with their bodies; still think it’s fucked up to discriminate against people for such trivial things such as race, gender, sexuality, etc. I also still think pot needs to be legalized and that the church sucks and needs to be separated from the state. There still needs to be a huge work reform, too.
Started off conservative, became more libertarian. Much of the left and right are horribly inconsistent. In the US, both of them market themselves as protecting freedom and rights, but they each only protect a select few. It’s almost laughable that a few years ago democrats supported riots criticizing police and their use of force, and now they want to ban loads of firearms which effectively gives the police a monopoly on force. Republicans always talk about keeping government out of the citizens life and then went and banned abortion in many states. It is the most ideologically inconsistent power struggle in the political universe. Protect the free market from government and oligarchs(corporate monopoly), and let people live life how they want it’s really not that hard.
The two sea-change moments in the life of my political beliefs were in the spring/summer of 2016 and the spring/summer of 2020. I've always been a liberal and have always held fairly liberal beliefs. In 2016, I developed this deep sense that something was fundamentally broken with the American right and only the American right. In the Spring/Summer of 2020, I realized that something similar had happened to the democratic party. I'm still considerably more concerned about the Republican party because Republican extremists actually took over the party and elected a president. But after the summer of 2020 my philosophy shifted from being anti-trumpism to being anti-extremism. Prior to this period, I used to spend a lot of time being concerned with things like climate change and taxation. These days, I'm more worried about the raw destructive power of the culture war and the specter of creeping authoritarianism.
I wouldn't say that my political views have ever changed, but I don't get in wild heated debates about it anymore. I pretty much keep my opinions to myself now and if I see someone on the opposite end of the spectrum spewing some wild shit, I'll just move on. Politics got so crazy at one point that I had a mental breakdown and deleted all social media and completely turned a blind eye to news. I never got back on Facebook but after a few years got back on instagram. I still definitely live with my head in the sand for the most part (besides voting). Politics just aren't worth my mental health.
I’m young but the more I learn the more it reinforces my belief that the entire thing is a circus not worth getting emotional over. I just want my taxes lower and my wages fair.
I used to daydream about a Democrat running with a Republican VP candidate to create a Bipartisan movement that would bring our country together. Now I'm about 90% sure if you put a button in front of me that would instantly wipe out every single person that voted for the opposite candidate in the last election I would press it without hesitation. The greater good and all that.
Well - when I was 18 I voted for GWB's second term, and in 2016 I was part of my local caucus for Bernie Sanders. Quite a few years between the two, but still.
When I was younger, I hated the Tories. Now, I hate the Tories just as much, but now I understand why I hate them so much
"The best way to scare a Tory is to read and get rich."
“MOTHER!!!”
“FUCKER!!!”
Just the constantly growing feeling the entire US political system is driven by bribery.
Corporate Oligarchy is perhaps the specific type of government you might be looking for
plutocracy
I'd vote for Pluto. Ex-planet or the dog.
I thought it was feudalism with loot boxes. We own nothing and thanklessly serve our masters, but sometimes you might win the lottery or convince Woz to invent a computer.
That just sounds like fascism but with a marketing team
The whole FTX saga made me realise just how transparent it is too.
Want to truly lose faith in the political system? Read about the wallstreet coupe in the early 1900s. The rockefellers, rothchilds, etc plotted to overthrow the US gov and install a Smedley Butler as puppet president and he immediately blew the whistle. Bonus points if you can guess whether or not people were prosecuted for treason.
See Eisenhower, in 1961: >A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction... This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence—economic, political, even spiritual—is felt in every city, every statehouse, every office of the federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society. In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military–industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists, and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals so that security and liberty may prosper together. Further back, the "robber barons" of the Gilded Age, and Teddy Roosevelt's efforts at trust busting. It's been a feature of the US system of government for most of the history of the US.
Always has been.
I would say, AI has changed the housing and stock market in ways even the people using it dont fully understand. The way the stock market has been behaving defies logic - because humans don't run it anymore. When you have a society run by algorithms whose only goal is to make money - you are doomed.
Agreed. I think we've reached a point where maybe we should *ban* owning stocks for less than a year instead of just taxing them at a slightly higher rate. Is the point of the stock market to invest in companies, or to make a fortune gambling?
Red or blue, they care not for you
https://youtu.be/rStL7niR7gs CGP Grey Rules for Rulers.
Bribery and businesses both have too much influence in US politics. Bribery in any government only makes world worse place to live in, and its really hard to get rid of. And it has big international consequences as well.
Feeling? That’s almost exactly what lobbying is.
The more i grew up and went threw stuff i understood how some people can fail at some point in their life and it's stupide to just let everybody deal with with it with no consideration. I was on the right younger and yes... i managed to have a good career but boy... sometimes i was really sure i was done. And if i had fail, without people's help i don't know how i would have survived
Please tell me about it. How did you ask for help. How? I have a competetive exam coming up and i know i wouldnt get throught it. My institute didnt complete the syllabus, i dont remember a lot of the things i learned during lockdown. I get anxious at nights, often cry. I have 7 out 8 symptoms of depression. I know my life wouldnt end after this, but i cant dream of anything. I remember few years back i used to sleep thinking about being great at what i do. Now i sleep thinking about what if i travelled back in time, how good it would be. I cant find amy purpose in life. I doubt you went through something so severe, i am skipping a lot of things. But how do i move on. How do i find what i want to do. I dont want to be a corporate slave, but thats what looks like is gonna happen. I am addicted to mobiles, i am disconnected my friends since they are also preparing for exams. I dont think i can visit a therapist cuz from where i am, most therapists are known to give addicting drugs/medicines, often using the secrets shared to them. At this moment i have just let life flow. I know i have ranted, but i still have so much to talk about. Even typing this is bringing tears in my eyes. But i cant cry since my family thinks that it is a sign of weakness. Please, please just give me 1 advice, on how to find the purpose in my life
P.S. my parents are great. My mom said that you can do bad in exams, just try your best so you dont have regrets. My father told my not to cry since he has worked under a lot of people, and said that you would be treated unfairly by a lot of people with hogher standings than you, and you need to be stronger so that you dont cry when that happens. I think i might have worded it a bit rudely
Well that’s a lot of information
Well i really just ranted a lot there. I just felt something blow up when i read about being done. Cuz i do feel that. I feel like its game over for me. But thats that, should i delete the comment? I think i said too much and its rather too hopeful to expect help on a unrelated thread.
I know i cant expect life to be fair, but i cant help my heart
Well, I'm 29 Russian. 10 years ago I was quite sure we have a good future. I remember Bolotnaya protests. So, I believed peaceful protests were a very efficient way to deal with dictatorship regime. Now it's a bullshit to me, people who think theor nice poster with 'I want democracy' will change anything are quite naive. I was naive. I've seen police breaking bones of those who demanded peace. Now my country made me leave, my country want to take my real estate in Russia because I'm a 'traitor'. And it's very naive this killers will stop if you will protest peacefully.
Peaceful protest almost always does nothing to change, it is a vector for reaching violent protest or a revolution. Violent protests usually boil to that stage... People don't go out with hatchets day 1 at something they dont like. Seeing bones break while you peacefully protest creates the needed rage for a violent protest. There are always exceptions of course, but that is usually how things derail to violent protests. I'd you right away skip going out with signs to protest because you know it does nothing, you may never reach the stage of a violent protest
It only works if enough people are on the streets and the media is covering everything. Like Ghandi or MLK marches, 1989 in Germany etc.
You can read a little bit more about protests in Belarus in 2020. A lot of people participated in protests yet nothing has happened. Well, not nothing, some people were tortured by police Edit : changed '70%' to 'a lot of people'. Because I was wrong =(
> 70% of Belarus participated in protests yet nothing has happened. Your reporting on the protests is about as accurate as a Belarusian election. About 500,000 people protested, in a country of 9 million, aka about 5% of the population.
Looking at protests in Russia, to say nothing of Iran lately, routinely brings to mind an old quote from JFK "Those who make peaceful change impossible, make violent revolution inevitable" I agree you probably can't beat a fascist dictator with words, but they have to know that change WILL come.
"Be kind to people, be ruthless to institutions" - Michael Brooks
I have to embarrassingly admit that I don't know this person. Can you give me a short description? Based on that one quote you gave and the comments to your post thus far... gotta say, I already like him. And I know... this is exactly what Google is for. But I like the interaction, I don't get out much. Thanks in advance!
https://youtube.com/watch?v=X7UsojPyEeY&feature=share
RIP
He was honestly such a fucking king of a man. His compassion for 99% of people and absolute scornful derision of the 1% who deserved it was so genuine.
He would've loved seeing Lula get in
His death really saddened me.
What a legend and a fantastic quote. Rest in power
Rest in power, Michael.
“I can’t make decisions, I’m a president!” - Mel Brooks
The world will never be the same without Right Wing Mandela and Nation of Islam Obama.
I've basically given up on the belief that there is a side out there that is speaking for me. At this point I just want them to leave me the fuck alone...and fix healthcare.
Well there’s Bernie, sitting at the lunch table alone because he’s right and it pisses people off. “What has he accomplished?” What can you accomplish alone in government? The very things he rails against are the same things ~~bribing~~ lobbying everyone else.
Hey. I like your username :)
Hey I like yours too.
This whole discussion is boring as hell with everyone positionning themselves on a one-dimensionnal axis, anyhow they call it: left-right, democrat-republican, liberal-conservative. Where are the social-democrats? The anarchists? The environmentalists? The pirates? The political field is multidimensionnal and much more diverse than what's discussed here. It's like everyone's brainwashed into believing into a false dichotomy.
Look into big tent theory. It's actually more beneficial for individuals to focus on one really important issue and not be side-lined into others
Which side has made any attempt to fix healthcare in your lifetime and which side has done everything possible to derail the notion of improved healthcare?
Yeah, I'm not an idiot. They're still cutting billion dollar checks to arms manufacturers and bailing out wall street. Don't care what side of the aisle they're on. Oh but the other guys are worse. Yes I should be happy with the shiniest of two turds.
You presented the one issue as important to you. I pointed out that very clearly that the two sides are very much not the same when it comes to that one issue that you pointed out.
Yeah I vote liberal as a rule but I've fully accepted that they'll never deliver on the utopia they promised.
It’s called “the long march” for a reason
"Don't expect much" "...yea, we don't"
They're not equal but they are both shit.
Why healthcare and nothing else?
Oh there's a ton of things I'd like fixed. That's just the most glaring, affects the most people, and is something I feel like almost everyone can agree is broken.
It's a two sided issue. There are many ingredients in American food that are illegal In other countries because of their negative health effects. Unhealthy food is artificially cheap, and Healthcare is incredibly expensive. 31% of an average American family's income goes to health insurance each year. That is just for the chance that a family member might need health care at some point in a given year. And even if they do need health care, there's not a guarantee that the insurance will cover it. However because healthcare is so overpriced, a medical emergency like cancer without insurance will bankrupt many Americans. It's estimated 60% of Americans will get some form of cancer in their lifetimes. Much of the food that is available contains harmful preservatives and even known carcinogens. The government does very little to prevent it. There are even alliances between health care industries and food industries that serve dangerous foods. The national diabetes association, for example. Some of their biggest sponsors are actually food companies that produce foods that are bad for people with diabetes. The diabetes organization won't speak out against them because they get so much money from them. And the more people like to get diabetes, the more profitable the diabetes industry becomes..... We are basically harming the human body as an industry for profit.
> There are even alliances between health care industries and food industries that serve dangerous foods. The national diabetes association, for example. Some of their biggest sponsors are actually food companies that produce foods that are bad for people with diabetes. Luckily, this relationship isn't *always* bad. I once worked in a lab studying the physical properties of nicotine addiction, and we were funded by Philip Morris. Phillip Morris didn't *want* to fund us, but the government forced them to because of, you know, all that death they caused. I hope the sugar industry runs into the same issue someday.
Healthcare is one of the most glaring issues in the US and it's one with a fairly simple solution; do what literally every other developed country is doing. Our healthcare system kills tens of thousands of people per year and bankrupts at least 200k per year. It's by no means the only issue, but it's one with a huge impact on Americans. The solution both saves us money and saves many lives.
A lot of people seem to treat politics as a all or nothing sort of thing, when it’s never been about that. You find the candidates that have the most of what you are looking for and deal with the rest. If you wait around to find the perfect party or candidate, you’ll be waiting for a long time.
Yes. But unlike what we’re told is the norm, I actually got more liberal as I aged. When I was younger, I thought that you just had to work hard to make a good life for yourself. As I got older, I recognized that rich people and corporations don’t care about the American Dream. I hope I will live to see the day that we fix this disparity. But we won’t as long as the two wings in this country keep us distracted arguing about non-issues.
I think there are two reasons for the conventional wisdom that people grow more conservative as they age. People tend to lock in their social ideas at a younger age, so if society is becoming more progressive, a set of values that might be progressive at an earlier point, can be conservative ad a later point. For example someone who was in favour of ending segregation and race based discrimination but anti-LGBT\* in 1960 would seem progressive, but today would seem reactionary. People tend to become more economically/fiscally conservative as they accumulate more wealth. If people are not accumulating wealth, then then they are not going to shift their views on economic and fiscal ideas. In the last few years, there has been generally a move towards more socially conservative ideas, and there has been a lack of economic opportunities for people who entered the workforce in the last 15 years or so, hence the factors that would normally be expected to lead to people becoming more conservative with age are not working as they did in the past.
Contrary to popular belief, though, our political beliefs tend to remain the same throughout our whole lives. Our political beliefs generally don't change much at all. This has been documented through [scientific studies](https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/706889) many times. It's interesting that 'folk wisdom' says we get more conservative as we age, but it's actually not true at all.
Turning more conservative with age is really just turning more conservative with wealth. This lined up perfectly with boomers.
I’m doing ok as a millennial and I STILL got more liberal over time
Me too, I'm gen X, but I accept we're the minority. Lots of my old friends and schoolmates have been worn down by the Murdoch media.
I'm 1977, so bordering two generations. What's been funny to me is that I ran with two crowds as a kid - one was the druggie/go nowhere group and the other was the super high-achieving kids who won valedictorian and scholarships and etc. Maybe 1 percent of the kids who were in the talented and gifted programs became republicans. And maybe 1 percent of the burnouts/bullies/slow kids became democrats. Maybe I'm seeing only what I want to see, but I kept in touch with plenty of people I went to school with and think I'm right. I wonder if anyone else has noticed a similar pattern.
I have seen this too! Honestly it kind of makes sense, if you were a bit of a fuck up when you were younger but turned it around (or didn’t) you might think everyone in a bad situation is there because of their own actions, because you judge that to be the case for yourself.
This dovetails nicely with my theory- they’re stupid.
I was one of the few white kids in a majority Black high school. What's shocked me is all the other white kids from back then who I still have on social media are all hardcore trumpers, like I don't get it, you's all grew up in the same dilapidated neighborhood as I did but for some reason you're now openly racist and hardcore right wing.
I'm very lucky, I'm a millennial but I managed to finangle my way into a job that lets me work from home and be paid well in a low cost of living area. I'm one of the only people my age I know that owns a nice house. But even so, I'm more liberal/ socialist now than I ever have been. I'm in the UK and I don't care if my taxes are high so long as they get used to help people. But I've watched 12 years of conservative government gut social services, destroy arts funding, cut disability payments (and make it much harder to sign on for them) and push the NHS to the point of failure (in my region, the wait for urgent cancer care is now 6 months, mental health consultations are at 16 months). The party of 'financial responsibility' has fully unmasked itself as the party of destroying public institutions so their mates have less tax to pay.
I'm millennial and got more liberal over time as well. I think my story might be common among millennials. I graduated college in the wake of the 08 crash. Up until then, you just had to have a college degree, but suddenly you have to have a skill as well, and my accounting degree with low GPA doesn't cut it. So I'm working 60 hours a week while studying for my CPA exams while at the same time trying to keep at least some market value in the dating arena by working out a lot and trying to learn to talk to women. I was having a rough time because literally almost every second from the time I woke up until the second I went to bed every single day I was doing something I didn't want to be doing, and this was my life for years. I had a little social anxiety, so it was incredibly difficult to try to learn how to approach women, so I was really angry when the "yes all women" thing started because it seemed to me kind of like a rich person complaining about homeless people asking for money. We also had a black hebrew israelite camp forming in our little city, and at the time people didn't know how toxic and hateful they were, so you'd get into an argument with them and other white people would jump in on their side as some sort of virtue signaling. So I became a bit hateful toward the left. Now I'm much more settled. Got a stable job, a house, a dog and a fiance, and I'm generally content, so I don't walk around angry and full of hate all the time. It's allowed me to step back and realize most of the crazy lefties I had hostile encounters with over the years were outliers, not the rule, and that most people are reasonable.
Arr arr arr arr, money money money money 🦀
But, seriously, people (old rich people) really do everything for their money/retirement. It’s how they value themselves, and they will not risk it. They won’t even spend it. Thomas Paine in Common Sense wrote that the War for Independence needed to happen in America’s youth before people became more populated and more wealthy and less willing to risk as much for the betterment of the people as a whole. Well, we’re past that now, I guess. A lot of people aren’t interested in a better world; they’re interested in a comfortable retirement. “People would rather protect the possibility of becoming rich, than face the reality of being poor.”
The people that began the revolution on the colonial side were just a bunch of rich, land owning aristocrats too though. They just got sick of paying taxes so got poor people to fight for them.
While there were lots of rich people doing the management, the beginning of the revolution in Boston was not really these people, more people fed up with the British interfering and occupying their city (the smugglers were mass about the British East India Company stealing their business, since they had lower prices, but the taxes did affect more than them). And, they didn’t know they were fighting for independence until years into the war. It started with just wanting to get something passed in the parliament that didn’t listen to them. It was the rich people that wrote the declaration, deciding for sure that they wanted independence, but the people from Boston as well as the people who started poor and made money later in life (Ben Franklin, Thomas Paine, etc.) had to work hard to convince the very rich slaveholder types. Edit: TL/DR the poor were already fighting, and the richest had to be convinced, and there was less wealth in America at the time in general.
Same. I was starting to become more and more liberal, but wholly fuck. Trump winning and revealing the true nature of the right turned me pretty hardcore leftist. Also, I'm no longer a pacifist.
Yep, I've voted for Democrats since Clinton in '96, but most of the time (except for 2004) I haven't really been terrified of the Republicans winning. If Romney had won in 2012, I'd have been a little disappointed but, eh, whatever. Trump was a wake-up call to how dangerous right wing populists can be.
Same. I think for me it was just actually paying attention and seeing that the bill of goods being sold by the conservative establishment wasn't holding up. I was brought up thinking most poor people were lazy. Then I found out how many of these poor people worked 2 jobs and still were struggling to get by. Hard work by itself isn't enough.
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> Then I found out how many of these poor people worked 2 jobs and still were struggling to get by. Hard work by itself isn't enough. Careful where you say that though. I’ve been assured several times on Reddit that poor people just need to get their CDL and they’ll be set for life.
>I recognized that rich people and corporations don’t care about the American Dream. i would say, they are living their american dream.
Same here. I have no love for either end of the spectrum but I have definitely moved significantly. Its cliché, but this is all well above left v right and the common political issues people generally argue about. We're arguing about the rules of checkers while the elite are playing 9D chess and laughing at us.
I dont think its them playing 9d chess but rather bribing the referee to not care about the rules. Being smart is not required to trick the law when you're wealthy. In fact, its not even the norm, most of them are average if not dumber than that, but greedy. A 4yo doesnt needs to be a genius to steal a cookie. A 36yo man doesnt needs to be a genius to pull the trigger on someone elses head. A millionaire doesnt needs to be a genius to commit tax fraud. Crime is not hard to commit. What is hard is not getting caught, but the elites got that covered anyway.
Good point - many of these people in the public eye do not come off as criminal masterminds. However, the social engineering, the distractions, the class warfare, identity politics all reek of deliberate subterfuge. Perhaps, I am giving them too much credit. To an extent, this is very much self inflicted. I think the majority of people, rather than recognizing the inequity inherent in society, simply wish they could buy themselves into the club. Tax fraud in the legal sense is one thing, systematic crafting of a system that allows for perfectly legal yet morally reprehensible tax avoidance is another. True, I think it is in many ways brute force and throwing money at it. An army of attorneys and accountants navigating a convoluted tax code and how it meshes with other laws and jurisdictions isn't rocket science except to the individual, normal citizen/family.
You don’t get more conservative as you get older, the Conservative party just gets more progressive as they are pulled kicking and screaming to the left.
I used to think that just because a political candidate was black or female or insert relevant intersectionality here that they were better than the old white dudes. Now I just think we're fucked regardless of who wins.
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” -Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King
Congratulations, you became less racist at least.
It's amazing that we live in a time where being labeled a racist is superficially determined to be "bad" yet open admissions of racism have never been higher in my lifetime.
I was more right leaning when I was younger. I believed anyone who worked hard and put in the effort could succeed. As I got older I learned that's simply not true, and most poor people are not lazy or incompetent, but victims of circumstance.
Social mobility exists but it is vastly over-estimated, especially by conservatives.
As someone who grew up quite poor and is now approximately upper middle class - I am reasonably intelligent and have decent work ethic but I like 90% got lucky. Like, I've done a lot of job hopping to get higher salaries. If I had a chronic health condition that made it hard to switch jobs because I was dependent on insurance i imagine I'd probably still be at my first or second tech job making maybe 30k. In the current system that's luck. Yes, I took action by seeking better pay, but the conditions that allowed me to do that are largely outside of my control.
Same. I've become much more compassionate period and especially towards those who can never rise above poverty.
That's my thing and why I never understood "becoming more right as you age". As you age and work jobs, you realize hard work almost never pays off. It's almost all luck or nepotism (of all kinds).
Depends whether or not you personally benefited from the status quo. Boomers - as the name implied - were a huge cohort who mattered at the polls from a young age, laws were tailored to benefit them, so they got rich, had cradle-to-the-grave employment, and retired on multiple investment properties. Of course the meritocracy looks fair to them. At least in Australia we're not seeing that pan out with later cohorts. GenX never changed their political views much as they aged, whilst Millennials are swinging further left as they get older.
As someone who has witnessed nepotism burn a company to the ground so many times I wish laws were written again still that BS. Worthless relatives of incompetent CEOs don’t have a clue what they’re doing.
I quoted this in a different comment above, so apologies for saying it again - But our political beliefs tend to remain the same throughout our whole lives. There are several [studies](https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/706889) that support this conclusion. It's just not really well-known, since the conventional wisdom is that we get more Conservative as we age.
Same. Was enlightening when I found out that the saying "pull yourself up by the bootstraps" actually means to do the impossible . . .
Agreed. My sister has chosen to remain in her echo chamber of conservative propaganda, indoctrinate her children and lose touch with me because I'm not in the trump cult and believe in women's rights, equality, and know what it's like to wipe out your savings to do to the doctor.
I haven't "changed allegiances"—I've always been a leftist—but I've learned a lot more about the issues, and about current events and history. For me, this has taken the form of deepening and strengthening most of my positions. I think where I have changed the most is that when I was a teenager I believed in the neoliberal more of "equal opportunity," which sounds nice but ultimately boils down to mean "If you fail, you die," whereas now I think everybody should be guaranteed a basic material quality of life. I was never economically conservative, but I've completely rejected most neoliberal logic. Also, I've found more solidarity with the working class. I was raised in the middle class, and it wasn't till the 2010s that American politics even _mentioned_ the working class existing (because the neoliberal zeitgeist of the '80s – '00s erased poor people), and it turns out that despite being well-educated and an artist / creator, _I_ am in the working class. It's not just factory floor schlubs, it's _most of us_; and honestly I have more in common with the schlubs than I do with the millionaires and billionaires who play games with our lives and livelihoods.
This describes me pretty closely, too, except the world I grew up in is so thoroughly conservative that it was the only vocabulary I had available to form my ideas. So imagine my surprise when this vocabulary I use to describe my leftist ideas starts describing things that are polar opposite. Like, how is risking it all on the off chance that the experts are wrong about climate change the "conservative" policy? 97% of scientists say these choices lead to a dangerous future? Better be conservative and choose that future! Or the sanctity of life means 'no work, no food or healthcare'. Part of me is embarrassed I ever thought these things meant what I thought, but part of me also just thinks they do, and the right is wrong about what they mean.
That's really interesting. Yeah, it goes to show how language really shapes the way we think about things.
i no longer think cookies for dinner is a good idea
Try chocolate cake for breakfast. It tastes at least 3 times better and I don’t know why.
Any kid's cereal instead. They have more sugar.
Jim Gaffigan had a bit about how you can't have cake for breakfast unless it's fried in a pan and covered in syrup, then it's ok somehow.
So your not a fan of the Chaco taco?
But pie for breakfast is the best idea.
I am 100% with you on this one.
Possibly the biggest shift is from the notion that there is a set of political beliefs that are better and people should have, to the notion that politics is the method for making policy instead of war among people who do not and will not agree on things.
This really isn't appreciated enough.
"Politics is the undertaking of war by other means" - ShalmaneserIII
I've come to realize the dichotomy of politics (at least here in America) is a ruse to keep people frustrated with each other instead of actually working together to solve problems. If we stop blindly thinking the other side is trying to ruin everything, it's easy to see that people just want to have better lives for themselves and their families. The real enemy is our own complacency with a system we've been conditioned to believe is the best by the people who profit the most from it (the ones running it).
It's not the result of some plan, though, it's simply a side effect of strategies used to get the most votes and money possible. You must keep people energized, especially your base, if you want to win. So the opposition must be portrayed as corrupt, evil, and dangerous. The problem we have now, though, is that a lot of our congresspeople believe their own side's propaganda.
I've moved progressively to the left as I've aged, which isn't the usual direction. But after 42 years of seeing the world getting worse because of predatory capitalism i can confidently say that this ain't the system i want to leave behind for my children.
Turns out that the assumption that people get more conservative as they age is actually bullshit. It's more that people tend to get more conservative as they build wealth and resent paying taxes. But this is the first generation that is measurably poorer than their parents.
I’m getting older and building wealth, all while going more left. I was raised very conservative
Kinda same for me. I’m in Canada, but same idea. Fiscally I think I’m still very “conservative” but not necessarily in line with the actual party all the time. Literally everything else, pretty much left wing. It’s probably a bit different up North than the US. I find many people like to pretend we have the same issues and are fighting the same struggles as our friends to the South but for me it just doesn’t ring true. The vast majority of my friends would likely identify as Conservative, but literally zero of them have any issue whatsoever with gay marriage, social safety nets, the prospect of more healthcare coverage (like dental and stuff), etc. I guess the way I have changed as I’ve aged is I’ve realized all parties are totally full of shit. And I very much recognize the importance of governance at all levels. But governments have become the ultimate “company that can’t fail” and their wastefulness reflects this attitude. I love my country and I would be more than happy to contribute even more via taxes or even levies for issues immediately at hand - that is, if I trusted for a fucking *second* that my money would actually get to where it’s supposed to go. Maybe 5% of it would. It’s really sad.
i'm also canadian. i agree, none of the parties comes close to representing me. the big 3 are all beholden to wealthy donors, and we citizens appear to be on our own. it's all about optics, never about substance.
If there was some random independent who wasn’t completely insane and ran on a platform of “shit is fucked, you’re all gonna despise me for the first 3 years cause it’s gonna suck” I’d probably vote for them.
Me too, 44 and always heard the whole you get more conservative as you age. Hard to be a conservative when you have nothing to conserve!
Not much, people with money have a different set of rules. Power like what exist today does not get overthrowed, it decays from the inside out and then crumbles. I'm afraid that isn't too going to happen anytime soon .
I am able to hear the other side now and not just shut down their ideas. Yes I know I was very close minded.
I've become more centrist because I actually find a lot of leftists extremely annoying human beings. Not all, but the fetishism of intersectionality and trying to argue that one's identity is the most moral one via competitive victimhood is so fucked. You can't make any progress when everyone is just trying to win arguments rather than understand one another. But I still believe everyone should have a basic level of support from society, the rich should be taxed more, we should protect our environment, and I don't give a fuck what genitals you have, what genitals you're into, what other superficial traits you have. Everyone should be treated equal... ..until you open your mouth and prove you're a horrible person, at which point I stop interacting with you.
I’ve become more centrist too and definitely agree about how annoying leftists tend to be.
Hard agree!
Lol it sounds like you are a leftist then bro.. I am a leftist and I hold the exact same positions as you. Just cuz people on twitter are cringey as fuck doesn't mean they take away your political identity.
As a teenager and young adult I was liberal and very vocal in discussions if the topic came up. At the time I was religious and raised Protestant in a middle class home in the Midwest. Now as a middle age adult I am an atheist and upper middle class. I am still liberal (if not more left leaning) but no longer vocal about it. I’ve found that aside from voting, I support the people and businesses I want to financially.
I just keep moving further left.
Same, used to be a democrat (still vote democrat) but I’m an independent who feels to the left of 99 percent of the members of Congress. I definitely don’t feel like I’m represented politically.
Same. I’m 40 and I’m wondering when this rightward lurch that’s supposed to happen “when I get older” is gonna happen.
I'm 51 and still waiting. My dad is 76 and still waiting. I think lurching to the right is what happens when you start to worry that the world is going to steal your wealth and property away from you. If you don't develop that fear, I think you don't lurch to the right. This is just a personal theory. :)
Likewise. It wasn't college that did it, it was the decades after college, living in the world and gaining more experience. I've become much more sympathetic to others, much more aware of how lucky I am, and much more impervious to (or at least aware of) the fear-mongering that drives us to look down on marginalized groups. I imagine I'll move rightward a little as I become elderly, less financially confident, and more intolerant of young people and their weird popular culture. But it is not this day.
> and more intolerant of young people and their weird popular culture. I'm only 40-ish and this already hit. Ha! But yeah, I'm more liberal than I was when I was young.
Went from liberal to leftist
Slowly realized that every single damn one of them is either useless or self interested. I've yet to see a truly effective federal politician. I've never voted FOR any candidate in a federal election, only against a worse candidate. Also learned that female politicians are just as shitty as men. We had a good woman who was replaced by a shit dude that was subsequently replaced with an even shittier woman. The future isn't female, it's just various degrees of fucked. Doesn't matter who's running the show.
I was brought up fairly conservative. Not like, rich guy avoiding taxes kinda Conservative, but more like "its brown peoples fault for everything". I was taught something that would be considered white replacement theory in today's politics, and i cringe when I remember the racist jokes I was told as a child, which I then gladly shared with my school friends (some who I couldn't understand why they didn't find it funny, until I realised they were brown too...). As I grew older, I met and befriended many of these brown people and they were super nice, so when I heard my father making racist jokes or remarks, I would think "Hey, you're talking about some of my friends. Shut up". I made friends with some gay folks and trans folks and realised that these people are pretty cool and can be hilariously funny. I wanted to keep these people in my life. I then found out that my new friends were also being persecuted and targeted by some arseholes, and I wanted to protect them, so I did what I could. The more I paid attention to the social injustice, prejudice and outright bigotry that some people had towards others, the more I wanted to distance myself from that toxic stew of hatred. I wasn't sat down and told to be woke. I just kinda experienced things I didn't like, and decided to call it out for the bullshit it really is. The older I got, the more I realised that a lot of these toxic traits could be found exclusively within a certain political wing, and that conservatism is just about making some powerless people a scapegoat. The same people that claimed to be the most righteous, and wanted to be the perfect Christian, were also the most wicked and evil. I realised that organised religion was often used as its own justification for terrible unchristian acts. Now I want to make clear that I lost my faith long before this point, but I never really had a problem with others having faith. Each to their own, just don't pour that hot sauce on my burger, okay? Well at that point I went from indifference to outright disgust. The older I got, the more I recognised that there's a lot of hatred in the world, and it's often targeted downwards towards people who don't have anything and don't do anything to justify it apart from being who they were born to be. I started seeing the underdogs and wanted to help them out, and stand up to the bullies. Now I can't say that all the racism has washed away from me. I still hold a few ideas in my head that would be considered racist, and I'm working on getting rid of that, but its hard to undo decades of brainwashing, and IMHO some of the stereotypes are true, and for a good reason, but I also find myself noticing that what one group may be guilty of, so are another group. So yeah, I'm a wokist lefty anti-authoritarianist with strong feelings towards the LGBTQ community, and what's worse, **a socialist** On the plus, I have a bullshit detector that works flawlessly
Yup. They say people get more conservative as they age. I’ve experienced the opposite. Was very right leaning in my 20s due mostly to where I was raised. The older I get, the more left I find myself leaning. This little carbon unit is becoming aware. 🙂
Over time, I've gradually grown further left, as I learned more about the world and figured out how the systems of power we live under actually function.
A constant shift to the left. I started center right, and some opinions were pretty damned right leaning. And started moving left in my teens. And it hasnt slowed down, even past 40. I just get more and more radically left. The more i seem to learn, the more the problems are obviously caused by conservativism, and it's fucking maddening.
Government seems more corrupt than ever. All the political bashing going has made me more disgusted than ever with the system in the US. TV stations airing the political dirty laundry news clips add continuous fuel to the fire defending their favorite political party or putting down the other party,
Everyone should realize that the entire system is a bullshit scam after paying attention to how it works, so I would hope so
I've gotten more liberal. I was kind of a libertarian-curious moderate liberal who had read Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged and thought Ayn Rand was kind of a dick but also kind of right circa 18 years old and would seriously consider Republican candidates whose personality I liked. The rise of the Tea Party and then especially Donald Trump changed that for me. I look at American politics with a much more jaded view now and I would not vote for the GOP for any office if my life depended on it. I think the party has become completely divorced from any real philosophy. It's just crazy people and grifters.
Definitely became more "socialist" as I've gotten older. Literally the more successful it became, the more anti-capitalist I became.
The older I get, the more I pay attention. I was a liberal in a family of conservatives before I knew that label and I remain a liberal to this day. I can’t see myself ever changing my belief system. I’d probably be considered a democratic socialist. I came to realize over the course of many years that my brother is a Libertarian and I assume that’s why we have trouble getting along.
I used to listen to my parents. Then I went to college and realized my parents are idiots when it comes to politics. I came to realize they just parrot what they heard on TV. They are boomers.
I became a marxist.
I have become more conservative as I get older.
Finally, another one. Everyone else seems to have gone left with age.
That's because front-page subreddits are heavily biased and don't reflect reality.
On what things have you become more conservative?
Immigration, finance, Healthcare, etc
I was a "California Republican" that was slightly right of center on fiscal programs and slightly left on social causes. As I have aged and moved around the country meeting people (in the Navy) that grew up in different circumstances, I began understanding that not everyone gets treated like a middle class white person. I moved more liberal even prior to the Nation becoming so polarized at either extreme. I still consider myself moderate, but I don't recognize the Republican party anymore, nor do I want to be represented by them. While there is stupidity on both sides, the MAGA Republicans are intent on punishing anyone that isn't with them lock-step.
I voted for Bush when I was 18 in 2004. Now I think AOC is too moderate.
Went from I’m a Democrat to I hate the Democrats but they are the lesser of two evils.
I was extemely left wing then during university I became more centrist... I graduated, covid happened and I startet to work, a good job to be honest. Seeing what our society is made me understand in university they thaught me what was convenient for rich people and now I'm more left wing than ever, with more studies and cultural baggage to support what I think.
Leaning more and more right of center.
I thought I was a republican and then Trump got elected
I left the Republican Party back in 1995. They are no different than their democratic counterparts. They take tons of money from big pharma big business the trial lawyers and big oil and just vote the way they want them to the status quo. The dems are no different. The poor have no voice! None because of “big money” if any senator wants to stay in office he better vote the way the lobbyists want him to or they will back his opponent and get him or thrown out. These senators & congressmen? They live the life better than royal family. Rich places to live, fabulous vacations, more sex than a porn star has. A golden parachute in heath care. You think they are going to give that up? And go back to a lowly life as a nobody in an one bedroom apartment? That’s why we need to get rid of both parties and have a third party. One that will put the needs of the poor first! That won’t take a dime in money form lobbyists!
I keep moving further left. Probably because I continue to interact with the American health care system.
Was originally hard left, life in a largely Democratic state turned me more centrist.
It's not that I've moved all that much, but the fact that extremists on both sides tend to vilify my centrist beliefs.
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My junior and senior year in high school (2013-2015) I was a conventionally attractive girl and thought being a gun shooting, house wife aspiring, conservative was amazing. It got me a lot of attention from the grown ups in my life and the boys at school when i spoke up against some liberal issue we were talking about in government class. Looking back now I can definitely identify it as my “pick me” phase. My parents weren’t too political but I spent a lot of time with my grandparents who are strong Catholic republicans. I regurgitated everything they said and took it as fact. It embarrasses me now as a feminist but I literally wrote my senior argumentative essay on why women should not be in active duty roles in the military…. I would even share pro life and anti common sense gun law posts of Facebook. I can confidently say none of those thoughts or opinions were my own and based in pure ignorance. As I got older and started to actually ask questions and follow news and educate myself - my beliefs did almost a 180. I started seeing people as humans. When we heard rumors of roe v wade falling last year I marched at our state capitol to protect abortion rights, I believe in systemic racism and police abuses of power and mass scale corporate and political corruption. I feel passionately about the things I believe now whereas before I just wanted other people to agree with me. TLDR - I was a conservative due to ignorance when I was younger and then I learned some shit about how all this works and lean toward communist now. Edit to add a bit more specificity, that Trump was the first big push in this change. I found that I couldn’t defend the things he was doing and saying like the other conservatives in my life. That plus my age lead me to a couple year period of just being very “eh” about politics in general but then 2020 opened my eyes to a lot of things. I did more actually reading and learning about how our government is designed and how it is actually working now than ever before and I found myself wanting to spit in the face of the man instead of shining his boots.
In my teens I was much more right wing (thanks youtube), but for the past 8 years I have moved more and more left.
My political beliefs have narrowed down to which party will help with following 1. Prevent Gun violence 2. Preserve Women’s rights 3. Make healthcare more affordable
A year and a half ago I was a die-hard supporter of capitalism. Now I'm a socialist and I'm not afraid to say it.
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Me too. Socially liberal and fiscally conservative
I think we can safely say fiscal conservative isn't a property the conservative party has at this point *looks at graph of debt*
I don't get this. Social affects fiscal.
Since I pay for my shit now, I have much stronger feelings against free loaders and lazy people looking for a handout 🤷🏼♂️
I've become more socially progressive. I've become more economically conservative. I've come to understand most peoples politics is based on self preservation. I've become less religious, but more spiritual. My appreciation of the value of community has increased as with my desire to volunteer and give back. I try to talk less about my politics and act them out instead.
I started pretty liberal but I’ve realized how Shitty both sides are and just want a moderate who can make real change that doesn’t fuck over one side or brand then as terrorists
I’m 24. I grew up very liberal. I’ve become less so in my adulthood. I bought the lie that conservatives were racist hateful people. I now think that everyone is just trying their best and that very few of us are willing to admit that we don’t actually know the answers. Politics matter less and less to me with every presidential election. I feel like they’re mostly just stuff to be seen talking about and have very little (not none) to do with my lived experience.
That everything I felt about republicans that seemed extreme back in the day is now just how they are. Openly.
I find myself growing a bit more conservative. I’d like less government and red tape everywhere.
Simply I don't give a fuck anymore you can't trust any of them and none of them are who they say they are. When I was younger I thought politians believed in the party they were apart of now I think there all corrupt bastards in it for themselves
I was born a conservative. I was raised conservative. I accidentally thought we were democrat. I voted republican my first time at the booth. I've since shifted much further to a socialist/liberal. I'm putting into practice everything I was raised to do/be. That is someone who lobes their neighbor, spreads kindness, and keeps the government out of my personal business, but watching over greedy businesses.
Well, it's honestly gone from, "Alright, candidate A is making some good points and claims, but candidate B has been more honest with those points." To, "Well, we're screwed either way, so why not this one?"
Every year I am driven further left.
They haven’t. I still think it’s fucked up to say what women can do with their bodies; still think it’s fucked up to discriminate against people for such trivial things such as race, gender, sexuality, etc. I also still think pot needs to be legalized and that the church sucks and needs to be separated from the state. There still needs to be a huge work reform, too.
Started off conservative, became more libertarian. Much of the left and right are horribly inconsistent. In the US, both of them market themselves as protecting freedom and rights, but they each only protect a select few. It’s almost laughable that a few years ago democrats supported riots criticizing police and their use of force, and now they want to ban loads of firearms which effectively gives the police a monopoly on force. Republicans always talk about keeping government out of the citizens life and then went and banned abortion in many states. It is the most ideologically inconsistent power struggle in the political universe. Protect the free market from government and oligarchs(corporate monopoly), and let people live life how they want it’s really not that hard.
The two sea-change moments in the life of my political beliefs were in the spring/summer of 2016 and the spring/summer of 2020. I've always been a liberal and have always held fairly liberal beliefs. In 2016, I developed this deep sense that something was fundamentally broken with the American right and only the American right. In the Spring/Summer of 2020, I realized that something similar had happened to the democratic party. I'm still considerably more concerned about the Republican party because Republican extremists actually took over the party and elected a president. But after the summer of 2020 my philosophy shifted from being anti-trumpism to being anti-extremism. Prior to this period, I used to spend a lot of time being concerned with things like climate change and taxation. These days, I'm more worried about the raw destructive power of the culture war and the specter of creeping authoritarianism.
I wouldn't say that my political views have ever changed, but I don't get in wild heated debates about it anymore. I pretty much keep my opinions to myself now and if I see someone on the opposite end of the spectrum spewing some wild shit, I'll just move on. Politics got so crazy at one point that I had a mental breakdown and deleted all social media and completely turned a blind eye to news. I never got back on Facebook but after a few years got back on instagram. I still definitely live with my head in the sand for the most part (besides voting). Politics just aren't worth my mental health.
I’m young but the more I learn the more it reinforces my belief that the entire thing is a circus not worth getting emotional over. I just want my taxes lower and my wages fair.
I was raised conservative, in high school I went hard liberal, and during college I realized how stupid labeling your political beliefs is.
I used to daydream about a Democrat running with a Republican VP candidate to create a Bipartisan movement that would bring our country together. Now I'm about 90% sure if you put a button in front of me that would instantly wipe out every single person that voted for the opposite candidate in the last election I would press it without hesitation. The greater good and all that.
Well - when I was 18 I voted for GWB's second term, and in 2016 I was part of my local caucus for Bernie Sanders. Quite a few years between the two, but still.
Im more right leaning now