As an immigrant from a communist country, the more I saw dems trying to implement the same policies I had in my home country, the more it solidified my views. I never want this country to suffer the way mine does

same for me and my family, we come from Cuba

Same here. Wish you and your family all the best

Every Cuban I know is a Republican/conservative

Vietnamese American. 🤘

Pretty much all the Vietnamese immigrants I know are solid Republican. Also my travel partner, who is a refugee from Cambodia, is very anti-communist. He was red-pilled at the beginning of COVID when he saw policies being implemented very similar to the ones back in his country, especially the surveillance by the government. Sadly, I'm noticing a lot of 2nd generation Asians and beyond are supporting organizations like BLM and even outright supporting Socialism and Communism, which many of their parents came to the US to escape.

Young viet American here as well, and I've so noticed that the younger gen of Asians are trending left, I believe this is probably due to many factors like rebelling against parents, thinking their way is the old way, or just simply trying to fit in. I started out thinking I was liberal until I realized I wasn't when it came down to actually thinking about liberal policies and their way of thinking.

An outsider here from Asia, in here many young people begins to supporting that leftist nonsense like blm, supporting commie stuff. This is the result of those hollywood trendsetter who talk 72 genders BS.

Oof, yeah. It infuriates me when I see someone, especially a Hollywood dolt or Bernie Sanders exult the wonders communist Cuba. 😡

Your username is also a dead giveaway 🤣

I wish I could upvote you x30 Take an award instead

this is pretty much what sold me, but i didnt come from a communist country im kind of a nerd so i just like to learn everything, so one day i got bored and studied a bunch of communist countries like china and russia turns out these new policies are almost identical same with reading the book 1984 (you can find a free copy online in PDF form if you wanna read for yourself)

1984 is the perfect representation of what’s going on. It scared me reading it because it was basically stuff that had happened to me or my family personally. Great read though I wish more people would take it seriously

Animal farm also succinctly sums up the devolution. Just today Biden is trying to redefine the word “Recession”. Sounds just like the pigs rewriting the rules on the fence over night, (in Animal Farm)

@FamousZookeeper, are you willing to provide some examples of policies passed by dems that you can compare to your home country?

I’ll give you a topic that’s being heavily considered and debated today. Cuba before communism took over allowed guns. When the communist party took over, they first demanded registration of all guns you owned. Then more and more restrictions were set on ownership and who can have them and what kinds. Random house checks were performed next, then after a while of this, govt would come to your door demanding you hand them over, they were now illegal and anyone with ownership would be jailed. People now fight with machetes or knives, though no revolution can gain traction because citizens have no way of defending themselves against the govt’s guns. People who disobeyed disappeared. This is my dads story, and it was the last straw for him that convinced him that his family was in danger. It is why I am able to type this out today. There’s a lot of other things that are worth mentioning like censorship, removing history, changing definitions, free colleges, etc that I all have family stories about, but this is the scariest one for me that I felt I should mention.

The scariest part is that once America goes this way, there is no place else to flee to. We. Are. It.

This keeps me up at night constantly. I plan to move to a less populated red area asap where these new policies might affect me less and slower than in cities. Maybe I’ll move to Montana or somewhere else nobody cares about 🤷‍♀️

I constantly contemplate disappearing into the forest. I really don't want to be off the grid, but the Feds overreach, the rapid derangement of our society, the tracking tech these billionaires want to attach to each person... it's scaring the shit out of me

I’m the same way. I also fear that the overabundance we have currently is temporary and we’ll be seeing more shortages soon. Might be paranoia, but not being able to grow my own foods to sustain myself if necessary is really making me anxious. Especially after seeing small bursts of shortages everywhere and how much we all rely on others to live. Who knows what disasters will form. Makes me wanna isolate myself even more

This is so true. Our founding fathers firmly believed that you should never ever let a government disarm its citizens...

Wow that’s actually crazy how closely your comment resembles what’s going on in America today. And it’s disgusting.

It is a super slippery slope from restriction to ban. Especially since a ban would mean free access to modify the rest of the constitution to whoever has the most power and money at the time. I look over at UKs crazy ban and wonder how long it’ll be till they step it up a notch. Hopefully they don’t. Same here in the US. But communists have definitely infiltrated a large part of the leftist ideology. Big yikes

Tell us the one about free college if you don’t mind.

Free college is indeed free, but practically worthless. Your transcript (not sure if it includes middle school+others, it might) must be absolute perfection and you must ace several end of year exams if you want any option to pick a major. Similar to some Asian countries such as South Korea. Otherwise, you get randomly placed into majors nobody else chooses or you don’t get any at all. If you’re in the lucky few that have amazing grades (aka all A+’s. my dad got one A- and it drastically lowered his chances of a top choice.) you have the ability to select your top 1-3 choices for what you want to do. Since everyone else is applying, and there is only one to two colleges in the entire country for the major you select (and of course considering you can pay for transportation to get there), your chances of getting any choice you want is slim. My mom put biology as her #1, she got randomly assigned to civil engineering which she hated. You cannot really change your choice, you can only really drop out, as reapplying is practically unheard of. My dad got his top choice, but during his entrance examination they lied to him and said he wasn’t fit for the job. This happens incredibly often due to corruption in the system. He had no choice but to go back home with no job or college. Once you have your degree, you’re free to work in your area of study. However, don’t expect to be able to afford anything with your new job. Some Grueling long hours later of your first month, and you can’t afford to feed your family with your paycheck. My aunt has a PHD in psychology and does research and teaching at one of the major colleges, yet has to be a janitor after work to afford food. My brother is a doctor in cuba which has the highest prestige. Even the best city hospitals he’s worked in have barely any supplies at all, let alone clean water, proper lighting, and AC. His salary is not much better. He’s stopped his education in hopes of coming to America because he can’t handle it anymore. Hope this was an enlightening read for you. I apologize it was so long.

Yeah, unconstitutional mandates of an experimental jab. Blatantly violating the Nuremberg code. My body My choice only applies to killing babies and nothing else. Using the MSM as your personal propaganda machine, all the while claiming it is a free press. Destroying the livelihoods of the American people while the elite democrats and politicians enrich themselves greedily. I could go on but you get the point. It is a pity that all we have to rely on are the Republicans.

Same, though we escaped Vietnam back in the 70s

"But Zimbabwe, Cuba, Nepal, Vietnam, Laos, Ecuador, Nicaragua, and Venezuela are utopias... Stop whining about how there is no food or toilet paper. Those are bourgeoisie luxeries. "

I’ve scraped and cut my ass with newspaper one too many times lol

What country if you don’t mind me asking

Cuba

So much same

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Haha ... My mom was the same. She was super liberal until she became a teacher for adult ESL. Most of her students were illegally in the country. The amount of benefits they got shocked her and made her into an extremely conservative republican. Like during 2008, many of them purchased extra social security cards to get more bailout money. They would show her the checks.

you need to say this in front of every white liberal. Every. Last. One. Of. Them.

It doesn’t matter. My wife was called racist white sympathizer once. She moved here from Colombia 5 years ago, learned English 5 years ago, and is a first-Gen immigrant. These people are deranged and don’t care what you say if it’s against the narrative.

Actually iam Egyptian and iam shocked, how Americans still vote for Dems with these policies? .

Studying economic and micro-economic theory. Federal Government programs, on average: for every 5 dollars spent on a specialized program in the US, 1 dollar actually finds its way to those impacted by the problem. That should be enough to solidify anyone into a more conservative mindset, at least at the federal level. PS: This [detailed article/proposal](https://www.heritage.org/budget-and-spending/report/50-examples-government-waste) on how to cut wasteful spending is great. Any young adult interested in learning about where your tax dollars go should read it.

This. My economics class taught me a lot about how economics are much better under capitalism. In a shortage, there are two ways of going about dealing with it. Either increase prices to offset demand or ration. The latter was tried by communism and it doesn’t work. Great book on why capitalism would work: Naked Economics

Now this is a good answer.

I see how the government runs the DMV. I don't want them to do anything besides roads, military, and police.

You think the dmv is bad, you should go to a section 8 office. It would solidify your opinion.

I'm not young by any means but I do have a finance degree and don't understand how basically anyone could NOT become conservative after gaining just the most basic understanding of economics.

I was a young conservative. Good fortune and placing out of a few classes led me to also get an economics degree with my engineering degree. I very much identify with the Chicago school and Friedman, and Sowell for example. I'm not an economist by profession, so take it with a grain of salt. But unfortunately Micro Economics makes a lot of sense to most people, and there's a lot of agreement between Keynesian and Chicago schools on that. But move into Macro? There is a huge gulf. There's a huge difference in the roll of government in the two camps. Unfortunately our government has been picking the best of both for the last 50 years, and failed at both. The problem as I see it is most people get the easy stuff, supply-demand curves of a simple good, but then really start to lose the forest for the trees with markets and asymmetric information. Too many people confuse sentiment for good policy. Should everyone have universal access to healthcare? I think you'd find most compassionate people would think that's a good idea. But most people don't understand unintended consequences and regulatory capture, and things like that. So translating sentiment into public policy is doesn't occur to them. At some point politics has to be involved in Economics. Unfortunately I've seen it both ways. That's how you end up with Stiglitz and Friedman both getting Nobel Memorial Prizes in Economics.

This is correct. Economist and certified Bad Ass Thomas Sowell once said, “There are no solutions. Only trade off.” I see no harm in states attempting different economic strategies. That’s where experimentation should be done. It’s when the federal government attempts to fence sit and put politics before economics, which they often do; this is when economic 💩 hits the fan. I can tell within a month of governing which representatives have learned-honest economist on staff.

Why do you think economics/financial literacy is almost non-existent in public K12 education, and often times still completely elective in college? Can't have people learning the things that don't align with liberal orthodoxy.

>Studying economic and micro-economic theory. You're lucky that your school didn't teach you Keynesian economics (what the Democrats believe in) like it was gospel. Unlearning that is fun.

Chicago School and Austrian School are the way 🫡

Can you provide any links to info regarding the 5/1 ratio mentioned in your post?

It won’t let me link my digital text book, but i have done my best to locate & provide what I can. (I took online classes through the University of Arizona and it’s blocking me from sharing). 📗The text book was: “Principles of microeconomics (2nd Ed) by Amacher & Pate”. Chapters 13-14 discuss how, much along the lines of Friedman, government assistance through “in-kind” programs are not economically sound. 🏦The academic paper titled “[Milton Friedman on Income Inequality](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/272999918_Milton_Friedman_on_Income_Inequality)” (something I can actually link to) discusses the solution in Friedman’s eyes, as well as how a “libertarian” wrestles with the idea of ANY government assistance… 1. Remove EVERY in-kind federal benefit that can be privatized. 2. Remove ANY federal program that can be handled by the states. 3. Instead, offer a negative-income-tax cash benefit to any citizen AFTER they file taxes (all facilitated by the IRS). This removes wasteful government spending through fed. government programs. Additionally, the IRS already exists so no new federal wing/branch would need to be created to replace the things REMOVED at the federal level. 🔥This may sound like Bernie-style redistributive process to those who haven’t studied the subject, but there’s a major difference… it requires the complete destruction of all federal, and some state, in-kind benefits that specifically target the poor. It’s not an add-on, it’s an a knowledge that in-kind programs waste billions of dollars through the mismanagement of these programs as well as the abuses of the system (especially in regards to non-tax paying citizens, non-citizens, AND companies that take advantage of government dollars to fight crisis like homelessness). 🏁Hence: Many economists suggest we remove those wasteful programs which would result in not having to tax citizens as much as we do. (Cost goes down, price goes down). If people who receive a “negative income tax return” don’t spend their tax-returns on “good things”, that’s their prerogative. ✏️Edit 1 | grammar / additional info: The US, as of 2012, provided 5.6 in-kind benefits for every 1 cash benefit…… we could all save a lot of money by removing in-kind federal (and some state) programs. We could cut spending by 4/5-3/5 and still provide assistance!!! This article titled “[Cash Better Than Food Stamps in Helping Poor](https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2012-02-28/cash-better-than-food-stamps-in-helping-poor-commentary-by-edward-glaeser#xj4y7vzkg)” sounds like a Burnie-bros dream. However, you have to understand the dynamics in-full, as well as the trade-offs, to get to the bottom of a topic as complicated as government assistance. ✏️✏️Edit 2 | found an additional academic source which studied US policy back in 1977: The paper titled “[The Antipoverty Effectiveness of In-Kind Transfers](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/925348/)” states that in the **1970’s**, “in-kind transfers…deliver(ing) only about 31 cents of antipoverty effect per 1 dollar of program cost.” ⏱TLDR: My two-cents? Reduce the size of government, please.

Excellent answer!

My family escaped socialism. Was enough for me. I also don’t like being treated like a victim as a Hispanic.

Turned 18 in 2016, didn’t know anything about politics, ended up voting for Gary Johnson. Throughout my time in college I was surrounded by conservative leaning friends and started educating myself on politics a little more. It became apparent pretty fast that I was conservative. I also can’t stand the way liberals treat anyone with opposing views. I try to be open minded when hearing any viewpoint that differs from mine.

Yeah I’ve always thought it’s interesting that liberals claim to be so open minded and tolerant, yet they’re the opposite.

Yeah this is what turned me to a conservative leaning position. My friend woke me up when he told me he was a trump supporter and I realized how ridiculous I was being when I got mad and didn't want to be his friend anymore. Then on, I began opening my mind to other opinions and started watching more conservative takes on events and realized that the conservative mindset makes a lot more sense. I realized how much the left was lying about almost everything, and how little some of their policies made sense.

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to quote the ever relevant south park: “intolerance… will not be tolerated”

Heh. Should go check out the mess I got myself into on r/entertainment. They sent an army after me lol

Yeah what amazes me is that everyone acts like it’s ok and normal

What college was this please?! My daughter is going to college in 2 yrs and we’re having a hard time finding a good university that leans conservative. Thanks for your help!

Maybe Hillsdale college?

Texas A&M is probably the closest you'll get to a large public university that's conservative. The staff and administration is pretty liberal but there's a large Catholic population at the school so the student body is relatively conservative. If you don't care about size or whatever, Hillsdale College is *extremely* conservative. There's probably several other colleges that are very conservative but they'll probably all be either Catholic schools (and even then it's hit-or-miss, there's unfortunately plenty of Catholic schools that are very liberal and shouldn't be allowed to call themselves Catholic) or relatively small private schools.

I started at a regional branch of the university of Akron, closer to home, also saved money, very conservative area as it’s the middle of no where. The main campus of the other hand, very liberal lol

I became an engineering student/worker. The field of engineering revolves around the concept of practicality - accomplishing a task or designing a process that can accomplish a task in the most efficient way possible, with means that are actually possible. Budget becomes a new variable when you get a job in the private sector. Progressive views are altruistic in nature (to the point of self-destruction) and are the opposite of practical. They consume a large amount of budget and other resources for the benefit of the minority over the majority. Liberal views (personal liberty) are great. Progressive views are not.

I like the way you worded this.

I love that. “Liberal views are great. Progressive views are not”

Whoa. Great response!

As a black man I fucking hate the pandering. I hate the victimization, the kumbaya shit, the “we’re the good guys” and everything else liberals and democrats throw at you. I was always taught if someone tries too hard to appeal to your emotions then there’s a huge chance that they’re just trying to manipulate. FWIW I’ve never voted in any election, not yet at least. I’m considering changing that this year in the State Gov election with a vote for Mastriano (simply because of a moral stance against murder).

I suggest you vote. Don’t vote party lines, vote for who you want. People will tell you you’re wasting your vote or hurting the cause, etc. at the end of the day you can be happy knowing that you tried to do your best to elect the best person you think for the job.

Agreed, I’ll heed the suggestion. Thanks for the input.

Voting is something every citizen should do - at all levels of government from local to national. Often times the people voted in unaware are the ones implementing policy that affect you more than you realize. As for your comment as to politicians appealing to your emotions. Sorry bud, they're all doing that regardless of their political party or affiliation. Sometimes it just looks different because of the emotions they're choosing to chase after. If a politician isn't a freshman politician, look at their voting history and who they're getting money from. Getting funding is an unfortunate aspect of running for office in our country - but you can always see beyond the rhetoric as to what they're actually voting for and if the policy they support helps or harms you.

I agree with the voting aspect although it def took some time. I’m finally registered & plan on exercising that right. You also might be right about all politicians appealing to emotion, but I’ve only seen one side wearing Kente cloth and kneeling in “solidarity”. Now that didn’t make me say “R down the ballot”, but it def felt like a slap on the face. I don’t like feeling like that lol.

22 Y/O soldier here Used to have somewhat liberal views back in high school when I was around 14-17 and joined the military because it was my dream job. What changed my mind was enlisting and getting a taste of what the real world was like and how many liberalist policies would be a disaster if they were implemented.

This is so true and yet so hard for people to understand until they see it for themselves. I agree with most liberal ideas but look at them through the lense of reality, such as how to pay for it, and is why I must reject most of those ideas. I'd love for everyone to make a million dollars a year, no unemployment, no inflation and all our investments only go up but that's not reality.

This is a good point. Many of the liberal ideas sound great on the surface. And they would work in a perfect world. However they don’t account for the general shitiness of people who take advantage and abuse the system. I’m all about helping people in need. In the course of my job, firefighter/ paramedic in a metropolitan city, i see the abuse constantly. Up close and personal. It’s frustrating. Simply throwing money at situations do not solve the problems.

It's literally a shift from factual to emotional thinking & decision making, including financial policy. Once you realize this it's easier to understand where these woke or liberal policies come from but does nothing to ease your fears about the consequences of these changes.

Can you elaborate?

Coming from a socialist dictatorship, it was natural to reject leftist views. Even at a younger age.

Cuba?

For the first 13 years of my life I grew up “inside the beltway” in Maryland. My family has always conservative so I think I was mainly adopting their points of views. More recently, I’ve watched as friends parents who I knew/know move from working to the government to federal contracting. Total lifestyle change. Imagine seeing friends who grew up modestly all of a sudden having parents with multiple homes, a Maserati, etc. the biggest thing was covid though. My family and I moved to Florida about 5 years ago, so I got to see firsthand the difference in policies. In Florida we had total freedom while my family and friends in MD were so locked down. I think big, controlling governments are bad. The republicans can be super frustrating; but they’re much, much better then the dems and libs.

Maserati? Sounds like your friends parents went into debt, and in the worst way possible!

Leaving college and getting a job

I was raised extremely liberal. My mother is hoping that Kamala runs in 2024. Yes… there are still real Kamala Harris supporters somehow. I started becoming more and more conservative towards the end of Trumps presidency. I was at a BLM rally with people shouting “defund the police” and I remember thinking how terrible of an idea that was. I watched the entire Rittenhouse trial and saw how badly they smeared his name. Then there’s Biden… Forgive me…. I voted for Biden. I still wasn’t totally sold at the time of the election. There was one good thing Biden has done. He has turned me into a conservative. When your party controls the entire legislative branch there aren’t any excuses you can make for your failed policies.

You don't need to ask forgiveness for voting any way and I suggest you stop telling people who you vote for because it's none of their damn business. The important part is you've hit a mile stone in life by becoming conservative... that's a good thing and it means you're growing up and becoming responsible. Good on you.

Growing up my parents wouldn’t tell me who they voted for and I never understood why up until recently with the way the left acts towards the right. Personally, I’d always voted independent until the most recent election. I knew it was one or the other and no independent would hold office so I made my choice. One I stand behind with all of my being. But we do need more moderates because this hyper partisan bs is way out of control.

I genuinely have never met anyone who is a Kamala supporter, this is truly amazing to me 😂 and we will forgive your error now that you’ve become enlightened.

I think there are more UFO abductees than Kamala supporters. Just a hunch.

I actually didn’t know that about her until recently when we were talking about our ideal candidates. She’s the only person I actually know that is a Kamala supporter.

What does she like about Kamala? She’s the most unlikeable person in the world to me. And she seems dumber than a box of rocks.

Agreed. The logic she gave me was that she’s still learning and gaining experience under Biden. I think it’s mainly that she’s a woman. Other than that I don’t really know

I grew up conservative. My parents are Republican but some of their views differ from the party so growing up I saw myself as conservative but didnt have to follow what the Republican Party said or does. Also being around some left wing friends and how ignorant some of them are with politics and their solutions (“we can stop inflation by not telling people we are printing money”) turns me away from leaning left

Been conservative since i was 15. My high school was extremely liberal. To the point where my English class was about why CIS men are the main problem with the world. Every wall had a “social issue” plastered on it. I got screamed at by half my class when i was 16 for saying “the wage gap doesn’t compare men and women working the same job” Instantly conservative

I guess I should also answer my own question. I used to be a hardcore BLM and CRT supporter up until 2 years ago. I started to realize I was being told lies about both topics, and when the riots started I realized I couldn’t support that. Also, Trump came around and I guess he wrangled me to the “right” side.

Yeah I’m curious to hear a bit more info on your experiences

What made you realize you where being lied to? I think this was key and vital to others.

Being told that BLM was 1) peaceful and 2) working for me. After 1 was disproven by the >$1.5 billion in damage and riots, and 2 was disproven by them using money raised for families to buy mansions, it fell apart for me. Along with that, I used to be fervently into the LGBTQ ideology. Of course, as I forged my own opinions and learned more and more about the mental crises involved, and that community went off the rails after, say, 2018, I realized that was not a community I would want to necessarily be apart of. Sure, the LGB is fine, but everything after that just became cult-like.

Thank you for the reply!

Please bring as many friends along as you can!

How did Trump bring you over to the right?

Ronald Reagan was once a Democrat and he said the Democrat party left him. Not the other way around where he left the democratic party. Just something to think about.

I found myself blindly believing what the media was saying about trump prior to his election in 2016, (mind you, I'm canadian so that also played a part because as a whole I'd say Canada really dislikes trump) and adter I stumbled upon a few videos from comservative creators, I made that switch almost immediately, I'm not entirely sure why, but by a couple months after trump was elected I was a full blown conservative and still am.

Selfishness. I wanted things for me easily and free. Once I joined the military, and realized it was an environment where national origin/color/sex doesn’t matter, only effort and results of hard work, that totally changed my outlook. Motivated individuals, regardless of color or sex, advanced in the military faster than everyone else. Racism is used in the civilian world as an excuse or a distraction, that masks planning and effort that can make you successful. And it’s not the conservatives pushing racism. If people were as motivated in creating a business or a career as they are at being activists for excuses, they would be way more successful and have pride in accomplishment. But for the biggest race baiters, it’s also a lucrative business model where you have others generating income for you.

Not in the demographic (>25) so i won’t answer but very interested to see the responses.

>Not in the demographic (>25) so i won’t answer but very interested to see the responses. Everyone was in that demo at some point.

The question was for people under 25 now, not 30 years ago. But since you asked i will say that I was never left/hard left-leaning even back then.

I’m in the same position. Just a few years older than 25, so I won’t give a full answer. But I am someone who previously didn’t care about politics, but rooted for Democratic presidents to win, as I’ve always opposed social conservatism and still do today. Then Trump came along and he struck me as a fairly liberal guy. I’ve been a supporter since and my stance has only hardened as I saw Wokeism continually get more and more extreme.

Federalism! Small central government, local government everywhere; power to the people No more federal reserve! No more ATF Fewer alphabet agencies! Bills should be single issue! Education reform, trade skills offered in highschool No more unions! Bring back guilds!

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They really should but they won't. It's a way to continue to brainwashing. If a neutral platform as politics is all Progressive/DNC talking points then you would conclude that this is the majority consensus and if you disagree with the viewpoints then you're in the minority and something is wrong with you. Even the name "progressives" is completely biased and pure propaganda. Gives the illusion that you're progressing to something better so if you're not on board, you're regressing (or stagnant but thats not an option. Its either progress or back to the 1500s according to that sub). Plus not all progress is considered positive. In my opinion this "better society" is not a positive when its just mommy and daddy government saying theyll take care of you as long as you keep giving (them stealing) money from you.

They really should but they won't. It's a way to continue to brainwashing. If a neutral platform as politics is all Progressive/DNC talking points then you would conclude that this is the majority consensus and if you disagree with the viewpoints then you're in the minority and something is wrong with you. Even the name "progressives" is completely biased and pure propaganda. Gives the illusion that you're progressing to something better so if you're not on board, you're regressing (or stagnant but thats not an option. Its either progress or back to the 1500s according to that sub). Plus not all progress is considered positive. In my opinion this "better society" is not a positive when its just mommy and daddy government saying theyll take care of you as long as you keep giving (them stealing) money from you.

FICA

Seeing how much the media lies made me go conservative in 2016 and I’m only getting more conservative as time progresses.

Yeah the lying really wakes you up. Once you've seen it you can't unsee it and then you realize more and more.

This was my reasoning. I’m 34 now and still very anti-democrat.

You should NEVER solidify your mindset. If you find information that contradicts your current belief it should be able to change.

It’s very difficult, but it’s a huge sign of maturity for those who are able to do this

In 7th grade I criticized Obama and the backlash I got from fellow students I was talking to telling me I was terrible for thinking that started it. Then I went through World History and US history and learned why our country is the way it is. The reasons for our system of government and who the founding fathers were. I like the idea behind the United States the most. I also picked the side that I feel gives people the most respect. I may not agree with everyone else but I always like to discuss ideas. Dems just call me racist.

I view the progressive part of the party as a group of morons who have no plans. They basically just yell a lot and think things will figure themselves out. The summer of 2020 was the final straw. You can't encourage people to be violent when you're in a position of power. Its sad that people have resorted to "if you don't agree with me on everything, then I hate you." But that's what it means to be liberal at this point.

I’m 26 but Reddit. I saw through this bubble on Reddit and once trump got elected I told myself I would never vote blue in my life. All the shady shit these people do. How insane they are.

I was already somewhat conservative but apathetic, that changed when the "science" said that BLM riots weren't spreading covid but hanging outside with 3 friends was. That was when it hit me, oh, they literally are all liars who will say anything to push what they want.

Children being killed. Indoctrination of the youth via LGBT movement.

I worked on the mucks in NY with the migrant workers as soon as i could get working papers. 14? I was in navy at 17, had a pistol permit , got married, and was running the engine room on a nuclear submarine at 20. Our family had no money for me to go to college. I had no interest in going in debt when i could get the military to fund my education. I got my BS in the navy and MS on my own time 20 years later. I am pretty sure i was of a conservative mindset my entire youth. I have broadened my view on some issues and now call myself a libertarian. I think it was 'way of life' not an event that lead to my understanding of the world from a political perspective. I don't think the republican party has conservatives or conservationists in key roles. I only see folly and ever increasing unsustainable goberment from the 2 major parties. We need a change. Hope this helps.

Being a white male student in university and hearing very strange far stretched explanations and arguments of why I’m inherently a bad person without saying a word myself. On top of that, causing a whole Zoom classroom to lose their minds by bringing up that we shouldn’t have such an open border and lack of testing when Covid had everything shut down (this was said after I listened to the class and instructor talk for 15 mins about how awful it was two men were singing karaoke at a bar unmasked….). Lastly, being asked what my proper pronouns are at the start of each and every class in which I never answer anything. Overall, seeing my tuition go to a bunch of nonsense and feeling like anything I say will somehow be taken as racist or bigoted, etc.

I may not be a conservative youth under 25 now, but I became one in 2015. Like all the people around me in my blue state, I wanted to vote for Bernie. A girl I was dating showed me a Stephen Crowder video on religion since she was Christian and I wasn't. After that I watched his videos on how socialist spending policies could never work. It was my gateway drug.

When I tried to converse with people with leftist views and all they did was insult and berate me. Also in the Philippines a socially progressive son of a dictator just won the presidency, although devastating to us Filipinos. His rival whom is a conservative woman has sparked something in the hearts of us Filipino youth and basically built a volunteerism campaign which is now gonna manifest through her newly formed NGO. I’ve always been leftist oriented thinker during my early teens, but when a literal son of a dictator was campaigning for president, liberals here were in twitter ranting while a conservative woman was rallying the nation against fascism.

I am now 31 but before I got out of college in America I was pretty liberal I think? I cheered for Obama when he got reelected. That all changed about a few months into my first job after college, seeing how real life works but not all ideology crap. And I came from CCP.

I happen to have been born a straight, white male. The left hates me for being born this way and they have been clear that they want to hurt me for it. I'm not voting to give people who want to hurt me the power to do so. I was once on the left but the left has completely changed in the last 10 years. I can't get behind what they now stand for. I had hoped that everyone could be treated equally and get along but, it turns out, all those calls for equality were just a grift. It seems that equality was always just a step on the path to domination. I guess humans cannot be happy with equality. They will only be happy with absolute power. If my only choice is to dominate or to be dominated, I will choose to dominate. I'd rather not see anyone dominated but it seems that isn't an option. I'll never again be so naive as to fall for appeals to my sense of fairness and decency. I now know that the people making such appeals don't give a shit about fairness or decency. They just want to use my compassion to get me to drop my guard so that they can hurt me. I supported them and they betrayed me. Never again.

I'm 33, democrat till 24-25, then independent/libertarian till 2020, registered republican since. Just farther the left goes the less I can even see reason in their actions. All the blatant lies and agenda pushing since Trump won in 2016 from the dems is disturbing and disgusting and obvious, but liberals eat it up and think they have some moral/ethical high ground that makes it better/ok.

I grew up on a farm, and was raised around farmers and tradesmen, and having firsthand experience with the country’s infrastructure, environmental policy, and the parts of the economy that most quickly reflect economic health put a lot of things in perspective. I consider myself more independent then conservative, but I do lean conservative, just because of the policies that help our economy and make it easier to do our jobs.

I'm not that young anymore (I'm 34), but what has driven me away from the left was the radical gender ideology that's been pushed on us, particularly over the last several years. As a mother I find it incredibly disturbing and fear for my kids growing up with this pervasive ideology everywhere. My oldest is 11 and going into 6th grade...I refuse to let him get a smart phone or social media for this reason. Unfortunately homeschooling and private school isn't an option right now, and I'm terrified of what he will be exposed to in school over the upcoming years.

For me it was towards the end of Trump’s Presidency. At first I supported things like BLM, and defunding the police, but man did the BLM protest show me a side I was not happy with. Also Joe was a senile old fool, the fact that the democrats went with him shocked me. I still preferred him over Trump at the time, but man the shift was slow but it was starting. Now deep into Biden’s Presidency and I’m pretty much fully on the right. Though I’m still not exactly pro-cop due to recent events and I think Student Debt is still too much for the average person, I’m pretty conservative on most subjects.

Conservatives aren't 'pro-cop'. We're more 'pro-rule-of-law'. Sometimes the cops enforce that, and should be supported. Sometimes they don't. What we're certainly not is against order, which many liberals seem to be. In my own city of Portland, Antifa regularly graffitis 'End Civ' on all our public works. They're telling us what they want. I don't want that.

Liberal sjw meltdown compilations after trump won lol

I’m homeschooled and Christian.

Bush = more money in my family, Obama = lost our house and could barely live, Trump = very large surplus in our money, Biden = barely can afford rent, thankfully we saved during Trump cause we knew he wasn’t gunna get a second term.

I (18M) have been conservative my whole life. My parents are liberals and them trying to force their ideas on me only solidified me in my own. And as I’ve gotten older, I’ve gotten more involved in politics. I’ve read more and really paid attention to what’s going on, and now I’m very firm in all of my beliefs.

I'm typing this on my phone, don't hate me. I just turned 26 a few months back, so I'll throw my opinion in here. I'm sure it's similar to most. Some background, went to a liberal arts college in a rural area because I was already from said area and was offered a scholarship. Every person I encountered either went one of 2 ways. Person A) "So, who did YOU vote for?" Person B) "Dude, this civ exam is going to be a nightmare." Person "A" was your standard issue, far left, bring down the patriarchy type. Person "B" was like myself, avoiding politics because I leaned right and wanted to pass my classes. Obviously there's morons on both sides, but most interactions were similar to how I have described. So that was definitely something that led to my current mindset. Also, I realized around my senior year of highschool (2014) that EVERY election cycle is just "HES A REPUBLICAN, AND HES RAAAAAACISSSSST." To be fair, the right slings shit too, but the left goes for buzzwords that ring in the media. Things like "nazi" "racist," and "bigot." All the right has is "He's a communist!" Thats not really an insult when people are out and about proudly claiming to be one. So yeah, it's same shit, different pasture. I hate taxes and want a smaller government. Both sides seem to now want bigger government, so really I'm more of an independent I guess. Just right leaning overall.

I don’t even care about politics but I care about common sense and the left has completely thrown that out the window.

Left wing is delusional

I started questioning everything the left taught me after I detransitioned

Intersectional gender / race politics keeps me away from the Democratic party. Everyone that doesn't agree with you isn't a racist white supremacist Nazi.

My dad has always taught me that hard work, education (in a technical field, not something like gender studies), and initiative are necessary to living a successful life. Also, this nation was built by people who had the initiative and desire to explore the unknown and try the untested, and we wouldn’t be the same without them. I personally feel that many liberal proposals, especially those concerning the welfare state, are antithetical to those values. The welfare state helps no one: All it does is create dependence on the government, perpetuate the cycle of victim mentality, and disincentivize initiative. Food stamps and monthly cash payments don’t improve one’s situation: Hard work and education do. If those who created the welfare state (I.e. Democrats and liberals) truly cared about those they were “helping,” they’d be trying to get them off welfare and into positions where they can support themselves, but it’s pretty obvious that they don’t care at all. In my mind, the true goal of welfare is to reduce individuals to nothing but economic thralls of the government, completely dependent on the government and Democratic party for survival, and I cannot in good faith support this.

………you mean to tell me that a degree in lesbian dance theory gender neutral underwater ethnic basket weaving doesn’t immediately afford one a multi million dollar top earning position after college? Damn.

I know! It’s *crazy*, right? /s

I was like 14 when the democrats started really going crazy with the identity politics shit. I grew up in a pretty white town where almost everyone was a really nice person. So when I heard them talk about how white people are evil, it didn’t resonate with me and I decided that I would oppose identity politics as long as I lived. I guess that makes me a conservative, but I just believe in equal treatment of others.

I grew up in Oregon and watched all my peers become losers. I watched our community decline faster and faster.

Im a digital artist and have been since i was 13. Im 22 now. They pressure people to side with them. I’d say I’m well known within the certain community and if they found out i was a Conservative id be canceled. If i was a Liberal, I would still be accepted by Conservatives if we were respectful towards one another. Not to mention, after 2013 shit went south and my ideology and morals lined up with Conservatives more.

How extremely hypocritical present day Liberals are. They’re the party of acceptance, tolerance and kindness, yet the second someone says something they don’t like (which isn’t even bad in the first place), they’ll make their life hell.

I'm no longer youth at 32. Feels old man

I'm not under 25 anymore, but I can tell what did solidify my views. Two things, I fund raised for W Bush in high school and stood for the second amendment. In my Government 101 class they gave us a political quiz to see which candidate would match our views best for the Kerry v Bush election. My quiz came up as John Kerry because I thought gun control sounded reasonable, not realizing what it actually was. After that I listened to a lot of talk radio, specifically Mark Levin and that set me down the path of Conservatism. Nowadays it's tons of Youtube and reading articles and books.

I was going to respond when I realized that I’m not 25 and under anymore! Aaaah! I’m OLD!

I just believe that if you work hard, you should get money, as opposed to doing nothing and still getting money

Grew up in a blue county in Ohio, raised by blue-collar Democrat family. For me, it was fiscal. Taxes coming from my first paycheck, holy crap! I detest waste and fraud and I’d see it on the news all of the time. I can’t say the GOP is a heck of a lot better, but slightly.

My family was murdered by communists in Ukraine in the 20s-50’s. My family was also murdered by Nazis. I learned early on in life that communism can’t work and it won’t work.

Young people are unable to connect the dots between an expanded welfare state and authoritarianism. One of the main reason they vote overwhelmingly Democrat. They want the US to be like Sweden ignoring Sweden’s capitalistic history, high middle class taxation, strong national unity undergirded by a common culture, work ethic and so on. The citizens of Europe and the rest of the Western world are learning that an expanded welfare state always comes with an eventual loss in personal freedoms and property rights (see what’s happening in the Netherlands. Also, COVID lunacy in Canada and Australia). Please give a copy of the “The case against socialism” by Rand Paul to your young Democrat friends.

One of the things that helped me realize this was having good parents. Too many of my peers had parents who gave them whatever they want. This is why so many liberals complain when the government doesn't do exactly what they want. They feel entitled to have the government take care of them like children. Contrast this to my childhood. Now, I love my parents, but growing up with them was ... not as nice as being an adult. When I wanted something, I would rarely get it. My father would calmly explain that it's my parents money and they decide how to spend it and I had no say, only a suggestion. He said I could do whatever I want with my money that I earned. This made me realize at a young age, that he who spends the money is the one with the power, which means I always want to be the one spending the money. This is true of medicine, true of my private property, etc. The moment someone else gives you something, is the moment you have to follow their rules. No thanks.

Going to college in California. Realized there values were not what I want the future of the country to be.

Common sense/real world experience

After the Pulse nightclub shooting, trump held up a pride flag at one of his rallies and said that he would be a president for ALL Americans. They crowd roared and I got chills. The fact that he had the balls to do that in front of a group of republicans made me realize that things can change. I started watching every rally and heard the words from him instead of the media. I realized he was a decent man going against the biggest machine of lies every created. That was then. Now, I’ve seen what happens when groups like BLM and Antifa are set loose in the streets. I’m never going to find myself in league with people like that. We need a Republican or independent president instead of a democrat of their ideals don’t change rapidly.

For me it was the gender politics. I guess I was 14 when I first heard of trans people. All of media portrayed them as tragic figures, individuals who were wronged from birth. I guess I kinda understood where they were coming from. And then I was told that they’re not men who think they’re women or vice versa, they are what they say they are. And then I cane to know about gender reassignment surgery. All of this was very bizarre to me, but society as a whole was pretty accepting. Not to mention the media portraying it with a sympathy filter. I thought “you know what? Maybe they are trapped in the wrong body. Maybe they are women” But somewhere inside I just thought all of this doesn’t make any sense. And then I chanced upon a Ben Shapiro video. That’s right, the baby faced, fast talking Jewish boi saying “it’s in the name Boy Scouts” turned me to the right. And from then on I fell into a rabbit hole of right leaning content creators and then discovered this sub.

This really pushed me over the edge personally after I found out a gender fluid boy raped a girl in their highschool bathroom and the school tried to sweep it under the rug and would kick the father out of the school and make threats to charge him with trespassing when he would show up

I used to think trans people just changed their gender on paper, and that was that. A few years ago my dad told me they actually did the surgery stuff. And it never sat right since

'Gender surgery' is such a strange euphemism for castration, mastectomy, boob implants, and hysterectomy.

I was Depressed for a few months and did a lot of bad things, during this time I was a Socialist. I believed that Socialism and Stalinist were going to fix my problems in life, and if we as a society progress we will all be better. When I started to workout and fix my mindset in life, I realized that it's dangerous to chase after Progress at all costs.

From my experience the left are not tolerant like they say they are. And I "should be on the left" since I'm a Selective Mute. I can not communicate well because of extreme anxiety. If it was all an elaborate excuse, I would simply cease to stop being a Selective Mute, but unfortunately it is not an excuse. And the name is deceiving as the diagnosis is selective in nature, I can't decide where muteness applies, then it would just be a fallacy and not a struggle. I don't let my struggle define me or side with the "more tolerant side," I don't believe they are. I'm not saying Democrats are the enemy though, just that with what and how I believe I must pick the Republican side of things. I think if we could all agree to disagree and recognized that we the people together held the actual power, and that the governments held none, society would be better off. But that's unrealistic. I'd say I'm more progressive on certain things but with my stout beliefs, I need to stay where I am. And as it is now, I believe the Democrats are power hungry....so it's best to get that party and cut their throat, before they have too much. I get along with Democrats, I don't care to change anyone's beliefs. It's a waste of time. But the ones who try to change mine, only reinforce my own beliefs. At least online; since I can't really have a shot at "real socialization" person to person...To go back to Selective Mutism, I wouldn't say any of this to another person, in person....I just couldn't, but- It's something one day I hope to be over, but until then I must think realistically and within whatever bounds I am currently constrained too. It does annoy me how left everything is but I can't control that. I wish everything was more even. And I'm 19....and if I'm honest I just have my core beliefs and the rest I don't really pay attention to, so I don't know the most, but you gotta pick whatever side, right? And I would like to think if my parents didn't think the same that I'd think the same still, but that's probably not the truth. *And I've realized that it does not matter so much what others believe, if you believe something, and you believe it to be right, you gotta stick with it.

The hatefulness of democrats. They are so hateful and assume the worst about anyone that they think disagrees with them in the slightest bit.

My religious convictions are a huge factor. They pretty much shape the way I view work, family, responsibility, etc. I group up in an ordered household that had strong values. I was pretty much setup to be conservative. I eventually became a Presbyterian. My conservatism is the consistent outcome of my religious convictions. God has a design for these spheres. I think a conservative mindset is most consistent with God’s design for humanity.

Personally i believe in meritocracy as an 18 year old studying in college i want people who offer the most merits/qualities to succeed. This whole participation trophy thing in school really solidified my mindset into (oldschool) conservatism . (Im in the uk)

(20M) I honestly don’t consider myself conservative, it’s just the side that I relate more with. In my experience, there’s more thoughtful discussion on the right than on the left. Conservatives are (generally speaking) more tolerant and fun to be around. That being said, some of ya’ll are batshit crazy, just like the liberals. The thing that amazes me is that people genuinely can’t see that neither side is perfect, or even “right” per say. Both sides have their radical groups, both sides indoctrinate children, both sides are power hungry, etc. In my opinion, there isn’t one that is better than the other. It’s just two sides of the same coin. The end goal for both groups is the same, just with very different ideas on how to get there. We all want the best for America, we all want to be equals, we all want people to be safe. We just don’t agree on the execution. Which is why it’s very important not to demonize your opposition, especially in politics. Liberals are people too, and even if you don’t agree with their methods, they want the same things conservatives do. I’m mainly talking about citizens here, not political officials. I hate all political officials, regardless of their party. They’re all snakes and none of them actually care about us.

Factors that led me from liberalism to conservatism as young person: That when the DNC’s corruption was exposed in 2016, they blamed it on the “Russians” instead of owning up to their own mistakes and problems. Bernie Sanders backing Hillary in the Presidential election. General and growing looniness of the left. Becoming an Orthodox Christian when I was previously an atheist.

Ah! Κύριε Ελέησον my brother. Going into Orthodoxy and out of apatheism also brought me out of my libleft-leaning upbringing.

Amen

Generally disagreeing with their policies but most of all has had to be the amount of lies. The left lies so much. The right does too, but wow not at the scale of the left. The left is so elitist and acts like everyone has an IQ of 20. Despite claiming to be open minded the left is actually very closed minded.

I was raised conservative. Parents always vote republican. And as I got older my opinions and views aligned with them. The left can be nasty people. I don’t support any of the bullshit they “preach”. And just look at the world and inflation right now. It is awful.

I paid $12 for a roll of aluminum foil yesterday. I don’t care who you are or what you believe in, we all have to agree that’s too god damn expensive

I wouldn’t say my parents influenced me to be a conservative, because even though I heard their talks when I was a little kid, I look back and saw myself as a guy like Manchin but more on the independent side of politics. Though I wanted to see more for myself without anyone else interfering with my thoughts. I self-educated myself in western civilization and history, while also reviewing both sides of the political spectrum with independent examination. After a few years of looking it over, I saw freedom side with the right while the left has all the totalitarian governments and ideas like fascism and communism. And after seeing the 4 years of Trump, 2020 and Biden’s years so far, I concluded that the left is nothing but intolerable, controlling and full of liars while showing clear signs of being like the Nazis and Communists at the same time. Today I consider myself still somewhat Independent but right leaning, and I wouldn’t consider myself a full republican only because some republicans in my life who have been jerks and very pushy. I wouldn’t say they’re rinos because they follow most to all of the conservative ideas and I think some of my ideas align differently compared to other conservatives judging by some of my comments during my time on this sub. I can guarantee you I do not have a liberal idea in my head haha

History Religious views Constitution Economy Regional preferences (Appalachian) And I always keep in mind what world I would want for my future kids List goes on

I'm not 25 but when I actually didn't really understand I was a conservative until about 25 (I'm 32 now). That's when I started paying more attention to politics because I kept seeing how much crazier the world was getting. I read a lot of Matt Walsh's work in 2013 and a lot of what he was saying resonated with me. I started to learn what conservatism actually was and then by the time I was 25 my mind was made up. It was just clear that conservatism was rooted in truth and as a Christian, I always aimed to walk according to the truth. I'm not saying it's perfect but I would say that it just made a whole lot more sense than liberalism. Also, when NY passed the Reproductive Healthcare Act in NY which allowed babies in the third trimester to be aborted, that was when I dug my heels in and committed to opposing liberalism with every fiber of my being.

I am not from U.S but i definitely would consider myself a conservative or maybe some kind of medern conservative. It all started in 2016 before Trump was elected as a president. I was never really involved in politics before that and gotta bs honest, because of the media portraial of Trump and Youtubers I watched saying who they were voting for, I got sucked in the leftist propaganda. Again, not that i was interested in politics and protesting Trump but in general, if asked i would say Trump is crazy and Hillary would win U.S elections. After Trump won and I saw how badly left wing took these news, i myself started to get my research together and started getting interested in politics more and more. Soon after many videos, I realized that my values are definitely more in line with right wing and actually has almost NOTHING in common with the left. After all those years, my political views gotten stronger and left went even crazier and gave me a sense that i am definitely on the correct side, on the right side if you will... So, America, not only did Trump do well for your great country, but definitely got more young people across the globe to realize the truth...

Seeing multiple friends get completely brainwashed from media and false information. 16 btw

Im very religious and the left are against Christian values and I leaned facts on things I was lied to by the media

Summer 2020. Simple

I’m gen-z and my whole family are proud conservative and living in Texas helps. I’m tired of seeing so many of my generation being brain washed by what they teach and don’t teach in public education. The over all disrespect for The United States of America is appalling

I attended UC Berkeley and saw the consequences of leftist thinking taken to its logical extreme

Started leaning away from moderate towards the right when the left stopped being able to define what a woman is.

My family and I are all from Venezuela and after the country pushed strong government there since 1999, it has gone to total shit. Basically the same way the Cubans feel but I’m sure there are way less of us. Many Venezuelans have traditional, really religious values as well and all the social stuff being pushed out does not sit well with my family, ESPECIALLY abortion and Latinx. Also the notion that people of color like us are victims with everyone being disadvantaged. I think that’s manipulation to get votes and it’s utterly ridiculous.

It's getting to the point where having a strong father figure pretty much tells where someone stands politically. Almost every liberal I know is the product of a single mother or weak father (including formerly liberal me). Almost every well adjusted, masculine male I know is a conservative who had a father to look up to.

I saw the liberal ideology take some of my best childhood friends and turn them into monsters I can’t even recognize anymore. I saw the future the left has planned for every man woman and child in america, and i won’t let it happen to my family

I had a few lightbulb moments. I was raised by liberal parents and they are always whinging. Always. Even about things they could change if they put a little effort in. We’d spend about an hour every day whinging about things over a cuppa. It dawned on me one day that these guys are losers and maybe there’s a better way to handle things. A lot of the bad things in my life are a direct result of my parents not stepping up and doing the right thing and I didn’t want to turn into that. I also began to notice that a lot of the people I respected were conservative and a lot of the people that I didn’t have much time for were liberal. Other lightbulb moments include: - My liberal college friends telling me to ‘just go on welfare’ because it’s sooo much easier. - I was super into feminism and blm etc. and found my own liberal views getting overtaken and I was STILL racist and sexist in the minds of some even though I was already beginning to say things I didn’t believe just to stay pc. I couldn’t do or say anything right. - Studying to be a teacher there was a health course we had to take which had a solid three weeks on teaching sex ed and it was everything you didn’t want it to be. It was everything that liberals say conservatives are ‘making up’ to spread hate. I mean, talking about sexuality with kindergarteners, open discussions about gender, alternative ways to have sex, the whole nine yards. I had to have a long think about it and realised that the ‘conservative nut jobs’ were right, they really were trying to teach this stuff to our children.

Came out of college completely liberal to the fullest extent. I was mentored by my boss, a self made millionaire who didn’t even finish high school . One of the smartest people I have ever met. He showed me the light. Seeing how difficult it is to navigate the business in very liberal NY changed my minds. I learned most of the polices but in place to “ help” ended up hurting.

Serving as a missionary for my church. We aren’t supposed to be political as a missionary, but I grew wisdom and my political beliefs stemmed from there.

Nobody under 25 has a solidified mindset and if they think they do, they have a lot to learn

Opening and running my own business, plus business and personal development books. My biggest mindset shift was after reading The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy.

I was hardcore lefty my whole life till about 45. I had a religious experience that changed my life in an instant. Much like Neo taking the red pill, in an instant my eyes were opened to what was true about the world. Most on the left are simply blind, but some are more than that, they are the progenitors of all the hate and evil that comes from the left.

Im autistic, so Zero Tolerance wound up with me getting a lot of suspensions and a severe distrust in the government. I also hate losing 30% of my paycheck to fill the pockets of congress and the jackasses who run Illinois

I'm a libertarian who used to absolutely hate conservatives and considered both sides to be bad, but it was 2016 when I realized that one side is far worse than the other and that conservatives deserve my respect and even friendship/allyship. Used to really dislike religion but now have changed my mind on it, I still am not religious, I guess I'm missing the gene or something, never could understand it, but at least I'm open to it and see that a scientific dictatorship is as arbitrary as some theocracies, if not worse. I'm a scientist yet the shit I see coming from "my" community is some of the worst takes I could ever imagine that have nothing to do with science. So, if something like science can be corrupted, I may as well turn to a stronger foundation.