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Me in College: I identify as a Democrat, but I don’t think anyone has all the answers, and while I disagree with people on the right on a lot of things, I have to assume that I’ve got some blind spots, and surely if we all work together in good faith we can find a series of compromises that will make the world a better place over time!
Me Now: THE ONLY WAR THAT MATTERS IS CLASS WAR.
You in College:
You Now:
Became based 👍
Angry flower is the only reasonable response.
Same. Also, looking back, for the longest time I would give people the benefit of the doubt and ignore them telling me who they really were on the assumption that all people were generally good. Seems silly, now.
What they really mean is “I dont respect you and think you dont know what youre talking about because i think you lack ‘experience’, even though you have more knowledge than I ever will and understand the systems and history way better than I ever will - those schools are woke and you’re just brainwashed. One day you’ll get experience and think just like me, like an asshole”
No. What they mean is that they became selfish when they owned property or made a decent living and so they were certain that we would, too.
No. They were right wingers from the beginning, but they thought it was cool to say otherwise.
It’s difficult to become conservative when you don’t have anything.
The conservatives need me to be in fear that some other group is going to come and take all my stuff, the problem they have is that the very same conservatives ensured I never had any stuff to take.
Surely the smart thing for them to have done would be to ensure the world is just as prosperous for the next generation as it was for their generation. That way I would actually have something to fear being lost.
¿Por qué no las tres?
is it woke to have functioning brain 🤔
Well, your brain is delusional and only concerned with basic functions when you’re asleep so I’d say yes
Hinestly, my interpretstion was always more that you “became more conservative” because a normal functioning society became more progressive.
Like, and please do not read too much into this example, its just used as an exaggerated example.
At one point, society became more open to interacial couples, but some had trouble adjusting so they were the conservatives.
Then society became more accepting of gay people, and those same people who pushef interacial couples became the “new conservatives”.
Then society became more open to trans people, and some of those older gay people became the “new conservatives”.
And in theory, the older trans accepting peolple become the “new conservstives” because of some new fangles thing for the kids, AI partners maybe.
And then the AI partner people become the “nee conservatives” because their kids are all into scewing aliens or something.
And on and on and on.
I’m convinced that all the trans hate you see these days is because homosexuality is too widely accepted now so they had to move onto an easier target.
They are losing ground
That’s exactly it. They used to be able to openly discriminate against that people, but now they can’t. So they moved onto an easier target in trans people. When they discovered they could scare people with the idea of men playing women’s sports, they hit the bigot jackpot.
Thank you for posting that so I don’t have to!
Sorry boomer, but that ship sailed a long time ago. I can’t become conservative, because conservatism is dead. The people who call themselves “conservatives” these days are just fundamentalist liberals that want to openly hold hands with fascists.
It’s not just a US thing either, it appears to be an international problem. You have the AFD in Germany, you have Le Pen in France, Reform in the UK. Every single one of them is the same, they are not ideologically anything they just want power and they see this is the best way to get it.
There is a strong correlation between higher intelligence and liberal voting tendencies, and since it is difficult to fool more intelligent people the populists tend to go right. Also they’re much less likely to fact check you.
it appears to be an international problem.
I’d like to pick your brain here. I happen to agree, but I’m left wondering if there’s also a unifying underlying reason. Billionaire funding and interference? Foreign interference? Did we hit some kind of global limit or tipping point on resources that make fascism and extractive capitalism more attractive? All of that? Thanks.
but I’m left wondering if there’s also a unifying underlying reason.
Yes. It’s called liberalism.
It’s not just a US thing either, it appears to be an international problem.
It’s a fundamentally liberal thing. It’s no different here in South Africa - here is a Head Pig in South Africa manufacturing consent for using state violence against labour organising. That’s where I live, btw - it’s a reactionary time bomb waiting to go off.
they are not ideologically anything
That’s not true. When I used the term fundamentalist liberal I meant it - that’s what they are. They are not fascists - they wouldn’t know how to be fascists if they tried. Can you really imagine the likes of Trump or Clinton violently protecting their own ill-gotten private property? Of course not - that’s what the hencherproletariat is for. They are simply liberals that are doing openly what liberals have traditionally done covertly - funding, distilling and enabling those elements of the working class that is willing and able to violently repress the rest of the working class for the benefit of these liberal elites… ie, that which we today call fascism.
remember when conservative meant “let’s slow down change because societal upheaval bad”?
i like my little city. it’s beautiful. we just built homes for like 10,000 people in the last decade. anyone who wants to come and make a welcoming place for others (including folk not like you and folk you don’t like), come join us. i want to conserve that kind of way of life. conserve nature. i’d be okay with conservatives if that’s what it meant. but nooooooo these bastards.
It always meant “we like how things are, let’s not change anything” tbh. And “how things are” usually meant their favourite kind of people had more power than other people. Or at least it’s meant that for a few centuries.
It’s not even I slid to the left. I settled on most of my current viewpoint around university. At the time I was moderate left. Now, I’m a lot closer to extreme left, apparently. Despite my views not changing significantly.
There is research that says that it might be more generational than age. Like the people who were around for the new deal were more liberal (relatively for their time).
If that is correct Millenials will remain liberal and the next generations will shift back against their parents beliefs.
Isn’t Gen Z more conservative and gen A more liberal? Wonder what Gen B will be?
They are really split around gender lines apparently.
Younger women are now liberal while men are moving right.
Still I have not really seen anything lately about it. Maybe right leaning people are starting to shift after a year of getting what they asked for.
My Gen Z brother in-law is insufferable to listen to on anything political. He’s 25 and works as a waiter. In his words, he can’t find a good job because all the Indians and Mexicans are taking them.
But also money tends to make one more conservative, and age usually comes with more money.
Yes. Lol.
The scenery slid toward Epstein class corporatism.
Yeah I been more into conservation as I got older.
Oh you mean like gop?
Oh No, I dont have brain damage yet.
What I’ve interpreted from it is that people seem to say this with an extra layer unspoken. For most of recent history, as you got older, you tended to be more prosperous. Assets you could buy into accumulated substantial value, retirement came easy, and a family was relatively easier to support. Thing is, when they look to younger ages from this point, they’ve got more than the youth does, and without explaining what you’ve probably heard a hundred times, it makes 'em wanna hold onto what they’ve got.
In recent years though, that feeling seems to be largely subsiding. People feel they cannot obtain this relative prosperity at all, some feel the world’s been sold, and the infinite growth model of capitalism has fallen off, save for the very richest of the rich. I think this explains more or less why the approach of ‘getting more conservative as you age’ seems to be dying off, and it’s more of a product of a moment that’s in the past.
My view is that as Boomers accumulated wealth, the Neo Lib bullshit of starving the beast and lowering taxes endlessly becomes appealing. When you don’t have children in school and have enough money to cover medical bills, funding schools and hospitals does not matter to them anymore. They are the fuck you, I got mine generation. Motherfuckers are destroying the system that made them so prosperous.
Even that is a way over-applied stereotype. If you look at the results of the last few elections by age demographics, you’ll see that the difference between the percentage of boomers who voted conservative vs liberal is pretty small. Likewise the difference between the younger generations that voted liberal vs conservative. In fact, if I recall right, the percentage of the youngest voters who voted conservative actually grew between the last couple elections.
I’m a boomer, and the OP fits me. I’ve consistently voted more and more progressive as the conservatives have been more and more destructive. I go to protests, and I loudly advocate for progressive causes. The vast majority of my friends are the same way. We may not be the majority of our age group, but we’re a very large minority.
The idea that the future would necessarily be more prosperous than the past is a relatively new one. For the vast majority of human history the difference between year x and year x + 100 was barely noticeable. If you went back in time and picked someone up from the 15th century and dropped them in the 16th century I don’t think they’d really notice.
However if you pick someone up from the 2000s and dropped them in 2026 they definitely would have some questions.
Obviously everything is still advancing, but unlike before that advancement doesn’t seem to equate to a better quality of life, and greater prosperity anymore.
Back in the 1980’s I helped republicans with local elections. Then in the aughts I was very active in the Democratic Party. By 2018 I was firmly a progressive. I did not change my political beliefs from 1980s until 2025, when after that , I did actually slide left and become a communist.
It took me a while to see clarity
That’s because a lot of Boomers, not all of them, but a lot smelled some success from just the time they were born and have multiple millions in retirement funds. They became more conservative to protect what they had and figured everyone else did. Even by that logic you have to have SOMETHING to conserve and I sure as shit don’t. I’m in pie debt because my piece keeps being taken and then some.
every 👏 body 👏 clap 👏 your 👏 hands
👏 👏 👏 👏 👏 👏 👏 👏 👏 👏👏 👏 👏 👏
Charlie Brown!
Same. The older I get, the more I care about people having healthcare, housing, and basic dignity. Weird how that works.
There used to be a phrase “Everyone’s a democrat until it’s their money”. There’s also the phrase “Everyone’s a republican until it impacts them”.
a lot of people in my community (okay maybe five or ten that’s a lot to me), formerly conservative people, have downgraded me from friend to acquaintance because i pointed out how “it” (whatever it was. the issues i was most outspoken about were homelessness, healthcare, immigration, and gun violence1) impacted them. and they sat and festered with it.
1views evolve. i still think that a home with a gun is infinitely more dangerous than a home without a gun, but i think that a nation threatened by fascism is better protected by an armed citizenry than an unarmed citizenry. and you really want the antifascists to be the armed citizenry. if you’re gonna be drinking poison, choose the one that tastes like cinnamon.
There used to be a phrase “Everyone’s a democrat until it’s their money”.
Strange, how the number of Democrats seems to keep climbing as the tidal wave of inflation and debt drown people.
That said… now might be a good time to Read Settlers and consider how a colonial economic model naturally predisposes reactionary politics among agents of an imperial power. Because, extracting money from the natives is how Republican policies work. The only question is whether you’re on the outbound or inbound side of the pipe.
I’ve always been pretty lefty, but I’ve definitely become more “fuck capitalism” as I’ve gotten older. Can’t imagine why.
The conservatives had my whole life to prove their worth. They have reliably failed, only getting worse with time.
Maybe that was true in the past, but I also as an greeting older I see clear and clearer how conservatives are fucking everyone.
At this point I don’t see myself ever voting for Republican. It is not anymore about differences in government should be run it is that one side wants government to run whole other wants it accomplish and give all power to the Epstein class.
