When did you change your mind? (and why?)

[Arthenius]

I used to be pro free speech. I used to believe that things including harassment should not be illegal because harassment being illegal goes against the principle of freedom of speech. This all changed when I was debating with someone about a topic that had to do with freedom of speech and realized they were right. I view freedom of speech as freedom of all speech, including things like harassment. If I do not support that harassment should be legal then I can not view myself as someone who views free speech. It is called freedom of speech, not freedom of some speech.

What concepts do you actually consider to be "harassment" in this context?

[Arthenius]

I'm noticing a trend here with my addition. I was never even remotely interested in politics until 2016 because for the first time in a long time I turned on the news and saw my worst nightmares come to fruition. I saw the beginnings of a world on the verge of completely tearing itself apart. What made it worse is that I understood how exactly it wasn't even just the politics itself, it was people peddling toxic news agendas for profit and others listening to it joining in because of how group mentality works. Find a group, become one of many, become anonymous as a result, and as a bonus have a chance to socialize. I became invested because I was scared of what I had seen. I saw people beginning to constantly riot and hurt each other for no logical reason. Others perverting wonderful and much needed social movements of all ages with hate, ignorance, and hypocrisy all while ignoring the lessons of the present and even the past. Some of it can be reasonably explained, either with mob mentality again or the Blowback/Backfire Effect but the rest? I don't know. It just leaves me feeling empty and depressed though because I see something I predicted would happen when I'm older as a child but always expected it to be when I was too physically old to do anything to fix it. Despite not knowing what I want to choose as a career path, all my life I've dedicated my finite time to wanting to help the world and I'm powerless to stop the train wreck that will be the doom of us all. I don't know how to make things or be an engineer, I doubt my skills in math constantly, I can't seem to come up with big ideas anymore, I'm just.... here. And I have the resources and can't come up with a way to help.

That's the worst thing, being powerless to change something that you dread. Most people either have the idea of what they can do and they can't do it, or they can do something but don't know what to do. They're both incredibly frustrating and depressing. What you could do is find someone who can do something.

The system of "change" is pretty much broken and democracy is heading toward imploding on itself. I discussed in one of my other own recent threads. Sometimes I wonder what makes the point of believing one philosophy or group of ideals when you can't really change anything about it that much.

[Emulation White]

Never really subscribed or affiliated to any specific politics in general. I was more content just to learn about the different theories rather than become passionate about what seems quintessentially ephemeral. Juxtaposed to this; tribalism is my soul and has been since I was a child. Ideas come and go like the tide, but flesh and blood is cradle to the grave.

[Arthenius]

I dunno. I can't really pin point it to one thing. I guess just reading more conservative philosophy and interacting with people more changed my views. My views regarding abortion funnily enough didn't actually begin with my new found religious beliefs, but while I was still an atheist.

I might be somewhat opposite of you. I grew up raised in a form of Christianity, actively loved it for a while and most of my family was anti-abortion as was I. I left Christianity but I still consider my views anti-abortion.

[Geneviev]

That's the worst thing, being powerless to change something that you dread. Most people either have the idea of what they can do and they can't do it, or they can do something but don't know what to do. They're both incredibly frustrating and depressing. What you could do is find someone who can do something.

The system of "change" is pretty much broken and democracy is heading toward imploding on itself. I discussed in one of my other own recent threads. Sometimes I wonder what makes the point of believing one philosophy or group of ideals when you can't really change anything about it that much.

You might as well try to save the world. If you fail, at least you tried, and that has to count for something. And if trying means believing something, then that's good too.

[Arthenius]

I used to be much more right-wing when I was in my early teens.

During Obama's second term, my right-wing Facebook friends and Facebook groups started posting ridiculous crap and conspiracy theories (think Infowars and Breitbart). Stuff like "it is no longer safe to be a straight white conservative Christian in the United States" and "liberals worship the devil" was pretty common. Initially I believed them. At one point I even worried that my family would be hauled off to a FEMA camp. It's embarrassing to think that I was so naive at one point in life.

Then I began to think: if it really is so dangerous to be a straight white conservative Christian in the United States, then why has nothing happened to me yet? Why has nothing happened to any of my family or friends? Where is the evidence that anything like FEMA camps exist? I also began to interact with people who did not share the same political views that I did and began to realize that a lot of what I had been told about liberals was wrong.

After that, I started leaving Facebook groups and dropping friends. I eventually quit Facebook altogether and deleted my profile (really would not want anyone discovering my old profile and thinking I still acted that way).

Now, I identify as centrist. No, I am not an "enlightened centrist." I just identify as such because I agree with the right on some things and the left on other things but I don't agree with enough stuff on either side to really identify with one or the other.

So I guess you were right-wing and believed most to the left was baby-killing and the real racists; and then you became left-wing/centrist and now believe most to the right are racist, homophobic bigots?

[Sundiata]

I did not always lead a faithful life.

What made me become a Catholic was reading the gospel of Christ, the early church fathers, as well as much of the scholastic Christian tradition. I have done and said many things I regret. I regularly pray for God's help and forgiveness, especially to make up for all of the years that I ignored him.

[Kombinita Socialisma Demokratio]

Deciding to go against the largest rule I was ever taught (to never get the another side's explanation of what they believe and why) caused me to think about morality and its relation to politics, and soon I became a weird mix of sides so that I fully agree with practically no one. In case you are wondering, no, I do not align with that particular person's viewpoint much more than my original viewpoint.

I still have no clue why I decided to listen to an explanation. If one is so certain that any exposure to other views will break their own belief system, then why do they still trust such a fragile belief system?

[Grahnol]

I used to be neoliberal back in 2015 and before. I never described myself as such but I was pretty much that. I used to be an incredibly strong supporter of globalisation in general but especially economic globalisation, I didn't see any problems in increasing economic cooperation and expanding free trade and I was also incredibly against protectionism because I believed that protectionism is a backwards move in modern global trade. I was also in favour of increasing privatisation, I still kind of am today but even more so back in 2015. To me, loosening state control over utilities and markets was a great move, I thought governments shouldn't be taking as much in business as much as they do. I thought that if the government was more willing to give away things it controlled to companies and didn't put their noses in that as much as they do, there would be far more economic mobility and would lead to a much more prosperous world. As you can imagine, I was really into the deregulating thing, I still kind of lean a bit more on deregulation but that's a mere husk of what I used to be.

Socially, it's what you imagine from a typical liberal, wanting to promote the undeniable rights and freedoms. I thought a lot about people being denied rights and freedoms back then and it disgusted me, the very thought of people not being able to do what they could do was tragic. I still adhere to that to this day but my sheen and thinking in terms of human rights back then was pretty different than it is today. I was thinking more about how certain people were being denied freedoms and how immoral that was and that they should get it back. Nowadays I think more about securing the rights of everyone and giving liberties to people who are unfairly being denied them. I was also a rather staunch supporter of globalising countries and people, integrating and making them cooperate more and more because I thought that was the definite road to an ideal future. I had a cosmopolitan sheen on top of that as well as a somewhat cosmopolitan worldview.

My views started to shift I believe in 2016 or something? I think it was around that time I started becoming critical of many of my views. I always thought that if a company got too far, people would protest and they would eventually change, but increasingly I started thinking that many big companies unless faced with direct action, might not change at all. I was and still am big on protecting the privacy of citizens and seeing these companies completely ignore this inherent right of humans in favour of profits really struck me. It was clear that I needed to become harder on my view of regulations. I support some regulations at the time but I was always fluid in what kind of regulations there should be, I wasn't as hard as I am now. As I saw how increasingly unfair and abusive many big businesses became, I had a change of heart; they should be something done about them, I thought, and if they refuse to comply, the government should intervene to ensure justice in these companies. Of course, we all know that governments hate privacy too but that's beside the point. Many of my current economic views starting developing at this time, I was thinking that governments should be able to take action against companies if they dare break rule of law and violate civil liberties, an idea I still hold to this day.

It was also around this time I started hearing more.....ah, as I would call them, 'misguided social justice' views. You know, stuff like limiting free speech supposedly to prevent the spread of 'hateful' ideas, collectivist views of identities, etc. Perhaps in reaction to the dissatisfaction I had with various right-wing politicians at the time, I started becoming more attracted to them. But they always felt wrong, foolish even so I started drifting away from 'misguided social justice' beliefs but I still kept some. But even then they always felt wrong and I knew they were flawed and I had to fix them. The answer came in time for me; I had to change them radically, I had to drift away completely from these views, free speech is free speech and identities shouldn't be the basis of thinking of someone, so after my drift to so-called 'SJW' views I violently dropped them which would lead to the shift to my current views today.

I only became critical of my opposition to protectionism in 2017 I believe. My basis for being opposed to protectionism in favour of increasing free trade and reduced trade tariffs is that countries to build up their economic output together and contribute collectively to the well-being of society. In 2017 though, I started disagreeing with something about that, in particular, would such countries party to free trade agreements agree to be fair to the other parties? What would they fund their extra output on? What would they utilise this reduced protectionism for? Are they going to fund it to interests that would ultimately benefit no one but an elite of people? Would they use this extra prosperity solely for their own government and use it to grip their own populous down whilst leveraging their own global power? It became clear to me that countries should be more critical about trading with others and fully consider all the facts about the country and their motives as well. One of the major things that drove me away from an increased globalised economy is China. I already hated what they were doing in Africa and other countries, but I still had high hopes for Chinese prosperity benefiting the entire world, I was naive about the truth about this Chinese prosperity and what they would be doing for it and what the result of it. I became critical of China after knowing how this Chinese prosperity and growth worked and it concerned me. I won't get into it in this thread but simply put, it was unfair and unethical.

I've shifted from being a neoliberal to what I would consider being a bit more of a traditional liberal, but I still don't know what kind of liberalism I would fit into. I have conservative elements but I hesitate to call myself a conservative-liberal. I just call myself a liberal, well not an American one but you get it. I didn't even pick up the title f 'liberal' until this year of 2019 alone, because of the connotations of the word and the feeling I wouldn't really be a liberal, but hey, I guess I am now.

The political situation in the country is definitely another factor. Before 2015, the Labour Party was nowhere near as radical as it is today. Before 2017, the Tory Party was led by someone I could never support. I quickly learned to hate Corbynism, and I learned to like Mayism. That political conversion changed the perspectives I was listening to. Driven from one camp and into the arms of another, I definitely think I listen to a lot more centre right thought now that the centre left in my country has yielded largely to the far left. That change, however, isn't a consequence purely of that which has changed, as much as that which hasn't. My ideals on the constitution, political society and public decency undoubted contributed to my post-2015 estrangement from the Labour Party.

I actually used to be quite content with the Tories until about 2017 or so. I viewed them as the sane, reasonable and modernised party that will lead to a great future. Since then I have grown increasingly critical about the Tories after some unfavourable circumstances happened to them that made me dislike them. Perhaps in accordance with my shifting politics, the Tories became increasingly unattractive to me and I've long sailed ship for other parties. LibDems looks interesting but I don't know much about them yet. I'm definitely not going for Labour because of how radical and incompatible they are with my views and ideas.

[Kasa Tkoth Sphere]

My earliest coherent political stance fell in the American center bracket; I remember liking both Democratic and Republican candidates as early as grade school, and I was sort of trying to develop a rough idea of "pragmatic politics" at the time - "hey, everyone, why don't we all just talk things out?", that sort of stuff. I was drifting away from Christianity and into atheism at the time, but I still held onto a very innate-morals view of society. Abstraction of political ideas worried me, the thought that humanity wasn't special terrified me, and into high school my preferred view of the world was really object level.

After learning more about racism, homophobia, economic inequality, and the hallmarks of what I was told was the new right, I moved left, at first favoring the Democratic party and then slamming the accelerator into full democratic socialism once I realized both American parties were basically saying the same thing about themselves and each other.

Then, I guess, I figured out that my personal views of the world had shifted, and I aligned with the "rationalist" movement pushed by groups and blogs like Less Wrong and Slate Star Codex (the latter of which I still enjoy). Already I'm veering away again due to the hateful behavior inherent to a lot of these communities, leaving me as something of an independent rationalist still trying to figure out something to grab onto for meaning.

I think my level of optimism about the world has risen over time, though. I used to be absolutely terrified just about the environment - not to mention the deterioration of politics over time - but I've become a transhumanist/singularitarian (though I'm rapidly dipping back down out of the latter, since so much of the AI hype is bullshit) and an aspiring effective altruist thanks to the knowledge that individual efforts, if aimed correctly, can do astronomical amounts of good.

[Arthenius]

I used to be neoliberal back in 2015 and before. I never described myself as such but I was pretty much that. I used to be an incredibly strong supporter of globalisation in general but especially economic globalisation, I didn't see any problems in increasing economic cooperation and expanding free trade and I was also incredibly against protectionism because I believed that protectionism is a backwards move in modern global trade. I was also in favour of increasing privatisation, I still kind of am today but even more so back in 2015. To me, loosening state control over utilities and markets was a great move, I thought governments shouldn't be taking as much in business as much as they do. I thought that if the government was more willing to give away things it controlled to companies and didn't put their noses in that as much as they do, there would be far more economic mobility and would lead to a much more prosperous world. As you can imagine, I was really into the deregulating thing, I still kind of lean a bit more on deregulation but that's a mere husk of what I used to be.

Socially, it's what you imagine from a typical liberal, wanting to promote the undeniable rights and freedoms. I thought a lot about people being denied rights and freedoms back then and it disgusted me, the very thought of people not being able to do what they could do was tragic. I still adhere to that to this day but my sheen and thinking in terms of human rights back then was pretty different than it is today. I was thinking more about how certain people were being denied freedoms and how immoral that was and that they should get it back. Nowadays I think more about securing the rights of everyone and giving liberties to people who are unfairly being denied them. I was also a rather staunch supporter of globalising countries and people, integrating and making them cooperate more and more because I thought that was the definite road to an ideal future. I had a cosmopolitan sheen on top of that as well as a somewhat cosmopolitan worldview.

My views started to shift I believe in 2016 or something? I think it was around that time I started becoming critical of many of my views. I always thought that if a company got too far, people would protest and they would eventually change, but increasingly I started thinking that many big companies unless faced with direct action, might not change at all. I was and still am big on protecting the privacy of citizens and seeing these companies completely ignore this inherent right of humans in favour of profits really struck me. It was clear that I needed to become harder on my view of regulations. I support some regulations at the time but I was always fluid in what kind of regulations there should be, I wasn't as hard as I am now. As I saw how increasingly unfair and abusive many big businesses became, I had a change of heart; they should be something done about them, I thought, and if they refuse to comply, the government should intervene to ensure justice in these companies. Of course, we all know that governments hate privacy too but that's beside the point. Many of my current economic views starting developing at this time, I was thinking that governments should be able to take action against companies if they dare break rule of law and violate civil liberties, an idea I still hold to this day.

It was also around this time I started hearing more.....ah, as I would call them, 'misguided social justice' views. You know, stuff like limiting free speech supposedly to prevent the spread of 'hateful' ideas, collectivist views of identities, etc. Perhaps in reaction to the dissatisfaction I had with various right-wing politicians at the time, I started becoming more attracted to them. But they always felt wrong, foolish even so I started drifting away from 'misguided social justice' beliefs but I still kept some. But even then they always felt wrong and I knew they were flawed and I had to fix them. The answer came in time for me; I had to change them radically, I had to drift away completely from these views, free speech is free speech and identities shouldn't be the basis of thinking of someone, so after my drift to so-called 'SJW' views I violently dropped them which would lead to the shift to my current views today.

I only became critical of my opposition to protectionism in 2017 I believe. My basis for being opposed to protectionism in favour of increasing free trade and reduced trade tariffs is that countries to build up their economic output together and contribute collectively to the well-being of society. In 2017 though, I started disagreeing with something about that, in particular, would such countries party to free trade agreements agree to be fair to the other parties? What would they fund their extra output on? What would they utilise this reduced protectionism for? Are they going to fund it to interests that would ultimately benefit no one but an elite of people? Would they use this extra prosperity solely for their own government and use it to grip their own populous down whilst leveraging their own global power? It became clear to me that countries should be more critical about trading with others and fully consider all the facts about the country and their motives as well. One of the major things that drove me away from an increased globalised economy is China. I already hated what they were doing in Africa and other countries, but I still had high hopes for Chinese prosperity benefiting the entire world, I was naive about the truth about this Chinese prosperity and what they would be doing for it and what the result of it. I became critical of China after knowing how this Chinese prosperity and growth worked and it concerned me. I won't get into it in this thread but simply put, it was unfair and unethical.

I've shifted from being a neoliberal to what I would consider being a bit more of a traditional liberal, but I still don't know what kind of liberalism I would fit into. I have conservative elements but I hesitate to call myself a conservative-liberal. I just call myself a liberal, well not an American one but you get it. I didn't even pick up the title f 'liberal' until this year of 2019 alone, because of the connotations of the word and the feeling I wouldn't really be a liberal, but hey, I guess I am now.

The political situation in the country is definitely another factor. Before 2015, the Labour Party was nowhere near as radical as it is today. Before 2017, the Tory Party was led by someone I could never support. I quickly learned to hate Corbynism, and I learned to like Mayism. That political conversion changed the perspectives I was listening to. Driven from one camp and into the arms of another, I definitely think I listen to a lot more centre right thought now that the centre left in my country has yielded largely to the far left. That change, however, isn't a consequence purely of that which has changed, as much as that which hasn't. My ideals on the constitution, political society and public decency undoubted contributed to my post-2015 estrangement from the Labour Party.

I actually used to be quite content with the Tories until about 2017 or so. I viewed them as the sane, reasonable and modernised party that will lead to a great future. Since then I have grown increasingly critical about the Tories after some unfavourable circumstances happened to them that made me dislike them. Perhaps in accordance with my shifting politics, the Tories became increasingly unattractive to me and I've long sailed ship for other parties. LibDems looks interesting but I don't know much about them yet. I'm definitely not going for Labour because of how radical and incompatible they are with my views and ideas.

If I were to move from the US to the UK it would be harder to understand where I might possibly fit because of different issues, besides being for Brexit and opposing the inflow of migration in UK/Euro borders. Even then, I don't know that much about the EU besides it just being a mega-bureaucracy.

If I hypothetically did that sort of move, what advice can I get on it? Or for other Commonwealth countries because most all of them use the term "Tory".

[Major-Tom]

I was considerably left-wing while extremely young, then considerably more right-wing before doing another 180. I've been a pretty firm leftist for the past two and a half/three years or so, something to do with exiting my shitty, depressing Catholic school bubble and joining the real world had that impact on me.

My transition to firmly left-wing ideology really came about around the same time I grew into a much more well-adjusted, less bitter, and overall less shitty individual. After working manual labor jobs, leaving behind my old social bubble, and entering a working-class environment, cutting ties with a significant portion of my teenage years - it was only natural that my ideology would change rather rapidly. And now that I'm going to begin a teaching career in a little over a year from now, well, any insanely dumb right-wing economic policy that would jeopardize my chance of having some standard of living terrifies me.

[Henreeee]

I don't affiliate myself with any particular political party or wing because it' s not a big part of my identity. I only become more interested in politics once it's election season

[Cekoviu]

I used to be an anarcho-primitivist, which speaks for itself...


Referring to everybody who's white as Caucasian is much more offensive than anything commonly used by Democrats. By the way, I'm white; ergo, I'm an authority on this. Perhaps be a bit less sanctimonious?

I think you need to speak to the Far Left Democrats, since they throw around racial slurs.

There's a lot in this sentence and I don't have the energy to dissect it right now, but suffice to say that you're very incorrect in apparently many aspects of your worldview and I would recommend reevaluating it.

[Bombadil]

I was considerably left-wing while extremely young, then considerably more right-wing before doing another 180. I've been a pretty firm leftist for the past two and a half/three years or so, something to do with exiting my shitty, depressing Catholic school bubble and joining the real world had that impact on me.

My transition to firmly left-wing ideology really came about around the same time I grew into a much more well-adjusted, less bitter, and overall less shitty individual. After working manual labor jobs, leaving behind my old social bubble, and entering a working-class environment, cutting ties with a significant portion of my teenage years - it was only natural that my ideology would change rather rapidly. And now that I'm going to begin a teaching career in a little over a year from now, well, any insanely dumb right-wing economic policy that would jeopardize my chance of having some standard of living terrifies me.

I was brought up in a relatively privileged background, private school and etc., and was pretty much a snobby little shit. Certainly I identified with the right on most issues along the lines of why don't poor people help themselves.

However I started working with poverty and it ended up making me so angry that I came to the idea that it's thoroughly ridiculous that society in general doesn't do all it can to lift people out of poverty and stress, that free healthcare and education is a right, that equality is important and all that other good stuff.

[Totenborg]

I used to be much more right-wing when I was in my early teens.

During Obama's second term, my right-wing Facebook friends and Facebook groups started posting ridiculous crap and conspiracy theories (think Infowars and Breitbart). Stuff like "it is no longer safe to be a straight white conservative Christian in the United States" and "liberals worship the devil" was pretty common. Initially I believed them. At one point I even worried that my family would be hauled off to a FEMA camp. It's embarrassing to think that I was so naive at one point in life.

Then I began to think: if it really is so dangerous to be a straight white conservative Christian in the United States, then why has nothing happened to me yet? Why has nothing happened to any of my family or friends? Where is the evidence that anything like FEMA camps exist? I also began to interact with people who did not share the same political views that I did and began to realize that a lot of what I had been told about liberals was wrong.

After that, I started leaving Facebook groups and dropping friends. I eventually quit Facebook altogether and deleted my profile (really would not want anyone discovering my old profile and thinking I still acted that way).

Now, I identify as centrist. No, I am not an "enlightened centrist." I just identify as such because I agree with the right on some things and the left on other things but I don't agree with enough stuff on either side to really identify with one or the other.

So I guess you were right-wing and believed most to the left was baby-killing and the real racists; and then you became left-wing/centrist and now believe most to the right are racist, homophobic bigots?

They have certainly done nothing to prove otherwise.

[Drongonia]

I was quite far left in high school, as most younger people seem to be. I was teased for it actually, as I supported the Labour Party during election season, and was one of the most vocal supporters at that. I even heckled our right-wing PM when he came to visit our school.

Needless to say I actually barely had a clue what I was talking about.

But, something changed. Watching the election of Donald Trump get so much media coverage got me very interested in doing actual research into politics, and seeing as I did economics and accounting throughout high school, that was a well-fitting pairing. By the end of the presidential race, I had flipped to the right, and was a Trump supporter. But over time, I have found he isn't far-right enough for me. I don't like the fact that him and other conservatives are doing nothing to solve the rampant drug crisis throughout the developed world, I don't like the fact that the mainstream conservatives do absolutely nothing about mass migration and the subversion and removal of European cultures, and I especially don't like the fact that him, along with neocons and the Democrats in the US, want to keep waging war with everyone. It made me mad, and it still does.

Also, I grew up quite poor with a drug addicted solo mother, and looking back on it, the government teat which the left want to make more potent did NOT improve our situation, it made things so, so, SO much worse. But that's another thread.

I will likely go further to the right the more I read about European countries being destroyed by mass migration, police who genuinely stop crimes being called racist, kids being subjected to drag queen library storytime, and other such liberal ideas.

[Arthenius]

I was quite far left in high school, as most younger people seem to be. I was teased for it actually, as I supported the Labour Party during election season, and was one of the most vocal supporters at that. I even heckled our right-wing PM when he came to visit our school.

Needless to say I actually barely had a clue what I was talking about.

But, something changed. Watching the election of Donald Trump get so much media coverage got me very interested in doing actual research into politics, and seeing as I did economics and accounting throughout high school, that was a well-fitting pairing. By the end of the presidential race, I had flipped to the right, and was a Trump supporter. But over time, I have found he isn't far-right enough for me. I don't like the fact that him and other conservatives are doing nothing to solve the rampant drug crisis throughout the developed world, I don't like the fact that the mainstream conservatives do absolutely nothing about mass migration and the subversion and removal of European cultures, and I especially don't like the fact that him, along with neocons and the Democrats in the US, want to keep waging war with everyone. It made me mad, and it still does.

Also, I grew up quite poor with a drug addicted solo mother, and looking back on it, the government teat which the left want to make more potent did NOT improve our situation, it made things so, so, SO much worse. But that's another thread.

I will likely go further to the right the more I read about European countries being destroyed by mass migration, police who genuinely stop crimes being called racist, kids being subjected to drag queen library storytime, and other such liberal ideas.

I know. I am far-ish right and I'm not ashamed anymore, because I know the left isn't any less "radical" than right is.

[Major-Tom]

I was considerably left-wing while extremely young, then considerably more right-wing before doing another 180. I've been a pretty firm leftist for the past two and a half/three years or so, something to do with exiting my shitty, depressing Catholic school bubble and joining the real world had that impact on me.

My transition to firmly left-wing ideology really came about around the same time I grew into a much more well-adjusted, less bitter, and overall less shitty individual. After working manual labor jobs, leaving behind my old social bubble, and entering a working-class environment, cutting ties with a significant portion of my teenage years - it was only natural that my ideology would change rather rapidly. And now that I'm going to begin a teaching career in a little over a year from now, well, any insanely dumb right-wing economic policy that would jeopardize my chance of having some standard of living terrifies me.

I was brought up in a relatively privileged background, private school and etc., and was pretty much a snobby little shit. Certainly I identified with the right on most issues along the lines of why don't poor people help themselves.

However I started working with poverty and it ended up making me so angry that I came to the idea that it's thoroughly ridiculous that society in general doesn't do all it can to lift people out of poverty and stress, that free healthcare and education is a right, that equality is important and all that other good stuff.

Couldn't agree more. Even just being friends with people who routinely can't get access to the treatment they need and deserve is enough to piss one off and change their mindset.

Or so you'd hope. I'm friends with plenty of people who are staunch Trump supporters. They generally hate the feeling of economic injustice they feel, they hate seeing people denied coverage, denied education, a shitty environment etc etc. But they just are still so attached to the thrill that right-populist figures make them feel. They genuinely believe that anyone with a (D) next to their name is someone hellbent on mandating pronouns and three refugees per home.

It's strange how some people can vote entirely contrary to their own class interests, bet against their own success, simply because some loud-mouth on twitter makes them feel good.

[USS Monitor]

I've become more willing to accept that humans activities contribute to climate change. It's all well and good to say, "Let's study it more," or whatever -- but they studied it more, and it didn't get debunked yet. When I first heard it, I thought it was going to be one of those trendy ideas that is all the rage for a couple of years, but then turns out to be bullshit. There wasn't any one event that stands out as the moment I changed my mind, just a gradual drift from "It sounds like bullshit," to "I don't know," to "It probably is real after all. We should do something about that." I expected it to get debunked or reverse itself by now, but it didn't.

[Bear Stearns]

I supported Obama in 2008

[Dumb Ideologies]

I've gone from Stalinist, to libertarian left, to centre liberal, to authoritarian right and then back to vaguely authoritarian leftism again. At least I've never been an ancap. Every ideology works great on paper if the rulers and the ruled have the right qualities for the system and this can be reproduced across multiple generations without enough divergence that the system that relies on these qualities will start to decay. When I've changed views it has largely been because I think I've found a fundamental point of failure which means the system can't be perpetuated, usually because people have repeatedly told me about it and I can't think of an answer that isn't pure ideological handwaving. You then move to something else that redresses that flaw, are filled with enthusiasm due to the loss of the old tensions, but then gradually notice the flaws in that too.

I think I've politically found my level now that I've realised that there's no "perfect" answer that doesn't come with problems, I've got my principles and so its a matter of trying to think how to make those work as best as possible in the real. I can still change my mind on individual issues - I completely smooth-brained on Brexit for instance, thinking it was a potential route to some kind of left-nationalist autarky rather than losing the insulating force and bargaining power of a regional union and basically stretching our butt cheeks as wide as possible for America and China to fuck us.

I also try not to take political differences less seriously in terms of screaming "you're a bad person" at people and making it personal, just because as I've moved around some have considered it a betrayal and occasionally got a bit nasty; in my experience the rude people who didn't address the point and just shouted abuse made me dig in deeper (and often lower myself to their level, but sssh). I think it's generalisable that being a dickhead just makes people close their minds and go deeper into echo-chambers.

[Grahnol]

I actually used to be quite content with the Tories until about 2017 or so. I viewed them as the sane, reasonable and modernised party that will lead to a great future. Since then I have grown increasingly critical about the Tories after some unfavourable circumstances happened to them that made me dislike them. Perhaps in accordance with my shifting politics, the Tories became increasingly unattractive to me and I've long sailed ship for other parties. LibDems looks interesting but I don't know much about them yet. I'm definitely not going for Labour because of how radical and incompatible they are with my views and ideas.

If I were to move from the US to the UK it would be harder to understand where I might possibly fit because of different issues, besides being for Brexit and opposing the inflow of migration in UK/Euro borders. Even then, I don't know that much about the EU besides it just being a mega-bureaucracy.

If I hypothetically did that sort of move, what advice can I get on it? Or for other Commonwealth countries because most all of them use the term "Tory".

First off, 'liberal' means something quite different from what it means in the US. In the US, 'liberal' is used for those who are lefter-wing than American conservatives. In the Commonwealth countries, it means anyone who upholds individuality, independence of the individual and above all else desires for securing and maintaining the individual's rights, liberties and freedoms, separate from that of the government/state. Of course, there is some flexibility with the definition but generally speaking, liberals are considered to be the people whose prime focus is maintaining individual rights, liberties and freedoms.

In the Commonwealth countries, 'Tories' are people who uphold how social order has evolved and desire to maintain and continue it. Fairly broadly, it could refer to people who want to continue the social order, who want to maintain it but have it evolve to modernise it in the current world, those who uphold the traditions of the social order for the future, etc. There is some leeway and overlap of the words 'Tory' and 'liberal' as liberal values have influenced said social order, Tories also uphold many of such liberal values, but their general emphasis isn't on those values. There are more specific terms for Tories, such as High Tories which are a traditionalist conservative brand of Tories, Blue Tories (this term and the following are used solely in Canada) who have an emphasis on free markets and economic freedom as essential parts of their ideology and Red Tories who support communitarian policies with respect of the social order as essential parts of their ideology.

While Tories could refer to those who support the ideologies described above, it's more commonly used largely in Britain and Canada to refer to members of their respective Conservative (aka Tory) parties who adhere to such ideologies described above. The British Conservative Party and Conservative Party of Canada are Tories though they differ based on how the ideology has evolved there, with the former modernising how the social order and Tory ideology has evolved in Britain while the latter incorporating the Blue and Red Tories which evolved in Canada. There is also the People's Party of Canada which broke away from the Canadian Tories in 2018. As far as I know, they are basically Tories with a classical liberal and libertarian sheen to them.

If I were to put these Commonwealth terms in US politics, both parties would be sort of 'liberal' leaning although the Republicans would be the ones that uphold tradition which includes lowering government intervention whilst the Democrats would be the one largely detached from tradition and instead focusing on progress and increasing government intervention to 'secure' what they consider as liberal values.

[Servilis]

At age 12 I became a Nazist, however I felt Nazism was a bit extreme so I jumped down to Fascism, then to Reactionary then to Conservatism then back up to Reactionary(age 13), it was like that for a large while, then, in late 2018, I started to have Dysphoric episodes of gender identity issues.
I started remembering how I liked to crossdress at age 4, and how in all my dreams I was a girl, these feelings were repressed when my Sister outed me to my school, ensuing years of bullying.
So I repressed these feelings until in 2016 where I actually started to explore my sexuality, due to things I was actually too young to do, I.E. engage in coitis.
Lets just move on from that, anyways, in 2017 I came out to an entire class of children as Gay because my childhood bully wouldn't stop calling me Gay or the F-Slur.
And they all started laughing at me.
I walked away, and some children asked me about it, and I considered I was Bisexual, but then because of the bullying I had to repress these feelings and become Heterosexual.
So in August of 2018, specifically on the 30th of that month.
I was sitting in English class and I just lay my head down and thought about what I am.
Earlier in July clocked a Transwoman, this was the first Transwoman I ever met, I regret making fun of her, because I'm now a Trans girl who needs to apologize to their maker.
However I haven't been able to contact that Transwoman, or her friend.
They disappeared.
Anyways, I reconsidered my gender identity, and said :
"You know what, I'm Trans I guess."
And then school went on as normal.
When I got home I researched what all this meant.
I watched an animated video which shows how a Vaginoplasty procedure works, etc.
I was still Reactionary.
I came out in only 3 days.
My Mom confronted me about it and I was scared.

So, now heres where we get to ideology.
I started getting into Truscum YouTube.
And then started to develop a hatred for Nonbinaries.
This hatred costed me the ability to post memes on r/traa.
But I was fierce in debates in the Ben Shapiro comment section.
During one instance where I was questioned with Enby-related stuff.
I said "I don't believe Enbys are valid, but I'm going to defend them anyways."
That caused a change of heart.
So I was growing closer to less Reactionary beliefs.
Then in March, I started to hate Trump.
And jumped into Centrism sometime later, probably in May.
Then I joined a Communist discord server called Redpixel, I think in July or August this year.
And then became an AnCom.
And that's where I stand now.
I can't be with Reactionaries because they'll abandon me or hate me.
So I prefer to be with the accepting and tolerant Left.

[Servilis]

At age 12 I became a Nazist, however I felt Nazism was a bit extreme so I jumped down to Fascism, then to Reactionary then to Conservatism then back up to Reactionary(age 13), it was like that for a large while, then, in late 2018, I started to have Dysphoric episodes of gender identity issues.
I started remembering how I liked to crossdress at age 4, and how in all my dreams I was a girl, these feelings were repressed when my Sister outed me to my school, ensuing years of bullying.
So I repressed these feelings until in 2016 where I actually started to explore my sexuality, due to things I was actually too young to do, I.E. engage in coitis.
Lets just move on from that, anyways, in 2017 I came out to an entire class of children as Gay because my childhood bully wouldn't stop calling me Gay or the F-Slur.
And they all started laughing at me.
I walked away, and some children asked me about it, and I considered I was Bisexual, but then because of the bullying I had to repress these feelings and become Heterosexual.
So in August of 2018, specifically on the 30th of that month.
I was sitting in English class and I just lay my head down and thought about what I am.
Earlier in July clocked a Transwoman, this was the first Transwoman I ever met, I regret making fun of her, because I'm now a Trans girl who needs to apologize to their maker.
However I haven't been able to contact that Transwoman, or her friend.
They disappeared.
Anyways, I reconsidered my gender identity, and said :
"You know what, I'm Trans I guess."
And then school went on as normal.
When I got home I researched what all this meant.
I watched an animated video which shows how a Vaginoplasty procedure works, etc.
I was still Reactionary.
I came out in only 3 days.
My Mom confronted me about it and I was scared.

So, now heres where we get to ideology.
I started getting into Truscum YouTube.
And then started to develop a hatred for Nonbinaries.
This hatred costed me the ability to post memes on r/traa.
But I was fierce in debates in the Ben Shapiro comment section.
During one instance where I was questioned with Enby-related stuff.
I said "I don't believe Enbys are valid, but I'm going to defend them anyways."
That caused a change of heart.
So I was growing closer to less Reactionary beliefs.
Then in March, I started to hate Trump.
And jumped into Centrism sometime later, probably in May.
Then I joined a Communist discord server called Redpixel, I think in July or August this year.
And then became an AnCom.
And that's where I stand now.
I can't be with Reactionaries because they'll abandon me or hate me.
So I prefer to be with the accepting and tolerant Left.

And yes I know it says I'm a Father Knows Best State but that's because I sometimes click the wrong decision while deciding on NS issues.