And what has prompted that change? Was it a traumatic experience to change views? Here I mean any significant, lifestyle determining views, like whether a particular art style is your favorite, or if a certain scientific knowledge you had has been proven wrong, or if you have internally redefined a religious value, or you started to interpret other people differently.
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I called myself a libertarian in college, which in hindsight was pretty cringe.
I’ve now moved quite a bit farther left.
Voted Republican my whole life til Trump ran and I noticed the hate and racism. Never again
I’ve moderated quite a bit as I’ve gotten older and consider myself center-right now. I look back on my political views in high school when I was a big conspiracy theorist and I cringe. I think what changed my mind was the natural maturation of growing up but also a big part of it was going to college(history major) which drilled into me the importance of sourcing, facts, and critical thinking even more than high school already had. I think this is part of why I am so big on the importance of teaching critical thinking to kids.
My views have more flexibility because I have found that most thing are more complex than they seem. I don’t really have many “hard-line” views.
The biggest thing I have changed my views on is unions. I used to think they were pointless in the modern era and just cause inefficiencies (two guys with clipboards, three guys standing by the curb, one holding an empty bucket, three sitting in the driver’s seat of trucks, watching one guy fill a pothole) but now realize that the net positive for the common person far outweigh the negatives. I thank my lucky stars my wife’s union gets things done.
I think the biggest change was a move toward pragmatism and an openness to those who disagree in good faith, even on big issues. (The Trump era did nevertheless cut off a good chunk of Americans from said openness.) And to take your flair as an example, it’s much easier for me to consider the decency of individuals separately from the indecency of a given government.
Generally I’m more humble and cringe at my youthful, judgmental stridency. But my fundamentals have remained the same: left of center, deeply suspicious (if not outright critical) of any religious activism in government, optimistic that America can be a positive force over time but default-cynical that that happens by the acts of the powerful.
I was more liberally minded and pro-government when I was younger and more naive, but as I’ve gotten older, gotten more life and work experiences, as well as having served in the military, on top of seeing capitalism grow even more wildly out of control over the years, I have become more Socialist and more pro-Decentralization. I don’t trust the government or corporations, and I think real change comes from grassroots efforts, activism, unionization, and mutual aid. Although, this has caused me to feel more jaded and dejected as time goes on, because things feel like they’re just getting worse.
Edit: Yo, I’m not gonna argue with people all day. If your aim is to be an argumentative jerk, get your jollies off from someone else. If you’re genuinely curious, go read some theory. Google is your friend.
I used to be super conservative up until Trump. Now I consider myself a moderate with different viewpoints that don’t really fit into either camp.
I still may not agree with the Democrats on a ton of things, but the current Republican party and “conservative” movement is anathema to me. It’s been dismaying to see what it’s become.
Yup, I used to be very conservative under my parents influence. After striking out on my own I started meeting people who belonged to groups my parents had often demonized (atheists, Wiccans, lgbtq+ folk, women who’d had abortions, women who had sex before marriage, etc) and I realized they were all just trying to live their lives in ways that made sense given what they had to work with.
Then I started traveling internationally and saw people from other cultures also just trying to live their lives with what they have.
So I’m not a conservative anymore. And I very much want to protect the rights of people to do what makes sense *for them*.
My views on Capitalism are far less charitable, especially Neoliberal Capitalism which is godawful. Still better than Feudalism or… ugh…Communism.
Most notably, I went from being Straight Edge to being an advocate for safe recreational drug use
I used to be a New York kind of Democrat (gun control, everything can be fixed by a stronger government, etc), but after graduating college and moving to Baltimore to work for the federal government, I quickly lost these views thankfully. I realized the futility and inherent racism in gun control (started going shooting as well), and also realized that a lot of my previous views were a result of my narrow viewpoint and realized that [my New York upbringing did prevent me from seeing a lot of big picture things about both the US and the world in general](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/View_of_the_World_from_9th_Avenue).
Politically:
I grew up in a Christian household, and leaned politically Conservative when I was younger because I thought it was the “Christian” way of thinking by default. I started questioning that when all of my Christian friends were furious when Obama’s Affordable Care Act was passed, and I couldn’t for the life of me understand how people having easier access to healthcare was a bad thing.
This caused me to think more critically about my beliefs instead of blindly following the political party that everyone I knew did, and I’ve become more and more Liberal as time has gone by. I’m also much less religious than I used to be too, I’m sure there’s a correlation there.
Absolutely. Just by growing older and getting more experience means change.
For me a huge thing was getting involved in the drug and alcohol addiction recovery community. You meet a lot of people with *very* different life experiences. I changed my attitudes about it majorly.
I’ve gone much further to the left since growing up. Most of that was getting out of the conservative upper class, super sheltered environment I grew up in, and being exposed to more views.
Ironically, I’ve also become more religious in this time.
I used to believe almost everyone could achieve what they wanted with hard work and dedication and good choices
I started treating patients and a very rough undeserved area of a large city. It opened my eyes to their situations. There are few good role models, there is violence and sickness. We as a society do not take care of these areas; the roads and sidewalks are terrible, the snow wouldnt get plowed, potholes never fixed. The schools have few resources, fewer books, pencils, pens. All of it. These are things that are not happening in better areas. It all creates a feeling of learned hopelessness
I still believe that the only way to improve these lives and situations is mostly through the residents themselves. But the people as a singular person and as a group generally dont have the tools to do it. And to think they do is burying our heads in the sand and just accepting more of it. And lastly, all people deserve dignity and respect.
I started out as a pretty standard conservative. Decades of watching the government relentlessly arrogate power to itself, while reducing our personal liberty and generally making hash of most things that it touches, have moved me in a decidedly libertarian direction on many issues.
I think it’s less a “change” and more a holding myself accountable. I stopped saying “they” and “them” when referring to ideological groups or nations around the time I was in high school.
The kind of person I am gets subjected to a lot of assumptions based on short descriptors or symbols. Things that don’t convey the complexities of an individual’s actual beliefs or thought processes. So in the spirit of the Golden Rule, I always keep in mind that even if there’s a group I disagree with ideologically, I intentionally use language that doesn’t make pan-sweeping assumptions about every person in that group.
Yes. I was raised very conservative and very Christian. I am neither of those things now.
I’m a lot louder about political and social issues. This frustrates my parents, but they agree with me on most things even if not on the how to fix.
I’ve become further to the left over time
My parents are very very conservative but in a quiet way so they don’t seem as bad as the neo-nazis we see all the time now. As a kid I just followed their opinion and agreed that democrats were the worst thing a person could be. I just entered high school during the 2012 election and, though I actually like Mitt Romney, I realized that my parents shouldn’t be the cornerstone of my beliefs.
I started reading more and actually looking into the policies and realized a lot of things. My parents are republicans because “that’s the Christian party” and I realized I can’t align myself with Christians, at least the ones I know, if I want to consider myself a good person. So now I’ve changed political views and have a more agnostic approach but religion is definitely something I could discuss and debate for ages.
I’m 24 now, almost 25, and I’ve learned a lot about myself, my parents, and my views. I’m a gay woman living in a red state. Life is scary. I still speak to my parents but I’ve cut off most extended family. I don’t discuss politics with my parents and if I shared my sexuality, they’d do the cutting off for me. It’s hard to believe any republican saying they want to best when I know firsthand how conditional that Christian love really is.
I’ve gone farther left as I’ve gotten older and I don’t see myself ever moving right, especially on social issues. I’m realistic so I know I can’t just say the US should immediately switch to universal healthcare and stop all oil drilling. We need greater benefits and aid for people and we need to be more environmentally conscious. But I say that knowing I benefit from excellent private insurance and drive a gas car. Politics are tricky because I can imagine a perfect world but the logistics make it much harder to implement.
The whole world is leaning pretty far right these days, what that means depends on the country. Older people see how different young voters can make the government and they’re worried. As with all things, I believe it to be cyclical. I think the needle will swing left within the next ten years, it’s just a matter of outlasting these current policies.
If you haven’t changed, you haven’t grown, learnt, improved.
I’ll say I’ve become ***much*** more leftist as I’ve become older.
As a teenager I was a moderate, centrist Democrat. I voted for Bill Clinton in 1996 in the first Presidential election I was eligible for. I voted for a third-party candidate in 2000 because I didn’t like either Al Gore or George Bush and found them both too similar (something I regret).
Over the decades, I’ve politically moved more and more to the left, I’d say I’m firmly a Democratic Socialist by this point.
As I’ve gotten older, I’ve seen too much of how our political and economic system is rigged for the benefit of the wealthy, that so much of the “American Dream” is an illusion, and how so many things that other countries take for granted like universal healthcare and a solid social safety net are treated as impossible and unworkable as well as extremist ideas that if it’s “extremist” to want the same safety and prosperity that other countries enjoy, then I’ll be extremist.
I’ve seen right-leaning policy ideas consistently be adopted by our government (State and Federal) only to always turn out poorly for the people, but always make a few people rich in the process.
When my parents were young they could easily get jobs that allowed them to afford a home, support a family, and live a prosperous life. . .and those jobs are now harder to find and when available require much more education than when my parents were my age. Workers used to have actual pensions from their employers, instead of being told to invest some of their pay in the stock market and to hope for the best.
I’ve seen our country adopt policies that were driven entirely by religion, conservative Christianity to be specific, working around our Constitutional protections against a state religion with vague and hollow appeals to “human life” or “family values” or some other shallow excuse.
I’ve been nearly financially ruined more than once just for seeking healthcare, even when I had health insurance.
This has increasingly pushed me towards strong support for a social safety net, universal healthcare, workers rights, a living minimum wage, abortion rights, and a progressive immigration policy.
I’ve grown more religious as I’ve gotten older. I was raised Methodist Christian, and I would have considered myself as such through my teenage years. As a young adult I grew away from Christ for a period to the point where I no longer identified as Christian (I wasn’t really agnostic, definitely wasn’t an atheist, more of a deist I guess). That started to change after I met my now wife. She encouraged me to start coming back to Church and we found a non-denominational Church we started attending regularly. The way this Church taught straight out of the Bible, including historical contexts and more in depth discussions of specific passages that may have lost some meaning in translation clicked with me. Along with some of my own research, Bible reading, and prayer, the teachings started to make a lot more sense and I came back to Christ. Doing so has been transformative, my life has improved immensely, I’m much happier, and I feel I have a purpose.
Definitely.
I was very straight laced growing up. Anti drug, anti tobacco, anti drinking, and very much conservative Christian values.
As I left home and met more people I realized there is a lot more grey area on most of these topics.
I have moved very much to a point of view of “you do you”. As long as what you are doing doesn’t directly negatively impact others, without consent, and everyone is an adult, go ahead. Not my business.
I still have a lot of the Christian values, but also don’t feel it’s right for me to unprompted force my values on to others.
I also find myself being more financially conservative. And the more I have to interact with Government entities, the more I find them to be incompetent and not know there ass from their elbow.
So now in my mid 30’s I’m socially liberal, financially conservative, any anti-state.
I am very much “I think the nice gay couple down the road should be able to watch over their marijuana fields with full auto belt fed SAW’s”.
I’ve changed a lot over time, most of it simply through lived experience. I was raised poor, mostly in a post 9/11 world with mostly conservative voices and fear mongering around me.
I was basically a right libertarian by high school, though I kept a pretty diverse group of friends, which I think helped expand my views at the start, alomg with a lot of travel. Rejected from my planned military service (thankfully) due to a previous injury that disqualified me. Went to college through debt just like most of my generation and began studying people and culture. Understanding research better and generally being exposed to new ideas and better arguments led me to being more liberal.
Traveled more, got a couple of opportunities to go abroad in college, and actually got to see some systems working in other countries. Finished college, started working in my field for pennies, steadily being crushed further and further while my generation caught the blame. Got further and further left as I learned. Had to leave my passion for something that actually pays to survive, and I’m still traveling.
I just saw more of the world and more people in it and found myself more understanding over time. I empathize with people, even people I was raised to hate or fear, simply through exposure to what those people are actually like. College helped me determine good information from bullshit information. Divides get deeper, and I can’t say that I’m mad at where I am.
Yeah. I was probably pretty moderate to slightly left leaning liberal growing up. The more I learned about the parts of history that our textbooks tend to gloss over or leave out and the more people I met from marginalized groups (I grew up in a very straight laced white town in the 90s) the more left leaning I’ve become.
My views are always evolving I suppose.
I consider myself to be a libertarian socially, I really don’t care what people do on their own time, I think drugs should be legal (yes, all of them) etc.
I’m more moderate fiscally, I suppose. I am very pro-capitalism but I also do support having social programs such as public healthcare and welfare for those that don’t have the means to chose better options.
I suppose that just makes me an average democrat lol
Yes. I used to be very establishment conservative. I grew up in a liberal area but family was conservative politically. I read national review, went to some federalist society meetings in law school, etc. Now I am in my 40s and have steadily moved further and further left, as has my husband (he grew up in the Deep South.) it started before trump, but trump was the biggest single factor. (Not even just that he was so bad, but more that he exposed a reality about republicans / conservatism that I had never believed was true)
I was pretty conservative growing up. My parents were conservative so I just inherited their views. I remember arguing against gay marriage on Facebook when I was in 8th grade, I still cringe about that to this day. I spent a lot of time on the internet in high school and was exposed to different viewpoints over time, some insane, some not so insane. 2010-2011 were pivotal years for me in my ideological journey. I watched the live feed for the BP oil spill, then the Occupy movement happened. Both had a significant effect on me, after that my views shifted left where they remain to this day.
I used to be pro-war/military until I went to war. Now I’m a pacifist.
Yes, I’ve become more progressive economically and socially.
I’ve always characterized myself as economically conservative because I’m pro-free market; but having done some work and reading with respect to competition law, I’m convinced that we need more regulation to promote a truly competitive market and that I’m probably more better characterized as a progressive. I’m just not blow it all up anarchist, capitalism is the root of all evil, progressive.
Like, idk, as a Russian, I think you’re aware that concentrating power in an oligarchy is not preferable to concentrating power in the government, just because one system is clothed in capitalism and the other is clothed in socialism.
Socially, my beliefs used to be informed by my religion. I am less religious but I still think there are moral issues. Like, I’m definitely still understanding of pro-life stances. But pragmatically, I don’t think that regulating it substantially prevents abortions from happening and makes the health risks worse.
I used to be relatively conservative but I’ve swung pretty liberal over the past few years.
As someone who grew up in the States but came from a very traditional strict immigrant Muslim family, living in the US changed everything about me. To keep a long story short, I did not have a normal life and lost both parents at a young age. Dad passed away at 7 and mom abandoned me by the age of 9. I grew up with extremely strict, sheltering, abusive, controlling, and neglectful extended family.
How this changed me was being the first person in my family to grow up in an entirely new culture away from my parents homeland. My family, who come from a very poor rural village in Bangladesh, have an extremely different cultural mindset than I do. A lot of what I experienced growing up with my extended family is completely normalized and accepted in their culture. Many of them went through it themselves and are just repeating that actions.
Growing up in the States, unlike my family, I was able to experience a new perspective on life. I grew up in the world where kids getting hit would put parents in jail. I grew up in a world where girls and women have the right to live their lives as they wish and didn’t get married off at a young age. I lived in a world where religion didn’t control your life. I lived in a world personal freedom and independence was valued. My family on the other hand, have only known how to live life under a strict following of Islam and never saw any new perspectives on life. They don’t know how to live life any other way. They knew that life in the US was different and goes against many of their values so they tried really hard to shelter me.
Growing up in the States, I was the first person within my family not to develop their strict cultural mindset. As I got to grow up with different perspectives on life, I realized that is not what I want in life. My experience changed me and today I live my life and act and behave like a regular open minded American/Westerner. I grew up my whole life not wanting to be like or repeating any of the things my family did to me. As I have a different mindset now, I plan on raising my kids in a way where they are happy and won’t force any cultural norms on them.
I was thinking about this a little bit this morning regarding my taste in music. As a young man all I listened to was male fronted hardcore punk and adjacent styles, but as I’ve gotten older my taste has shifted a lot and a huge chunk of my playlist these days is female fronted alternative-pop-rock. I just think a lot of young women in rock music are doing really stellar things, with tons of talent out there. I also listen to a lot more country music and hip hop music now that I’ve gotten older.
Stress, grief and becoming a parent opened my eyes on how short, fragile and precious life is. How important taking care of yourself is before getting hurt.
I grew up in a very conservative town with tons of bigoted mindsets. Going to college and seeing the world through all the lenses, taking a sociology class within years of 9/11 and hearing the history of Halliburton with Cheney when my family wasn’t well educated or into politics was eye opening. Big time. My heart is more open minded to the world.
Used to be a pretty conservative Republican, then the second half of Bush happened and I became moderate liberal. Obama made me a firm Democrat and Trump made me start thinking socialist lol. Then the culture wars happened and pushed me to the right so now I’m centrist and I don’t foresee that changing.
I spend less time on “the Internet”. I think the Trump presidency was really effective in demonstrating the toxicity of attention and “engagement” online, and the end of the pandemic helped me refocus on real life.
I guess I just grew up.
I was your stereotypical Junior Socialist when I was in high school and college. My friends and I would sit around our parents’ basements or college dorm rooms and insist there was plenty of wealth to go around. It just needed to be spread out more equitably. Then I finished graduate school, got a job, and realized people were actually working hard for their money.
I was the first one to get a real job and suddenly found myself saying things like “well, once you start to factor in taxes, the cost of going into the city every day, etc. it’s really not that much money”. After a while my friends got jobs and realized people work hard for their money too and our conversations changed completely.
At this point in my life, if I had to sum up my political philosophy in one sentence it would probably be “I work hard for my money so leave the heck alone”.