Can we change our political views?

I say no. Our political views are manifestations of our personalities, formed early in life and dependent on our environment. I will never, ever be able to relate to Joan Baez, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, or Jerry Brown, nor they to me.

That being the case, I wonder what the point of political debate as between conservatives and liberals can ever accomplish? Are we just venting our spleens at each other? (Answer, yes.)

I hope I am wrong.

 

I went from a tepid moderate to a berniecrat to a maoist to an anarchist to post-anarchist deleuzian occultist apocalypse communist, so who knows

 

There is an old saying and I know it's true to a point, because all of my siblings and I have done it. It goes like this. "If your young and not a Liberal, you have no heart. If your older and not a Conservative, you have no brain." We were all Liberal when we were younger. But now we're changed.

 

I tried to be a liberal in high school, if very briefly. But I knew instinctively, even then, that there was much tradition that deserved respect and needed conserving, and that there was something bogus about the adulation of the Black Panthers, the drug culture, Westhermen, Che Guevara, Ho Chi Minh, the Chicago 7, and all the rest. But ...

Segregation was wrong, obviously, and it was (in the South at least), a manifestation of conservatism. But there was and continues to be racism and even de facto segregation in places like Madison, Wisconsin. I don't know what that's all about, to be honest.

Riots, sit-ins, and demonstrations tend to embarrass me to this day. Maybe I was and am white and privileged and didn't want what culture we had to go up in smoke.

 

Political views yes, ideologies not so much.

 

How is it possible to be a Berniecrat and then a Maoist? Unless you mean you were a Berniecrat in the 70s?

 

I read maoist texts and decided they sounded like they made sense.

 

Anyone who can face the horror that took place during the great leap forward and think to themselves, ”well his heart was in the right place.” cannot truly be a thinking person worth consideration.

 

I'm increasingly convinced we're born with our politics. how else could a fairly consistent percentage of every generation be totally sure that, despite overwhelming historical evidence to the contrary, the various state collectivist 'isms' are doable?

If you can be born gay, then surely you can be born with other inherent attractions and thought patterns, right?

 

Great topic for PO&B.

It is hard to say on the internet.

Most people espousing a "RW Ideology" are usually just Internet Trolls trying to see how many chains that they can yank with their warmed over Trollbait.

I find it (literally) impossible to take certain people (who continually spew FAKE RW BS) seriously.

Oh well. Righties gonna Righty. :smfh:

 

Yes, we can change, at least temporarily.
I was a good conservative in high school, became pretty liberal in college, and then returned to conservatism before I turned thirty.
I had a decade as a democrat, but I outgrew it, thanks to Reagan.
I blame my brainwashing on college parties.

 

I never had much of a liberal phase, if any. I think I was born conservative. I agree with the OP that our views are probably formed early and dependent on environment. I wonder how many of us hold similar political views to those of our parents.

I'm new here and I don't think anyone can change my views nor do I expect to change any views. I think people have a tendency to dehumanize those that see things differently and the result is personal attacks. I'm not sure what we can accomplish but I always try to look for common ground. I would love to change the 'us vs them' mentality.

 

I used to be a classical liberal back when the LW was still patriotic. When I realized what the left has become, I wanted nothing to do with them anymore.

 

Take my stepdaughter for example. In her teen years she was for all those various entitlement programs. Then she got her first real job and was shocked at the taxes that came out. I told her, how do you think they pay for all those programs you approve of? Later, she fumed as she saw people who just didn't want to work a full time job get far better benefits as she struggled. I believe she is a certified conservative now.

 

I changed mine.
I'm now a Conservative.
I was never a Labour Party Member, but I was raised in a Labour household who backed Tony Blair and, even more strongly backs Jeremy Corbyn.

My father and I have politician friends, he has more than me and I have a neighbour who knows me and my father...
In fact, when we were introduced, he said he knew who I was, and asked about my father; smart man.
They're all Labour.
They're okay, I guess... In local elections, where my neighbour runs for town council, I am guilty of finding his address on the ballot (they put their addresses on that vote) and voting for my neighbour out of some sort of loyalty.

When we had Gordon Brown/British Prime Minister after Prime Minister Tony Blair, I didn't appreciate the handover of power within Labour without an election making me have a prime minister I didn't even vote for.
When we had Conservative David Cameron/British Prime Minister when Labour quit and made a 3 way win a 2 way coalition when nobody won; Gordon Brown resigned that night and we woke up to a Wide Eyed Liberal Conservative David Cameron.
Hated him.
He wanted to smear and chase down tax avoidance.
and one week, threatened to take away internet porn.
fornicated with a pig and the whistle blower of that mysteriously fell into a coma?! (How does that happen)? (But it happened)!..
Other than that and almost losing Scotland, and taking us out of the EU (but asking us all to stay in), his tax avoidance ending made me hate him as PM..
...
I was still Labour until 2016 when Jeremy Corbyn disgusted me over Brexit.
Then I signed up and became a Conservative after Theresa May came in and undid David Cameron's wrongs on tax avoidance and promised to get us out of Brexit alive after renewing contracts for our nuclear deterrent and Jeremy Corbyn lost in 2017 and disgusted me even more than his Socialist manifesto when his influential supporters Owen Jones editor for The Guardian were calling for the Prime Minister to quit and rallying up to start anarchy in the UK that week, then spent the whole summer holding London up with strike actions for a petty summer of chaos in retaliation to the snap election they lost.

 

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn likes to use me as a pawn with his battles with the Prime Minister because where I happen to live; and if elected, promises to shut down contract workers and 0 hour contracts and chase down the UK's Wall Street called The City.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/05/13/labour-announces-26bn-raid-city-london-robin-hood-tax/
https://www.robinhoodtax.org.uk/
sullying the good name of Robin Hood, who in fact, stole taxes and gave them back.
Should call it The Sheriff of Nottingham Tax.. !

 

I can switch my ideologies based on the needs of a society.

For instance, I am conservative today in America but say we were head into space for the purposes of colonization, I would then advocate for a socialistic society, which in my opinion, would facilitate that endeavor more than any other type of system. After that was established I would probably become a technocrat and push for a technocracy or a militaristic society.

 

I'm born in a leftist family and was a long time a convinced leftist. Most people consider me as far right now. I kept some leftist view (for gay marriage), and even if I'm deeply islamophobic, only acts of the people should matter, so I don't care of the color of skin of the people even if I start to largely doubt of the ability of people of different colour of skins to live together on a large scale.

 

I was a "country club" Republican (Eisenhower, Nixon, Ford, Bush) in my 20's.

I'm now more conservative (Reagan, Rand Paul) in my 50's. I've learned that government destroys anything it touches, except in some very rare situations like NASA.

 

I think Joe Manchin is the only Democrat alive that doesn't hate the U.S.

 

So anyone who does not worship government you won't take seriously?

 

That's pretty typical. She was more than willing to accept the help when she needed it...but when it became time to pay for others in similar need...all of a sudden it "bothered" her.
Yea..when got my first job I was taken aback by how much taxes came out of my check...but then I was a child. When I bought my first house I was similarly taken aback by the amount of interest a mortgage cost. Eventually I realized that all this stuff WORKS. There is a cost to living in this society.

Be a grown up

 

Speaking of trolls ....

Has anyone asked you for your opinion of "righties"? Respond to the question or go start your own thread.

A third option would be to read a serious book on conservatism so that you have some idea of what you are talking about.

 

No, I'm asking about the progression from Sanders to Mao. Did you give up on Sanders for some reason and decide we need to be more communitarian?

 

Thanks for telling us how dangerous you truely are....

holy crap