Have your politics changed in recent years?

ShieldWife

ShieldWife

Marchioness
I noticed a similar thread on a similar forum and thought we could use our own version. It’s been a turbulent last few years since the rise of Trump, along with a few other events. Have your politics changed?

As for myself, my own politics haven’t really changed much recently, though I did undergo a big transformation in my early 20’s. In the last few years I have been through an emotional rollercoaster regarding my thoughts on the state of politics though. At the moment I’m feeling rather black pilled about it all. I feel like in a sane world, I would be a moderate or even a liberal, but in the world we have now, I identify more with the far right than even the mainstream of conservatism.

I don’t particularly like Donald Trump, but as things are now, I’d vote for him just to spite his haters who are considerably worse than him.
 
To be honest, I have had leanings toward the traditional right since I was 15 circa 1998 that I have espoused, or even further since I was raised in a religious family that supported Ross Perot and so was borderline third positionist. I went through a long phase of atheist right-libertarianism of five or six years, but when that burned out went back to what I was before, older and a bit wiser and more cautious perhaps. The entire time a core set of beliefs I held remained the same, so I like to say I am very consistent about politics.
 
Left-leaning liberal until that lying charlatan with plaid and hoop earrings started that video series to try and politicize my hobby knowing that her army of media and academia will cover for her at every turn.

Then another purple-haired lying harlot (with an actual body count now! WHO KNEW?) just got away with everything because her cult of personality consisting of academics, journalists, and developers just couldn't stomach the possibility that a woman did something stupid.

Add to that the incidents in Cologne, Malmo, and Rotherham, with which these same cultists turn a blind eye to, and it's more than enough to make you ask yourself, "does believing you're the last sane man on the planet make you crazy?".
 
I would say my politics haven't changed that much, just who I think represents them has.

I voted for Obama twice, and agree with some liberal positions on issues; the environment (though not in the radical greenie sense, more like the Roosevelt sense) and not thinking taxes are evil. But my views on immigration, geo-politics, defense, abortion, free speech, the 2nd Amendment, and many other issues have always been far more to the right.

I consider myself a cowboy liberal or Libertarian, not a progressive or traditional conservative.
 
What stands as my political core a dislike and loathing for control freaks and authoritarians remains the same. My goal of a system that's balanced to create a situation where no one has enough power to fuck over every one remains the same. The target of my ire and wrath however has changed.

The religious right back when it was powerful tried to meddle in afairs I felt they had no business getting involved with. Telling consenting adults who they can be with pisses me off, telling people what to do with their bodies pisses me off. I voted for gay marrage here in Cali and supported it for ethical and practical reasons (I wanted that tourist dollar).

But now as the control freaks have moved over to the SJW side they have earned my wrath, in many ways they are even worse then the religious right. The RR's actions were constrained by an ethical code and belived in redemption. SJWs believe in neither and are just fucking horrible to be around. (Personal experience talking)

So now I'm willing to put aside former greivances to deal with the greater threat to my liberty, I find a lot of people are making the same decision.
 
Used to be an end-of-history type libertarian. We won the cold war, even China was getting with the program, raa-raa international business, the ramp to singularity clear.

Now I think:
-World War One broke the West and it has never recovered. Peaceful Islamization or mass deportations are best-case scenarios for large parts of Europe now.

-Successful interventionism and modern (post-1950) morality cannot coexist. If the cause isn't worth deliberate killing of large numbers of civilians or total mobilization coupled with not respecting local blood feuds and shit-tastic traditions, you just shouldn't occupy many places, because you will fail.

-There is no coherent response apparent to the mortal danger from China. This is terrifying, because our business elites are verifiably co-opted, and our political elites seemingly so. They probably just want a circle of vassals like back in the day, but they will break our economy and society to build themselves up. They could also implode, but I've falsely predicted that too much.

-I used to hate the postmodern critical-theory loving left just for being looneys and parasites. Now they run the Democratic party, journalism, the education system and HR departments, and that terrifies me. I see them as an existential threat now.

-I used to be on board with the libertarian idea that systems matter more than people. EG if the US was suddenly populated by Martians it would still run because of the government firmware. I'm now much more respectful of the power of culture and tribe.

-I used to believe in scientific and medical authority. Then I spent time in a lab chasing grants and publishing papers. These are fallible human institutions (and they fail a LOT) that collectively use their good public reputation as a shield.

-Back in the day I read Free to Choose cover to cover and believed every word of it. Now today it still looks like a beautiful idea, but there are too many problems it doesn't account for. There is no simple path forward, only specific solutions that work for the particular time and place, and popular ideas that consistently lead to disaster.

-I now think Industrial Society and its Future is right about a hell of a lot. But I want my technology, so I have no easy answers to the problem.

-I hated the US education system, loved hard, meaningful work and those who love it, and hated scolds and bullies. I've stayed consistent on those at least.
 
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I used to be those of the 'Democracy Uber Alles' crowd for years, but as time went on, I have basically got a major authoritarian streak.

Hobbes and Locke are far closer to the truth of the human condition that it is scary... and my political outlook morphed to coincide with that truth.
 
I embody the term political pendulum quite aptly. Used to be a hardcore bernie bro for a while (free college, free healthcare the whole nine yards). Then atheism+ and gamergate happened, and suddenly a lot of people that I used to agree with a lot of things with turned into authoritarians on a dime. This forced me to introspect my personally held beliefs and further research my political positions.

Now I'm firmly a conservative and see clearly that the Left are simply fascists with good PR. I now stand firmly with the conservative in resisting new regulations in that give an inch and they'll take a mile. The Trump years have shone a spotlight on the madness that is the Left and hopefully more people will see the light or at least become more rational.
 
First got into politics through the youtube sceptic stuff, realised they were all assholes and veered so sharply to the left I briefly almost hit communism before considering my views and settling as a Democratic Socialist because that was the closest ideology I could find that matched my spiritual beliefs.
 
Depends on what you mean by shifting. I've always been fairly Conservative but like anything else there are various groups within groups.

I would say I was very much Ultra-Conservative early on, during the Bush years. But as time went on I developed a more Libertarian streak. I would say my core tenets and beliefs haven't changed, but how I approach them has.
 
In my high school years I briefly flirted with anarchism, but I quickly grew out of that. I still believe that any given individual in power is likely to abuse that power, but I now know that a system of law is necessary for any kind of functioning society. Today I favor systems that spread power widely with many checks and balances, which means I vacilate between left and right. Ideally both republicans and democrats would be broken into a large number of parties, rather than the current bipartisan system.
 
All I know is that the shit is going to hit the fan soon, and I want to be ready and not distracted by what I should or shouldn't do based on unnecessarily strict "moral compasses" that Mother Nature/God/The Universe/Aliens whatever the fuck is behind all of this and made it as brutal and merciless of an existence as it truly is really by all intents and purposes *gestures broadly around* doesn't give two flying fucks about.
 
Yokkiziikzekker said:
All I know is that the shit is going to hit the fan soon, and I want to be ready and not distracted by what I should or shouldn't do based on unnecessarily strict "moral compasses" that Mother Nature/God/The Universe/Aliens whatever the fuck is behind all of this and made it as brutal and merciless of an existence as it truly is really by all intents and purposes *gestures broadly around* doesn't give two flying fucks about.
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That sounds rather ominously vague.
 
Nitramy said:
Left-leaning liberal until that lying charlatan with plaid and hoop earrings started that video series to try and politicize my hobby knowing that her army of media and academia will cover for her at every turn.

Then another purple-haired lying harlot (with an actual body count now! WHO KNEW?) just got away with everything because her cult of personality consisting of academics, journalists, and developers just couldn't stomach the possibility that a woman did something stupid.
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I fully agree with you. Fuck the current left and their sucking the cocks of the corporations. The left is supposed to be against the corporations and for the common worker. Not this current abomination that acts like they are the underdog lacking all self awareness that they are the establishment.
 
I didn't care about politics for most of my life and just voted Republican like my family did. Then Hillary Clinton ran for president.
I will vote for Trump in 2020 but after that, Things MUST Change. Corporations own politicians, Money needs to be taken out of politics by any means.
Edit: Nutjob moment has been fixed.
 
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Brutus said:
I didn't care about politics for most of my life and just voted Republican like my family did. Then Hillary Clinton ran for president.
I will vote for Trump in 2020 but after that, Things MUST Change. Corporations own politicians, Money needs to be taken out of politics by any means.
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Unfortunately money has been part of politics since the time of Babylon, and nothing will ever change that.

I too used to naively believe money could be taken out of politics, but I've realized how foolishly futile an effort that pursuit truly is. All you can do is try to make sure the politicians are accurately reporting their incomes and paying the proper taxes, anymore is a wasted effort.
 
Bacle said:
Unfortunately money has been part of politics since the time of Babylon, and nothing will ever change that.

I too used to naively believe money could be taken out of politics, but I've realized how foolishly futile an effort that pursuit truly is. All you can do is try to make sure the politicians are accurately reporting their incomes and paying the proper taxes, anymore is a wasted effort.
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Because politics is not a poor man's endeavor. It is always been those with the most time and resources (like money) that can even think about it.

It doesn't help that humans naturally fall into hierarchies no matter what because that's part of the human condition as well.
 
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