Have your political views changed over time? (1 Viewer)

[Graney]

I'm interested in whether members of this forum have become more Socially Authoritarian or Libertarian, Economically Left or Right. If you've undergone any radical reappraisal, or shift in your viewpoint?

Everyone is brought up with their parents beliefs and eventually has to decide if will remain true to them.

For me personally, I've always been extremely socially libertarian and remain so. It's a given with how I was brought up, middle class, both parents holding uni degrees etc...

From early high school, up to my early uni days, I would have said I was a communist.

I guess the charges many people make, that the public school system is run in such a way as to indoctrinate children in socialism and marxism is basically fair. You're taught many times who Karl Marx was and what communism and marxism stand for, but you're never taught why we believe these are wrong, and I was never once taught in 13 years of education, why we believe in free markets and why they work best.

I saw that there were problems in society, and unlike my classmates, I didn't blindly accept the status quo for no reason. The only debunking of communism I ever got in school, from teacher or student, was "under communism, why would people work as a doctor when they would get paid the same as a bum who cleans toilets", which wasn't exactly overwhelming in it's academic rigour. So I latched onto the best utopian ideology that was offered to me,

I thought the way the West tried to defend the ideology of capitalism, with often repeated simple buzzwords like "freedom", were meaningless platitudes, freedom for some, oppression for the many. I really hate my educators and parents for teaching me so little. Why did nobody ever take me aside and politely try to educate me in liberalism?

It was only once I got to uni, and someone actually explained to my why the market works, my beliefs changed quickly. It made so much sense and fitted quite perfectly with my existing assurances of the need for social liberalism.

 

[Graney]

A+ thread, rep plox.

 

[jb_nc]

I was a libertarian but then I found out I had bipolar disorder, started taking my medication and am now a liberal.

 

[Numero Uno]

always been a secular progressive

 

[withoutaface]

always been a secular progressive

Less buzzwords, more description.

Went through high school without any real semblance of a political viewpoint, then decided I hated compulsory student unionism at uni so joined the Liberal club there, then progressed fairly quickly towards extreme libertarianism, which has been ratcheted back a bit to the point where I'd probably consider myself more a pragmatic liberal than anything else.

 

[A High Way Man]

apathetic -> liberal -> Centrist? (I just hate partisans now)

 

[moll.]

I grew up in an incredibly conservative family, both socially and eocnomically. My mother has voted Liberal her entire life, whilst the only occassion upon which my father voted Labor was in '72 to opt out of being conscripted and deployed in 'Nam. Both my parents (but mostly my mother) are also inherently racist and believe that the only possible reason someone could suffer hardships in life is because they are self-inflicted, most of the time by drug-taking.

Up until two or so years ago, i agreed wholeheartedly with their ideology, believeing as most children do that their parents are always right. However, since i began reading more extensively and paying more attention to the world around me, i have to come the realisation that they are of course wrong in many aspects, and that social libertarianism and liberalism are the only real ways for a society to function healthily, or as healthily as a human being with all their faults can make it.

It should be noted however, that like my parents i remain an economic conservative, putting my full faith behind the free market in most matters (but not all of course). I think that the economic left has been thoroughly debunked throughout history, in a long process of trial and error, as a bringer of wealth and higher standards of living to the peoples.

 

[Graney]

haha, you're parents are racist, draft dodgers, traitors to this nation, and generally terrible human beings.

Unlucky.

 

[sam04u]

Been shifting back and forth from Center-Left to Left for the last few years.

 

[Groucho Marxist]

used to be a massive pinko but i've moved more towards the centre lately

now i just pretty much switch from left to right depending on who i'm arguing with

 

[Gerald10]

I was never once taught in 13 years of education, why we believe in free markets and why they work best.

You should have taken economics.

But I agree that there are many things taught in economics that people really should know and be taught at High School.

In terms of me - I'd say I am more toward the centre than my parents. I believe a well regulated capitalist system in the framework of a liberal democracy is the best way.

 

[zstar]

I am a anarco-fascist/Social Darwinist


I believe the government should go fuck itself and corporations should feel free to rule over us as they are productive.

I believe laws are stupid and do nothing.

I believe everyone should have a right to a gun.

I believe we should privatize every single thing.

I hate Commies and think they should all be shot and lynched.

 

[blue_chameleon]

My views haven't really changed that much.

I'd say that over my time here I've shifted away from a more conservative liberalist view to a more centralist libertarianist.

Pretty much centralist really.

 

[Groucho Marxist]

I am a anarco-fascist/Social Darwinist


I believe the government should go fuck itself and corporations should feel free to rule over us as they are productive.

I believe laws are stupid and do nothing.

I believe everyone should have a right to a gun.

I believe we should privatize every single thing.

I hate Commies and think they should all be shot and lynched.

wat

 

[Silver Persian]

Nope. I've realised that I'm always right about everything.

 

[incentivation]

I don't easily fit into any political philosophy. Socially conservative, yet often economically liberal (if possible). I've come to realise the need to balance the rights of the individual and government intervention.

Free markets are only effective to a point.

I'm not really an expert in political philosophy though.

 

[King.BBjames]

used to be socially ultra conservative. religiously minded. now the exact opposite.

 

[Zeitgeist308]

I try not to think back on my political past. I once occupied the anti-working class swamp of social-democratic and green politics. Luckily of course I got a job and happened upon Marx shortly afterward.

It was only once I got to uni, and someone actually explained to my why the market works

Quite obviously, Graney, you were never much of a communist. I think your phase is best described by an appeal to "youthful rebelliousness". If you wanted to learn something about capitalism you aught to read Marx.

 

[Kujah]

Been drifting to libertarianism and support of the free market over the past few years.

 

[Lentern]

I used to call myself a communist but didn't really understand Marxism propperly. These days I call myself a a democratic socialist but am sympathetic to Keynes. A year or two I'd have had no time for Keynes.