Was quite left leaning, but have slowly been turned off by the left.

[oxymoronic]

How is it the saying goes again, if you are not a liberal at 25 you have no heart -- if you are not a conservative at 35 you have no brain.

and trust me its true to a degree

just wish the republicans wasn't hijacked by radicals and they weren't so damn religious. more of a democrat myself but like one said the special interest groups and horrible lack of direction/leadership since obama's departure. obama also i feel created this racial divide or at least exposed it. i never knew how much blacks hated white people. i guess they have good reasons but for this country to move forward both sides need to get over that shit.

[Theinquisition]

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank...ting-behavior/

so it's pretty complicated, but according to the study, as people get older they fall more and more into two categories. Steadfast conservatives and business conservatives (fiscally conservative), and faith and family left and solid liberals (faith and family left is a bit more liberal fiscally, but conservative socially).

so in short, as people get older they become either more fiscally conservative or socially conservative.

[JohnBrown1917]

Seems you got a problem with the authoritarian parts, not the economic scale. Just find out whatever your countries democratic socialist/left wing libertarian parties are,

Got any evidence to back this up?

Anecdotal ones probably.
I could always counter it with my own anecdotes, so it'd be pointless lol

[Theinquisition]

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank...ting-behavior/

so it's pretty complicated, but according to the study, as people get older they fall more and more into two categories. Steadfast conservatives and business conservatives (fiscally conservative), and faith and family left and solid liberals (faith and family left is a bit more liberal fiscally, but conservative socially).

so in short, as people get older they become either more fiscally conservative or socially conservative.

to caveat onto this, I believe that over the next 10 years we will see a growth in the "faith and family" left as stupidity like 3rd wave feminism, intersectionaility, identity politics, and virtue signaling continue to push people further and further to the right.

[Exedore]

I am for universal healthcare and taxes to pay for services and infrastructure. But i do not like how both the right/left continue to make laws to protect us from ourselves. I am also angry about the right and left are invading our privacy.

If you want the government to do more, you have to accept government dictating more about how you live your life. You can't have one without the other.

For example, you want universal healthcare. Well if the government has to pay for that, then the government now has a vested interest in reducing its costs. One way to reduce healthcare costs significantly is for people to live healthy lifestyles instead of being fat-asses who watch TV all day. That's why the same politicians who propose government-funded insurance also propose "sin" taxes and similar regulation in order coerce lifestyle choices.

[Orange Joe]

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank...ting-behavior/

so it's pretty complicated, but according to the study, as people get older they fall more and more into two categories. Steadfast conservatives and business conservatives (fiscally conservative), and faith and family left and solid liberals (faith and family left is a bit more liberal fiscally, but conservative socially).

so in short, as people get older they become either more fiscally conservative or socially conservative.

um... That is not even close to what that says. Thats says what people are currently as of the pole. Makes no mention on if they were liberal while younger.


There is no question the current younger generation is much more liberal than the older generation.


I mean right at the end of it.

Pew Research Center surveys over the past two decades also have found compelling evidence that generations carry with them the imprint of early political experiences..

Meaning you identify what you are while still pretty young and it carries on through your life.

[Better]

Which is also both sides because the right screams "commie" at everyone from John McCain to literal communists.

Are you arguing that being called a communist is equally bad as being called a nazi/white supremacist? Communism isn't inherently a bad thing, and can have many different beliefs attached to it. Being called a Nazi/white supremacist pretty much implies you hate everyone who isn't white, and want them killed more or less... They're a bit different.

[Wyrt]

If you want the government to do more, you have to accept government dictating more about how you live your life. You can't have one without the other.

For example, you want universal healthcare. Well if the government has to pay for that, then the government now has a vested interest in reducing its costs. One way to reduce healthcare costs significantly is for people to live healthy lifestyles instead of being fat-asses who watch TV all day. That's why the same politicians who propose government-funded insurance also propose "sin" taxes and similar regulation in order coerce lifestyle choices.

Um, they already do this with taxes on things like soda, cigarettes, and alcohol.

- - - Updated - - -

Are you arguing that being called a communist is equally bad as being called a nazi/white supremacist? Communism isn't inherently a bad thing, and can have many different beliefs attached to it. Being called a Nazi/white supremacist pretty much implies you hate everyone who isn't white, and want them killed more or less... They're a bit different.

In America? Communism is associated with Stalin who murdered millions of people. That's what they're accusing people of.

[JohnBrown1917]

I started becoming more conservative after I started working, I got my first paycheck and i saw how much was taken off in tax and national insurance.

Conservatives can be in favour of higher taxes, i'm assuming you mean liberal-conservatives/right-wing conservatives?

- - - Updated - - -

to caveat onto this, I believe that over the next 10 years we will see a growth in the "faith and family" left as stupidity like 3rd wave feminism, intersectionaility, identity politics, and virtue signaling continue to push people further and further to the right.

Ye.... that bullshit does not actually exist in politics outside the US.
...Not in any meaningfull manner, and it has nothing to do with what it means to be left wing.

[Zeek Daniels]

Got any evidence to back this up?

I think its more if your a working person you should know that its on you not anyone else to provide for you. If your young you feel that you still need to be taken care of.

[PC2]

Got any evidence to back this up?

The reality isn't a linear trend but there is some truth in the statement. People become more financially independent as they earn more. Wanting relatively less government spending than low income people. The average person makes more as they age, up to nearly 50. Thus there will be a bell curve-like effect on how dependent they feel on the government.

[Independent voter]

When your 18 and you don't have a house, job or family you can take risks, what's there to lose. But when you start work, get a mortgage, car payments, wife and kids, you no longer take risks, you become conservative in your decisions, you have things to protect.

[Garnier Fructis]

Have your politcal prefernces changed recently as parties change and become seemingly more extreme?

I started out right wing. Dumped it about 8 years ago (about the time I joined this forum, coincidentally) because I couldn't accept the opposition to gay rights, and because I couldn't accept the opposition to scientific reality on evolution and climate change.

I went further left as a reaction to the utter retardation that the right displayed throughout Obama's years, as they pretty much demonstrated that they didn't give a single fuck about good governance or compromise.

In recent years I've come back around to the center on a few issues; e.g. I would rather we focus more on building up our military advantage because about the last thing I want to see is China being the number 1 superpower a few decades down the line. I've also come to the conclusion that populism can go fuck itself, which means fuck OWS, the Tea Party, BernieBros, etc.

That being said, I simply can't imagine myself ever returning to the right until they drop some of their core idiotic principles and dump the evangelicals, so I may be waiting a long while. Frankly, I can stomach the Baskin Robbins gender spectrum much better than I can stomach 'we're not changing the climate!' Because the former isn't going to kill anyone, while the latter is going to wipe out some whole nations.

Edit: As a side note, when I first started paying taxes the thought did cross my mind that maybe I should vote for people to reduce my taxes. I quickly banished that thought because I remembered that the people I despise most in U.S. politics are the people who filter reality through their wallets, and I couldn't live with myself if I became one of those hacks.

[JohnBrown1917]

The defensiveness from the Left in this thread is hilarious :P

Great argument.

[Azadina]

Are you arguing that being called a communist is equally bad as being called a nazi/white supremacist? Communism isn't inherently a bad thing, and can have many different beliefs attached to it. Being called a Nazi/white supremacist pretty much implies you hate everyone who isn't white, and want them killed more or less... They're a bit different.

Are you seriously going to ignore what the people mean by the communist insult? Hint: Stalins communism. Yeah, that one.

[JohnBrown1917]

When your 18 and you don't have a house, job or family you can take risks, what's there to lose. But when you start work, get a mortgage, car payments, wife and kids, you no longer take risks, you become conservative in your decisions, you have things to protect.

Meanwhile, labour was the most popular part among the seniors last election here.

[Orange Joe]

The reality isn't a linear trend but there is some truth in it. People become more financially independent as they earn more. Wanting relatively less government spending than low income people. The average person makes more as they age, up to nearly 50. Thus there will be a bell curve-like effect on how dependent they feel on the government.

Not sure what you are going on about, but it has nothing to do with his claim that people become more conservative as they age.

The article he tried to link as proof even disputes that by saying.

Pew Research Center surveys over the past two decades also have found compelling evidence that generations carry with them the imprint of early political experiences..

[Deleted]

How is it the saying goes again, if you are not a liberal at 25 you have no heart -- if you are not a conservative at 35 you have no brain.

Yeah all those dribbling redneck morons clutching their guns that you have in the states, who watch Fox News and are unable to pronounce "gaaaaawd", they really come across as members of the intelligensia.

All those Marxist professors I met in academia were really dumb.

[Wyrt]

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank...ting-behavior/

so it's pretty complicated, but according to the study, as people get older they fall more and more into two categories. Steadfast conservatives and business conservatives (fiscally conservative), and faith and family left and solid liberals (faith and family left is a bit more liberal fiscally, but conservative socially).

so in short, as people get older they become either more fiscally conservative or socially conservative.

Funny that the old fuckers sitting with their Social Security and Medicaid are the most conservative.

[Allybeboba]

Which is funny when you look at how the highly educated lean more left than they do right.

The "highly educated" don't bother with politics.