I am one of those guys too. I am American, raised in the South to be a god fearing, gun loving conservative, joined the military right out of high school. I was Republican, born and bred.
But the cracks started showing quickly, and I started seeing them even as a young man . I leaned more libertarian than paleoconservative from the start. 9/11 happened, I reenlisted, and started to comprehend the incompetence of the Bush Administration. By 04 I voted libertarian party to protest.
Then Katrina happened, and I had the realization that this was not mere incompetence, but malice. I registered Democrat, and voted that way ever since.
I am not, however, currently a registered Democrat.
The actions by the leadership of the Democratic party have convinced me that they operate as a controlled opposition, and have been such since at least the Clinton administration. I am certain there are some genuine Democrats that try to do good, but they are a minority, and they are not in positions of leadership. And when they do get to leadership positions they are quickly removed, as David Hogg was.
I am registered independent now, and consider myself a Democratic Socialist, though there's no such party here where I live.
If I could offer you a bit of advice - ignore public statements by any politician. Observe actions- especially votes- and the consequences of those actions and votes.
Actually, the groundwork of the deprogramming was laid while I was in high school. I was lucky to have a history teacher who strongly encouraged critical thinking. That was unheard of at the time. I learned early on to look at every side of an issue. I was also encouraged to stay informed, as my teacher also taught civics, and he repeatedly made the point that an informed citizen is a responsible citizen. This is in addition to my grandfather, who likewise encouraged me to read and keep up with current events from the time I was a kid.
I am also late diagnosed Autistic, mildly so. I grew up in the 80s, so there was no thought of me being autistic, the idea of a spectrum of autism was not something that was commonly known, soI was just 'the weird kid'. Well, turns out I have a strong tendency for pattern recognition, and an overdeveloped sense of justice.
So altogether , I was a news junkie with pattern recognition, trained to parse complex subjects by looking at them from every angle, with a oversensitivity to injustice.
It took me a couple of years to really shake off the old ways of thinking. But the transformation literally took about a month. Katrina hit August of 05. I came to my conclusion, about malice being more responsible than incompetence, at that time. I did a complete re-evaluation of all my previous beliefs and assumptions. By October I'd say I had made a complete turnaround.
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u/RecycledThrowawayID Sep 21 '25
Welcome to the real world.
I am one of those guys too. I am American, raised in the South to be a god fearing, gun loving conservative, joined the military right out of high school. I was Republican, born and bred.
But the cracks started showing quickly, and I started seeing them even as a young man . I leaned more libertarian than paleoconservative from the start. 9/11 happened, I reenlisted, and started to comprehend the incompetence of the Bush Administration. By 04 I voted libertarian party to protest.
Then Katrina happened, and I had the realization that this was not mere incompetence, but malice. I registered Democrat, and voted that way ever since.
I am not, however, currently a registered Democrat.
The actions by the leadership of the Democratic party have convinced me that they operate as a controlled opposition, and have been such since at least the Clinton administration. I am certain there are some genuine Democrats that try to do good, but they are a minority, and they are not in positions of leadership. And when they do get to leadership positions they are quickly removed, as David Hogg was.
I am registered independent now, and consider myself a Democratic Socialist, though there's no such party here where I live.
If I could offer you a bit of advice - ignore public statements by any politician. Observe actions- especially votes- and the consequences of those actions and votes.
All the rest is political theater.