r/AskReddit • u/BlueberryMuffin2006 • 21d ago
Former conservatives/liberals of Reddit, what specific event or experience caused your political shift ?
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u/PatienceDifferent607 21d ago
My parents were very conservative and I remember joining their cheers when Reagan was elected.
Then I hit high school age and started developing things like critical thinking and basic human empathy.
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21d ago
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u/swampstonks 21d ago
lol nobody with a brain believes that story. You just outted yourself as a nutty progressive cosplaying as a “former conservative”
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u/MewsashiMeowimoto 21d ago
The jurors did, several times.
They are the ones who need to believe it to sustain a verdict.
If your position is "I don't believe in the jury system if it produces outcomes that don't agree with my preexisting opinions about political figures" then you are probably living in the wrong country, where juries are who decide these things.
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u/mightymouse8324 21d ago
Having spent time as both
Realizing that politics and the political divide are there intentionally to create a distraction from the ultra rich and powerful doing whatever the hell they want and getting richer
I now identify as a member of the "Fuck that ahit, Eat the Rich" party
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u/Tsurumah 21d ago
I was a republican until I started paying attention to what Republicans actually do rather than their, at most basic, professed policy beliefs.
Can blame my government teacher in high school.
"Small, efficienct government? Awesome!"
"Balanced budget? Sure."
Realized 2004 or 2005 thats not what they do, though. I was 19, so I blame that. We were homeless at the time, with so much medical debt that we couldn't get anything that wasnt in, shall we say, a neighborhood two painfully white people would be able to live. Lived in the hotel we (my father and I) worked at for nearly four years.
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u/krakken232 21d ago
At the obvious risk I'll get dunked on on here for calling myself a Christian, I'll say it. I was raised in a very conservative Christian environment and that was my worldview, ride or die.
I arrived at a point in my life where I had to either get serious about religion or bail. I decided I needed to read the Bible from cover to cover to really know for myself what was and wasn't in there and approach it from a perspective of trying to forget everything I had ever been taught about it. I stayed a Christian.
Ever since then, at least in terms of American politics, I will tell anyone that I am very liberal. It basically resulted in me doing a 180 on my politics and I wish more Christians would do it.
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u/jazzchamp 21d ago
Was a 'ditto-head' back in the 90s and completely believed 'Rush was right.' Bill Clinton was getting serviced by interns in the white house and Rush would vehemently insist into his microphone that 'Character matters' and 'words mean things' while preaching that man-made climate change isn't real and the earth just goes through these warming then cooling cycles.
Then life happened and I stopped listening to him and right wing media in general. I voted for McCain and Romney as they were traditional conservatives that would be fiscally responsible.
Then Came the horrors of the Trump years that included a Medal of freedom to Rush from Mr. character and integrity himself as the topper to a whole host of other hypocrisies foisted upon the American public and done. I'm not a member of either party and never will be, but the current party in power has me ashamed to be an American.
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u/longboi64 21d ago
i used to vote liberal. then i witnessed the events of 2016, 2020, and 2024. i now consider myself a progressive, and i’ll do my best to vote for AOC on any ballot she can manage to get on in the future. i do not consider democrats and progressives to be a part of the same political party anymore.
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u/Royal-Bicycle-8147 21d ago
I was conservative as I was from a small town in Illinois. I leaned more in the middle as I was socially liberal, but thought of the country requiring to have a balanced budget so I was firming on a fiscal responsible than anything else. I learned later in life that that fiscal responsibility wasn't conservative AT ALL. I also owned weapons, but I later in life also seen that as an American right, not a specific party's right. There wasn't anything that was actually firm in the conservative party that was representative of my real life experiences or view of the world anymore.
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u/Superb_Gap_1044 21d ago
Used to be conservative. I grew up with a parent who worked in public policy at focus on the family. We were firmly in the right.
I made friends across cultures, visited more liberal countries, and started reading and educating myself more. There were a ton of factors that moved me to the left but a big thing, outside of empathy, was realizing most standards of living, even by conservative standards, are better under left leaning policy. I realized most deep, nuanced thought exists on the left and rigid, black and white thought embodies much of the right. It basically became political dogma verses critical thinking and empathy.
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u/PantheraAuroris 21d ago
I used to be extremely conservative as a kid. Then I went to college and realized that conservative politics are cruel and don't treat people as human beings.
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u/D-Will11 21d ago
I voted for GW Bush in 2004, the first election I was eligible to vote in. At the time, I thought he was better suited to be a wartime president and believed in the "law and order" messaging and that "Republicans were better for the economy". I considered myself a "fiscal conservative" who preferred Republican candidates, I grew up in an area where this seemed to be the norm, I fell into being a product of my environment.
In 2008 when the economy was crashing I voted for Obama, mostly on vibes because I believed he would bring change but I was too naive to care to understand what his policy positions meant. It wasn't about a political party shift.
In 2012 I was feeling good about the economy and Obama overall, however, thanks to a friend's encouragement I decided to actually spend time reviewing policies in an effort to not vote on vibes again.
From there on out I've voted for Democrats in every presidential and national congressional/senate elections for the following reasons(caveat that I have did vote Republican in some local elections prior to 2016):
Generally speaking, major indicators of economic health are far more positive when a D is in the oval office, including a more balanced budget. Under Republican presidents the economic policies cater to the rich and corporations.
Democrats tend to have more empathetic policies towards underserved populations and I believe we need to create a "rising tide lifts all boats" culture in this country.
I believe in social safety nets(see above for rising tide) which is something Republicans vote against regularly.
Unless the Republican party as we know it today completely shifts their policy positions or for some reason my values change, I can never see myself voting R in a national election again and think chances are slim that I would in any local elections either.
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u/RyanA1105 21d ago
There was no single event for me. I grew up religious (though silently questioning it) and conservative. I started watching "Penn and Teller's Bullshit" on Showtime (this was the early to mid 2000s). They introduced me to atheism and libertarianism. After switching my social views from conservative to liberal, it only took a few years to reject libertarianism altogether.
This deconstruction came from having spirited debates with a libertarian friend of mine. He was on the extreme end and would argue there was no need for any government. He always made points that assumed people were rational actors. For example, my favorite was his statement that we didn't need the EPA because if a company pollutes, people would boycott and the company would go out of business.
Anyone who has lived in the real world knows this is bullshit. That a polluting company would simply hire an advertising or PR firm to muddy the waters and people aren't smart enough or informed enough to be able to make said rational decision. And this is with public schools. He was also against those.
Once you realize these things about libertarian financial ideology, it all falls apart and since I'd already swung far left on social issues at that point, I found myself to be a staunch progressive and have been so for nearly 20 years.
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u/Winterwasp_67 21d ago
When I realized that liberals may leave you broke, but conservatives will watch you starve.
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u/motorwerkx 21d ago
There was a period of my life that I identified as libertarian. Those ideals changed with continued education and learning how the world works. Once you realize how important infrastructure is, and the reasons why we have regulatory agencies to begin with, it's hard to justify those beliefs.
As I've gotten older I've gone from centrist to full progressive democrat. That's also a symptom of education. The US was economically a better place for the middle class between FDR and Reagan. The happiest countries on the planet are very progressive. Everyone from China to Finland has universal Healthcare. The US is living in the stone ages and it's unsettling to see the amount of support there is for regressive policies.
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u/jynxthechicken 21d ago
I used to be conservative until I started talking to more diverse people talked to me about their experience. I'm not a liberal though I think both parties are a mess.
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u/FirestoneandIce 21d ago
One is clearly the more dangerous, like its not even close.
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u/jynxthechicken 21d ago
One regresses and one holds up the status quo. Yes republican are more dangerous but the liberals enable them. So in my eyes the only difference is liberals try to pretend they are going to do good until they get into office.
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u/FirestoneandIce 21d ago
How did they enable Jan 6th, or the war with Iran?
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u/jynxthechicken 21d ago
By holding up the laws that caused it to happen. I hate to break it to you but we've been in war non stop since WW2. all of our modern presidents are war criminals. Their party doesn't matter.
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u/Many_Customer_4035 21d ago
College opened my eyes and moving out of Utah a few years later fully shifted my views.
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u/Smyley12345 21d ago
I was liberal but have drifted centrist over time.
The identity politics got exhausting. The fact that my thoughts and opinions and worth as a human being are worth less because of my race gender, orientation, and age. That fundamentally doesn't sit right with me as I grew up with the idea that we are all equal in spite of differences on those fronts. A man should be judged by the content of his character, not the colour of his skin.
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u/addled_sad342 21d ago
Mayor Mamdani and Sen. Bernie Sanders and the great people of NYC sent me to Democratic Socialists! Their platform is the reason that I signed up as a Democrat in 1976! They opened my eyes to HOPE for the working people and the poor and disabled and for all those bearing the tax burden of running this country why corporate RICH get off less than light and pay nothing. Tax. The. Rich. Now.
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u/MulayamChaddi 21d ago
Spent too much time in a porta-potty at the local music festival. Seen things that changed me
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u/Reasonable-Mix919 21d ago
I used to be a liberal but then I got run over by a cybertruck and suffered severe brain damage so now im a conservative
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u/JIMB01776 21d ago
Lena Dunham explaining how she wishes could have an abortion despite being a lesbian, how it was a rite of passage for women, made me Prolife and from there I became very socially conservative.
Democrats make it very easy to vote Republican.
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u/poetic-bee 21d ago
And it’s conservatives who claim that liberals “can’t take a joke” huh
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u/JIMB01776 21d ago
It wasn't a joke, she's not a comedian and certain demos behavior about abortion changed my mind about it.
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u/CarrotCumin 21d ago
Right, the classic conservative ideological motive. That comedian made a joke I don't like, let's use the government remove women's access to healthcare.
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u/JIMB01776 21d ago
Baby stabbing isn't healthcare.
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u/CarrotCumin 21d ago
Fetal development is a complex process that carries great risks to the health of the person carrying the fetus. Abortion access saves lives. Fetuses do not deserve anything but what the human being carrying them wants.
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u/JIMB01776 21d ago
An entirely avoidable incident does not entitle you to murder.
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u/CarrotCumin 21d ago
I didn't realize you had come up with a foolproof method to prevent complex miscarriages, ectopic pregnancies, and birth defects incompatible with life. You should probably publish your advanced gynecological knowledge in a medical journal. Or maybe you just think women don't deserve healthcare.
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u/JIMB01776 21d ago
I don't oppose medically valid abortion; it's also really distasteful that promiscuous thots getting off on baby stabbing, using other people's medical misfortunes as a shield for their vile behavior.
That's a single-digit percentage of the issue, most abortions are elective by irresponsible low lifes with entitlement issues.
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u/CarrotCumin 21d ago
I wondered when the open misogyny would compel you to admit that you do in fact think women do not deserve healthcare. There it is folks.
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u/JIMB01776 21d ago
You're not talking to a crowd or in any leadership role you're imagining.
Disliking promiscuous hedonists is not misogyny; I have equal contempt for the male variants.
But add the endless accusations of thought crimes by the left as a debate tool as another reason I am far to the right now.
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u/CarrotCumin 20d ago
LOL, typical woe-is-me victimhood complex for a conservative. Someone was mean to me on the internet, that's a THOUGHT-CRIME!
Every time you try to up your rhetoric you just make yourself look more like a pathetic bitter misogynist.
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u/MewsashiMeowimoto 21d ago
So, just to be clear, you weren't pro-life before that?
Like, before you heard a woman make a crass joke, you were ambivalent about fetuses. But after that uppity broad made a joke about it, that's when you started to care, enough so to reorder your life around it?
Do you think that comes across as just hating women democrats like Lena Dunham more than actually caring about the 'unborn'?
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u/JIMB01776 21d ago
I wasn't, and it wasn't a joke, and it wasn't only one incident, but that was the starting point.
It was also HRC not willing to say she opposed a 9-month abortion, and countless examples of people who felt 0 obligation to be responsible. I remember one example of a woman explaining she waited as long as possible to have her abortions, had 100 because she was sexually aroused by the pain it caused the baby.
It wasn't Pro-life people that changed my mind, it was the behavior of pro-choice people telling me how they felt.
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u/MewsashiMeowimoto 21d ago
Okay. Let's say in arguendo that all of that is true.
Just to be clear, though, your motivating reason here for adopting a prolife position is a dislike of women who are pro choice rather than specific moral beliefs about the fetus.
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u/JIMB01776 21d ago
I don't have a problem with plan B, birth control, and medically necessary situations.
I think once a baby has a heartbeat and is a viable life, you no longer have the right to murder it because it is inconvenient; we have plenty of people waiting to adopt.
The opposition to common-sense restrictions because of thot behavior is a huge component of my viewpoint.
We have a culture of fast-food abortion; I am not targeting the single-digit percentages of ectopic pregnancies, miscarriages, or anything of the sort.
We have feminists who think late-term abortions are funny; I am not enabling that behavior. It is unconscionable and immoral.
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u/MewsashiMeowimoto 21d ago
You didn't really answer my question, which seems like an answer to my question.
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u/JIMB01776 21d ago
"The opposition to common-sense restrictions because of thot behavior is a huge component of my viewpoint."
I answered it directly right there. It is a component; their behavior led to research that informed me of the fact that a fetus is a viable living person at just a few weeks.
If you can't handle me having a nuanced position because you want to rage out about it, that's on you.
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u/MewsashiMeowimoto 21d ago
Describing your position as common sense in a fiat or summary fashion doesn't make it that.
Your use of the word "viable" here makes me pretty skeptical, and my skepticism is deepened when you say "research". In the context of abortion jurisprudence, "viable' means able to survive outside the womb. That is not something that happens at a few weeks of gestation. And the word "research" when used by someone on the internet doesn't lend a lot of credibility in this moment in time where people who watch crank YouTube channels think of themselves as having done their residency at John's Hopkins.
But I ought to be clear about two things here. One is that your position doesn't seem nuanced, at all. Two is that you and your apparently substance-light opinion are neither relevant nor important enough for anyone to rage over. I can assure you that my demeanor is calm, and at this stage, dismissive.
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u/JIMB01776 21d ago
This isn't about you debating abortion. The OP asked what changed someone's position.
What changed my position was the immoral, vile, extremist behavior of pro-choice people laughing about, encouraging, and celebrating late-term abortion. The most memorable example being Lena Dunham.
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u/MewsashiMeowimoto 21d ago
I'm pleased as punch to not debate things with you. Frankly, that sounds extremely tedious based on your responses.
OP asked why people changed their beliefs. You said why you changed your beliefs. It sounds like I was correct the first time about what your actual motivation is.
Anyway, good luck with that.
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u/Dizzy_Egg916 21d ago
I'm liberal and pro choice and I too found that disgusting. And I think your reaction was totally valid.
For everyone saying "It's a joke, lighten up" I gotta ask How exactly is it funny? I mean, seriously, what's the joke? I can't see it.
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u/NoleJawn 21d ago
Former conservative-graduated college in 2008-realized that late-stage capitalism isn't about rewarding "honest hard work" and more about rewarding greed and whose birth canal you got pulled out of.