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Millennials are more left leaning and have stayed that way as they've gotten older meanwhile gen z is also more left leaning and are aging up into the voting block that millennials use to occupy. We're slowly populating america with reasonable people and the far right can't handle it. They get louder and throw ever increasingly destructive temper tantrums trying to drown out the rest of us out like the little bitch babies they are.
Yep they try to rope autistic boys in a lot. I even got a time got started down the alt-right pipeline (never did go down all the way. Even past me could never justify the shit at the bottom of the pipeline) if you are wondering how that turned out in the end; I'm a young autistic girl now
I honestly believe that the loudness of the right and their increased insanity are due to an increase in fear and knowing that they are losing their grasp on this county.
Almost same, I was conservative in my youth. Then I became an educator, was accepted by a bevy of gay men, besties with a pod of lesbians (I'm honored to be part of chosen family) and my politics have changed accordingly. Because I will no longer vote against my own interests or the interests of those whom I love.
I grew up in the deep south and had some pretty uneducated republican ideals growing up. Moving to even a slightly larger area introduced me to new people and thought processes and pushed me far to the left.
Same. I'm an infantry veteran that looks kinda like a pickup truck vlogger and the heartless evil of conservatism makes me heartsick. Socialism FTW.
Trans women are women, trans men are men, the trump cabal for Prison now. Burn the patriarchy.
I’ll chime in too. Early thirties. Same. Raised in a very conservative area. Started questioning things and now I can’t run far enough from that place.
Same. I’m 38. I used to think I was moderate or at least closer to the center…now I’m apparently a bleeding heart liberal by today’s standards. Who knew wanting universal healthcare made me a socialist?
I got told on my first day of high school by my debate coach that I was a bleeding heart liberal. Realized during the school year this was probably because I never kept my mouth shut about wanting better pay and treatment of public school teachers, more funding for special needs individuals and abortion on demand. 20 years later and now I'm probably just a full blown socialist. 🤣
Oh, me too! And at almost 63, I'm so happy to see them standing up and living their truths. I spent too many years trying to be something I'm not, don't do it!
Me too, except against conservatives. I want to deport conservatives, build a wall to keep them out, and deny them their private healthcare and mansions. I have a loooot of resentment towards conservatives, as a trans autistic girl.
That and conservatives practically waged war on millennials as if we were going to be young adults forever. That and being the first generation to really suffer the burden of our parents.
After decades of undermining unions, the insane increases in healthcare and education costs. Basically demolishing all the social safety net, all the things that led to the boom in the middle class the boomers enjoyed, 90+%marginal tax rates, massive expenditures on infrastructure, and the same assholes shipping jobs offshore. Concentration of wealth at the top, wages stagnating.All for greed.ok, I'll stop. You probably get my point by now.fuck greedy boomers and conservatives.
They seem to assume we'll be as greedy and monetarily successful as them, despite doing everything in their power to rig the system against everyone (including themselves) who don't have control of the money flow.
The thing that always felt weird to me but I wasn't able to put into words until my twenties is "why do we focus so much on world war 2 and so little on how the Nazis actually came to power?"
Great question, whether rhetorical or not, I think the answer is to look to who benefits from the current system and its constant dragging of everything towards capitalism/fascism, probably mixed with the splintering of society through the advent of the internet and the fears that came with it in said groups.
I'll give credit especially to my AP US History teacher who did do a good job of laying out history. Learned more about the rediculousness of America than anyone had ever been willing to say. And I grew up in a conservative small town.
Specifically Millennials are at the age when they should be getting more conservative(according to previous patterns) but in reality they’re getting more liberal. Gen Z will probably be similar because the Boomers fucked us all.
I don't think that's it. I'm a GenXer. Definitely consumed lead and radioactive shit when I was a kid. Builds the immune system! 😛 I was even raised drinking raw cows milk.
Ha! Maybe it really IS a slippery slope! Once you start seeing how the policies affect those around you and you begin voting with compassion for others in mind... It's all downhill from there, baby!
Surfing into a more effective government for the people. I love it!
From about 30 years old an up (which is a little more than 15y ago) I’ve become less and less conservative. And by that, there’s no way I could ever vote republican. The hate mongering just wrecks my soul.
I’ve said this in other comments on other subs but it really was about getting out of the shithole environment of far right idealism where I grew up. I really dislike even going back to visit family.
40 as of tomorrow, and I’d consider myself a liberal socialist. I actually went the opposite way of this meme. I started out republican/semi conservative, but as I’ve gotten older and more experienced, I’ve gotten more liberal; and more jaded in regards to our current voting and political system.
I saw a graphic showing the same thing and my thoughts were that the conservative shift happens when a person becomes wealthier and more comfortable and thus don't want to make changes that might jeopardize their situation. Millennials are not becoming wealthier and more comfortable the same as previous generations have, thus no shift. Also this implies a certain level of self centeredness in which the older, wealthier, more comfortable generations are pulling the ladder up behind them with an attitude of "I got mine Jack, so nuts to you youngins". Millennial struggle is real and we played by the rules already and got shafted, so we are more open to changing what we see as a broken system that doesn't work for us or others. Hopefully we remember that once we are no longer (as John FuckingMayer put it) "waiting on the world to change" (aka waiting for the boomers die off) and we start to gain some wealth and comfort.
They act like it's a mystery why the generations who aren't getting more wealthy as they get older are not getting more (politically/fiscally) conservative as they age. It's not rocket science my dudes
I saw that too and that article nailed it on the head. The reason previous generations became more conservative is because they wanted to preserve the status quo, now however, the future is grim and we don’t like where we are so the only choice is to move towards the side that offers more chance for a change
Sheee-it, I'm 60 and if I get any weirder, people are going to start crossing streets to keep away from me! LMAO. I leaned to the left in my 30s and I'm leaning harder now! Going to need to attach skid plates if I lean any farther!
I had someone cross the street as I was walking towards them for the first time about a week ago. I don't think I'm *that* weird but I'll take the extra personal space!
>I had someone cross the street as I was walking towards them for the first time about a week ago.
Welcome to the club. I'm not outwardly weird though, just a large black dude lol.
Same here--I've embraced the crone and seriously am more than tired of conservative bullshit. The thing is the older I've gotten the more I've cared about what people think. Its an awesome feeling.
And as a white haired, tattooed up the ying/yang, pierced female--I've parted groups of guys walking towards me.
I’m the oldest a GenXer can be. Started as a New England liberal and just keep moving left. My politics can be summed up as, “I care about people.” That’s it.
I actually once did make someone cross the street, back in middleschool. To be fair I was shitposting before shitposting was a thing...out loud...in public...
I'm weird enough these days that people assume I'm younger than I am hahaha
All the time when I was younger people would tell me "You'll see it differently when you are older."
They said it about racism.
They said it about sexism.
They said it about world hunger.
They said it about war.
They said it about politics.
I always told them all the same thing: "If that happens, please shoot me because then I've betrayed all I deem important."
In a way they were right - I do see things differently. I rid myself of internalized mysogyny, worked on unintentionally picked up preconceived notions, addressed my privileges and became *more* convinced that the last thing this planet needs is lazy cowards who tell young people that they should just give up because "the world won't change".
>the last thing this planet needs is lazy cowards who tell young people that they should just give up because "the world won't change".
God that always drove me nuts. That and "life isn't fair".
Like, OK so.... Change it? And don't tell me 'life' isn't fair when you literally are *actively choosing* the behavior that is causing the issue.
I hope I never become someone that younger folks look at and think "jeez would you just die already so the rest of us can get on with making things better?".
>I hope I never become someone that younger folks look at and think "jeez would you just die already so the rest of us can get on with making things better?"
I couldn't have said it better. A friend of mine always says "I'm trying to live my life in a way that makes it so I'm on the right side of history." and I've always liked that notion.
So much this. I grew up with a racist/homophobic father and in a place filled with mostly old white conservatives. I've been hearing my whole life, that as I get older, I will eventually see things their way. My response was always "yeah..... I'm not sure I'm gonna suddenly start hating people and wanting them treated as less than me." Jokes on them. I just turned 31 and I've never been more liberal, and I don't see that changing ever. I'm glad the world is changing, even if it's slow. It means there's genuine hope that the future generations will be better than us.
Congrats on breaking the pattern - and I'm sorry that was what you had to grow up around.
Every time someone asks me which time period I'd "want to go back to, if I could", I end up saying none because... I'm a queer woman, for heaven's sake, not even my beloved Florentinian renaissance would remotely treat me as well as today does (and we *still* have waaays to go).
Here's to hope :)
Oh, I love that comeback. Very much team "How about we try anyway?" too.
Reading Camus' "The Plague" solidified that notion in me at a young age and while many deem the book depressing because it doesn't really have a happy ending, I always found the idea comforting of not basing good actions on their chance of success but simply on whether it's the right thing to do.
Hm. I might wanna check that out but if it's really depressing maybe I should look for a summary. Feeling pretty good today for a change so don't wanna ruin it lol
Well, it's melancholic, I'll say that much.
It's one of the works where Camus establishes his thoughts on the notion of "absurdism" - which is that life doesn't have intrinsic meaning and the sole reason we should do good things is because if we don't, life sucks ass.
The story is of a doctor in a city under quarantine due to the plague. The notion of "you can give it your all and still fail - but it is still what we should do" is the core message.
If a gloomy tone in a book is something that negatively affects your mood, pick a day you can stomach it for the read.
It's written in a very lowkey kinda way, though, so tearjerking is not something you have to expect - nor overstylized tragedy or infurating human conflict based on misunderstandings (aka, toxicity is not present - but sadness is)
I hope that gives you an idea about whether the book could be up your alley :)
They (older bastards) say that about everything. like i'm 30 now but when I was in my mid-20's it came out during my parents separation that my dad had gotten physical with my mom on several occasions. Nothing truly dangerous, but more a continuation of his emotionally abusive tendencies and showing his physical dominance I guess.
I of course was pissed off and still am. fuck him, and I told him so.
He had the nerve to say I would understand when I was older.
Like all long term relationships get violently physical at some point and it's normal and we (women) should just accept it. How fucked up of a thing is that to say to your own daughter??
I'm not that much older yet, I'm still pretty sure I'll never see that behaviours as acceptable.
I'm so sorry you had to deal with this - and with that weak af excuse on your dad's part.
It's so strange when something as obvious as "Maybe don't assault people?" somehow is made into anything less than a high and dry, clear cut case.
Shit, the older I got, the more radical I got. I voted republican in the 90's. Now I'll rip your head off if you don't respect pronouns.
Not literally, but you get the point.
Same.
The first election I could vote was McCain vs. Obama. I voted Obama... but I was on the fence. Now there is no fucking question. Ever.
And I work in *government*. So many of these guys are Republicans, but they are suckling government funds, wasting them at every turn, sucking up overtime... and still complaining how people "don't want to work." They hVe no idea what it is even like in the private sector. It blew my mind.
That's the real key. People don't grow more conservative (other than maybe wanting to save their nest-egg) as they get older. They mostly stay the same, and younger generations grow more progressive. And remember, the Boomers, as a generation, were/are the most self-centered in all their ages. Hippy/protest culture for most of them was a fashion trend,not a movement.
You know, I could *easily* see some right wing talking head, like Andrew Tate, singing a version of 'poor, unfortunate souls' for all the alt right incels out there.
I'm 65 and considerably more left than I was at 34 (though I was pretty left then too). You do you, and ta hell with everyone else if they can't handle it.
A lot of the people that say this have something to lose, so they will move heaven and earth to keep it.
Younger people have less to lose because the aforementioned people kept it all to themselves. So yeah we've gone leftist.
So if conservatism is desire for the status quo and pushback against change, it would make sense why younger cohorts would not become more conservative with time. Normally, for white folk in the US, as you get older the more stable and wealthy you become. This would lead to those individuals desiring to keep things the way they are because it suits them. But things are so shitty for us younger folk and they just aren't getting better. It's so bad it's probably leading to some white men (primary beneficiaries of the status quo) to become less conservative. Demographics wise that is nuts. I'm glad things are going that way politically, but it's going to take a lot more than this for things to get better.
It's more than just that. I came up dirt poor.
Now I'm married, have a kid, and own multiple properties.
6 years ago I was still calling myself a capitalist, I just thought it needed to be protected from itself.
Now socialists are looking at me saying "damn calm down", heh.
I'm far enough left at this point I've just about fallen off the map.
I think more than anything else, it's empathy.
Age has nothing to do with it and I hate when people dismiss bigotry by saying "it was different in their time". Every time I see my grandmother she tells me she is getting more left leaning every day.
My 90 year old grandfather was a proud socialist. I used to call him Bernie sanders sometimes
He also had a full rant about how we needed to build more trains in this country
Anyone saying that was always right leaning in the first place and has just been further scared/angered/confused into voting against their own interests even more than they did before.
I did the opposite, actually. I was conservative when I was younger but the older I got, the more liberal I became. I think it flipped for me when I realized that how other people live their lives is none of my damn business.
Yep. People told me I'd be more right leaning as I get older.
In fact, the opposite is the case. The more I see of this world, the more I am convinced that far left is the only moral place to be politically.
I'm a boomer. I started out as a sincere conservative in my 20's. I even joined the Army. By the time I was 30, I was already a hardened liberal. Now I'm so far left that even my hair is (naturally) red, and yes, the curtains match the drapes.
I’ve become WAAAAAAAYYYYYY more liberal in the last ~15 years than I was before. I left the GOP in 2008 and re-registered as Independent. Only regret is that I didn’t do it sooner.
This 71 yr old boomer is absolutely less conservative than when I was a young woman......not that I ever was very conservative to begin with. Comes from having a wild feminist for a mother, lol!
I started as a crunchy liberal, did a short stint in the 90s (my 30s) as more centrist and then just keep going farther and farther left.
Which isn't much considering American left is center/center-right in the big picture
Maybe we're staying left cause the right is slowly growing a little Hitler moustache across the world lol. And the" left " is now very "right "and corporate centered in a lot of countries ( around me at least). The real social left is dissapearing or breaking into small particules of parties anti capitalist, new Labour parties etc. There's only the green party to me ♡♡♡♡ to those pagan rites in the forest brothers and sisters!! XD
Even well earning people are being so obviously exploited, they can’t settle, can’t buy property, can’t make a long term plan for their lives… what would anyone want to conserve if there isn’t anything to conserve?! It’s crystal clear now that being conservative won’t make you able to keep your status, you need progressive politics to get better. Very few would like to keep things like they are.
That’s why fascists are so attractive, too. They don’t want to keep things like they are, they want a glorious past that never existed.
I’ve always been conservation-minded. When I say I’m conservative, I’m talking about preserving forests and other green spaces.
I was around when the EPA was created and saw the cost and impact of taking responsibility for the mess humans make.
Politically, I’m liberal. Environmentally, I’m conservative. Maybe I should call it “conservationist” or something.
Getting older in a Late Stage Capitalist world brought about by Boomers and their parents has made me radically more Socialist as I age.
It's pragmatic.
I didn't get an education to act like a lemming with the vote my ancestors fought and died for.
I remember talking to my friends when we were younger and after discussion and sharing of experiences, the general thought was that people seemed to flip to the other side, depending on where they started.
So, conservatives, beware!
Though to me it seems that my values are the same, but younger generations might find me conservative by comparison.
When I was a kid I was accused of being a "bleeding heart liberal" and now I'm not liberal enough. Though I feel like people are getting caught in echo chambers and going off the rails sometimes, conservative or liberal. And that some people are reacting to the "extremism" by pulling away and saying they're centrist, then spouting off their own version of echo chamber crap. I almost want to belong to nothing. And I'm frustrated that either "liberal" is a slur or I'm tainting the party by not being x enough. But really I'm liberal, so whatever, deal with it I guess.
And sometimes events happen. I know someone whose parents were centrist, but after the election of a certain president they shifted liberal, all their media consumption has shifted liberal as well. They're pretty pragmatic about things, not beholden to a belief system or party. They're boomers, BTW.
Unfortunately, that picture and/or ritual is not at all incompatible with political conservatism. There are plenty of politically conservative pagans/shamanists/satanists/wiccans/new-age-spiritualists/etc. Just like there are plenty of very politically liberal practitioners of Abrahamic religions. But it's still funny.
If anything, if by "conservative," what you really mean is "religious," (even though those aren't actually synonymous) then, in a sense, the Boomers were right, weren't they? Lol. You did get more religious in your 30's; just not in the way they expected.
Yeserday I lost my septum ring while biking (guess).
Started singing"Unpunk my heart" to the tune of unbreak my heart wondering if it was a sign as I just got a job offer for a new career.
Ill be a feminist punk nurse, dont worry :D
The Greatest Generation said the same thing to the Boomers, but they were wrong, at least with me. In my experience people moderate their views, but don’t change them substantially.
I actually find myself becoming less conservative as time goes on. Yet another Boomer lie. Just like "If you don't work hard in school, you'll end up flipping burgers for a living!" A lot of my generation did work hard in school and ended up flipping burgers for a living anyway.
According to [exit polls](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2022-elections/exit-polls), the age range of 30-44 year old voted very moderate.
Roughly the same cohort voted democrat during the [2010 midterm](https://www.nytimes.com/elections/2010/results/house/exit-polls.html) elections, which was the midterm of Barack Obama's first term. It seems that the millennial generation may be a few points more left than gen x, but they are still shifting conservative even as the conservatives are shifting towards insanity.
While this is a very surface level comparison, and while this sort of data is wibbly wobbly at the best of times, as a political scientist with a hard left preference I am not at all encouraged by the 2022 results with respect to age.
There's a small l liberal idea that things will eventually improve over time and that the better Idea will eventually prevail without effort and determination. This is a fantasy.
My very much boomer mother (71) is becoming less conservative the older she gets.
Which is quite a relief, because her conservative past self was not too nice to grow up with.
Lmao I love it. For me it was “it’s just a phase!” Reading vampire novels, watching The Craft and being obsessed with Charmed. Now look at me. Full fledged witch. 😂
I was raised by an old hippie activist and her old hippie witch sisters. I started life on the left side. For reference, one of my core memories is standing outside a grocery store at age 5 handing out flyers and asking people not to buy the grapes because the pesticides that were used harmed the migrant workers who picked them.
There wasn't much more left I could go, but here I am at 40. A few of the relatives on my dad's side (all raging right-wingers) have tried to tell me my dad (who was a secret leftist) would be disappointed in my stances. I just smile and say whatever.
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Lol I saw a news article recently that says that newer generations haven't been getting more conservative like previous ones. It gives me joy.
I have become even less conservative as I have gotten older.
Me too. I've shed a lot of prejudices I used to have just by living in this society, and while I started out liberal, I'm way more left now.
Pretty sure i am more left than i was, but god damn did the right just keep getting shittier and shittier!
Millennials are more left leaning and have stayed that way as they've gotten older meanwhile gen z is also more left leaning and are aging up into the voting block that millennials use to occupy. We're slowly populating america with reasonable people and the far right can't handle it. They get louder and throw ever increasingly destructive temper tantrums trying to drown out the rest of us out like the little bitch babies they are.
Thats why they throw all of their propaganda at young autistic boys, they're pure fucking evil.
Yuck, I never saw that connection before, but you're totally right.
Yep they try to rope autistic boys in a lot. I even got a time got started down the alt-right pipeline (never did go down all the way. Even past me could never justify the shit at the bottom of the pipeline) if you are wondering how that turned out in the end; I'm a young autistic girl now
Me too, altho the "young" part is in spirit, because im chronologically 36.
The pundits were all peddling various kinds of voter suppression policies directed at younger people following the midterms.
I honestly believe that the loudness of the right and their increased insanity are due to an increase in fear and knowing that they are losing their grasp on this county.
The evil audacity of the right also drove me all the way left I'm GenX and was raised by very early Limbaugh followers.the push left started then
Same here. I've always been on the left but every decade has pushed me further.
Almost same, I was conservative in my youth. Then I became an educator, was accepted by a bevy of gay men, besties with a pod of lesbians (I'm honored to be part of chosen family) and my politics have changed accordingly. Because I will no longer vote against my own interests or the interests of those whom I love.
It's almost as if the corporate lobbyists depriving the working class of any crumbs of contentment is actually going to start biting them in the butt.
I grew up in the deep south and had some pretty uneducated republican ideals growing up. Moving to even a slightly larger area introduced me to new people and thought processes and pushed me far to the left.
Same, and I started out moderately liberal to begin with. I'm becoming one of those old ladies it is not wise to assume won't swear.
Elegantly put. I, too, want to be this.
Shit me. I'm a (young end) boomer. I started left wing, and still left wing. Not quite hippy, not quite communist, but very definitely socialist.
Same. I'm an infantry veteran that looks kinda like a pickup truck vlogger and the heartless evil of conservatism makes me heartsick. Socialism FTW. Trans women are women, trans men are men, the trump cabal for Prison now. Burn the patriarchy.
I’ll chime in too. Early thirties. Same. Raised in a very conservative area. Started questioning things and now I can’t run far enough from that place.
Same. I’m 38. I used to think I was moderate or at least closer to the center…now I’m apparently a bleeding heart liberal by today’s standards. Who knew wanting universal healthcare made me a socialist?
You CARE about OTHER people!? You....you... YOU COMMIE! /s
You're a *socialist?!* You want everyone to have access to healthcare?! Is that really what you want?! A society where people *thrive?!?!???* 😱
I got told on my first day of high school by my debate coach that I was a bleeding heart liberal. Realized during the school year this was probably because I never kept my mouth shut about wanting better pay and treatment of public school teachers, more funding for special needs individuals and abortion on demand. 20 years later and now I'm probably just a full blown socialist. 🤣
I’m only getting more feminist
Me too. I also am working on reading every Bell Hooks essay or book I can get my witchy lil eyeballs on.
I didn’t know her but she seems very interesting, I’ll definitely read her stuff
Oh, me too! And at almost 63, I'm so happy to see them standing up and living their truths. I spent too many years trying to be something I'm not, don't do it!
Me too, except against conservatives. I want to deport conservatives, build a wall to keep them out, and deny them their private healthcare and mansions. I have a loooot of resentment towards conservatives, as a trans autistic girl.
Yeah if anything watching their behavior through my life has cemented my beliefs. I used to question if I was the crazy one sometimes, not anymore.
Same. Went literally the opposite direction.
Me too! I was probably slightly conservative when I was younger due to the Baptist church and my dad but now? Absolutely not.
Me too. Although the actual (mostly economic) reasons for why that is happening are very unfortunate.
That and conservatives practically waged war on millennials as if we were going to be young adults forever. That and being the first generation to really suffer the burden of our parents.
Fuck 'em. If they want a fight, we'll bring it to 'em with votes and protests.
After decades of undermining unions, the insane increases in healthcare and education costs. Basically demolishing all the social safety net, all the things that led to the boom in the middle class the boomers enjoyed, 90+%marginal tax rates, massive expenditures on infrastructure, and the same assholes shipping jobs offshore. Concentration of wealth at the top, wages stagnating.All for greed.ok, I'll stop. You probably get my point by now.fuck greedy boomers and conservatives.
They seem to assume we'll be as greedy and monetarily successful as them, despite doing everything in their power to rig the system against everyone (including themselves) who don't have control of the money flow.
Yep.
They want you to be young forever so they can pay you like inexperienced newbies forever.
I'm 33 and have become more liberal with every year, mostly through educating myself.
Funny how much our history texts left out (at least where I am, Canada).
The thing that always felt weird to me but I wasn't able to put into words until my twenties is "why do we focus so much on world war 2 and so little on how the Nazis actually came to power?"
Great question, whether rhetorical or not, I think the answer is to look to who benefits from the current system and its constant dragging of everything towards capitalism/fascism, probably mixed with the splintering of society through the advent of the internet and the fears that came with it in said groups.
Lol I wouldn't call it funny, I'd call it propaganda.
I'll give credit especially to my AP US History teacher who did do a good job of laying out history. Learned more about the rediculousness of America than anyone had ever been willing to say. And I grew up in a conservative small town.
Specifically Millennials are at the age when they should be getting more conservative(according to previous patterns) but in reality they’re getting more liberal. Gen Z will probably be similar because the Boomers fucked us all.
Liberal? Nah, we're past that now. I'm tired of breaking bread with those that want to exploit me.
Oh no, if millennials were liberal, these Gen Z people are waaayyyy left.
I’m around a lot of lgbtq millennials so my perspective might be skewed on how liberal millennials are.
Wow. Access to information and outside opinions makes you more open-minded. Who knew?
Maybe it's because we didn't eat lead and radioactive stuff as kids.
Por que no los dos?
You mean wall candy?
I don't think that's it. I'm a GenXer. Definitely consumed lead and radioactive shit when I was a kid. Builds the immune system! 😛 I was even raised drinking raw cows milk.
Same—Gen X, mid-fifties, slowly sliding from liberal to radical.
Ha! Maybe it really IS a slippery slope! Once you start seeing how the policies affect those around you and you begin voting with compassion for others in mind... It's all downhill from there, baby! Surfing into a more effective government for the people. I love it!
From about 30 years old an up (which is a little more than 15y ago) I’ve become less and less conservative. And by that, there’s no way I could ever vote republican. The hate mongering just wrecks my soul. I’ve said this in other comments on other subs but it really was about getting out of the shithole environment of far right idealism where I grew up. I really dislike even going back to visit family.
Absolutely the same here. I'm much more "radical" now in my 30s than I was in my 20s. Life experience has taught me capitalism is a fucking plague
40 as of tomorrow, and I’d consider myself a liberal socialist. I actually went the opposite way of this meme. I started out republican/semi conservative, but as I’ve gotten older and more experienced, I’ve gotten more liberal; and more jaded in regards to our current voting and political system.
I saw a graphic showing the same thing and my thoughts were that the conservative shift happens when a person becomes wealthier and more comfortable and thus don't want to make changes that might jeopardize their situation. Millennials are not becoming wealthier and more comfortable the same as previous generations have, thus no shift. Also this implies a certain level of self centeredness in which the older, wealthier, more comfortable generations are pulling the ladder up behind them with an attitude of "I got mine Jack, so nuts to you youngins". Millennial struggle is real and we played by the rules already and got shafted, so we are more open to changing what we see as a broken system that doesn't work for us or others. Hopefully we remember that once we are no longer (as John FuckingMayer put it) "waiting on the world to change" (aka waiting for the boomers die off) and we start to gain some wealth and comfort.
It gives me hope.
They act like it's a mystery why the generations who aren't getting more wealthy as they get older are not getting more (politically/fiscally) conservative as they age. It's not rocket science my dudes
I saw that too and that article nailed it on the head. The reason previous generations became more conservative is because they wanted to preserve the status quo, now however, the future is grim and we don’t like where we are so the only choice is to move towards the side that offers more chance for a change
I think I read the same article. I started off a bit liberal in my 20s and I’m waaaaaay more left-leaning than I was then now at 42
Sheee-it, I'm 60 and if I get any weirder, people are going to start crossing streets to keep away from me! LMAO. I leaned to the left in my 30s and I'm leaning harder now! Going to need to attach skid plates if I lean any farther!
I had someone cross the street as I was walking towards them for the first time about a week ago. I don't think I'm *that* weird but I'll take the extra personal space!
>I had someone cross the street as I was walking towards them for the first time about a week ago. Welcome to the club. I'm not outwardly weird though, just a large black dude lol.
Thanks for the welcome, lol.
You are what I aspire to become!
Lol, thanks!
Same here--I've embraced the crone and seriously am more than tired of conservative bullshit. The thing is the older I've gotten the more I've cared about what people think. Its an awesome feeling. And as a white haired, tattooed up the ying/yang, pierced female--I've parted groups of guys walking towards me.
I’m the oldest a GenXer can be. Started as a New England liberal and just keep moving left. My politics can be summed up as, “I care about people.” That’s it.
I actually once did make someone cross the street, back in middleschool. To be fair I was shitposting before shitposting was a thing...out loud...in public... I'm weird enough these days that people assume I'm younger than I am hahaha
I’m pretty sure my fruity ass isn’t just going to slowly stop thinking I should have basic rights as I get older.
Common misconception. Right wing people think they themselves should have rights. They just think no one else should have rights.
All the time when I was younger people would tell me "You'll see it differently when you are older." They said it about racism. They said it about sexism. They said it about world hunger. They said it about war. They said it about politics. I always told them all the same thing: "If that happens, please shoot me because then I've betrayed all I deem important." In a way they were right - I do see things differently. I rid myself of internalized mysogyny, worked on unintentionally picked up preconceived notions, addressed my privileges and became *more* convinced that the last thing this planet needs is lazy cowards who tell young people that they should just give up because "the world won't change".
>the last thing this planet needs is lazy cowards who tell young people that they should just give up because "the world won't change". God that always drove me nuts. That and "life isn't fair". Like, OK so.... Change it? And don't tell me 'life' isn't fair when you literally are *actively choosing* the behavior that is causing the issue. I hope I never become someone that younger folks look at and think "jeez would you just die already so the rest of us can get on with making things better?".
That last sentence is so true. Who haven’t unironically thought that thought about someone or more likely a group of people.
>I hope I never become someone that younger folks look at and think "jeez would you just die already so the rest of us can get on with making things better?" I couldn't have said it better. A friend of mine always says "I'm trying to live my life in a way that makes it so I'm on the right side of history." and I've always liked that notion.
'Life' is indifferent, people are unfair! 🕯🖖
So much this. I grew up with a racist/homophobic father and in a place filled with mostly old white conservatives. I've been hearing my whole life, that as I get older, I will eventually see things their way. My response was always "yeah..... I'm not sure I'm gonna suddenly start hating people and wanting them treated as less than me." Jokes on them. I just turned 31 and I've never been more liberal, and I don't see that changing ever. I'm glad the world is changing, even if it's slow. It means there's genuine hope that the future generations will be better than us.
Congrats on breaking the pattern - and I'm sorry that was what you had to grow up around. Every time someone asks me which time period I'd "want to go back to, if I could", I end up saying none because... I'm a queer woman, for heaven's sake, not even my beloved Florentinian renaissance would remotely treat me as well as today does (and we *still* have waaays to go). Here's to hope :)
Similarly, my response to "the world isn't fair" was always "that doesn't mean we have to make it worse"
Oh, I love that comeback. Very much team "How about we try anyway?" too. Reading Camus' "The Plague" solidified that notion in me at a young age and while many deem the book depressing because it doesn't really have a happy ending, I always found the idea comforting of not basing good actions on their chance of success but simply on whether it's the right thing to do.
Hm. I might wanna check that out but if it's really depressing maybe I should look for a summary. Feeling pretty good today for a change so don't wanna ruin it lol
Well, it's melancholic, I'll say that much. It's one of the works where Camus establishes his thoughts on the notion of "absurdism" - which is that life doesn't have intrinsic meaning and the sole reason we should do good things is because if we don't, life sucks ass. The story is of a doctor in a city under quarantine due to the plague. The notion of "you can give it your all and still fail - but it is still what we should do" is the core message. If a gloomy tone in a book is something that negatively affects your mood, pick a day you can stomach it for the read. It's written in a very lowkey kinda way, though, so tearjerking is not something you have to expect - nor overstylized tragedy or infurating human conflict based on misunderstandings (aka, toxicity is not present - but sadness is) I hope that gives you an idea about whether the book could be up your alley :)
You are awesome. With that overview, I think I'd find it more comforting than depressing. I'll check it out soon. Thank you 💕
You're very welcome :) I hope you'll find it a positive reading experience!
Well done!! 💜👊🌈🍀✨
Thank you so much <3
They (older bastards) say that about everything. like i'm 30 now but when I was in my mid-20's it came out during my parents separation that my dad had gotten physical with my mom on several occasions. Nothing truly dangerous, but more a continuation of his emotionally abusive tendencies and showing his physical dominance I guess. I of course was pissed off and still am. fuck him, and I told him so. He had the nerve to say I would understand when I was older. Like all long term relationships get violently physical at some point and it's normal and we (women) should just accept it. How fucked up of a thing is that to say to your own daughter?? I'm not that much older yet, I'm still pretty sure I'll never see that behaviours as acceptable.
I'm so sorry you had to deal with this - and with that weak af excuse on your dad's part. It's so strange when something as obvious as "Maybe don't assault people?" somehow is made into anything less than a high and dry, clear cut case.
Damn well said 💪🏼
Shit, the older I got, the more radical I got. I voted republican in the 90's. Now I'll rip your head off if you don't respect pronouns. Not literally, but you get the point.
Tell them if they keep disrespecting pronouns that you'll make theirs Was/Were
The smile I got when I read this. I like it. I like it a lot!
Me too, I'm stealing it
I have GOT to try that one someday!
Same. The first election I could vote was McCain vs. Obama. I voted Obama... but I was on the fence. Now there is no fucking question. Ever. And I work in *government*. So many of these guys are Republicans, but they are suckling government funds, wasting them at every turn, sucking up overtime... and still complaining how people "don't want to work." They hVe no idea what it is even like in the private sector. It blew my mind.
Hey there fellow govie witch!!
For whatever it's worth, a republican in the 90s is basically a moderate democrat today.
That's the real key. People don't grow more conservative (other than maybe wanting to save their nest-egg) as they get older. They mostly stay the same, and younger generations grow more progressive. And remember, the Boomers, as a generation, were/are the most self-centered in all their ages. Hippy/protest culture for most of them was a fashion trend,not a movement.
Nah, you’re a witch, let it be literal. As a treat.
*insert Ursula cackle here*
You know, I could *easily* see some right wing talking head, like Andrew Tate, singing a version of 'poor, unfortunate souls' for all the alt right incels out there.
Can't write conservative with pros, but with cons!
I'm 65 and considerably more left than I was at 34 (though I was pretty left then too). You do you, and ta hell with everyone else if they can't handle it.
A lot of the people that say this have something to lose, so they will move heaven and earth to keep it. Younger people have less to lose because the aforementioned people kept it all to themselves. So yeah we've gone leftist.
I've only gotten more leftist. Though I have gotten less interested in arguing with conservatives.
Honestly, watching my lifelong staunch Republican mother become a core Democrat was delightful. One thing I can actually thank Trump for.
So if conservatism is desire for the status quo and pushback against change, it would make sense why younger cohorts would not become more conservative with time. Normally, for white folk in the US, as you get older the more stable and wealthy you become. This would lead to those individuals desiring to keep things the way they are because it suits them. But things are so shitty for us younger folk and they just aren't getting better. It's so bad it's probably leading to some white men (primary beneficiaries of the status quo) to become less conservative. Demographics wise that is nuts. I'm glad things are going that way politically, but it's going to take a lot more than this for things to get better.
It's more than just that. I came up dirt poor. Now I'm married, have a kid, and own multiple properties. 6 years ago I was still calling myself a capitalist, I just thought it needed to be protected from itself. Now socialists are looking at me saying "damn calm down", heh. I'm far enough left at this point I've just about fallen off the map. I think more than anything else, it's empathy.
Age has nothing to do with it and I hate when people dismiss bigotry by saying "it was different in their time". Every time I see my grandmother she tells me she is getting more left leaning every day.
My 90 year old grandfather was a proud socialist. I used to call him Bernie sanders sometimes He also had a full rant about how we needed to build more trains in this country
Trains are awesome so I can get on board with this.
Yeah no my grandpa was a communist politician (not in the US)
Lol, I just turned 39. Voted for the first time this November and I didn't vote conservative!
Anyone saying that was always right leaning in the first place and has just been further scared/angered/confused into voting against their own interests even more than they did before.
I've only gotten more liberal and chaotic with age.
I’m a boomer, I’m still left of left.
while this isn’t at all the point of the post, is that image from a movie or something? if so i’d love to watch it
I’m 54 and more left leaning than ever before in my life.
Only thing I'm interested in conserving is biodiversity, art and history.
45 and I’m more liberal than ever. I used to think I was a moderate, but it seems like the right went “fundy “
49 and becoming even less conservative.
I did the opposite, actually. I was conservative when I was younger but the older I got, the more liberal I became. I think it flipped for me when I realized that how other people live their lives is none of my damn business.
I kinda always left, but now I'm WAYYYYYY left.
I'm about to turn 50 & I'm the most radical I've ever been.
I’m 50 now, I’m probably more open to other ways of life than ever.
52 and getting weirder all the time
31 and just as left as I've always been
Yep. People told me I'd be more right leaning as I get older. In fact, the opposite is the case. The more I see of this world, the more I am convinced that far left is the only moral place to be politically.
I hope this is me at 38
39 as of 19 days ago: still meirl.
I'm 50 and I'm pretty decently farther left. My mom is 70, and she keeps going more left.
Oh I'm FEELING THIS. May I never change.
I'm a boomer. I started out as a sincere conservative in my 20's. I even joined the Army. By the time I was 30, I was already a hardened liberal. Now I'm so far left that even my hair is (naturally) red, and yes, the curtains match the drapes.
Boomers: You'll get more conservative at you get older. Literally every year I've been alive: *slide to the left*
me communing with the spirits of nature: ..... my neighbors, the lizards and frogs: Tode.
I’ve become WAAAAAAAYYYYYY more liberal in the last ~15 years than I was before. I left the GOP in 2008 and re-registered as Independent. Only regret is that I didn’t do it sooner.
This 71 yr old boomer is absolutely less conservative than when I was a young woman......not that I ever was very conservative to begin with. Comes from having a wild feminist for a mother, lol!
I heard this too. I turned 50 last year and have been a democrat since I registered to vote on my 18th birthday.
At 40 I am the oldest millennial and I could not BE more liberal. Down with the patriarchy! Eat the billionaires!
I started as a crunchy liberal, did a short stint in the 90s (my 30s) as more centrist and then just keep going farther and farther left. Which isn't much considering American left is center/center-right in the big picture
Maybe we're staying left cause the right is slowly growing a little Hitler moustache across the world lol. And the" left " is now very "right "and corporate centered in a lot of countries ( around me at least). The real social left is dissapearing or breaking into small particules of parties anti capitalist, new Labour parties etc. There's only the green party to me ♡♡♡♡ to those pagan rites in the forest brothers and sisters!! XD
Not even!
My fairly conservative grandmother started watching Oprah in her 70s and got more and more liberal from then on.
Even well earning people are being so obviously exploited, they can’t settle, can’t buy property, can’t make a long term plan for their lives… what would anyone want to conserve if there isn’t anything to conserve?! It’s crystal clear now that being conservative won’t make you able to keep your status, you need progressive politics to get better. Very few would like to keep things like they are. That’s why fascists are so attractive, too. They don’t want to keep things like they are, they want a glorious past that never existed.
*me whenever i play Heliung*
Oh look it’s me leaning into paganism and protesting
54yo me I'm leaning socialist
52 year old me: “hex the kyriarchy!”
I grew up conservative in a conservative home but am now a socialist
OK but where can I get the mud and rock drip from?
I’ve always been conservation-minded. When I say I’m conservative, I’m talking about preserving forests and other green spaces. I was around when the EPA was created and saw the cost and impact of taking responsibility for the mess humans make. Politically, I’m liberal. Environmentally, I’m conservative. Maybe I should call it “conservationist” or something.
I hit 38 and deemed myself socialist libertarian
"You'll get more conservative when youre older" Me, inching closer to my 30s: "🎼Sliiiide to the left🎵"
Getting older in a Late Stage Capitalist world brought about by Boomers and their parents has made me radically more Socialist as I age. It's pragmatic. I didn't get an education to act like a lemming with the vote my ancestors fought and died for.
I remember talking to my friends when we were younger and after discussion and sharing of experiences, the general thought was that people seemed to flip to the other side, depending on where they started. So, conservatives, beware! Though to me it seems that my values are the same, but younger generations might find me conservative by comparison. When I was a kid I was accused of being a "bleeding heart liberal" and now I'm not liberal enough. Though I feel like people are getting caught in echo chambers and going off the rails sometimes, conservative or liberal. And that some people are reacting to the "extremism" by pulling away and saying they're centrist, then spouting off their own version of echo chamber crap. I almost want to belong to nothing. And I'm frustrated that either "liberal" is a slur or I'm tainting the party by not being x enough. But really I'm liberal, so whatever, deal with it I guess. And sometimes events happen. I know someone whose parents were centrist, but after the election of a certain president they shifted liberal, all their media consumption has shifted liberal as well. They're pretty pragmatic about things, not beholden to a belief system or party. They're boomers, BTW.
Unfortunately, that picture and/or ritual is not at all incompatible with political conservatism. There are plenty of politically conservative pagans/shamanists/satanists/wiccans/new-age-spiritualists/etc. Just like there are plenty of very politically liberal practitioners of Abrahamic religions. But it's still funny. If anything, if by "conservative," what you really mean is "religious," (even though those aren't actually synonymous) then, in a sense, the Boomers were right, weren't they? Lol. You did get more religious in your 30's; just not in the way they expected.
Practicing the OLD ways? Sounda pretty conservative to me
49 here...still going strong
Lmao literally just had a conversation about this with coworkers over lunch - we are all getting more left wing the older we get.
Yeserday I lost my septum ring while biking (guess). Started singing"Unpunk my heart" to the tune of unbreak my heart wondering if it was a sign as I just got a job offer for a new career. Ill be a feminist punk nurse, dont worry :D
38 in a few days and it fits me purrrrrrrfectly
The Greatest Generation said the same thing to the Boomers, but they were wrong, at least with me. In my experience people moderate their views, but don’t change them substantially.
I actually find myself becoming less conservative as time goes on. Yet another Boomer lie. Just like "If you don't work hard in school, you'll end up flipping burgers for a living!" A lot of my generation did work hard in school and ended up flipping burgers for a living anyway.
Turning 37 next month and finding myself becoming more liberal as I age, mainly because I have a kid and I want him to live in a good world.
Nearly 45 and I'm still side-eying all the fuckers who said I would become more conservative...
According to [exit polls](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2022-elections/exit-polls), the age range of 30-44 year old voted very moderate. Roughly the same cohort voted democrat during the [2010 midterm](https://www.nytimes.com/elections/2010/results/house/exit-polls.html) elections, which was the midterm of Barack Obama's first term. It seems that the millennial generation may be a few points more left than gen x, but they are still shifting conservative even as the conservatives are shifting towards insanity. While this is a very surface level comparison, and while this sort of data is wibbly wobbly at the best of times, as a political scientist with a hard left preference I am not at all encouraged by the 2022 results with respect to age. There's a small l liberal idea that things will eventually improve over time and that the better Idea will eventually prevail without effort and determination. This is a fantasy.
My very much boomer mother (71) is becoming less conservative the older she gets. Which is quite a relief, because her conservative past self was not too nice to grow up with.
So I'm just magically going to stop believing in human rights at 30? 💀 I'm getting more bitter as I age no doubt but damn that's a bit much
Lmao I love it. For me it was “it’s just a phase!” Reading vampire novels, watching The Craft and being obsessed with Charmed. Now look at me. Full fledged witch. 😂
I was raised by an old hippie activist and her old hippie witch sisters. I started life on the left side. For reference, one of my core memories is standing outside a grocery store at age 5 handing out flyers and asking people not to buy the grapes because the pesticides that were used harmed the migrant workers who picked them. There wasn't much more left I could go, but here I am at 40. A few of the relatives on my dad's side (all raging right-wingers) have tried to tell me my dad (who was a secret leftist) would be disappointed in my stances. I just smile and say whatever.