this is put very concisely and I just wanna report from middle age that you can fight this within yourself. it happens! you soften! but you just keep checking in with yourself and being sure that softening is toward people who are threatened, who have it worse than you. simple internal housekeeping! - ThreadSky

themountaingoats.bsky.social • 63 days ago

this is put very concisely and I just wanna report from middle age that you can fight this within yourself. it happens! you soften! but you just keep checking in with yourself and being sure that softening is toward people who are threatened, who have it worse than you. simple internal housekeeping!

Reposted from Jana H-S (they/she, journalist)

everyone anywhere near the mainstream feels the way the wind is blowing and is looking for an excuse to move rightward to improve their standings in what comes next

Comments

uberwisco.bsky.social•63 days ago

I appreciate being able to empathize and put oneself in others shoes. It’s the reason I left the Republican Party in the 80s and stayed where I was politically, steadily becoming more leftist in comparison. I regret voting for Reagan once. I give myself grace, I was 18.

boundarywaters.bsky.social•63 days ago

the further life goes on (I’m 42), the more deeply I yearn for the policy world that my leftest friends want and the less I trust their political instincts to get there. Not sure what to do about it

gardener80525.bsky.social•63 days ago

This points to an overlooked mental practice that was well known and talked about in earlier eras: the necessity to control one's thoughts. The mind will naturally respond to one's social environment. It's my responsibility to be in charge of my thoughts, so that my action speaks my values.

blonicyouth.bsky.social•63 days ago

in my 20's: Propagandhi was right about everything
30's: well you know Obama incrementalism Not That Bad
now 40 years old: Propagandhi was right about everything

slumberlandrecords.bsky.social•63 days ago

Amen!

meganyspoogle.bsky.social•63 days ago

I’m veering left. I came from UK where I was comfortably centre right. Living in USA has made me appreciate America is not a normal, functioning society. Rights & considerations that I believed basic human rights are a luxury for only the rich here.

basicchunnel.bsky.social•63 days ago

It’s soooo easy to get reactionary about the Kids, for no better reason that you’ll spend no time with any that aren’t family (even then they’re prob code-switching on u) in nearly every circumstance. No shared third spaces… but then, kids prob want them even less than we do

lylescout.bsky.social•63 days ago

birb.mom•63 days ago

I keep on becoming more empathetic and radicalized leftward every year, and it constantly bewilders me that it's possible to be any other way, to be honest.

tlknoell.bsky.social•63 days ago

This also my view. Make empathy contagious if we can.

bakerbrown6.bsky.social•62 days ago

I have actually become more liberal as time has gone by… there was a point where I started feeling like mainstream media was just reading from a script. When I started researching stuff on my own is when I had my awakening, so to speak.

rafiamahli.com•63 days ago

The plan is to get as radical as possible. The older you get, the less you have to lose, the more radical you ought to get. More courageous, not less. More fearless.

People only get conservative because they default to fear not love.

If by “softening,” you mean becoming only more loving, OK.

curseyoukhan.bsky.social•63 days ago

If they can do it to them, they can do it to you. Supporting the people that are threatened is enlightened self-interest at its finest.

bobtoldmetodoit.bsky.social•63 days ago

Love you John. Keep on keeping on. Merry Christmas.

zeezeeramone.bsky.social•63 days ago

I was told my whole life I'd get more conservative as I got older but I must be Benjamin Button because the older I get the lefter I lean. I grew up moderate, shifted progressive liberal and now identify as something in the socialist/communist area of political ideology.

codeine93.bsky.social•63 days ago

I was a shitty liberal Dem in my 30s and I’m a fucking Maoist in my fifties. If I get any more radical I’ll self-immolate.

hankzona.bsky.social•63 days ago

Those looking to move rightward lean selfish. Those looking to stay where they are, leaning towards what's right.

ericraslich.com•63 days ago

It sucks, too, because it feels like every rightward shifter makes it a little easier to shift/harder to maintain the course (at least loudly and publicly). It’s hard to stick your neck out alone. And maybe they felt like they were the farthest out, but then it’s a race back in.

ruhee.ca•63 days ago

yeah. the greatest lesson I've learned is that you actually do need to do the housekeeping. from the outside it looks like everyone is living their lives just buffeted by outside forces mental and physical, but you gotta re-evaluate opinions, exercise and stretch, examine your brain once in awhile!

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