"A young conservative went on to change her mind as an adult" is an extremely common life path IRL, but on here, an amazing number of people seem to assume it's unfathomable. If you think people can't interrogate their inherited beliefs, that suggests *you've* never done so - ThreadSky

jasonkirk.fyi • 3 days ago

"A young conservative went on to change her mind as an adult" is an extremely common life path IRL, but on here, an amazing number of people seem to assume it's unfathomable. If you think people can't interrogate their inherited beliefs, that suggests *you've* never done so

Comments

dustinholman.bsky.social•3 days ago

As a "raised hyper-conservative, realized that's a horrible way to view the world and changed my beliefs accordingly, will never vote GOP again" person myself, the reaction to "she used to be a conservative teen!" has been wildly disappointing

khansonwrites.bsky.social•3 days ago

👋 born and raised Reagan Republican here. Voted for W in the first election I was of age. Lived life and saw how many beliefs I’d grown up with were fallacies (eg, “socially liberal, fiscally conservative”) and grew into a liberal. Change is possible.

gamecocktony.bsky.social•3 days ago

Similar to you, except my first election was GHWB. Took me until I got into the “real world” and realized there were way more people *not* like me, than were like me.

petexn.bsky.social•3 days ago

Also worth noting it’s mostly coming from liberals who don’t want anyone to challenge their view that everything just has to suck because it’s always sucked

finallysock.bsky.social•3 days ago

she did the switch when she was supposed to, not "immediately upon taking office"

eaglesadvocate.bsky.social•3 days ago

These people will also be disappointed to learn that being haughty and sanctimonious is not effective at changing hearts and minds.

mpbmke.com•3 days ago

I've got a whole collection of friends who have moved varying degrees to the left as they've gotten older, from becoming more liberal-leaning centrists to full-on Viva la Revolucion. It's definitely not uncommon!

mdrty.bsky.social•3 days ago

I voted for trump when I was 20 and I can’t even begin to explain how much further to the left of mainstream dems i am now. It’s called growing up

tigerb8s.bsky.social•3 days ago

hell yeah

iamgoog.bsky.social•3 days ago

Is this about Kat Abu?

markaudacity.bsky.social•3 days ago

Almost certainly.

carricosarah.bsky.social•3 days ago

I founded the college Republicans club at my university in 2001. I had an "I ❤️ Capitalism" bumper sticker. Went to anti-choice rallies. Spent four years at a super right wing think tank. By 2016 I was caucusing for Bernie. Change is possible and *very* fulfilling.

gaknar.bsky.social•3 days ago

It's the Idiocracy mindset that assumes no lateral transfer between the two political trees.

joramfizzy.bsky.social•3 days ago

Grew up super conservative. Fox News every day. Rush, Hannity, Glenn Back on the radio. My dad was worried I would turn liberal in college. While that may have laid some groundwork, I was 25 when I had a full mindset shift. I think Trump turned me away from the conservative movement for good

gr8ball83.bsky.social•3 days ago

Her is me!

chrish2122.bsky.social•3 days ago

*everyone who was raised in Oklahoma/Texas. My mom thought Bill Clinton was the antichrist and not in a “I don’t like him” kinda way. The literal antichrist. I’m kinda glad she died before the Q/Trump stuff. She’d be all about it.

jadefae.bsky.social•3 days ago

I think a more charitable reading of that attitude is that they aren’t talking about the ignorant inherited belief conservatives, they’re talking about the entrenched, practiced conservatives who have built up walls that say “Every reasonable sounding leftist thing is a trick to deceive me.”

jasonkirk.fyi•3 days ago

We’re probably my referring to different people. I’ve seen people on here this week bringing up old photos of 15-year-old Texan conservatives as gotchas

jadefae.bsky.social•3 days ago

Hm yes that does seem pretty bad.

lea3193.bsky.social•3 days ago

I was a conservative bc I believed the lies. I was unbelievably naive abt so many things. I have the same principles now, but I learned that things actually work a lot differently than I thought they did. I'll always welcome someone who realizes they were wrong. We've all been duped at some point.

slapula.bsky.social•3 days ago

Yup, I was 100% Christian conservative from birth to the end of college. Life experience turned me to left wing politics.

hobomaster.bsky.social•3 days ago

🙋‍♂️

guspowers.bsky.social•3 days ago

To be fair, the comment seems to be made with the repetition and glee that seems to perhaps question whether it is in good faith. Perhaps.

granitegeeknh.bsky.social•3 days ago

"A young liberal changed their mind as an adult" is also common - consider how the Woodstock Generation became the Reagan Revolution

benlk.com•3 days ago

I remember listening to Rick Santorum give a speech at a high school graduation ceremony, lamenting that so 62% of young Christians who go to college with a "faith commitment" lose their faith. https://youtu.be/vHyElvAe4UY?t=854

jasonkirk.fyi•3 days ago

Oh yeah I heard this kind of thing many many times as a church kid

chrish2122.bsky.social•3 days ago

Just shows me they probably weren’t raised anywhere near the Mason Dixon line.

jasonkirk.fyi•3 days ago

For more information on the phenomenon of young conservatives putting an end to childish ways:

tjpc5217.bsky.social•3 days ago

Really enjoyed this btw. A world I knew very little about. I had quite the rollercoaster of emotions with Best/Worst Caleb.

jasonkirk.fyi•3 days ago

Thank you, and those knuckleheads are a real handful

solana77.bsky.social•3 days ago

I enjoyed watching Isaac's mom's evolution throughout the process as well. I thought it was nuanced and I see alot of my parents' evolution reflected in her experience throughout the book.

jasonkirk.fyi•3 days ago

Thank you. Certainly one of my favorite characters to write

fergoe.bsky.social•3 days ago

I mean, is this not what we want? We wanna win people over to this side instead of being stuck miserable and angry, right?

jujuchewbacca.bsky.social•3 days ago

Yeah, I think people are afraid to be hopeful because 1) hope means there are stakes and a responsibility to act, and 2) you can really get slammed on here if people catch you not being cynical enough

peteraidanbyrne.bsky.social•3 days ago

I'd also suggest that online discourse about this often gets bogged down in red herring arguments about a) deradicalizing full-on nazis and b) doing so online, which IS much less likely but misses the point - there are plenty of non-nazi conservatives who can learn from people who care about them.

thegoddamn.icu•3 days ago

it takes all kinds of approaches to show a conservative teen that conservatives don’t actually embody the values they claim to. i was raised a little right winger who sincerely believed in embodying the values jesus taught. when i looked, the only ones doing The Works were secular leftists.

thegoddamn.icu•3 days ago

Food Not Bombs groups are secretly one of the best weapons the left has

peteraidanbyrne.bsky.social•3 days ago

Yeah, I genuinely, unironically think that anarchist-adjacent mutual aid efforts are where some of the most purely Christ-like actions take place in real life - just straight up giving people what they need right now for no other reason than because they need it

wolfbridge.bsky.social•3 days ago

I was a conservative when I was younger but I think the difference now is there’s a massive media ecosystem built to capture young people (manosphere + trad wife stuff) and that didn’t exist in the same way in my early 20s.

jackpower.bsky.social•3 days ago

It isn't that they *can't*; it's that they don't want to. A key part of conservatism is self-righteousness; you can't challenge your beliefs if inherent *in* that belief is that it is always right and anyone who tells you it isn't is trying to hoodwink you.

You can't make someone care about others.

mayorofmetairie.bsky.social•3 days ago

Isn't this almost every current democrat in the south? I spent my mornings and afternoon with AM conservative talk radio blasting in my ears on the way to and from school.

offtheupright.bsky.social•3 days ago

I think the part that throws some people off is the ideological shift without the (what they think should accompany) corresponding overt partisan party shift.

offtheupright.bsky.social•3 days ago

Like “former Republican who now posts pro-Nancy Pelosi memes,” they’d understand. “former Republican now leftist that’s deeply skeptical of all parties wrt their relationships with power and capital,” it’s like they can’t compute.

danielthehuman.bsky.social•3 days ago

I believe that there are a lot of liberals who view their own perspective as the objectively correct one, and anyone to the right or left of them are just wrong. To see someone go from the right, glide right past them, and end up on their left can be easily criticized because they're still "wrong"

offtheupright.bsky.social•3 days ago

Agree 100%, but should point out this mentality exists across the political spectrum. No one is immune from it.

bayoubillybutler.bsky.social•3 days ago

That assumption lets those people off the hook, which is why they do it. If nobody can be saved, it’s okay to not try to save them.

cigaretteliker.bsky.social•3 days ago

I've simply intuited the correct opinion every time since I was an infant due to my purity of heart,

k-0s.bsky.social•3 days ago

I’m genuinely fearful of the vast number of extreme left saying if you voted for Trump, you’re an idiot and they have no time for you. That’s just recipe for prolonged GOP control. Engage with those who are not hardcore MAGAts and try to see what their views were that led them to vote against Dems.

jjarchitect.bsky.social•3 days ago

I grew up conservative and regarded myself as one until I was 24, then I was independent until Bernie and became full fledged left.

sixfortyfive.bsky.social•3 days ago

It's not that they don't believe it's possible. It's that they feel like they're not being sufficiently "rewarded" for being on the right side of history in the first place.

They're the older brother in the Prodigal Son.

shewmaker.bsky.social•3 days ago

Anyone who expects to be "rewarded" in this life is seeking the wrong kind of reward.

Jesus said, "Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward" three times in Matthew 6.

He was not suggesting that this was a good thing.

kittenbitten.bsky.social•3 days ago

And ironically it's the same people who praised Harris for doing events with Cheney and trying to court Republicans.

dirtbagqueer.rocks•3 days ago

my HS class president that idolized ronald reagan and gave a graduation speech that ended in “make america great again” in june 2016 was in BLM protests by june 2020. it can happen pretty damn quick

lea3193.bsky.social•3 days ago

I think when someone is a true believer and realizes they were lied to, it can happen fast. It can lead to animosity that makes you want to undo past mistakes.

connersaurus.bsky.social•3 days ago

I was the biggest fucking Raganite teenager as a sophomore in high school. By senior year I was an Ayn Rand-quoting libertarian. By college graduation I was a bona fide leftist. I’m embarrassed that I was that guy but I’m also trying to celebrate that I got out of the alt-right pipeline.

dirtbagqueer.rocks•3 days ago

i was friends with this kid in HS and felt very proud/Adult re: getting along with him despite our political differences. lots of friendly arguments. it felt pretty damn good to see him become a better person + send him that “lol i win” text

laseitz.bsky.social•3 days ago

My sister's best friend was basically Alex P. Keaton in high school. Then sometime around college he came out, and has been super duper liberal ever since.

tigerb8s.bsky.social•3 days ago

It me! I voted for McCain in '08, had a dalliance with libertarianism in college, and it's just been a slow march left ever since.

cunningcoreyham.bsky.social•3 days ago

Watching my formerly conservative aunt gently and casually correcting her husband’s pronoun usage while discussing their trans grandchild was one of the highlights of my Thanksgiving this year. People can grow and change.

jmh0821.bsky.social•3 days ago

Grew up as a Catholic. Dad was a real estate developer and I worked for him out of college. So conservatism was in my DNA. 2015 changed all of it. To me, it was an easy decision. Right and wrong. And it remains so to this day.

refdawg.bsky.social•3 days ago

Deconstruction, but it's just growing up

bobbyfirmino.com•3 days ago

This feels like a "grew up in very blue city / state" issue

vegasgello.bsky.social•3 days ago

If this is the best they have to defend them it's gonna get tasty!

shamr0cker.bsky.social•3 days ago

It really is when you realize most Trump boomer voters are parents who probably hate their kid for not voting the way they want. Real liberal privilege speaking. Some of us parents are fucking religious and not by out choice

qubitkitt.bsky.social•3 days ago

I went from a tea party teen in 2010 to Dem in 2012 to leftist in 2016 and left of that now. It happens and I welcome any and all to our cause that want to change and grow.

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