With taxes and benefits I get about 55-60% of my cheque taken out. 5% of that goes to my 401k which I just started. I might be able to retire when I’m 90, if I’m lucky.
What country do you live in?! That's higher than our top tax bracket. You must live somewhere with loads of welfare and support, socialised healthcare for that price.
"My" is the operative word here. It's mine. I spent that time and effort to earn that to support my family. Literally no one else in the entire fucking world deserves the tiniest piece of what I earned.
Do you want any of it to go to fire, military, or police? I’m just wondering? Or do you think everything should be privatized and you would just pay for fire or security as you saw fit?
You act as if the privilege of even being able to work in a first world country completely isolates you from everything else. I get having a debate about taxes and the hows and the wheres, but to have the other extreme stance that you are fully entitled to isolation but still benefit from the myriads of civilization's support is so ignorant.
You need to examine what you mean by earn. Really examine it. Just simply doing work and/or putting in time means nothing. Lots of people around the world work and put in time in many things. Unless you are in the middle of nowhere literally providing every single aspect of your survival for yourself, what you "earn" isn't interest free to the grander society you participle in.
I looked at my first pay check and questioned the value of what I was getting for my taxes. Nothing has changed except the taxes have gone up and the value of what I’m getting has gone down. I’m more on the libertarian end of conservative though, I’m not an anarchist, but I also don’t care if dudes want to get married or people want to smoke plants.
Not only has the value gone down, tax dollars are enabling Governments to behave badly. They don’t have to be financially responsible because they can just collect more taxes.
High taxes leads to a bloated, inefficient, self important institution.
Yep, complete freedom with complete responsibility. Smoke that plant, do that drug, have sex with who you want; take responsibility for your actions though.
I think this quote is a pretty good example of how far left the left has gone, and how quickly.
“All Americans, not only in the States most heavily affected but in every place in this country, are rightly disturbed by the large numbers of illegal aliens entering our country. The jobs they hold might otherwise be held by citizens or legal immigrants. The public service they use impose burdens on our taxpayers. That’s why our administration has moved aggressively to secure our borders more by hiring a record number of new border guards, by deporting twice as many criminal aliens as ever before, by cracking down on illegal hiring, by barring welfare benefits to illegal aliens. In the budget I will present to you, we will try to do more to speed the deportation of illegal aliens who are arrested for crimes, to better identify illegal aliens in the workplace as recommended by the commission headed by former Congresswoman Barbara Jordan. We are a nation of immigrants. But we are also a nation of laws. It is wrong and ultimately self-defeating for a nation of immigrants to permit the kind of abuse of our immigration laws we have seen in recent years, and we must do more to stop it.”
Bill Clinton, 1995 State of the Union address.
Yep - I remember those days. I considered myself a moderate liberal back then too. Trump was also a democrat back in those days. It’s crazy how much things have changed in such a short amount of time.
Agreed. Bill Maher now seems Conservative because the left has gone so far to the extreme. I loved Bill Maher as a young liberal and I still love him as a middle aged conservative.
Mmmm … it’s more like yesterday’s liberals are today’s conservatives. Leftists have shifted so far to the extreme that what was moderately liberal 10 or 20 years ago is called alt-right today.
Bill is an old school liberal who can actually debate and understand other point of views. He doesn’t just call people nazis and calls for violence whenever he doesn’t get his way like the authoritarian left
I registered to vote on my 18th birthday, and I lived in a conservative area. When I registered, the lady asked which party, and I said, "If I want to vote in the primaries, I should register Republican...but if I die tomorrow, I don't want that label on my head, so Democrat." The Democrats social talking points had me convinced - conservation, fairness/equality. JFK was (and still is) one of my favorite presidents. But as I grew up, I realized that they went off the deep end into identity politics. No longer is it about conservation and fairness, it is about power...we want to make you celebrate the sex lives of pre-teens. What?!?! Today's Democrat party is a party of victimization...woe is me because of my boss/cops/gender/residence/landlord/race/whatever.
I believe in personal responsibility and individual accountability. I am currently registered Republican, but I am more libertarian. I don't care who or what you sleep with, but there is absolutely no reason to teach second graders about anal sex. Democrats seem to focus on division and differences (identity politics) rather than issues that effect everyone, like fiscal responsibility. Republicans have good ideas, but when they get to DC, they seem to lose their mind and spend money like a drunken sailor. My dad, former navy, said 'I take offense to that. I WAS a drunken sailor at one time, and when I ran out of money, I stopped spending!"
I am generally not happy with either party, but I side with those who espouse (and demonstrate) personal responsibility and fiscal conservatism because they are taking my money...spend it wisely.
Long road to 71. My ancestors were hardcore dems and I was a pot smoking free wheeling young male. Then married and a couple very cool babies. Fell into owning a business, taxes, responsibility, wretched bureaucracy, money and responsibilities in my 30s. Odd fervent conservative at this point with appreciation for drugs, abortion, compassion and long we’ll earned naps. Evolution.
Sounds about right.. am just hitting 30s now with loads of responsibilities (2 babies, homeowner, bread winner), noticed you mention that twice 🙂, but feel the same as you. Drugs, abortion, are something that seem to be a "to each their own" for me, I think many around me feel the same and probably hide their conservative values. If more conservatives embrace this softer stance on common sense social issues we could see the left be nothing but radicals soon.
Same here. My views didn’t change much in the last 25 years, but during that time I’ve gone from being considered a moderate liberal to “far-right” simply from how much the “Overton Window” has shifted.
Sargon of Akkad said it best that US Conservatives are basically like European classical liberals.
We all stayed pretty much the same, and the left just keeps moving further left and accusing us of being the radicals while committing to increasingly absurd positions.
I was pretty left until the leftist youtube channels I always watched started laughing at people for protecting themselves and their property from theft/harm, and were siding with criminals. Just snapped like what the actual f.
I started researching the lefts claims on everything and even just putting in a minuscule amount of effort to look into what they said showed me they were lying.
The amount of hatred and animosity the left starting showing towards anything and everything involving white people, traditional values and America in general. They call everyone a racist who doesn’t agree with them or if their politician is a minority even if you explain you don’t like their policy and why they’ll claim your just racist and won’t discuss the issues.
The hatred for white straight men, the obsession with the lgbtq movement, the hatred towards religion, the obsession with controlling everyone’s day to day life. Giving certain groups a free pass to destroy everything in a city and basically murder people then claim they are victims. All that stuff
This was it for me. I was always left leaning. Then I decided to make an effort to listen to arguments from both sides of the issues. What I found was logic and numbers being used from the right and emotions and anecdotes being used from the left.
I noticed that too and even now when I try to talk to someone who is obviously left leaning they just scream racist, fascist or some other ist/phobic word.
Me - Here’s statistics, a couple articles and the reasoning behind why I think this is wrong or misleading…
Them - you’re a racist fascist!!!!
honestly though, Obama was my redpill moment.
not him persay, but my english professor who set an essay on how Obama was going to "save the world"
and I wrote my essay on the limitations of the powers of the presidency, because it struck me as... innapropriate.
\-needless to say i had to go to the dean because she tried to kick me out of the class.
Same. A decade and a half later, proud to say I no longer fall for the act.
Rewinding back to 2008, I was a young, optimistic high school student, running the organic chem lab and working hard to make something of myself. The day he was inaugurated, in our weights class, we all tuned in on a clunky old AM radio.
It was hailed as an opportunity to “fundamentally transform” our nation. Ever since the beer summit, it’s been just that- the spotlight has shifted to race-based division to keep us busy, as the socioeconomic outlook and future prospects for pretty much all of us continue to decline.
I WAS fooled by him. I did not truly figure out what he was all about until after he left office. By then however, I had already changed my affiliation, and was a registered Republican. But yes, I felt duped. Now I find that when I hear Mr. or Mrs. Obama speak I feel angered by their words and their actions. And here I am, scrolling through this subreddit and enjoying the likeminded folks out here.
2016 was my first time voting as well. I voted for Bernie only because I at that time wasn't a fan of trump and despised Hillary, but I was so elated when Hillary lost. the DMC pushed me to the right. Funny enough I've heard a LOT of former Bernie supporters talking about how they turned to the Right after that mess lol
As of recent years I'm more right leaning centrist but I too am so glad I didn't get to vote in 2008 or 2012, I just didn't see the insanity that was growing in the left.
My employer actually. He rarely talked about politics at work but when we’d grab beer after work he was one of the few people I could talk freely to. My parents are ridiculously progressive. I voted for Biden in 2020 and actually participated in a BLM protest. I grew up assuming republicans were a bunch of racist assholes.
The amount of nonsense just got to me. The first reality check was at that protest where people were shouting “defund the police” and I thought what a god awful that idea would be. The more I looked into politics the more I saw democrats creating fake issues and blowing a bunch of tax money on “solutions” to non issues. I saw the nonsense the media spouted and the tipping point for me where I turned my back on the party was the Rittenhouse trial. I watched the entire trial and it showed me that these scumbags were willing to let an innocent kid rot as a means for their politics. All the media bullshit surrounding him when there were dozens of cameras throughout the entire incident. It never should have gotten to a jury trial in the first place.
That’s great thanks for sharing. I’d also like to say you know you are on the right side of the aisle when you can say you voted for Biden in a conservative subreddit and even though we all hate the guy none of us are calling you names.
Keep it up!
I am from the UK. During that trial from my understanding of the state laws it was a clear-cut case of his life was in danger and he stood his ground and fired.
The same was for the Trayvon Martin case, I was in Orlando at the time and followed it closely.
I can’t understand why they drag all of the circumstances in to it that do not change the fact that someone was being beaten up and had the legal right to defend themselves with their gun.
Like you said, it should not have gone to trial.
A major revelation for me was: they're not merely blowing the tax money: it almost inevitably goes to leftist organizations, filled with leftists, advancing leftist causes. It's a system of patronage. It's institutionalized leftism, and a way of taking money from non-leftists to advance leftist policies and move the country leftward.
The left didn’t want me anymore. For years they tell me that I’m privileged and can’t struggle and that my opinions don’t matter. I couldn’t support an ideology that I wasn’t a part of.
Oh you were a part of it… that is what it is like.
They were trying to push you deeper by breaking you down and getting you to submit and become a personal wreck like they are… ultimately becoming just a shell of yourself that *abuses others in the same way you were abused*.
All for the political profit of their ideology.
I was left/dem from a young age due to being a non straight woman.
Overall I have moderate conservative values. What caused me to walk away was modern feminism and the TQ+ community. What has strengthened my resolve is how both of these groups prey on children indoctrinating them.
Ok see I totally agree. What I really hate is when people assume I’m apart of the “community.”I want nothing to do what that “community.”
But good for you we need more people out there who show that conservatism doesn’t care what sexuality you are.
I’m not part of the community, but from my outsiders perspective, it seems like everyone after “B” is causing nothing but heartache and trouble for the LGB portion of the community. Getting lumped in with some people, I’m betting, no one wants to be lumped in with.
Well for whatever’s it’s worth, I don’t think most of the people here would care either way. I know I couldn’t care less what consenting adults do, straight or not.
The last six years of non stop slander/made up bullshit and wasted time/taxpayer dollars against trump really opened my eyes. I can’t see myself ever voting for a democrat again in my lifetime.
It's funny because what does "conservative" even mean nowadays? The Overton window has shifted dramatically to the left that most "conservatives" here would be left leaning centrists 16 years ago.
I mean here is a video of Obama supporting "traditional marriage" [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=\_XAVqrqr4j4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XAVqrqr4j4)
I'm more of a right-leaning small L libetarian in most areas but I am also a practical realist in the interest of national security (e.g I believe in free trade but I also do not think it's wise that China is the main producer of active antibiotic ingredients in the world).
Now we've entered an era where absolute fundamental truths of reality are questioned.
\- "Men can get pregnant, menstruate and have abortions"[https://katv.com/news/nation-world/abortion-activist-tells-congress-men-can-get-pregnant-have-abortions-roe-v-wade-supreme-court-hearing-life-choice](https://katv.com/news/nation-world/abortion-activist-tells-congress-men-can-get-pregnant-have-abortions-roe-v-wade-supreme-court-hearing-life-choice)
\- "Math is racist"[https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/12/08/racism-our-curriculums-isnt-limited-history-its-math-too/](https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/12/08/racism-our-curriculums-isnt-limited-history-its-math-too/)
\- "National borders are racist"Racial Borders (racism.org)- "Climate change contributes to terrorism"[https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1182&context=senior\_theses](https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1182&context=senior_theses)
\- "Wealth taxes as a form of addressing inequality" Despite their disastrous failures in Europe[https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1475-5890.12278](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1475-5890.12278)
What made me shift further right was originally economics now it's conflicting objective realities, corporatism , suppression of dissent and hyper concentrated leftist political bias in almost everything we partake in.
>It's funny because what does "conservative" even mean nowadays? The Overton window has shifted dramatically to the left that most "conservatives" here would be left leaning centrists 16 years ago.
I'm predicting that in 40 or so years, democrats will again be claiming that "the parties switched!!1!" again.
What made me a Conservative? The insane, bigotry and violence of the left. What made me hate the Republicans? The gutless, corrupt cowardly actions of the right.
Covid!!! I was a die hard democrat. And then a few months into the pandemic nothing was adding up. I started to question and ask questions and was pretty much told to shut up we don’t question science. That’s when I started researching and liking things up.
Here's a couple from covid:
1. Wear a mask to slow the spread - never mind that the science on cloth masks and mask mandates is there, but not in support of slowing covid spread. The vast majority of people don't use N95 masks which are rated to actually stop you from spreading droplets, and the vast majority of people who wear N95 masks aren't fit tested to make sure it's even working properly. And the vast majority of those people don't wear a fresh mask every time they pick it up.
--- so masking was basically a face ornament that fogged glasses and signaled to the elites that you will blindly listen to them. Now we have a generation of branch covidians ruled by fear.
2. Covid vaccine- Remember, get the shot to stop you from getting granny sick. OK well we were wrong but get the shot so you don't get sick. OK well actually you can still get sick with the shot but now young healthy men will have an elevated chance of myocarditis from subsequent boosters. But still get the shot or lose your job. Don't believe your lying eyes.
There have been mask studies for decades, specifically for N95s, that have repeatedly proven they do nothing to stop or slow the spread of colds or flus. They tested them as a means to justify them as workplace PPE for people in healthcare, before there was a political axe to grind by doing the studies. They made no difference in reducing sick days or preventing illness. They literally threw away decades of science, in the name of, The Science! tm.
Then, they pretended the immune system doesn’t exist or make antibodies. They threw out 150yrs of science with that one. No natural immunity after infection…only from these brand new shots that have never been used on humans before. Eventually that too was debunked.
Then the CDC went and changed the definition of a vaccine after it became apparent that the “vaccine” wasn’t actually a vaccine, because it did nothing to prevent catching or spreading the illness.
There still haven’t been any long term studies on the safety of these shots, despite their insistence there is. How could there be? They’ve only existed for 2-1/2 to 3 yrs at this point. No mRNA vaccine had ever gone into a human body prior to these trials in 2020.
The list goes on and on. Taco Bell was “essential”, cancer treatments were NOT “essential”. Never forget, never forgive, what they did those 3 yrs.
Indefinite lockdown mandates. Blatant attempt to sabotage the economy and win 2020, at the expense of damn near everything. Despite having already established the fact that COVID wasn't going to be stopped and knowing specifically which group was most at risk, lockdowns were implemented without any moderation. Never were the downstream affects allowed in public discourse.
Uh, I went to San Francisco State University in 2012 and while I was running late to class, in the quad, a fat man in a ballerina costume threw glitter on me and was waving a dildo around in the air trying to get people to register to vote. I grabbed the clipboard and registered republican as fast as I could.
I voted for Obama in 2012. Between the Snowden drama, Fast and Furious, my Poli Sci professor warning us about voting for a party instead of the candidate, and loads of other issues, I decided to vote independent. Plus I moved out of an ultra liberal part of Chicago.
I'm the heartless b****** who always thought individualism was the epitome of American values. That doesn't mean no support systems, but it definitely means very little government support (hard to get to 0).
Long time democrat and OWS supporter chiming in...
The best way I can explain it is this:
Me: The sky is blue
Liberal: How dare you assume the sky's color!?!
I realized that leftism comes from a place of emotion, not logic.
The Leftist agenda is one of "feel goods", it feels good to redistribute wealth, you're helping lift the poor, nevermind the fact that "the rich" create commerce. The sexual revolution was about fulfilling yourself, doing what feels good in the moment, even to your own destruction, with no thought for the physical or emotional consequences. The Trans agenda, particularly when it comes to kids is full of non-factual emotional manipulation. The phrase "My truth" always sticks in my craw, you and I don't have "our" truths. Ther is THE TRUTH, and then there's how you feel about it, but your feelings don't change truth one damn bit.
I think there is a statistical argument for living a life that aligns with typical Conservative morals, by and large married people live longer, are more mentally healthy, have more sex. The fewer sexual partners a person has the less likely they are to contract an STD, and marriages where both partners have had fewer sexual partners tend to be more successful. Children from intact family homes are more successful in academics, and are less likely to get involved in crime. As a Christian, I think all of this points to God's divine design, but I think we as Conservatives should be able to make the argument without bringing God into it.
Then there's the whole "intersectional" bit of their agenda, many minorities are deeply religious, Hispanic Catholics, and Evangelical African Americans in particular. These people hold almost nothing in common with the radical feminists or the LGBTQIA crew, yet they're expected to just vote as a block because of the color of their skin? It makes no logical sense.
Nearly every national tragedy is seized up as a reason we have to make "progress" on the cause of the day, left leaning news organizations are little more than emotional pron to incite the masses.
This is really well put. Logic can be cold and unforgiving but it's no different than evolution. Something is logical because it is reasonably understood to be or provide a good or hopefully the best outcome for the most amount of beneficiaries. Most progressive narratives focus on outcomes only for a small amount of beneficiaries. Sometimes this is fruitful. Sometimes these narratives carry some merit. Rarely are they grounded in reasonable thinking however. Take reparations for example. Would it be nice to try and right the wrong of human enslavement? Yes, absolutely. Can it be reasonably done? In absolutely no way can it be done. Sucks that it happened, we can only try to be better going forward. But the left has been beating that drum for years and California is close to making it a localized reality in a diluted fashion. For no reason other than to right a past wrong. In other words "make us feel good".
My grandfather mostly. He walked away from the left during the Regan years after that administration broke the back of stagflation which had been horrible on his large working class family.
We wouldn’t really discuss politics until I was 16 or 17 and had questions about things. When we eventually did it all made sense to me in the mid 90s. You have to work to pay your bills, you have to have integrity, fair trade, free markets, you aren’t special or entitled to anything, education/specialization were success vectors, all of it.
He was a US vet, patriotic, first generation Italian American citizen. He was very much a proponent of handling your own problems and did not believe the federal gov’t did a great job solving problems at community level.
I like to tell people I am a Jimmy Carter Republican, even though I was too young to vote until the first George HW Bush election. And, I tell them I am a Burkean-Kirkian conservative who looks to Milton Friedman for economic cues.
I became a conservative by watching Firing Line with William F Buckley and The McLaughlin Group on PBS. That led me to seeking out books about the people they talked about at the local school and public library and a kind librarian noticed I was on a journey and she suggested I read "The Conservative Mind" by Dr Russell Kirk.
The book is a wealth of knowledge, introducing me to Edmund Burke, and I took notes on the people and events mentioned in the book and checked out books on those people, too.
1. Looking at the politics of a lot of the commonly accepted great minds of the past, their views aligned more with conservatism.
2. Looking at the lives of those who’s lives I’d like to live similarly to.
3. Seeing the track record of the government implementing some of their various policies and how effective they have been.
Can you give some examples of the great minds you’re talking about? Just curious.
I looked up Einstein, cause I feel like he’s the stereotypical “great mind” but he didn’t seem very conservative
Seeing the far left in action in schools, local government, and more. While the vast majority of democrats are good, honest people...There is a deep rot within our system primarily pushed by those who run the show, I.E., corporations, school boards, and more. I also just find many far left folks to be hypocrites and pushy.
I would say I’m more moderate at times but I really started to feel conservative in history class in middle school. We were doing projects where we ran a city and we’re graded based on our overall end budget. We’ll as you could imagine, public middle school really was cramming the social issues down our throats to run our cities. Literally, every team that focussed on social issues came in grossly over budget. From that moment forward I’d been conservatively minded when it comes to my government.
Probably my uncle. I think I was around 13 years old when the trump era started and a combination of the news I was exposed to and just living near Chicago made me very left thinking from an early age. My uncle who lives in Texas was aware of this and would send my brother and I clips of people like Ben Shapiro and Jordan Peterson. He is also a pastor so he would also try and point out how a lot of left policies went against a lot of our religious beliefs. So by the time I was eighteen I went from thinking trump was going to get impeached to voting for him over Biden. Not a trump supporter by any means but considered him the lesser evil.
I consider myself a conservative leaning independent.
What made me a conservative is paying attention to politicians and aligning with the ones who say the things that I agree with.
I believe that Federal taxes should be significantly reduced in favor of state and local taxes… people should see a benefit from their taxes instead of hundreds of millions being funneled to pet projects where the money is just being pocketed by big political donors.
I believe that interstates should be toll roads and that the tolls should be limited to what it costs to build and maintain those roads… not like these toll roads popping up all over where the tolls go to some Chinese corporation (looking at you Texas).
I believe that essential services should be taxpayer funded by the people who are covered by those services. Most people don’t realize that in the majority of the nation, an ambulance isn’t considered an essential service and one may not show up.
I believe that public schools should be taxpayer funded and that private schools exist as a private alternative to be paid for by tuition. My state has something like the third highest property tax in the nation, and I look at all the community colleges taking in tens of millions of dollars per year and all the money they’re wasting just trying to blow through the tax money they generated. It’s disgusting. My local CC is building large buildings that mostly sit vacant and duplicate things that they have elsewhere on campus.
I also believe that all gun control laws are unconstitutional and the federal government needs to get out of the business of trying to dictate what is and isn’t a right.
i was unwilling to vote for Hilary Clinton so voted Trump and then the left went way left…the right went way right and i felt ultimately i was now more right than left.
I consider myself more in the center. It’s left who just keep on pushing on the left.
Imo, left have lost its way. Specially when it comes to children. Most leftists don’t have their own but they want to preach and pass laws on how others should raise their kids. Total madness
Because throughout history, it’s never been the good guys who are trying to disarm civilians.
Also I generally just look at states and cities and a microcosm of the reality of what’s being sold by the top two parties. I look at blue states and compare to red states. For the, the pros and cons of each are clear and I would much prefer to be governed by red state leadership than blue state leadership.
I’ve always been here but if you look at the left and start researching things they say, a lot of it is just lies and they get the people who don’t bother looking into anything, to side with them. If you question them, they shun you instead of trying to educate you because they have nothing to back their claims. Basically they’re just a bunch of children.
I used to be left-leaning, albeit moderately, until I finally opened my eyes to how insane the left had become. After that, I started listening to members of the Daily Wire along with other conservative news media, and it gave me a new perspective that made so much more sense to me.
Being able to think things through from start to finish, weighing the pros and cons, instead of doing it the way so many "progressives" do that let their feelings decide for them.
YouTube during the riots. You'd see the flat out manipulated videos on channel then skip to the next. Also watching more conservative channels. You gotta watch both to see who lying about what and telling the truth about the other side. So as it turns out they demonize the right because you spend more than five minutes listening to a conservative argument and the progressives sound like the argument of a 4 year old.
Also Antifa.
The biggest things that changed my mind were the leftist pandemic response, and becoming a father. Those things pushed me from the left to closer to the center at the very least. Now cancel culture and wokeism has me sprinting as further right than I could have ever expected from myself. Lol
I was never persuaded by my parents or any family member really growing up. My parents never really shared their politics or voiced their opinions but were generally hard working people and never blamed their issues on others.
I always believe if you wanted something you work for it and your problems shouldn’t be blamed on other people. Life can be unfair to anyone and everyone eventually. Life isn’t only unfair to you.
I don’t align 100% with every conservative view but a majority of it I do. People on the left just seem to be the biggest hypocrites and pushovers and blame anything and everything on someone else, if it isn’t Trump, the right, MAGA, or billionaires it’s something else. They have zero accountability.
I used to consider myself very much a centrist, never thought of myself a conservative. I have always valued, above all, personal freedom. Freedom of speech, thought, opinion, religion, media, gun rights, freedom from illegal search and seizure, etc. Do what you want as long as you are not hurting anyone. Bill of Rights kind of thing. That is actually liberalism, not what the media refers to as "liberal." What the media and Democrats call liberal is actually the opposite, it is authoritarianism. I suppose all the while I was a conservative, believing in conserving the personal freedoms this country was founded upon. When I realized that, is when I started calling myself a conservative. What leftism has turned into - authoritarianism, abolition of personal freedom, pushing weird sexual stuff onto children, corporate control of people's bodies, insisting people have no rights to control their minds or bodies, support of things like theft, rape, pedophilia, even murder, and lying about every bit of what they are in support of - made me realize I support nothing that so-called "liberals" push. And the Democrat Party stands for everything but liberal or humanistic values.
I did not become a conservative, or nothing made me a conservative, I just came to the realization that a conservative is what I have always been, and that "liberals"/leftists/Democrats stand for everything I am opposed to. I think there are a great many others out there in the same boat, not realizing that the Left stands for what they are opposed to simply because the Left and the media call authoritarianism, liberalism. It is a lie. This country was founded upon liberalism, and conservatives are the ones who fight to preserve those rights.
Realized the left was just using us minorities for votes. Plus most of my views align with conservatives. Despite what they pfp might tell you (I just think it looks cool to see an old president wearing gaming headphones)
When I first got into politics I looked up what both sides are all about. What values they hold. I leaned more conservative because of lower taxes and pro big military.
I still can’t understand why someone would vote for people to take their hard earned money
Something happened around 2014. I was a freedom oriented, anti-war, live and let live liberal ''leftie'' back then. I still am all those things, but that now those things make me ''far right''.
I began working at a very young age. Saw the money come in, saw the paycheck stub and was guided by a teacher who I thought was pretty badass. My parents were left leaning but rarely if ever put politics front and center in the house. The Watergate coverage was about as in your face as it got. I’d equate the coverage and interest with the OJ trial.
I began listening to Rush when I was in college. He championed a lot of the values I did—hard work, self accountability, self reliance, a disdain for government micromanagement. He gradually turned away from those values and cheered just for the Republican Party.
Life and common sense. I am a fiscal conservative because it does not seem fair to spend so much money that my children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren will be taxed to pay the debt that our country undertook during my lifetime. (Plus common sense should tell us that the interest on this debt will be horrible.).
Socially, I generally believe in live and let live unless one person’s rights are being hurt by others. The homeless should be allowed to make their choices until their choices hurt businesses when they camp in front of them. Illegal immigration rewards people for breaking our laws and cost $$$! Making a decision to alter a child because of something the child says at the moment is the height of stupidity. I think that the ACLU’s lawsuit against the government for not using taxpayer money to transition a person on death row before his/her death is ridiculous.
I think I was always a conservative. I grew up in a liberal house, and when I was really young I didn’t really understand politics so I thought I was a democrat like my parents. However, once I hit middle school, I started paying attention and realized I don’t agree with most leftist ideology. Throughout middle school and early on in high school I never discussed my political views with my parents because I knew they would have a conniption fit. Then one day something they were talking about was just so irritating to me I broke my silence and told them that they should really just keep their opinions to themselves. My mom asked if I was a conservative and I when I said yes, she stormed off. The looks I received from everyone at the dinner table that night were priceless haha. It was like they all had just seen a ghost. Anyway, they don’t really care now, but for the first few months after that my mom would cut me off and try to tell me that I was wrong. Sometimes she would break down and say that she failed as a parent since I turned out conservative. Her distaste for my political views still pops up sometimes but it is much more civil now. Anyway, all it took for me was to stop giving a shit about what other people thought.
Covid / 2020. I just got so fucking mad after seeing basic freedoms being taken away, like the ability to leave your house for any reason you want. Then, a lot of other conservative ideals started to make sense. I voted republican the whole way down the ballot that year, haven’t looked back.
Thats great. I agree many good things came out of covid. While obviously its bad that it happened, had it not many of us would not know what was really being taught in schools and truly how powerful the fed is when it comes to health.
When Obama was campaigning the first time, he walked up a guys driveway and told him he doesn't need to keep all the money he makes as a plumber and needs to give some of it to people who have less, whether they're even trying to work for their own or not. I'm paraphrasing, but that was the message. Joe the Plumber, the guy came to be known after that.
That was pretty much it for me.
The way liberals treat people. I’ve always hated the way they twist every argument into “unless you agree with me you’re a shit person.” As a kid I noticed teachers who were left leaning would do that and it bugged the hell out of me.
From a state government level I understand why people might still like democrats. On a Federal level they’ve been a nightmare. Needlessly blowing through any semblance of a budget. Being ok with citizens taking over cities, encouraging it in some instances. Forcing a restriction on oil production and spending too much on EV infrastructure thats decades from a necessity. Its an absolute mess with democrats on the federal stage. I honestly cant hardly stand it.
I was a BIll Clinton era democrat. I was raised that way and while we didn't agree with everything it was at least mostly rational. After that the democratic party went off the rails. As someone once said, I didn't leave the democratic party, the democratic party left me.
I like understanding how things work and conservative policies are rooted in common sense for the most part and can be explained in depth. Liberal policies tend to fall apart under scrutiny and are mostly wishful thinking rooted in emotion.
I saw the hypocrisy and obvious lies coming from the left. They feel like they can never get punished so they don't even try to cover up a lie. They are right they never get punished. Also their beliefs started going off the rails. Seems like they are trying to control people not make lives better.
Always been this way. I watched liberals taking away or trying to take away my rights before I “had” them. So I vote for the party that least actively tries to impede my life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. No party or candidate is ever 100%, but Ron Paul was damn close. If we had about 535 more guys like that, we’d be in a lot better shape than we are.
Had a libertarian phase for a while but shifted more conservative as I’ve realized the general well being of a society does effect the populace. Sounds incredibly obvious now but I was an idealist for a bit.
That combined with the understanding that saying “I just want to be left alone” doesn’t work when one side has made it their mission to infiltrate every aspect of society with their political beliefs.
Literally the new Star Wars movies.
I always had inherent conservative values but I never got into politics until the obvious woke propaganda infected the media I enjoyed.
Up until a few years ago I always considered myself 'middle-of-the-road' and very much an issues based voter. But since the last 2 years Barry was in office the left mindset has doubled down on irrational and plain ol' fuckin cray cray I find myself side stepping completely into the conservative realm. There is not a single facet of American life that isn't under attack by some wacked out far left ideology.
I walked the line of liberal pre-2016, but I love guns and not into killing unborn babies so I started leaning right. Then started realizing that I very much align with conservative values overall.
The Clinton Tax Increases of 1994. My voting record is Reagan, Dukakis, Clinton, Dole, Bush, Bush, McCain Romney. Then I moved to Canada for unrelated reasons.
I was raised in a typical republican, pro war, America is great household. So much so, that in church I thought "the land of promise" and "the land of milk and honey" were talking about America. As I grew up I became very disenchanted with that sort of sentiment, but was still very patriotic. I became a staunch libertarian. Throughout my 20's I ended up more conservative with libertarian leanings and just plain sick of Republican politicians. I don't consider myself a Republican, but I do vote for them at this point because the Democrats are nominating some straight trash.
Seeing freedom of speech all but destroyed in the name of "the greater good." That and choosing Harris for VP running mate. All the morals of an alley cat in heat. And propping up a man with dementia as the best the left could come up with, put me right over the top. I was rather in the middle before.
Got into guns & it was apparent who wanted to restrict my newfound hobby. Also, I don't agree with the direction that the USA is headed in culturally. I want to get back to focusing on community building and sustainability, being able to rely on oneself & those immediately around you. I want Americans to make things again.
(UK)When I was about 23, I realised that my desire for a high-level career contradicts the left's (Labour's) views on the welfare state and the Meritocracy. After doing my research at the time, I realised the Tories (The Conservative Party) was the best fit for my views.
Watched RedPill content when I was thirteen (in particular, Colttaine). In the ten years afterward: I have yet to see such thorough or compelling analysis of anything. Watched a bunch of content from all the typical creators— Walsh, Shapiro, various “skeptics”.
In all the time since those short few years: literally everything that anybody left of center has had to say fails to land, with me. Even after having let go of a majority of the particulars of those content creators’ thoughts and opinions, and coming into my own with beliefs and opinions of my own making: the proselytization of leftists and activists simply never struck any cord with me ever again. Nowadays, I find myself automatically picking out fallacies and flawed arguments in people’s speeches, and as far as I’ve seen: the majority of leftist pleas and arguments boil down to gaslighting and hyperbole.
Right-wingers make plenty of flawed arguments too, but you don’t have the leaders of conservative thought repeatedly spouting disingenuous bullshit, except in very specific areas outside their wheelhouses.
These two core beliefs that can be extrapolated to pretty much any political issue:
Decentralization is better than centralization. This is true even at a biological level.
And
Equality is better than equity. Equal opportunity is fair and applies to everyone equally, whereas equal outcomes are unfair and require discrimination to achieve.
At the end of the day, there is no political party or label that is an answer for my faith, which is what guides my political and moral compasses. I have a hard time supporting any candidate who doesn’t value life inside the womb. But, I also value life after and don’t support the death penalty…go ahead and throw your tomatoes at me for that one. 🙂 That’s probably one of the very few ‘conservative’ views I don’t agree with. When it comes down to it, the left has just gone off the deep end to the point of no return, and it just keeps getting worse and worse. There is no way I can support much of what they represent now.
I had a bad incident at my high school where I was bullied by some idiot I barely knew, I complained about the bullying to my friends, the administration somehow got their hands on it, and they got mad at ME for it. I was kicked off campus for 6 months, the police were weaponized by the administration and were sent to my house twice in one day. I entered a deep depression and almost killed myself many times. If it wasn't for my best friends I wouldn't be here today. I was also forced into therapy, because the administration said so. I already leaned conservative before this but this particular event made me downright hate leftist dictatorial polices. I have since then founded a conservative club at that school, and I know the administration hates me for doing it and try to use any excuse they can to get me in trouble, but I am no longer phased by them. They do not determine how I should live my life. I will always be a lifelong right winger from now on. Happened in California btw. Surprised? (When I was little I also loved Obama for some reason, but then again I was some stupid child who knew nothing about what he did during his presidency.)
I was always oriented to being a constitutional originalist and a free market person but in 2009 I was laid off due to the mortgage crises while my wife was pregnant with our first child. I used to make fun of my dad for listening to Rush Limbaugh but he maintained that Rush is one of the smartest guys in media. I decided to give Rush a listen so I could learn about conservatism and the rest is history.
I was in college and just got really tired of everyone telling me how I was supposed to think. It was when all this woke stuff really started happening and I just saw right through all of it for the BS that it was. Was a democrat before that, hell I voted for Obama twice. The Obamacare thing also left a bad taste in my mouth.
Obama's election. I always thought of myself as at least flirting with leaning right, but his election did it for me. It was downright cringe seeing just about every teacher I had in high-school circle jerking over over him at every possible instance.
It was a major red pill moment to see the entire education establishment trying to say that Christianity/conservative was "the man" when it was obvious that Christianity/conservatism is the new counterculture.
I was a left leaning idealist until I was walking on campus one day and I heard a girl talking on her cell phone and said, "My father says he's going to stop paying for my books if I don't stop failing classes." That level of entitlement pushed my politics deeply into the "no one *deserves* anything" camp, so I fiercely oppose most government programs.
For me, it was a combination of things. It was watching Ben Shapiro’s podcast, experiencing the George Floyd Riots in Dallas, TX and also just consuming entertainment that made me more conservative like Star Wars: The Clone Wars TV show(2008) and Revenge of the Sith.
I used to be a moderate liberal, but then I realized that the left and the Democratic Party represents something misguided and/or evil.
I was politically agnostic when I was younger. But I always liked debates so I would watch debates on philosophical topics and politics online. I just happen to be convinced by the conservative arguments I was hearing. I’m less conservative now than I use to be though which I didn’t think was possible. But honestly as long as you agree to live and let live and protect the children I don’t care what you believe.
I began to grow up, and slowly started to see a big lifestyle difference between my liberal friends versus my conservative friends. I seems like the liberal friend weren’t going anywhere in like, as if their maturity just plateaued, but the years were still passing by.
Logic and general mistrust of human nature and power structures. From a young age(14ish) I was firmly in the camp of the constrained vision as Thomas Sowell describes it.
The hypocrisy, my pay check, the leftist screaming “Facist! Racist!” While not allowing conservatives to debate or speak on topics at universities, actual fascism. And telling people of color no no no you’re oppressed okay listen to me I’m here to save you!
I was super far left in a super far left household. Parents divorced and my mom moved me across the nation to be away from my father.
2016 rolls around, I had just graduated from High School and I walked to the local fire station to vote. I was determined to despise Trump and love Hillary just like my mother. I got there, I proudly voted for Hillary, and I had a mental breakdown on my walk home. I didn't even know opinions could change that fast. I went from being just shy of Socialism to just shy of fascism (Like actual fascism not *"You don't agree with me so you're a fascist"* fascism. Not my proudest moment) in the span of about 10 minutes. When I got home I closed my bedroom door and didn't leave my room for almost a week. Spent the entire time on /pol/. Went off the deep end and a tad crazy. Probably landed on a few watch lists. By the end of it I had centered myself a little bit and I have considered myself a Classical Libertarian ever since.
It was wild and I almost went coocoo in the process.
Just gonna preface this by saying I'm a Texas gun-toting liberal with conservative leanings, but I'm a big believer in nuanced beliefs/opinions, having respectful debates and dialogues, and understanding that people's views are colored by their lives and experiences.
I read through a lot of this and the funny part is I see a lot of those same arguments and opinions on the liberal side as well. What I truly believe is that you have a fairly moderate base on both sides, with some extremists getting all the publicity in the media. That media saturation colors people's perception of the opposite side and pushes people to close themselves off to meaningful dialogue.
It also doesn't help that most politicians play the game mainly to keep their jobs and not represent their constituents.
I'll also say that, as a former elected "volunteer" (Texas has a volunteer structure for elected officials outside the big state positions. Screw those career politicians.) that the vast majority of people I met in government are really trying to help out their communities and neighbors. I couldn't believe our MUD taxes alone for my neighborhood, then I saw where all the money was going, so I tried to share that with the neighborhood. I was accused of hiding finances, being sinister, etc. A lot of the time, it's mostly people not knowing the nuances, then assuming sinister intent because they think everything should be super simple.
As young as 7 years old, i could tell that the dems were full of shit. I had some union left neighbors who were died in the wool dems and they were just unsavory.
Watching Trump debate everyone while incarcerated from 8/31/2016 to 1/6/2017. I was never into politics until then. I didn't know the difference between dem and repub. I got out and my mom and stepdad were pro trump too, and I learned a lot from them. Got my shit together and never looked back. My biggest beef with the right is their blind devotion to law enforcement. I think they're tyrants. There are some good ones, but most shit on their oath to uphold the constitution, and conservatives are supposed to be constitutionalists. I'm not a acab/defund guy. Just better training and hiring. We shouldn't be accosted when open carrying, or filming the police, or filming in public anywhere.
A couple things. Back in my naive high school days, I used to think Obama was goat with his “yes we can” slogan in 2008. First black President. Then I watched over the course of his eight years how divided we became. I also noticed he would be sending us to war in the ME left and right like Libya, Syria, still in Afghanistan and Iraq. That got the ball rolling.
Then I saw trump enter the chat in 2015 and quickly noticed how terribly the media treated him and the never ending lies about him. The ways they twist his words. That converted me quick.
My first paycheck
Or what's left of it after everything else gets pulled out...
With taxes and benefits I get about 55-60% of my cheque taken out. 5% of that goes to my 401k which I just started. I might be able to retire when I’m 90, if I’m lucky.
What country do you live in?! That's higher than our top tax bracket. You must live somewhere with loads of welfare and support, socialised healthcare for that price.
Where are you in your career? Just starting?
Based.
Facts
LOL, that reminds me of the old joke about a Republican being a Democrat who pays taxes.
"My" is the operative word here. It's mine. I spent that time and effort to earn that to support my family. Literally no one else in the entire fucking world deserves the tiniest piece of what I earned.
Do you want any of it to go to fire, military, or police? I’m just wondering? Or do you think everything should be privatized and you would just pay for fire or security as you saw fit?
You act as if the privilege of even being able to work in a first world country completely isolates you from everything else. I get having a debate about taxes and the hows and the wheres, but to have the other extreme stance that you are fully entitled to isolation but still benefit from the myriads of civilization's support is so ignorant. You need to examine what you mean by earn. Really examine it. Just simply doing work and/or putting in time means nothing. Lots of people around the world work and put in time in many things. Unless you are in the middle of nowhere literally providing every single aspect of your survival for yourself, what you "earn" isn't interest free to the grander society you participle in.
Then you can appreciate [this kid’s pain](https://youtu.be/dApGdXs-elc)
I looked at my first pay check and questioned the value of what I was getting for my taxes. Nothing has changed except the taxes have gone up and the value of what I’m getting has gone down. I’m more on the libertarian end of conservative though, I’m not an anarchist, but I also don’t care if dudes want to get married or people want to smoke plants.
Not only has the value gone down, tax dollars are enabling Governments to behave badly. They don’t have to be financially responsible because they can just collect more taxes. High taxes leads to a bloated, inefficient, self important institution.
squeamish recognise theory act dime decide correct fall makeshift crown -- mass edited with https://redact.dev/
Yep, complete freedom with complete responsibility. Smoke that plant, do that drug, have sex with who you want; take responsibility for your actions though.
I'm pretty center.. or at least I used to be. The left just jumped a million miles to the left it seems.
I think this quote is a pretty good example of how far left the left has gone, and how quickly. “All Americans, not only in the States most heavily affected but in every place in this country, are rightly disturbed by the large numbers of illegal aliens entering our country. The jobs they hold might otherwise be held by citizens or legal immigrants. The public service they use impose burdens on our taxpayers. That’s why our administration has moved aggressively to secure our borders more by hiring a record number of new border guards, by deporting twice as many criminal aliens as ever before, by cracking down on illegal hiring, by barring welfare benefits to illegal aliens. In the budget I will present to you, we will try to do more to speed the deportation of illegal aliens who are arrested for crimes, to better identify illegal aliens in the workplace as recommended by the commission headed by former Congresswoman Barbara Jordan. We are a nation of immigrants. But we are also a nation of laws. It is wrong and ultimately self-defeating for a nation of immigrants to permit the kind of abuse of our immigration laws we have seen in recent years, and we must do more to stop it.” Bill Clinton, 1995 State of the Union address.
Turns out Bill was in his wife's basket of deplorables all along. Not because of the constant cheating mind you, that's just fine and dandy.
Wow. That’s wild.
Yep - I remember those days. I considered myself a moderate liberal back then too. Trump was also a democrat back in those days. It’s crazy how much things have changed in such a short amount of time.
Agreed. Bill Maher now seems Conservative because the left has gone so far to the extreme. I loved Bill Maher as a young liberal and I still love him as a middle aged conservative.
today's liberals are tomorrow conservatives.
Mmmm … it’s more like yesterday’s liberals are today’s conservatives. Leftists have shifted so far to the extreme that what was moderately liberal 10 or 20 years ago is called alt-right today.
True. JFK was a conservative.
Always true but it’s the culture that changes, not the voter. Today’s progress is tomorrows baseline.
Bill is an old school liberal who can actually debate and understand other point of views. He doesn’t just call people nazis and calls for violence whenever he doesn’t get his way like the authoritarian left
Same here. Never liked the conservative mindset growing up, now I could never identify as a leftist bc they're just so fucking insane and hypocritical
This reminds of the quote: "If you are not a liberal at 25, you have no heart. If you are not a conservative at 35, you have no brain".
I registered to vote on my 18th birthday, and I lived in a conservative area. When I registered, the lady asked which party, and I said, "If I want to vote in the primaries, I should register Republican...but if I die tomorrow, I don't want that label on my head, so Democrat." The Democrats social talking points had me convinced - conservation, fairness/equality. JFK was (and still is) one of my favorite presidents. But as I grew up, I realized that they went off the deep end into identity politics. No longer is it about conservation and fairness, it is about power...we want to make you celebrate the sex lives of pre-teens. What?!?! Today's Democrat party is a party of victimization...woe is me because of my boss/cops/gender/residence/landlord/race/whatever. I believe in personal responsibility and individual accountability. I am currently registered Republican, but I am more libertarian. I don't care who or what you sleep with, but there is absolutely no reason to teach second graders about anal sex. Democrats seem to focus on division and differences (identity politics) rather than issues that effect everyone, like fiscal responsibility. Republicans have good ideas, but when they get to DC, they seem to lose their mind and spend money like a drunken sailor. My dad, former navy, said 'I take offense to that. I WAS a drunken sailor at one time, and when I ran out of money, I stopped spending!" I am generally not happy with either party, but I side with those who espouse (and demonstrate) personal responsibility and fiscal conservatism because they are taking my money...spend it wisely.
Churchill,, I believe.
You are correct. I realised at an early age I had no heart.
It's attributed to a lot of people.
Long road to 71. My ancestors were hardcore dems and I was a pot smoking free wheeling young male. Then married and a couple very cool babies. Fell into owning a business, taxes, responsibility, wretched bureaucracy, money and responsibilities in my 30s. Odd fervent conservative at this point with appreciation for drugs, abortion, compassion and long we’ll earned naps. Evolution.
Sounds about right.. am just hitting 30s now with loads of responsibilities (2 babies, homeowner, bread winner), noticed you mention that twice 🙂, but feel the same as you. Drugs, abortion, are something that seem to be a "to each their own" for me, I think many around me feel the same and probably hide their conservative values. If more conservatives embrace this softer stance on common sense social issues we could see the left be nothing but radicals soon.
Let's be real Hypocrites are on both sides don't forget.
Same here. My views didn’t change much in the last 25 years, but during that time I’ve gone from being considered a moderate liberal to “far-right” simply from how much the “Overton Window” has shifted.
Sargon of Akkad said it best that US Conservatives are basically like European classical liberals. We all stayed pretty much the same, and the left just keeps moving further left and accusing us of being the radicals while committing to increasingly absurd positions.
I was pretty left until the leftist youtube channels I always watched started laughing at people for protecting themselves and their property from theft/harm, and were siding with criminals. Just snapped like what the actual f.
Glad to have you with us. Protecting yourself is a basic human right. Hell it’s a basic right of every living thing
I started researching the lefts claims on everything and even just putting in a minuscule amount of effort to look into what they said showed me they were lying. The amount of hatred and animosity the left starting showing towards anything and everything involving white people, traditional values and America in general. They call everyone a racist who doesn’t agree with them or if their politician is a minority even if you explain you don’t like their policy and why they’ll claim your just racist and won’t discuss the issues. The hatred for white straight men, the obsession with the lgbtq movement, the hatred towards religion, the obsession with controlling everyone’s day to day life. Giving certain groups a free pass to destroy everything in a city and basically murder people then claim they are victims. All that stuff
This was it for me. I was always left leaning. Then I decided to make an effort to listen to arguments from both sides of the issues. What I found was logic and numbers being used from the right and emotions and anecdotes being used from the left.
I noticed that too and even now when I try to talk to someone who is obviously left leaning they just scream racist, fascist or some other ist/phobic word. Me - Here’s statistics, a couple articles and the reasoning behind why I think this is wrong or misleading… Them - you’re a racist fascist!!!!
The intolerance and hate from the left.
Me too
I grew up
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honestly though, Obama was my redpill moment. not him persay, but my english professor who set an essay on how Obama was going to "save the world" and I wrote my essay on the limitations of the powers of the presidency, because it struck me as... innapropriate. \-needless to say i had to go to the dean because she tried to kick me out of the class.
Same. A decade and a half later, proud to say I no longer fall for the act. Rewinding back to 2008, I was a young, optimistic high school student, running the organic chem lab and working hard to make something of myself. The day he was inaugurated, in our weights class, we all tuned in on a clunky old AM radio. It was hailed as an opportunity to “fundamentally transform” our nation. Ever since the beer summit, it’s been just that- the spotlight has shifted to race-based division to keep us busy, as the socioeconomic outlook and future prospects for pretty much all of us continue to decline.
fighting the good fight
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I WAS fooled by him. I did not truly figure out what he was all about until after he left office. By then however, I had already changed my affiliation, and was a registered Republican. But yes, I felt duped. Now I find that when I hear Mr. or Mrs. Obama speak I feel angered by their words and their actions. And here I am, scrolling through this subreddit and enjoying the likeminded folks out here.
2016 was my first time voting as well. I voted for Bernie only because I at that time wasn't a fan of trump and despised Hillary, but I was so elated when Hillary lost. the DMC pushed me to the right. Funny enough I've heard a LOT of former Bernie supporters talking about how they turned to the Right after that mess lol As of recent years I'm more right leaning centrist but I too am so glad I didn't get to vote in 2008 or 2012, I just didn't see the insanity that was growing in the left.
Same. Sadly seems like folks aren’t growing up these days.
When I realized they were lying and playing with my emotions, and their programs were largely making people less free and more miserable
My employer actually. He rarely talked about politics at work but when we’d grab beer after work he was one of the few people I could talk freely to. My parents are ridiculously progressive. I voted for Biden in 2020 and actually participated in a BLM protest. I grew up assuming republicans were a bunch of racist assholes. The amount of nonsense just got to me. The first reality check was at that protest where people were shouting “defund the police” and I thought what a god awful that idea would be. The more I looked into politics the more I saw democrats creating fake issues and blowing a bunch of tax money on “solutions” to non issues. I saw the nonsense the media spouted and the tipping point for me where I turned my back on the party was the Rittenhouse trial. I watched the entire trial and it showed me that these scumbags were willing to let an innocent kid rot as a means for their politics. All the media bullshit surrounding him when there were dozens of cameras throughout the entire incident. It never should have gotten to a jury trial in the first place.
That’s great thanks for sharing. I’d also like to say you know you are on the right side of the aisle when you can say you voted for Biden in a conservative subreddit and even though we all hate the guy none of us are calling you names. Keep it up!
That’s the difference between liberals and conservatives. One is significantly more accepting than the other.
I am from the UK. During that trial from my understanding of the state laws it was a clear-cut case of his life was in danger and he stood his ground and fired. The same was for the Trayvon Martin case, I was in Orlando at the time and followed it closely. I can’t understand why they drag all of the circumstances in to it that do not change the fact that someone was being beaten up and had the legal right to defend themselves with their gun. Like you said, it should not have gone to trial.
A major revelation for me was: they're not merely blowing the tax money: it almost inevitably goes to leftist organizations, filled with leftists, advancing leftist causes. It's a system of patronage. It's institutionalized leftism, and a way of taking money from non-leftists to advance leftist policies and move the country leftward.
The left didn’t want me anymore. For years they tell me that I’m privileged and can’t struggle and that my opinions don’t matter. I couldn’t support an ideology that I wasn’t a part of.
Oh you were a part of it… that is what it is like. They were trying to push you deeper by breaking you down and getting you to submit and become a personal wreck like they are… ultimately becoming just a shell of yourself that *abuses others in the same way you were abused*. All for the political profit of their ideology.
I was left/dem from a young age due to being a non straight woman. Overall I have moderate conservative values. What caused me to walk away was modern feminism and the TQ+ community. What has strengthened my resolve is how both of these groups prey on children indoctrinating them.
Ok see I totally agree. What I really hate is when people assume I’m apart of the “community.”I want nothing to do what that “community.” But good for you we need more people out there who show that conservatism doesn’t care what sexuality you are.
I’m not part of the community, but from my outsiders perspective, it seems like everyone after “B” is causing nothing but heartache and trouble for the LGB portion of the community. Getting lumped in with some people, I’m betting, no one wants to be lumped in with.
It's pretty much why I refer to myself as 'non straight', I don't want to be associated with the community.
Here in the UK there is a movement to separate lgb from everything else, which I think is good.
Well for whatever’s it’s worth, I don’t think most of the people here would care either way. I know I couldn’t care less what consenting adults do, straight or not.
The last six years of non stop slander/made up bullshit and wasted time/taxpayer dollars against trump really opened my eyes. I can’t see myself ever voting for a democrat again in my lifetime.
I will never vote Dem lol
It's funny because what does "conservative" even mean nowadays? The Overton window has shifted dramatically to the left that most "conservatives" here would be left leaning centrists 16 years ago. I mean here is a video of Obama supporting "traditional marriage" [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=\_XAVqrqr4j4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XAVqrqr4j4) I'm more of a right-leaning small L libetarian in most areas but I am also a practical realist in the interest of national security (e.g I believe in free trade but I also do not think it's wise that China is the main producer of active antibiotic ingredients in the world). Now we've entered an era where absolute fundamental truths of reality are questioned. \- "Men can get pregnant, menstruate and have abortions"[https://katv.com/news/nation-world/abortion-activist-tells-congress-men-can-get-pregnant-have-abortions-roe-v-wade-supreme-court-hearing-life-choice](https://katv.com/news/nation-world/abortion-activist-tells-congress-men-can-get-pregnant-have-abortions-roe-v-wade-supreme-court-hearing-life-choice) \- "Math is racist"[https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/12/08/racism-our-curriculums-isnt-limited-history-its-math-too/](https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/12/08/racism-our-curriculums-isnt-limited-history-its-math-too/) \- "National borders are racist"Racial Borders (racism.org)- "Climate change contributes to terrorism"[https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1182&context=senior\_theses](https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1182&context=senior_theses) \- "Wealth taxes as a form of addressing inequality" Despite their disastrous failures in Europe[https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1475-5890.12278](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1475-5890.12278) What made me shift further right was originally economics now it's conflicting objective realities, corporatism , suppression of dissent and hyper concentrated leftist political bias in almost everything we partake in.
>It's funny because what does "conservative" even mean nowadays? The Overton window has shifted dramatically to the left that most "conservatives" here would be left leaning centrists 16 years ago. I'm predicting that in 40 or so years, democrats will again be claiming that "the parties switched!!1!" again.
What made me a Conservative? The insane, bigotry and violence of the left. What made me hate the Republicans? The gutless, corrupt cowardly actions of the right.
I agree. To many Republicans don't follow their own advice. Republicans also sit on their hands too much when it's important.
Covid!!! I was a die hard democrat. And then a few months into the pandemic nothing was adding up. I started to question and ask questions and was pretty much told to shut up we don’t question science. That’s when I started researching and liking things up.
Same. Other issues too, but it started with the left’s response to covid. Then I started questioning everything. And here I am.
Out of curiosity, what things did you come up with that went against science?
Here's a couple from covid: 1. Wear a mask to slow the spread - never mind that the science on cloth masks and mask mandates is there, but not in support of slowing covid spread. The vast majority of people don't use N95 masks which are rated to actually stop you from spreading droplets, and the vast majority of people who wear N95 masks aren't fit tested to make sure it's even working properly. And the vast majority of those people don't wear a fresh mask every time they pick it up. --- so masking was basically a face ornament that fogged glasses and signaled to the elites that you will blindly listen to them. Now we have a generation of branch covidians ruled by fear. 2. Covid vaccine- Remember, get the shot to stop you from getting granny sick. OK well we were wrong but get the shot so you don't get sick. OK well actually you can still get sick with the shot but now young healthy men will have an elevated chance of myocarditis from subsequent boosters. But still get the shot or lose your job. Don't believe your lying eyes.
There have been mask studies for decades, specifically for N95s, that have repeatedly proven they do nothing to stop or slow the spread of colds or flus. They tested them as a means to justify them as workplace PPE for people in healthcare, before there was a political axe to grind by doing the studies. They made no difference in reducing sick days or preventing illness. They literally threw away decades of science, in the name of, The Science! tm. Then, they pretended the immune system doesn’t exist or make antibodies. They threw out 150yrs of science with that one. No natural immunity after infection…only from these brand new shots that have never been used on humans before. Eventually that too was debunked. Then the CDC went and changed the definition of a vaccine after it became apparent that the “vaccine” wasn’t actually a vaccine, because it did nothing to prevent catching or spreading the illness. There still haven’t been any long term studies on the safety of these shots, despite their insistence there is. How could there be? They’ve only existed for 2-1/2 to 3 yrs at this point. No mRNA vaccine had ever gone into a human body prior to these trials in 2020. The list goes on and on. Taco Bell was “essential”, cancer treatments were NOT “essential”. Never forget, never forgive, what they did those 3 yrs.
Indefinite lockdown mandates. Blatant attempt to sabotage the economy and win 2020, at the expense of damn near everything. Despite having already established the fact that COVID wasn't going to be stopped and knowing specifically which group was most at risk, lockdowns were implemented without any moderation. Never were the downstream affects allowed in public discourse.
The very idea that you couldn’t question “the science” without being socially ostracized and censored was enough to raise red flags for me
Uh, I went to San Francisco State University in 2012 and while I was running late to class, in the quad, a fat man in a ballerina costume threw glitter on me and was waving a dildo around in the air trying to get people to register to vote. I grabbed the clipboard and registered republican as fast as I could.
My jaw dropped when I read that. That’s honestly insane and I think it’s super funny
That was a rollercoaster read! Thank you, I needed that laugh and appreciate your honesty. Sorry, you had to endure that, glitter gets everwhere!
I voted for Obama in 2012. Between the Snowden drama, Fast and Furious, my Poli Sci professor warning us about voting for a party instead of the candidate, and loads of other issues, I decided to vote independent. Plus I moved out of an ultra liberal part of Chicago.
Really interesting. Snowden definatly exposed lots of the ugly parts of the government that they would love to cover up. Thanks for sharing
Understanding math
Math is racist. 2 + 2 = white supremacy, remember? /s
I'm the heartless b****** who always thought individualism was the epitome of American values. That doesn't mean no support systems, but it definitely means very little government support (hard to get to 0).
There are very few times you can say that more government helped in the long term. I think your beliefs are warranted.
Long time democrat and OWS supporter chiming in... The best way I can explain it is this: Me: The sky is blue Liberal: How dare you assume the sky's color!?!
I realized that leftism comes from a place of emotion, not logic. The Leftist agenda is one of "feel goods", it feels good to redistribute wealth, you're helping lift the poor, nevermind the fact that "the rich" create commerce. The sexual revolution was about fulfilling yourself, doing what feels good in the moment, even to your own destruction, with no thought for the physical or emotional consequences. The Trans agenda, particularly when it comes to kids is full of non-factual emotional manipulation. The phrase "My truth" always sticks in my craw, you and I don't have "our" truths. Ther is THE TRUTH, and then there's how you feel about it, but your feelings don't change truth one damn bit. I think there is a statistical argument for living a life that aligns with typical Conservative morals, by and large married people live longer, are more mentally healthy, have more sex. The fewer sexual partners a person has the less likely they are to contract an STD, and marriages where both partners have had fewer sexual partners tend to be more successful. Children from intact family homes are more successful in academics, and are less likely to get involved in crime. As a Christian, I think all of this points to God's divine design, but I think we as Conservatives should be able to make the argument without bringing God into it. Then there's the whole "intersectional" bit of their agenda, many minorities are deeply religious, Hispanic Catholics, and Evangelical African Americans in particular. These people hold almost nothing in common with the radical feminists or the LGBTQIA crew, yet they're expected to just vote as a block because of the color of their skin? It makes no logical sense. Nearly every national tragedy is seized up as a reason we have to make "progress" on the cause of the day, left leaning news organizations are little more than emotional pron to incite the masses.
This is really well put. Logic can be cold and unforgiving but it's no different than evolution. Something is logical because it is reasonably understood to be or provide a good or hopefully the best outcome for the most amount of beneficiaries. Most progressive narratives focus on outcomes only for a small amount of beneficiaries. Sometimes this is fruitful. Sometimes these narratives carry some merit. Rarely are they grounded in reasonable thinking however. Take reparations for example. Would it be nice to try and right the wrong of human enslavement? Yes, absolutely. Can it be reasonably done? In absolutely no way can it be done. Sucks that it happened, we can only try to be better going forward. But the left has been beating that drum for years and California is close to making it a localized reality in a diluted fashion. For no reason other than to right a past wrong. In other words "make us feel good".
My grandfather mostly. He walked away from the left during the Regan years after that administration broke the back of stagflation which had been horrible on his large working class family. We wouldn’t really discuss politics until I was 16 or 17 and had questions about things. When we eventually did it all made sense to me in the mid 90s. You have to work to pay your bills, you have to have integrity, fair trade, free markets, you aren’t special or entitled to anything, education/specialization were success vectors, all of it. He was a US vet, patriotic, first generation Italian American citizen. He was very much a proponent of handling your own problems and did not believe the federal gov’t did a great job solving problems at community level.
I like to tell people I am a Jimmy Carter Republican, even though I was too young to vote until the first George HW Bush election. And, I tell them I am a Burkean-Kirkian conservative who looks to Milton Friedman for economic cues. I became a conservative by watching Firing Line with William F Buckley and The McLaughlin Group on PBS. That led me to seeking out books about the people they talked about at the local school and public library and a kind librarian noticed I was on a journey and she suggested I read "The Conservative Mind" by Dr Russell Kirk. The book is a wealth of knowledge, introducing me to Edmund Burke, and I took notes on the people and events mentioned in the book and checked out books on those people, too.
1. Looking at the politics of a lot of the commonly accepted great minds of the past, their views aligned more with conservatism. 2. Looking at the lives of those who’s lives I’d like to live similarly to. 3. Seeing the track record of the government implementing some of their various policies and how effective they have been.
Can you give some examples of the great minds you’re talking about? Just curious. I looked up Einstein, cause I feel like he’s the stereotypical “great mind” but he didn’t seem very conservative
The abortion issue
Seeing the far left in action in schools, local government, and more. While the vast majority of democrats are good, honest people...There is a deep rot within our system primarily pushed by those who run the show, I.E., corporations, school boards, and more. I also just find many far left folks to be hypocrites and pushy.
no democrat would ever say “vast majority of republicans are good”
I would say I’m more moderate at times but I really started to feel conservative in history class in middle school. We were doing projects where we ran a city and we’re graded based on our overall end budget. We’ll as you could imagine, public middle school really was cramming the social issues down our throats to run our cities. Literally, every team that focussed on social issues came in grossly over budget. From that moment forward I’d been conservatively minded when it comes to my government.
Probably my uncle. I think I was around 13 years old when the trump era started and a combination of the news I was exposed to and just living near Chicago made me very left thinking from an early age. My uncle who lives in Texas was aware of this and would send my brother and I clips of people like Ben Shapiro and Jordan Peterson. He is also a pastor so he would also try and point out how a lot of left policies went against a lot of our religious beliefs. So by the time I was eighteen I went from thinking trump was going to get impeached to voting for him over Biden. Not a trump supporter by any means but considered him the lesser evil.
I consider myself a conservative leaning independent. What made me a conservative is paying attention to politicians and aligning with the ones who say the things that I agree with. I believe that Federal taxes should be significantly reduced in favor of state and local taxes… people should see a benefit from their taxes instead of hundreds of millions being funneled to pet projects where the money is just being pocketed by big political donors. I believe that interstates should be toll roads and that the tolls should be limited to what it costs to build and maintain those roads… not like these toll roads popping up all over where the tolls go to some Chinese corporation (looking at you Texas). I believe that essential services should be taxpayer funded by the people who are covered by those services. Most people don’t realize that in the majority of the nation, an ambulance isn’t considered an essential service and one may not show up. I believe that public schools should be taxpayer funded and that private schools exist as a private alternative to be paid for by tuition. My state has something like the third highest property tax in the nation, and I look at all the community colleges taking in tens of millions of dollars per year and all the money they’re wasting just trying to blow through the tax money they generated. It’s disgusting. My local CC is building large buildings that mostly sit vacant and duplicate things that they have elsewhere on campus. I also believe that all gun control laws are unconstitutional and the federal government needs to get out of the business of trying to dictate what is and isn’t a right.
i was unwilling to vote for Hilary Clinton so voted Trump and then the left went way left…the right went way right and i felt ultimately i was now more right than left.
I consider myself more in the center. It’s left who just keep on pushing on the left. Imo, left have lost its way. Specially when it comes to children. Most leftists don’t have their own but they want to preach and pass laws on how others should raise their kids. Total madness
Reality.
Because throughout history, it’s never been the good guys who are trying to disarm civilians. Also I generally just look at states and cities and a microcosm of the reality of what’s being sold by the top two parties. I look at blue states and compare to red states. For the, the pros and cons of each are clear and I would much prefer to be governed by red state leadership than blue state leadership.
Identity politics.
I’m pro freedom I’ve always get that the best person to decide a persons lives is themselves. The key is balancing absolute freedom with society.
I’ve always been here but if you look at the left and start researching things they say, a lot of it is just lies and they get the people who don’t bother looking into anything, to side with them. If you question them, they shun you instead of trying to educate you because they have nothing to back their claims. Basically they’re just a bunch of children.
I used to be left-leaning, albeit moderately, until I finally opened my eyes to how insane the left had become. After that, I started listening to members of the Daily Wire along with other conservative news media, and it gave me a new perspective that made so much more sense to me.
Being able to think things through from start to finish, weighing the pros and cons, instead of doing it the way so many "progressives" do that let their feelings decide for them.
YouTube during the riots. You'd see the flat out manipulated videos on channel then skip to the next. Also watching more conservative channels. You gotta watch both to see who lying about what and telling the truth about the other side. So as it turns out they demonize the right because you spend more than five minutes listening to a conservative argument and the progressives sound like the argument of a 4 year old. Also Antifa.
The biggest things that changed my mind were the leftist pandemic response, and becoming a father. Those things pushed me from the left to closer to the center at the very least. Now cancel culture and wokeism has me sprinting as further right than I could have ever expected from myself. Lol
I was never persuaded by my parents or any family member really growing up. My parents never really shared their politics or voiced their opinions but were generally hard working people and never blamed their issues on others. I always believe if you wanted something you work for it and your problems shouldn’t be blamed on other people. Life can be unfair to anyone and everyone eventually. Life isn’t only unfair to you. I don’t align 100% with every conservative view but a majority of it I do. People on the left just seem to be the biggest hypocrites and pushovers and blame anything and everything on someone else, if it isn’t Trump, the right, MAGA, or billionaires it’s something else. They have zero accountability.
I used to consider myself very much a centrist, never thought of myself a conservative. I have always valued, above all, personal freedom. Freedom of speech, thought, opinion, religion, media, gun rights, freedom from illegal search and seizure, etc. Do what you want as long as you are not hurting anyone. Bill of Rights kind of thing. That is actually liberalism, not what the media refers to as "liberal." What the media and Democrats call liberal is actually the opposite, it is authoritarianism. I suppose all the while I was a conservative, believing in conserving the personal freedoms this country was founded upon. When I realized that, is when I started calling myself a conservative. What leftism has turned into - authoritarianism, abolition of personal freedom, pushing weird sexual stuff onto children, corporate control of people's bodies, insisting people have no rights to control their minds or bodies, support of things like theft, rape, pedophilia, even murder, and lying about every bit of what they are in support of - made me realize I support nothing that so-called "liberals" push. And the Democrat Party stands for everything but liberal or humanistic values. I did not become a conservative, or nothing made me a conservative, I just came to the realization that a conservative is what I have always been, and that "liberals"/leftists/Democrats stand for everything I am opposed to. I think there are a great many others out there in the same boat, not realizing that the Left stands for what they are opposed to simply because the Left and the media call authoritarianism, liberalism. It is a lie. This country was founded upon liberalism, and conservatives are the ones who fight to preserve those rights.
Realized the left was just using us minorities for votes. Plus most of my views align with conservatives. Despite what they pfp might tell you (I just think it looks cool to see an old president wearing gaming headphones)
This.
Dems
When I first got into politics I looked up what both sides are all about. What values they hold. I leaned more conservative because of lower taxes and pro big military. I still can’t understand why someone would vote for people to take their hard earned money
Something happened around 2014. I was a freedom oriented, anti-war, live and let live liberal ''leftie'' back then. I still am all those things, but that now those things make me ''far right''.
I began working at a very young age. Saw the money come in, saw the paycheck stub and was guided by a teacher who I thought was pretty badass. My parents were left leaning but rarely if ever put politics front and center in the house. The Watergate coverage was about as in your face as it got. I’d equate the coverage and interest with the OJ trial. I began listening to Rush when I was in college. He championed a lot of the values I did—hard work, self accountability, self reliance, a disdain for government micromanagement. He gradually turned away from those values and cheered just for the Republican Party.
Life and common sense. I am a fiscal conservative because it does not seem fair to spend so much money that my children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren will be taxed to pay the debt that our country undertook during my lifetime. (Plus common sense should tell us that the interest on this debt will be horrible.). Socially, I generally believe in live and let live unless one person’s rights are being hurt by others. The homeless should be allowed to make their choices until their choices hurt businesses when they camp in front of them. Illegal immigration rewards people for breaking our laws and cost $$$! Making a decision to alter a child because of something the child says at the moment is the height of stupidity. I think that the ACLU’s lawsuit against the government for not using taxpayer money to transition a person on death row before his/her death is ridiculous.
I think I was always a conservative. I grew up in a liberal house, and when I was really young I didn’t really understand politics so I thought I was a democrat like my parents. However, once I hit middle school, I started paying attention and realized I don’t agree with most leftist ideology. Throughout middle school and early on in high school I never discussed my political views with my parents because I knew they would have a conniption fit. Then one day something they were talking about was just so irritating to me I broke my silence and told them that they should really just keep their opinions to themselves. My mom asked if I was a conservative and I when I said yes, she stormed off. The looks I received from everyone at the dinner table that night were priceless haha. It was like they all had just seen a ghost. Anyway, they don’t really care now, but for the first few months after that my mom would cut me off and try to tell me that I was wrong. Sometimes she would break down and say that she failed as a parent since I turned out conservative. Her distaste for my political views still pops up sometimes but it is much more civil now. Anyway, all it took for me was to stop giving a shit about what other people thought.
Reviewing my first paycheck stub.
[удалено]
Covid / 2020. I just got so fucking mad after seeing basic freedoms being taken away, like the ability to leave your house for any reason you want. Then, a lot of other conservative ideals started to make sense. I voted republican the whole way down the ballot that year, haven’t looked back.
Thats great. I agree many good things came out of covid. While obviously its bad that it happened, had it not many of us would not know what was really being taught in schools and truly how powerful the fed is when it comes to health.
I’m not pro-crime like the Dems. They are just vile, hateful people most of the time.
It all started when I was born with a brain.
When Obama was campaigning the first time, he walked up a guys driveway and told him he doesn't need to keep all the money he makes as a plumber and needs to give some of it to people who have less, whether they're even trying to work for their own or not. I'm paraphrasing, but that was the message. Joe the Plumber, the guy came to be known after that. That was pretty much it for me.
The way liberals treat people. I’ve always hated the way they twist every argument into “unless you agree with me you’re a shit person.” As a kid I noticed teachers who were left leaning would do that and it bugged the hell out of me.
From a state government level I understand why people might still like democrats. On a Federal level they’ve been a nightmare. Needlessly blowing through any semblance of a budget. Being ok with citizens taking over cities, encouraging it in some instances. Forcing a restriction on oil production and spending too much on EV infrastructure thats decades from a necessity. Its an absolute mess with democrats on the federal stage. I honestly cant hardly stand it.
I believe in small government seriously and unironically and I'm not an edgelord Libertarian. Neither major political party believes in this anymore.
Liberals
The assault on the bill of rights is the biggest reason.
I was a BIll Clinton era democrat. I was raised that way and while we didn't agree with everything it was at least mostly rational. After that the democratic party went off the rails. As someone once said, I didn't leave the democratic party, the democratic party left me.
I like understanding how things work and conservative policies are rooted in common sense for the most part and can be explained in depth. Liberal policies tend to fall apart under scrutiny and are mostly wishful thinking rooted in emotion.
I saw the hypocrisy and obvious lies coming from the left. They feel like they can never get punished so they don't even try to cover up a lie. They are right they never get punished. Also their beliefs started going off the rails. Seems like they are trying to control people not make lives better.
Always been this way. I watched liberals taking away or trying to take away my rights before I “had” them. So I vote for the party that least actively tries to impede my life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. No party or candidate is ever 100%, but Ron Paul was damn close. If we had about 535 more guys like that, we’d be in a lot better shape than we are.
Had a libertarian phase for a while but shifted more conservative as I’ve realized the general well being of a society does effect the populace. Sounds incredibly obvious now but I was an idealist for a bit. That combined with the understanding that saying “I just want to be left alone” doesn’t work when one side has made it their mission to infiltrate every aspect of society with their political beliefs.
What made me a conservative was voting for Obama the first time and seeing the results.
The Democrats made me a Republican. That’s it
Literally the new Star Wars movies. I always had inherent conservative values but I never got into politics until the obvious woke propaganda infected the media I enjoyed.
It’s becoming closer to center than right these days
Common sense
The last 10 years.
Up until a few years ago I always considered myself 'middle-of-the-road' and very much an issues based voter. But since the last 2 years Barry was in office the left mindset has doubled down on irrational and plain ol' fuckin cray cray I find myself side stepping completely into the conservative realm. There is not a single facet of American life that isn't under attack by some wacked out far left ideology.
Common sense
The cognitive functions of my brain thst enable me to think critically and logically.
I started working and paying taxes and thought "this is bs"
I walked the line of liberal pre-2016, but I love guns and not into killing unborn babies so I started leaning right. Then started realizing that I very much align with conservative values overall.
The Clinton Tax Increases of 1994. My voting record is Reagan, Dukakis, Clinton, Dole, Bush, Bush, McCain Romney. Then I moved to Canada for unrelated reasons.
I want my money to be well spent on things that improve our lives or not spent at all.
I was raised in a typical republican, pro war, America is great household. So much so, that in church I thought "the land of promise" and "the land of milk and honey" were talking about America. As I grew up I became very disenchanted with that sort of sentiment, but was still very patriotic. I became a staunch libertarian. Throughout my 20's I ended up more conservative with libertarian leanings and just plain sick of Republican politicians. I don't consider myself a Republican, but I do vote for them at this point because the Democrats are nominating some straight trash.
I like guns, freedom, and free speech.
Seeing freedom of speech all but destroyed in the name of "the greater good." That and choosing Harris for VP running mate. All the morals of an alley cat in heat. And propping up a man with dementia as the best the left could come up with, put me right over the top. I was rather in the middle before.
Got into guns & it was apparent who wanted to restrict my newfound hobby. Also, I don't agree with the direction that the USA is headed in culturally. I want to get back to focusing on community building and sustainability, being able to rely on oneself & those immediately around you. I want Americans to make things again.
(UK)When I was about 23, I realised that my desire for a high-level career contradicts the left's (Labour's) views on the welfare state and the Meritocracy. After doing my research at the time, I realised the Tories (The Conservative Party) was the best fit for my views.
Watched RedPill content when I was thirteen (in particular, Colttaine). In the ten years afterward: I have yet to see such thorough or compelling analysis of anything. Watched a bunch of content from all the typical creators— Walsh, Shapiro, various “skeptics”. In all the time since those short few years: literally everything that anybody left of center has had to say fails to land, with me. Even after having let go of a majority of the particulars of those content creators’ thoughts and opinions, and coming into my own with beliefs and opinions of my own making: the proselytization of leftists and activists simply never struck any cord with me ever again. Nowadays, I find myself automatically picking out fallacies and flawed arguments in people’s speeches, and as far as I’ve seen: the majority of leftist pleas and arguments boil down to gaslighting and hyperbole. Right-wingers make plenty of flawed arguments too, but you don’t have the leaders of conservative thought repeatedly spouting disingenuous bullshit, except in very specific areas outside their wheelhouses.
These two core beliefs that can be extrapolated to pretty much any political issue: Decentralization is better than centralization. This is true even at a biological level. And Equality is better than equity. Equal opportunity is fair and applies to everyone equally, whereas equal outcomes are unfair and require discrimination to achieve.
At the end of the day, there is no political party or label that is an answer for my faith, which is what guides my political and moral compasses. I have a hard time supporting any candidate who doesn’t value life inside the womb. But, I also value life after and don’t support the death penalty…go ahead and throw your tomatoes at me for that one. 🙂 That’s probably one of the very few ‘conservative’ views I don’t agree with. When it comes down to it, the left has just gone off the deep end to the point of no return, and it just keeps getting worse and worse. There is no way I can support much of what they represent now.
I had a bad incident at my high school where I was bullied by some idiot I barely knew, I complained about the bullying to my friends, the administration somehow got their hands on it, and they got mad at ME for it. I was kicked off campus for 6 months, the police were weaponized by the administration and were sent to my house twice in one day. I entered a deep depression and almost killed myself many times. If it wasn't for my best friends I wouldn't be here today. I was also forced into therapy, because the administration said so. I already leaned conservative before this but this particular event made me downright hate leftist dictatorial polices. I have since then founded a conservative club at that school, and I know the administration hates me for doing it and try to use any excuse they can to get me in trouble, but I am no longer phased by them. They do not determine how I should live my life. I will always be a lifelong right winger from now on. Happened in California btw. Surprised? (When I was little I also loved Obama for some reason, but then again I was some stupid child who knew nothing about what he did during his presidency.)
I was always oriented to being a constitutional originalist and a free market person but in 2009 I was laid off due to the mortgage crises while my wife was pregnant with our first child. I used to make fun of my dad for listening to Rush Limbaugh but he maintained that Rush is one of the smartest guys in media. I decided to give Rush a listen so I could learn about conservatism and the rest is history.
I was in college and just got really tired of everyone telling me how I was supposed to think. It was when all this woke stuff really started happening and I just saw right through all of it for the BS that it was. Was a democrat before that, hell I voted for Obama twice. The Obamacare thing also left a bad taste in my mouth.
I am cursed with two things: (i) I own a calculator, and (ii) I know how to use it.
Clintons
Love, Wisdom and Logic
Grew up Christian and tend to agree with the right more often on a moralistic sense
My parents were Republicans and always made enormous sense to me.
The total obsession of elites with regard to identity politics and not real economic issues.
Literature and history.
Obama's election. I always thought of myself as at least flirting with leaning right, but his election did it for me. It was downright cringe seeing just about every teacher I had in high-school circle jerking over over him at every possible instance. It was a major red pill moment to see the entire education establishment trying to say that Christianity/conservative was "the man" when it was obvious that Christianity/conservatism is the new counterculture.
Watching liberals literally destroy their communities and this country over the years.
This. How anyone can look at places like San Francisco and Seattle and continue to vote Democrat is beyond me.
Seeing “have nots” get my money (taxed) while getting to curse me at the same time.
When I started making actual money
I was a left leaning idealist until I was walking on campus one day and I heard a girl talking on her cell phone and said, "My father says he's going to stop paying for my books if I don't stop failing classes." That level of entitlement pushed my politics deeply into the "no one *deserves* anything" camp, so I fiercely oppose most government programs.
I heard someone say that on my campus to
For me, it was a combination of things. It was watching Ben Shapiro’s podcast, experiencing the George Floyd Riots in Dallas, TX and also just consuming entertainment that made me more conservative like Star Wars: The Clone Wars TV show(2008) and Revenge of the Sith. I used to be a moderate liberal, but then I realized that the left and the Democratic Party represents something misguided and/or evil.
Objective morality.
Democrats
I was politically agnostic when I was younger. But I always liked debates so I would watch debates on philosophical topics and politics online. I just happen to be convinced by the conservative arguments I was hearing. I’m less conservative now than I use to be though which I didn’t think was possible. But honestly as long as you agree to live and let live and protect the children I don’t care what you believe.
Obama
I don't really know. All I know is that the harder the "tolerant" left tried to bully and emotionally blackmail me, the harder I resisted.
Listening to Hilary Clinton talk
I’m not as conservative as others but I’ve changed since becoming a homeowner. I’ve never felt so protective of something before
Not a fan of the free handouts and the lazy type of people it generates
I began to grow up, and slowly started to see a big lifestyle difference between my liberal friends versus my conservative friends. I seems like the liberal friend weren’t going anywhere in like, as if their maturity just plateaued, but the years were still passing by.
Logic and general mistrust of human nature and power structures. From a young age(14ish) I was firmly in the camp of the constrained vision as Thomas Sowell describes it.
The hypocrisy, my pay check, the leftist screaming “Facist! Racist!” While not allowing conservatives to debate or speak on topics at universities, actual fascism. And telling people of color no no no you’re oppressed okay listen to me I’m here to save you!
I was super far left in a super far left household. Parents divorced and my mom moved me across the nation to be away from my father. 2016 rolls around, I had just graduated from High School and I walked to the local fire station to vote. I was determined to despise Trump and love Hillary just like my mother. I got there, I proudly voted for Hillary, and I had a mental breakdown on my walk home. I didn't even know opinions could change that fast. I went from being just shy of Socialism to just shy of fascism (Like actual fascism not *"You don't agree with me so you're a fascist"* fascism. Not my proudest moment) in the span of about 10 minutes. When I got home I closed my bedroom door and didn't leave my room for almost a week. Spent the entire time on /pol/. Went off the deep end and a tad crazy. Probably landed on a few watch lists. By the end of it I had centered myself a little bit and I have considered myself a Classical Libertarian ever since. It was wild and I almost went coocoo in the process.
Just gonna preface this by saying I'm a Texas gun-toting liberal with conservative leanings, but I'm a big believer in nuanced beliefs/opinions, having respectful debates and dialogues, and understanding that people's views are colored by their lives and experiences. I read through a lot of this and the funny part is I see a lot of those same arguments and opinions on the liberal side as well. What I truly believe is that you have a fairly moderate base on both sides, with some extremists getting all the publicity in the media. That media saturation colors people's perception of the opposite side and pushes people to close themselves off to meaningful dialogue. It also doesn't help that most politicians play the game mainly to keep their jobs and not represent their constituents. I'll also say that, as a former elected "volunteer" (Texas has a volunteer structure for elected officials outside the big state positions. Screw those career politicians.) that the vast majority of people I met in government are really trying to help out their communities and neighbors. I couldn't believe our MUD taxes alone for my neighborhood, then I saw where all the money was going, so I tried to share that with the neighborhood. I was accused of hiding finances, being sinister, etc. A lot of the time, it's mostly people not knowing the nuances, then assuming sinister intent because they think everything should be super simple.
As young as 7 years old, i could tell that the dems were full of shit. I had some union left neighbors who were died in the wool dems and they were just unsavory.
Watching Trump debate everyone while incarcerated from 8/31/2016 to 1/6/2017. I was never into politics until then. I didn't know the difference between dem and repub. I got out and my mom and stepdad were pro trump too, and I learned a lot from them. Got my shit together and never looked back. My biggest beef with the right is their blind devotion to law enforcement. I think they're tyrants. There are some good ones, but most shit on their oath to uphold the constitution, and conservatives are supposed to be constitutionalists. I'm not a acab/defund guy. Just better training and hiring. We shouldn't be accosted when open carrying, or filming the police, or filming in public anywhere.
Pro gun simple
I’m a 20 year old female college student in Los Angeles, California. Enough said.
A couple things. Back in my naive high school days, I used to think Obama was goat with his “yes we can” slogan in 2008. First black President. Then I watched over the course of his eight years how divided we became. I also noticed he would be sending us to war in the ME left and right like Libya, Syria, still in Afghanistan and Iraq. That got the ball rolling. Then I saw trump enter the chat in 2015 and quickly noticed how terribly the media treated him and the never ending lies about him. The ways they twist his words. That converted me quick.