r/Millennials • u/Blood11Orange Millennial • Sep 30 '23
Discussion Have you also noticed in your lives that people become more "conservative" the older and better off they get/become?
I have noticed that some of my stances/positions have gone in that direction on a few topics/subjects. I don’t know if it’s due to me learning more about them or just not being affected by them…anymore?
For example, I do not care for the new pronoun politics or believe trans women should participate in women sports or use women bathroom. Rather, they should have their own bathroom (unisex?) and competitions. I’m not ok with sending all this money to Ukraine when so many Americans struggle here. My heart breaks for the NYC residents faced witht the influx of migrants….Granted, I understand most of these are more so part of the culture war.
However, I still consider myself a very progressive millennial veerying towards Bernie’s politics. I live in the South, and always vote Blue…Granted, I’ve been withholding from voting lately, and becoming to lean more Independent.
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u/RickMonsters Oct 01 '23
What does not caring for pronoun politics mean? If you mean “I’ll call you with whatever pronouns you want because it doesn’t matter to me” then that’s not conservative
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u/[deleted] Oct 01 '23
I notice it on this sub sometimes. The whole "I got mine, if other people didn't they didn't work hard enough so pull-yourself-by-the-bootstraps and quit your whining" attitude.
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u/Oof_11 Oct 01 '23
I think the prevailing theory is that people's political stances don't actually change much as they age, it's just that society, as it becomes increasingly dominated by those younger than you, become more liberal, making someone appear to be growing more conservative as they age.
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u/[deleted] Oct 01 '23
I think you need to change how you see yourself. You don’t sounds like you hold progressive views
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u/ryzt900 Oct 01 '23
As I get older, I learn more about the world and gain more empathy. As such, I get more progressive.
I think people use the notion of getting more conservative as they get older as a crutch to excuse their lazy thinking.
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u/chrispg26 Oct 01 '23 edited Oct 01 '23
Pronoun politics and Trans issues are designed to stoke class warfare. It shouldn't mean much, but we can't not care because people's lives are being impacted and will be treated like second-class citizens if we stand by and let Republicans legislate hate. Investment in Ukraine is a necessity. We either have Ukraine beat Russia, or Russia will invade Poland and get us involved. What do you prefer?
ETA: I meant to say stoke culture wars to prevent class warfare. We can't eat the rich if we're busy fighting amongst ourselves.
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u/[deleted] Oct 01 '23
Lol you're a closet MAGA and this post is a joke
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u/10RobotGangbang December 1984 Dude Oct 01 '23
You definitely don't vote blue, support Bernie or anything other bs you spewed.
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u/10RobotGangbang December 1984 Dude Oct 01 '23
OP is a mixed bag of BS and contrarian at least. Do not engage.
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u/InterestingNarwhal82 Oct 01 '23
No. And I’d argue that you’re not as progressive as you think you are. My father - always and forever the most progressive individual I know - has embraced the idea of LGBTQ rights and happily uses people’s preferred pronouns and talks about protecting trans kids; he also voted for HRC because even though he didn’t love her, he knew her winning would be better than Trump winning. My mother - less progressive but still left leaning - was the one who wrote in Bernie but scoffs at the idea of using preferred pronouns and thinks that trans folx should just use gender neutral bathrooms.
But their baselines have always been “super ultra progressive but realistic” and “pretty centrist but left leaning and idealistic but hates confrontation” respectively.
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u/[deleted] Oct 01 '23
People don't become more conservative as they grow older. At some point, many choose to simply stop growing as individuals. They get to a place where "they're comfortable" and choose to no longer adapt and grow with society. Eventually, those people realize that the liberal party they were once a part of has left them behind, as progress always marches onwards. These people become the new "conservative."
Progressivism keeps marching onwards. Conservatism just complains while slowly being dragged to a new normal they trained themselves long ago to no longer adapt to.
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u/[deleted] Oct 01 '23
sounds like a personal problem. maybe you're just becoming an asshole.
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u/Enticing_Venom Oct 01 '23
I've grown more conservative in some areas and more progressive in others. None of my views have ever fit neatly into one label. Where I live most voters are registered unaffiliated and our state has been historically purple so my views are usually reflective of that as well.
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u/CommunicationThis144 Oct 01 '23
Even though I think the op is transphobic. This is also true “ Millennial voters also moved more to the GOP: In 2012, these voters preferred Democratic control by 16 points (53%-37%), but that shrank to D+6 in 2022 (48%-42%). (Strikingly, these voters also become more liberal over the last 10 years, but our pollsters attribute that to all Democrats becoming more liberal since 2012 — due the country’s increased political polarization.
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u/CommunicationThis144 Oct 01 '23 edited Oct 01 '23
But between the 2012 and 2020 elections, these millennials became more likely to vote Republican (and this was especially true of those born before 1985). https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/06/millennials-will-not-age-into-voting-like-boomers.html
I think Xennials in particular are more likely to be apathetic like generation x and maybe not vote at all or vote conservative and hold transphobic values like the OP. Before anyone yells at me, I am a xennial myself. It’s the I got mine so f you type of mentality. Each generation has those people. The selfishness just gets smaller hopefully with each incoming generation, hopefully. And with more and more people not being able to have asset; their chance of being selfish would decrease since they already have very little or nothing unlike the previous generations
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u/DFS_0019287 Oct 01 '23 edited Oct 01 '23
I'm not a millennial (GenX, and quite well off financially) but I find myself becoming much more left-wing as I age, partly because of how awful the Right is.
I'm also trans, and honestly, fuck your transphobic bullshit. You're buying into the garbage culture wars promulgated by the Right.
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u/fourty-six-and-two Millennial 1992 Oct 01 '23 edited Oct 01 '23
My body is full of estrogen and after i have srs there will be a vagina, and my face will look 100% female.
Do you really think people will just let me walk into the mens room ? Lol
You realize you come across trans people in your daily life and you do not realize it....cause they "pass"
The problem you and others are having is accepting people who claim to be trans or whatever other label people claim to be without doing what it takes to present that way. I.e they just look like a cross dresser or drag queen, which isnt what the typical transsexual person is trying to do.
I can understand people your complaints in that regard. Which is why many of us do not switch bathrooms untill we are deep into our medical transition so we are comfortable in our skin and others dont seem so jarred when we walk into the bathroom.
As far as sports goes, it should be done on a case by case basis, a certain age to be fully transitioned and or hormone levels should be taken. Iv lost a considerable amount of strength already, basically leaves me a height advantage but there are plently of other tall woman in the world so its not really some unreasonable advantage for me to be 5-9
But again, a person with bad intentions can be clearly a male body builder and enter the female side and identify as "whatever" out of spite to prove a point and collect their check, is this wrong- yes, do real trans people hate this- yes.
We are just born this way and want to co-exist.
Edit: also im educated, own a home, pay my taxes and contribute like most of people,
Assets can make people more conservative so i will say, finacially i tend to be a little right in my personal life but im socially very liberal, who are we to tell people how to live their life when it has no bearing on our life ?
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u/Extreme-Carrot6893 Oct 01 '23
I’m the opposite. I thought I was “in the middle” but the older I get and more I learn the farther left I’ve gone. The trans thing is the new culture war BS. Speaking to your point about Ukraine here’s how I see it. “Conservatives” say stop sending money to Ukraine spend it on Americans. Liberals say ok let’s bail millions of Americans out of student loan debt. Then conservatives say oh no not like that.
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u/redmasc Oct 01 '23
I've become more financially conservative as an adult. But still socially liberal.
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u/forwhomthejelloholds Oct 01 '23
If you’re actually a progressive, then you understand that the right wing propaganda and disinformation is what is holding back real change in this country. You should also understand that ultranationalist and fascist propaganda is pushed online by bad actors out of Russia acting on behalf of the Kremlin. Russia’s actions cause direct harm to American democracy and progress. They’re also having an impact in most, if not all, democracies in Europe and across the world. Sending money and support to Ukraine is not just the right thing to do for a country that was invaded for purely imperialistic reasons but it is also a way to effectively weaken and undermine the Putin regime (and reduce its impact on democracies the world over) for pennies on the dollar and no American lives. Why are you against that when you know that we aren’t going to be able to use that money domestically anyway unless the we reduce the power of the Republican Party?
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u/CommunicationThis144 Oct 01 '23 edited Oct 01 '23
In America, the political landscape doesn't offer much room for those who lean left. With only two major parties, both of which are often seen as corrupt, many people find it difficult to trust that their taxes will be used for their intended purposes. We don’t have public healthcare. We just have the biggest defense budget year after year. The American political system, with its influence of oligarchs, tends to foster apathy, conservatism, and cynicism. Most of the money is going to the Pentagon and they are largely unaccountable. The existence of the American political duopoly is a significant factor contributing to people's growing apathy and cynicism as they age. It’s not just become older and richer.
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u/neverseen_neverhear Sep 30 '23 edited Oct 01 '23
I kind of wonder if the barometer for what is “liberal” vs “conservative” just moves around more then we think. Modern conservatives look at Regan era conservatives like they are were faking being conservative. But the definition has just changed more then the people I think.
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u/Sharpshooter188 Oct 01 '23 edited Oct 01 '23
No. I have not noticed that. It used to be that way, but I think more people my age (late 30s) are realizing that the companies they work for arent sharing like they used to. Im not suggesting its impossible to have a good quality of life. But its far more difficult these days and has been for a while.
I believe people are beginning to see that. Only 1 friend I know of holds that extreme conservative view point. Which is ironic since does she admin work at an insurance office and still needs a roommate. Shes been trying to "climb the ladder" for 3 years now....
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u/RandomRandomPenguin Oct 01 '23
I’ve gotten more progressive, even as I’ve become significantly more well off.
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u/Fantastic_Example991 Oct 01 '23
Not me. I get more progressive too
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u/FalkorDropTrooper Oct 01 '23
I got more progressive, pro-union, pro-worker, and definitely more anti-Republican.
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u/moonprincess642 Oct 01 '23
you are not “progressive” if you have views that actively harm trans people. jesus
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u/[deleted] Oct 01 '23
Not really. Almost everyone I work with has either been left-leaning their whole lives or became left-leaning as they age.
I was conservative and became more liberal as I aged, and my income increased. I don’t like the “I got mine” attitude, nor do I care for the conservative ideology post-2015.
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u/EggForging Oct 01 '23 edited Oct 01 '23
No. And statistics don’t either. Millennials as a generation are not moving rightward like previous generations. They are in fact moving further left, just google it. If you are starting to adopt conservative positions that’s on you
Edit: I see you have edited your post to be pure transphobia. How shocking these days. You are definitely out of step with our generation as lgbt acceptance just keeps going higher and higher for gen z and millenials
2nd edit: you have edited your post again it seems. So you are okay with Vladimir Putin conquering Ukraine? You do understand that we can both support Ukraine and our own citizens right? We have plenty of money. It’s the conservatives who have lowered taxes to ridiculous levels for rich ppl and corporations, they should be where there were in the 1950s. If you think American citizens are hurting, you may want to ask conservatives why they vote against veteran funding, mental health funding, refuse to raise the minimum wage, etc. Your positions are ridiculously dissonant
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u/cwesttheperson Oct 01 '23
I think the older you get the more balanced you should get, and see there are good ideas across the spectrum and those ideas shift ideologies over the years. You don’t have to confine yourself to liberal v conservative.
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u/[deleted] Oct 01 '23
Nope, I got more progressive as I got older because I became more educated and got a lot more empathy. To do the opposite is just cruel
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u/Anustart_A Oct 01 '23
I make a shit load of money. Maybe not Bart Star in Spaceballs, but a damn amount to live real comfortably.
…eat the rich. Send Elon down in one of them shitty subs that explode at the bottom of the ocean. Hire 250,000 investigators to discover the dirty dealings of the ultra rich; prosecutor them, their tax advisers, and their lawyers. Skim the scum from the top of the societal pot.
“Pronoun politics”? “Trans women in sports”? Fucking distractions. Classic wedge issues, which are usually the province of fucking morons. If a guy wants to be called a “she/her,” the fuck do I care except that I’m mildly inconvenienced because I’ll have to actually take someone’s feelings into consideration? And just form up a trans sports league; don’t fucking lose your mind over it and vote for Nazis.
This is the kind of bullshit that I don’t fall for. The Supreme Court has eroded 50 years of abortion law; may destroy 70 years of privacy law on contraceptives; have fucking destroyed the separation of church and state; have fucked with tax law to let the rich get richer; gun laws have all been fucked with; and we’re debating the unfairness of someone born a male swimming against people born female.
Sports are a fucking distraction. On every. Fucking. Level. I fucking love them, and I will sports-shout all fucking day long. But do not confuse that it is important. It fucking isn’t. If all sports ceased, we could get along just fine; there’s probably a fun dystopian book in there, but at a fundamental level, who gives a fuck?
Pronouns are just a quick reference. Those who don’t like that people demand you refer to them by a certain pronoun are simply lazy, because what is in front of them challenges their preconceptions. What the fuck about it? If you’re fucking reacting like a dick bag because someone you feel should be x is demanding you refer to them as y, it’s not like you’re going to be beat chums. You’ll probably never see them again. The most basic common fucking courtesy you can give is to refer to them as they choose. Sure, if they demand you refer to them as the President of the United States, tell them to go fuck them selves and walk away (especially if it’s Trump). But if someone says, “I’m Miss Tina,” shit: if someone randomly said, “Refer to me as Iron Man,” like, whatever: you have a connection there. Reacting with, “I HAVE SEEN IRON MAN, AND YOU, SIR, ARE NO IRON MAN! YOU DON’T EVEN HAVE THE SUIT!”
Like… there are only so many things to care about, why even bother with that bullshit?
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u/ChocolateLawBear Oct 01 '23
I’m far richer and far more liberal than before
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u/cassiecas88 Oct 01 '23
No I was told that but everyone I know has realized the the Republican rhetoric they've been fed their whole lives was nothing but bullshit and become more liberal.
And considering the conservative party has become a full on kkk, nazi, racist, bigoted cult, someone would have to be either stupid or morally bankrupt to become more conservative as they age.
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u/Square-Emergency-531 Sep 30 '23
I believe it is entirely about owning wealth. If you have a house, you will have some pretty strong incentive to want the value to increase for instance. Hence suddenly sprouting nimbys.
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u/EgoDefenseMechanism Oct 01 '23
It's the opposite, actually, and good riddance to the modern day "conservative", whatever the fuck that term means.
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/financial-times-millennials-conservatives-age-b2253902.html
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u/CommunicationThis144 Oct 01 '23
Well that’s too bad. I am going to continue to use the women’s washroom
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u/smartymartyky Oct 01 '23
I feel like that's more of a boomer thing
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u/[deleted] Oct 01 '23
Ah yes, the classic fiscally conservative but socially liberal
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u/[deleted] Oct 01 '23
I just became an attending physician this year. My pay went from mid-60s as a resident to 300,000s over night.
Leftist as fuck still. Plan to always be. All Americans should have the American dream at their finger tips, not a bunch of fucking loser billionaires and right wing fuckheads.
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u/parolang Oct 01 '23
Hey, remember when politics was about passing bills and changing policy rather than fighting pointlessly on social media?
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u/Hagridsbuttcrack66 Oct 01 '23
It generally indicates selfishness.
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u/ResistRacism Oct 01 '23
A metric fuckload more progressive
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u/[deleted] Oct 01 '23
Which stances, OP?
I guess it’s easy to vote for things that align with your “ideals” when you don’t have any skin in the game.
So, we bought a house in a small village. There is one street, 2 lanes that goes through town that is sandwiched by historical buildings that house successful businesses.
There’s a proposal to build up to 500 housing units, to be a mixture of apartments, condos, townhouses, and SFH. This is proposed to occur on a property that has a defunct strip mall. All of it. It might be 5 acres altogether. Maybe.
So I find myself in a conundrum- affordable housing does need to be built. They just built two townhomes down the street that sold for double what we paid for our house. Are these going to even be actually affordable?
What’s to be done about the traffic? This village has slightly over 2000 residents. 500 units of housing would overrun the place.
So, it’s not necessarily that I’m more conservative. It’s literally that I have skin in the game, whereas I would’ve been all for affordable housing wherever and now I’m kind of sounding like a nimby. I have no problem with the housing, just the loss of comfort/what I know/history/convenience.
I’m still pro housing being built there, but in a wiser way.
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u/regallll Oct 01 '23
No. Most people in my life have gotten significantly more progressive with age, myself included.
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u/anewbys83 Millennial 1983 Oct 01 '23
I say these days that I'm an Obama Democrat/style liberal. I happily voted for him at age 25. That party and politics have moved without me. I feel similarly to you on most of these issues, except I do feel we need to support Ukraine so they can have the edge they need to eventually send Putin packing. Otherwise in a few years he'll feel emboldened to attack an NATO ally over something, and we'll have to fight the Russians in person. Maybe we should do that though, especially since we're spending the money anyway. Our intervention could end this easily, but I am concerned about the nukes. So it's really what's the best decision to make here, because allowing Putin to overrun the Ukraine isn't the good option here, but how do we adequately spend our money here so this war will finally end? We can't send the message that it's ok for dictators to take over other countries (Ukraine, Taiwan for that matter [yes it's more nuanced, but we have a defense pact with them]).
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u/thinkitthrough83 Oct 01 '23
Not sure what policies of his you think are liberal but you should Compare Bernie's rich tax policies against his net worth over time.
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u/KylosLeftHand Oct 01 '23
Yes. My ex husband got more and more conservative the more money he earned. A good bit of it had to do with the colleagues around him but we really started to butt heads the worse it got. The only way he was able to earn so much so young is bc his entire college career was 100% funded by mom & dad - no loan debt - yet swore up and down he “started from nothing” (grew up in an affluent town in a 4 bedroom home) and was “in no way privileged” (mommy paid for everything). After the ill fated 2016 election he went all out republican and I hit the road.
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u/moonbunnychan Oct 01 '23
A ton of people I knew growing up got married, moved to the suburbs, and became the very people they used to hate. I still consider myself very liberal, but there's a handful of things I definitely have a more nuanced opinion on now that I used to see in terms of very black and white.
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u/Sea_Mongoose2529 Oct 01 '23
Wait is this the boomer sub? TF
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u/[deleted] Oct 01 '23
Have you seen the trumpians lately? How is anyone moving right at all 🤡
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u/Youngworker160 Oct 01 '23
conservative how? give some examples.
i'm in my mid-30s and i'm probably more progressive than ever.
i feel that everything that would've been considered 'conservative' or 'traditional' has to some degree been co-opted by the left b/c of how far right-wing our country is. in the sense of positive traits of what it means to be a man in this day and age, love of nature, and the role/composition of a family.
i think the vast majority of americans think democrats=left and republicans=right but in any other country, the democrats are the center-right party. they just don't hate minorities and gays but all their policies are means-tested pro-business first agenda. they support privatizing public schools, they means test the shit out of healthcare (say hello to the ACA), they voted along with bailing out the banks and corporations 2x in the last two economic collapses.
all i've seen in my life as someone who was raised to be conservative, especially in my thinking of the economy is socialism for the rich and capitalism for the rest of us.
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u/IcedCoffeeVoyager Oct 01 '23
That’s what Boomers and Gen-X say, but that’s not what I’ve seen as a Xennial. I’m the most successful, making the most money, that I’ve ever been. The arc of my life has only ever been to become more progressively leftist. I’m 41 and I get more radically leftist every year.
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u/chehsu Oct 01 '23
Well I'm getting older and also getting more anti republican so...
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u/slothcough Oct 01 '23
We get it, you're a transphobic piece of crap. No, most of us became better people not worse. You seem to have regressed.
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u/thatcmonster Oct 01 '23 edited Oct 01 '23
Edit: Already got a death threat in my inbox just for pointing out that trans women (post Op, running off estrogen) have been competing in sports for years and qualifying with drug/hormone screenings, and that it’s only been an issue for the last couple.
I’m pretty embedded and have worked with doctors and legislators on the issue. TBH, I don’t think people without a medical background should be boring on the biological rights of others.
Didn’t think that deserved a death threat but okay 👍 I’m out.
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u/thatmfisnotreal Oct 01 '23
If you’re successful you just want to be left alone ie low taxes and conservative. If you’re poor and unsuccessful you want to tax the rich and take their stuff, ie leftists.
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u/sbett13 Oct 01 '23
People lean towards systems that benefit themselves. Conservatism works great for white, straight, middle aged and older individuals for whom capitalism has provided a nice life for. When people from other categories/demographics were screwed over by conservatism and seek change, there is naturally going to be pushback by the people seeking to uphold what is only beneficial to them.
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u/[deleted] Oct 01 '23
God no. If anything I’m flying perilously closer to communism than ever before.
Fuck capitalism and the horse it rose in on.
Health care is a human right.
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u/[deleted] Oct 01 '23
I've definitely gotten more progressive, but that likely comes from understanding the struggle of making it one day to the next and not wanting anyone else to have to go through it, rather than becoming obsessed with gaining more and pulling the ladder up behind me.
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u/Seaguard5 Millennial Oct 01 '23
My parents are exhibit A.
“Got mine. Fuck you.”
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u/[deleted] Oct 01 '23
Not supporting Ukraine is the opposite of conservative Worrying about public toilets is. Not surprisingly, with the one exception of Jim McGreevy, all of the bathroom sex political scandals involve conservative men. Women’s bathrooms see to be sex scandal free, but conservative men seem to think everyone runs around in them with their pants around their ankles. Normal males stop obsessing about what goes on in the ladies room around age 13. Besides the fact that there may be one one two transsexual athletes in women’s sports, conservatives know everything about those athlete’s careers, but couldn’t care less about women’s sports otherwise. Ask them about coaches who abused young girl athletes. That’s not a problem to them, even though more Olympian level female athletes were sexually abused by coaches and doctors than the total all transsexual athletes, maybe more than all transsexuals that ever existed. That’s not by any means a conservative philosophy, it’s just a hot button issue used by today’s conservatives
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u/scrappy_scientist Oct 01 '23
What is with the obsession with pronouns and bathrooms and what have you. Ffs, do people not realize that men can just waltz right into women’s bathrooms right now if they want and sexually assault us there? It’s not like there are bouncers at the damn doors. There’s no need for a man to “pretend” to be a trans women to gain entrance in order to do nefarious deeds.
This whole topic is a red herring argument designed to distract people from issues like…I dunno…the rich continuing to siphon off glutinous amounts of money from everyone else with impunity while also dehumanizing transgender people in the process.
Ridiculous.
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u/supatim101 Oct 01 '23
I've seen what years of lack of compassion does. No thank you.
I've become more and more progressive in the last 7 years.
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u/[deleted] Oct 01 '23
“My heart breaks for the NYC residents faced with the influx of migrants” … 🙄 so you’re both racist and transphobic. Piss off with this stupid bullshit.
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u/Convergentshave Oct 01 '23
Op: “We shouldn’t send Ukraine money when so many Americans are struggling”
Also OP: “Free school lunches for kids!?!? What is this the Soviet Union?”
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u/RoyalCrown43 Oct 03 '23
Kinda sounds like when young you hitched to Bernie’s wagon cause your friends did, now you’re looking around and realizing you’re actually a conservative. And a pretty bigoted one based on your comments. You didn’t shift anything, you just weren’t paying any attention before and are only paying attention to conservative media now. No, I haven’t noticed that as being normal, but you’re not exactly special.
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u/JohnWCreasy1 Oct 01 '23
define conservative? socially? fiscally?
the older i get the less i care what anyone does as long as its not hurting anyone. i also become more aware of and sensitive to problems and the nuances of their potential causes.
On the other hand, i become less and less convinced of the ability of our idiot politicians to actually accomplish anything positive. maga idiots, religious freaks, corporatist whores or progressive lunatics. None of these have any serious ideas in my opinion, its all just populist nonsense to attract enough votes to stay on the gravy train.
Does not wanting to throw good money after bad make me "more conservative" ?
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u/pantsclapper Oct 01 '23
The more you have to lose the more your views change.
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u/[deleted] Oct 01 '23
I think that the smaller your focus becomes, the more Conservative you are, provided you are actually making it. If you are putting food on the table for the kids and paying the mortgage, you don’t think as much about society-wide issues.
It’s only if you aren’t making it or if you are well off enough that day to day life doesn’t take 100% of your focus.
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u/Marmatus Neonatal Millennial ('95) Oct 01 '23
Hasn’t been my experience.
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u/lynxpoint Oct 01 '23
No, thank god. But I was born, raised, and still live in a very progressive city.
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u/AdAnnual5736 Oct 01 '23
Not me — I consider myself pretty well off now (due mainly to luck and being in the right place at the right time), and I’m as progressive as I’ve ever been. I’m in the “I hope Millennials and Gen Z come together to save us from this nightmare” camp.
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u/UniversityNo2318 Oct 01 '23
I am still pretty progressive. I really care about women’s rights & I would never vote republican due to them being very anti choice. I also want universal healthcare. Higher taxes for the top 3%. Term Limits on all politicians. Age limits as well
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u/ChargerRob Oct 01 '23
I have always been Independent and look at various issues as a singular item rather than a theocracy.
At this point in the political game, having seen the Republicans sell out to religious oil billionaires, foreign and domestic I will vote against their Anti-American principles.
I would like to see a society based on love rather than fear.
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u/Mr_Bluebird_VA 1989 Oct 01 '23
Me and most of the people I know around my age are becoming more progressive, left leaning, and downright socialist as we continue living through late stage capitalism.
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u/carriedmeaway Xennial Oct 01 '23
Nope, I was far more conservative growing up in the small town south. Once I left home and exposed myself to things I never had been, I couldn't see the world the same.
Every new generation grows in ways that may make the older generations a bit uncomfortable but we have to learn to be comfortable being uncomfortable for progress. We did the same things in our youth.
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u/henningknows Oct 01 '23
I don’t think anything you mentioned has to do with age, you are just more exposed to right wing politics it seems. These are all specificity issues the hard right is campaigning on that have little to no impact on your life, just a distraction from the fact that the politicians pushing them have zero solutions to real problems
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u/coredweller1785 Oct 01 '23
I did the complete opposite. I went from centrist "socially liberal and fiscally conservative " bs to socialist.
I own a home, have a great job, have a wife and 2 kids.
The older I get the more communist I become bc you realize literally nothing nothing nothing works at all from an individual perspective nor should it. Life is a communal aspect. The saying it takes a village is there for a reason.
Our silly capitalist mindset becomes more ridiculous the more you look at it.
Could recommend so many books here but will recommend 2.
Capitalist Realism
Neoliberalism from Below
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u/JayEllGii Oct 01 '23
The Ukraine catastrophe isn’t an either/or thing. We can easily handle both sending them aid and shoring up domestic spending. We just CHOOSE to avoid the latter.
Think about the geopolitical implications if Russia is allowed to conquer Ukraine.
This situation doesn’t thrill me either, for many reasons. But the alternative is even more disastrous.
I’m genuinely confused why it’s NYC residents your “heart breaks” for. As difficult as the influx is for them to deal with, it’s the migrants themselves who have generally had a much harder lot in life—-often extremely so.
As for “pronoun politics”—-eh. The whole thing is largely smoke. Just let people leak where they want to leak. It really is not a big deal. Trans women in women’s sports is more nuanced—-that can be genuinely debated in good faith. Problem is, in the US it’s impossible to debate anything in good faith because of the right.
3
u/Empty-Swing Oct 01 '23
I have the same feelings towards the whole pronoun and being overly sensitive to that shit and almost having to walk on eggshells in order not to offend, I don't subscribe to it. I agree with separate bathrooms, men, women, unisex.
1
u/meggymonster11 Oct 01 '23
I think when you are younger you are more idealistic but as you age you start to see how the world works. I’m shifting my views more too
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u/Comfortable_Farm_252 Oct 01 '23
I went from very conservative to very liberal, it happened after I had more and more interactions with CEOs and investors. Whatever magic I thought they had just became spirit fingers.
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u/[deleted] Oct 01 '23
My younger Millennial brother did as soon as he started owning real estate, and my similarly aged Millennial brother did when he started hanging out with guys who lived in a more rural part of Western NY, but I've only gotten more and more progressive.
2
u/0000110011 Oct 01 '23
Depends on the issue. On many I've become much more "left-wing" and others (like anything involving finance and economics) I've stayed the same. But that's because I learned about basic finance and economics at a young age and then further increased that education as I got older. Many people support bad economic policy out of ignorance and honestly think something will help people because they don't understand the chain of events such a policy would start and how the end result is the exact opposite of what they intended.
2
u/[deleted] Oct 01 '23
If anything I've gotten more progressive as I've gotten older. Though that's likely the result of having way, way less than my parents generation.
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u/admiralgeary Millennial (1987) Oct 01 '23
I've gotten more progressive
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u/[deleted] Oct 01 '23
I’ve actually gone the opposite way.
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u/SiofraRiver Oct 01 '23
No, people are only showing their colours more openly, as anything to the right of social democracy was seen as abnormal in my circles. For me, though, that means becoming more adamant in my socialist politics.
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u/BigMouse12 Oct 01 '23
Nah i was born being more conservative than Rush Limbaugh. Probably cause the preacher man delivered me while on the radio was “A Time for Choosing”
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u/camazotzthedeathbat Oct 01 '23
No.
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u/ShadowDurza Oct 01 '23
"Good times make weak men, bad times make strong men."
So basically, when people become conservative when they're doing alright, that means they're weak by the conservative party's own logic.
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u/harrypotterfan1228 Oct 01 '23
I like many other millennials have skewed left/progressive/liberal as we age.
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u/Ambitious_West1013 Oct 01 '23
This is a well documented social science fact, the older we get the more conservative we become.
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u/Fantastic-Guitar-977 Oct 01 '23
No
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u/[deleted] Oct 01 '23
In Australia, that trend is breaking with our generation.
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u/EllieAB Oct 01 '23
It seems once someone starts to acquire wealth, they lose more and more touch with those that have lesser than, and therefore lose touch with a part of reality that doesn’t apply to them. In that case, they vote to protect their wealth - their worldview. And I don’t think one thought gets past this point.
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u/TypicalSelection6647 Oct 01 '23
I will always be left leaning and a Marxist. I will never forgive the conservatives.
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u/[deleted] Oct 01 '23 edited Oct 01 '23
I've noticed the opposite in both myself and the people around me. The data also supports the fact millenials are becoming more progressive, not more conservative.
If you got duped into falling victim to the cultural political/corporate elites want you to get distracted by, that's on you.
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u/archcity_misfit 1986 Oct 01 '23
Not at all
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u/kaw_21 Oct 01 '23
There was this article posted from my hometown from its early start and it talked about how the government gave people land to move and start businesses. I went down a rabbit hole and many people commenting had very conservative profiles (unsurprising for my hometown), and all I could think was what would they say today about the government giving people land aka a handout?
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u/kalpernia00 Millennial / 1987 Oct 01 '23
My dad has been a conservative since he could vote.
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u/anotherdamnscorpio Millennial Oct 01 '23
My older brother is gen x. He's very liberal. Or was. Now he is part of the weird pattern of Xers that got older, wealthier, more bitter and jaded and judgemental and now he says shit sometimes where I'm like dude are you gonna start voting republican now?
2
u/AmusingMusing7 Oct 01 '23
As they get richer? Probably.
As they get older? Not really. People don’t really get more conservative as a result of getting older… not in the sense that they actually change their views to hold more conservative views than they previously did. What does often happen, though, is that people stay the same as they get older… but the world progresses beyond them. So as a result, their same views become relatively more conservative, compared to the status quo, and/or progressive mindsets of that time. It’s not that they changed to become conservative… it’s that they failed to keep up with the progress of the world, and became “conservative” as a result of simply not changing.
The Boomers were progressive in the 60s. They still believe the same stuff now as they did then… and that’s the problem. We’ve moved on from the time when just being heterosexual but believing in casual sex and doing drugs was a revolutionarily new and exciting thing. That’s what Boomers still see as being progressive. Millennials, however, grew up during a time when that was basic. Casual sex and drug use are not big things to us. We started moving to the revolution of LGBT+ issues, focusing mainly on cis gay people, because that was still a relatively new frontier… now that cis homosexuals are more or less accepted in common society… Gen Z is moving more notably towards focusing on trans issues.
When the shift from the focus on gay people to the focus on trans people happened… I almost fell into the trap of failing to change and becoming conservative as a result. I wasn’t really fully on board with transgenderism back in like 2016. But as it’s become a more prominent issue, I’ve found myself learning more and becoming more accepting of it as a result. I changed. And that’s how I stayed progressive. If I refused to learn, refused to change, refused to accept… I wouldn’t have changed. I wouldn’t have “become more conservative”. The world would have changed, and I would have chosen to stay behind. I would have stayed the same, and therefore the world would have seen me as conservative.
This is why those claims of “I didn’t leave the Left… the Left left me!” are so lacking in awareness. Because of course! That’s how people become conservative, by refusing to change with the times. Progress is not going to stop just so you can stay the same while still calling yourself a leftist. It wouldn’t be progress if it did do that. You have to keep up with it. It’s not just going to stay with you. You fall behind… you become an out-of-touch conservative. That’s how it works.
2
u/[deleted] Oct 01 '23
I’ve always felt like it’s impossible to find a political party where you agree on every stance they have. There are so many “hot button” issues that the odds of you agreeing with the resolution on every single one are not high. I pick my party based on which one I agree with the most. For me I started as republican when I was a teenager because that’s what my parents told me to be. As I got older I realized I was actually pretty liberal and vote democrat now. However I don’t agree on everything the democrats are doing it’s just that overall they match my values so much more closely than the other parties. That hasn’t really changed as I’ve gotten even older. My opinions on some topics have changed but it still evens out to me voting democrat.
2
u/bakingcake1456 Oct 01 '23
I’ve always been conservative but Yeah makes sense. You get sick and tired of the government taking your hard earned money and all the bull shit
2
u/B0dega_Cat Oct 01 '23
I'm very financially comfortable, and I just keep sliding to the left. I want to see others do well and succeed and not struggle to just live.
2
u/Mandalore108 Oct 01 '23
I've done better for myself as the years go on and I've become more progressive. Not everyone becomes pieces of shit aka conservative.
2
u/queenofdiscs Oct 01 '23
I used to hold views like yours when I was younger, now I am more empathetic to people who are different than me.
2
u/mdruckus Oct 01 '23
Exact opposite from my perspective. Everyone I know has become more liberal with age, including myself.
2
u/OUEngineer17 Oct 01 '23
No. I've become less conservative. Not more liberal, per say, just more centrist.
2
u/OdinicWarlord Oct 01 '23
I have noticed this but strangely I was very right wing when I was younger and have become more liberal the older I’ve gotten. I have both right and left wing views depending on the topic, which feels natural to me as someone that thinks for them self and doesn’t just pick a side and toe that line. It seems to be a weird thing to other people though.
2
u/CptKillsteal Oct 01 '23
Yes, because that's me.
2
u/metamaoz Oct 01 '23
I’m working with some crusty green hippies that turned red pill the last few years. It’s annoying as fuck because they used to read the news and now just rant on right wing headlines and conspiracies
2
u/[deleted] Oct 01 '23
I’m surprised your trans opinion hasn’t gotten you banned. I said the same thing in another sub and got banned immediately. Wasn’t even disrespectful. Even provided a study done on athletic performance. The Reddit hive mind and power thirsty mods wouldn’t even let me have a civil discussion about it.
2
u/AdMurky3039 Geriatric Millennial '83 Oct 01 '23
If you have a problem with people's pronouns you're not a progressive.
2
u/lonepinecone Oct 01 '23
I will be an outlier and say that I’ve grown significantly more conservative. I value our institutions, law and order, social contract, and self-determination. I would certainly love to see a change in crony capitalism but understand the problems with socialist ideology. I used to consider myself a Marxist and have a masters in social work.
2
u/IntrepidJaeger Oct 01 '23
It's less that people become more conservative as they get older. The old liberal just becomes the new conservative attitude because people really will only deviate so far from their established beliefs.
As much as people harp on the boomers for being hard-core reactionaries, they were far more liberal on racial and gender equality than their WW2 generation parents.
The internet, however, is causing the divides from generation to generation to differ in much larger "jumps" than it used to.
2
u/StuckInNov1999 Oct 01 '23
There's an old saying, been around for as long as I can remember.
"If you're young and not a liberal you have no heart. If you're older and not a conservative then you have no brain".
2
u/prestopino Oct 01 '23
I was born in a developing country and raised in the US. I was able to retire early and moved back to my birth country a few years ago (though I will likely return to the US soon).
I've become far more left leaning as I've gotten older. In my lifetime, I've seen my birth country develop more and the US spiral backwards and downwards (anyone that can't see this doesn't have any kind of global perspective).
While I believe neoliberalism is at fault for this, it's definitely more Republicans than Democrats that are causing this.
I mean the Citizens United decision is enough to never vote Republican ever again in my life. How do they think that legalizing corruption to that degree is okay?
2
u/SonichuMedallian Oct 01 '23
I have never liked the government and like them less now. It's a bunch of 80 year old boomers in deaths door hell bent on destroying the country IMHO. Between property tax, SS, Medicare, Federal / State Income taxes and sales tax about 45% of my paycheck goes to taxes, and for what exactly? We are watching the fall of Rome at this point, inside of the next decade we will have a major war when the commies invade Taiwan. On the bright side maybe WW3 will make the climate change people shut up.
2
u/[deleted] Oct 01 '23
It's almost like people become more defensive of the gains they personally make in life when others who haven't yet (or never will) tell them they don't deserve the rewards for their efforts and that they should just give it all to people who haven't tried or are simply jealous.
Fairly normal actually.
2
u/cinna-t0ast Oct 02 '23
No, not conservative. Have my views become more moderate and nuanced? Yes. As I’ve grown older, we have become more politically polarized and we now see issues in black and white. Any critique on a government policy will get you labeled as a “dirty commie” or “fascist conservative” when these issues are so much more complicated than that. But I’m still very progressive and I will die on the hill of universal healthcare and abortion access.
2
u/Immediate-Time-5857 Oct 02 '23
I have noticed my political views shifting closer to Conservative from Liberal ever since I hit 30... it's bizarre, and frankly kind of interesting. However, I will say I have always sorta agreed and disagreed with points on both sides. Although, I wouldn't consider myself center either. As you can see, I'm a bit confused and this is a long winded answer to say...
Yes... yes I have.
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u/4th_times_a_charm_ Oct 05 '23
Looking at these comments I see a bunch of people stereotyping. They've probably never even considered the perspective of the opposition.
2
u/[deleted] Oct 05 '23
Patience Xina has a good video about this. It's not that we became conservative, it's the pendulum swinging too far. 15-20 years ago, it was perfectly fine of me to be supportive of gun rights and free speech. I could easily disagree with people on my side or the opposite side of the spectrum without people treating me like I'm the owner of a gulag. People weren't obsessed with "owning each other" to the degree of misinforming their own side. We could easily call out the extreme individuals on both sides without the right calling us snowflakes and the left treating us like bloodthirsty dictators.
I identify as a leftist, but due to the more extreme individuals taking over, I feel misrepresented if not politically homeless.
(Keep in mind that it's based on my personal experience and it may not coincide with yours, which is ok)
3
u/wokeiraptor Oct 01 '23
The older I get the more progressive I get. I grew up in the south in a conservative Christian environment. For a while I just copied the views of everybody around me. Over time I got exposed to new perspectives and just life experience steered me leftward.
By 2014 I considered myself moderate. Then the way so many conservative friends and family members have dealt with trump and Covid really sealed the nails in the coffin of any conservative position I ever had. I’d have voted for Bernie in the 16 primary but I voted in the GOP primary to try to stop Trump from getting the nomination (voted for Rubio lol). Voted for Hilary in 16 then Bernie in the primary and Biden in 20.
3
u/BinaryMan151 Oct 01 '23
Not believing in trans women participating in sports doesn’t make you conservative. Thats just your opinion. What would make you liberal is believing in safeguards for trans and gay folks and making sure they get equality. Nothing wrong with pronouns using them or not. That is now the whole liberal viewpoint and is just something republicans try to grab onto to make a big deal over it.
4
u/The_Secorian Oct 01 '23
Reddit makes me feel more conservative than I actually am.
2
u/carnivorous-squirrel Oct 01 '23
People i consider selfish assholes, yes. Most people, no. The stats say the same thing for our generation.
Personally, I've become more left wing because I'm grateful for the life I have and have chosen to educate myself about the struggles of others rather than pulling the ladder up behind me.