How did your political beliefs form?

[hobbsyoyo]

Well, how did you wind up with the ideology or political convictions that you have?

I'm really interested to hear from Cheezy, not to single him out, but from what I've heard he went from far-right to far-left while growing up and I think there is probably a pretty interesting story behind that.

Honestly, I think I blame Bill Clinton for my beliefs. I came of age in the 90's and was oddly politically aware for a pre-teen/teen. So I was exposed to his philosophy via the media and it shaped me a lot. My mother is pretty liberal, though my father goes back and forth and is pretty moderate. It's hard to put a label on just how much they informed my thinking because it wasn't until I was pretty much grown that politics became a hot-topic in our household and even then everything was through the lens of the Iraq war and post-9/11 politics.

My friends were pretty informative of my beliefs though. By chance, the people I associated with tended to be super-liberal, though I think that didn't have much to do with why I befriended them in the first place. And certainly, people who weren't my friends played a role; in a time when 'support our troops' was the end-all be-all of political dialogue, I was very turned off by the arch-conservative, over-the-top and downright belligerent political demeanor of many of my classmates. Again, I don't think their beliefs were a big part in why we weren't friends in the first place, but I think now that I reflect on it I'm seeing the pattern.

It was actually quite rough being a liberal in a North Carolinian high school to be honest. People were just uber-dicks about 'flip-flopping bleeding heart liberals who want to destroy America and don't support the troops' and that just drove me further to the left.

 

[bhsup]

Oh, a combination of family, area, and era, I suppose. My family is pretty hard core conservative (like really, my mom makes me look like a flaming liberal, and dad... well, uh.... yeah, Sarah Palin has a fan.) Additionally, my formative political years were when Reagan (genuflect) was President, and the area I grew up in is pretty socially conservative. Three strikes, eh?

Plus, you know, just basic common sense!

 

[rugbyLEAGUEfan]

From being continually raped by The Man.

 

[Zelig]

By consistently and continuously overestimating the competence of others.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

From being continually raped by The Man.

When buggered by Ron Paul, simply scream: 'You're hurting my liberty!"

That should stop him.
(props to Cutlass for that image as well)

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

I'm really interested to hear from Cheezy, not to single him out, but from what I've heard he went from far-right to far-left while growing up and I think there is probably a pretty interesting story behind that.

First I became a communist theologically, when I read the Gospels and saw that the teachings of Christ were incompatible with capitalist society.

Second I became a communist morally, when I perceived the injustice of inequality in all its forms.

Then I became a communist philosophically, when I studied the works of Marx and Engels and understood the systemic defects of free enterprise and private capital accumulation.

Then I became a communist practically, when I directly perceived the utility of democracy in the workplace.

Finally I became a communist necessarily, when I saw that the survival of our species and of our society depends upon wresting control over the course of mankind from people who care only for personal profit, and not for the well-being of their fellow men, or the health of their environment, or the future of either beyond their own lives.

 

[Synobun]

I got my political beliefs from my own opinion. I don't think I've found a single politician or influential individual that I totally agreed with or found to be inspiring enough to impact my viewpoint.

 

[Bugfatty300]

I don't know. Had em more or less for as long as I can remember and they don't seem to change much.

 

[emzie]

Being discriminated against daily in a conservative area of Ohio. There's something slightly chilling about having someone say to you as you pass in the hall, "I'mma beat the f*gt out of you." Gave me a taste of what it could be like for others, which was a prospective I'd never considered.

My mom worked for a lot of nonprofits dedicated to improving the community which showed me how counterproductive priorities can be. When she was the grantwriter for a drug rehab clinic, she'd have trouble securing funding, yet society was okay with spending a lot more money on a lot less effective policing action at home and in South America.

 

[warpus]

They have been forming and changing ever since I was old enough to hold one and I hope they continue to evolve as I grow older. Isn't that true for everyone? How can all of your political views be somehow "finished" and in their "right" place? Aren't some of them always shifting around? Aren't there so many types of political views that you even couldn't hold them steady if you wanted to?

Am I a weirdo for thinking that the question doesn't make sense unless you are someone who is incredibly easy to convince of something?

 

[Formaldehyde]

Growing up on military bases, I was far more exposed to traditional conservatism than the opposite. I was fascinated by the military and spent a prodigious amount of time studying it. I wanted to build bigger and better nuclear weapons when I grew up.

The big turning point occurred in the 8th grade when my American History teacher encouraged us to think critically. We spent a large amount of time studying current affairs. We were encouraged to read the newspaper and bring articles to the class to discuss. The differences between the liberals and the conservatives in the classroom became very pronounced. I started questioning what my father in particular thought, and I even tried to engage him in discussions regarding his views. He didn't take any disagreements with his views well at all. My father also started trying to restrict what I read, while my mother encouraged me to read anything I wished.

During high school, as the support for the Vietnam War started to wane, my father became more and more agitated at the news on TV every night before dinner. Every time there was a major demonstration at a college campus, he would shout "there is another university off your list". My brother and I had a choice of two different hair styles, crew cut or flat top, as the trend was for males to grow their hair longer. People at school who didn't personally know me assumed I was more conservative than I was on that basis alone.

My father tried to assure that I had a strong conservative influence in college by requiring me to apply for a ROTC scholarship. The Navy had a nuclear engineering program so I used that as an excuse to apply with them instead of the Army. I knew they required 20/100 eyesight so I was sure that would provide sufficient excuse for me not to have to go through that ordeal. But my father used his influence at the Pentagon to overturn the requirement. I got letters from my congressmen congratulating me. Two weeks later, I got a letter from the Secretary of the Navy stating that the waiver on the waiver had been carefully studied and was rejected. What a relief!

The final transformation occurred in college. After attending Oak Ridge National Laboratory as a coop student, I abandoned the notion of becoming a nuclear physicist altogether and switched to computers. I decided that I wasn't interested in working for the defense industry or even for the government.

I guess my father's worst fears were right. The liberal propaganda preached by college professors and a handful of my public school teachers finally made me decide that I was far more interested in progress and the general advancement of civilization, instead of traditionalism and a staunch maintenance of the status quo.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

They have been forming and changing ever since I was old enough to hold one and I hope they continue to evolve as I grow older. Isn't that true for everyone? How can all of your political views be somehow "finished" and in their "right" place? Aren't some of them always shifting around? Aren't there so many types of political views that you even couldn't hold them steady if you wanted to?

Am I a weirdo for thinking that the question doesn't make sense unless you are someone who is incredibly easy to convince of something?

I hope my OP wasn't worded to make you think that there is a point when your beliefs are set in stone. I don't think that's the case at all, I'm just asking about how you came to your current beliefs. I do not maintain any assumptions that you or anyone else will always have the same beliefs.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

Very slowly. Never had any input from my parents or from the media, considering how Philippine politics was rather off-putting. I still do not have solid positions on many issues, and I prefer to obtain more information first. All I have are principles to guide me, such as the separation of church and state and the need for balance and cooperation between the public and private sectors.

 

[Kennigit]

I used to think I was pretty liberal, now I don't think I have political beliefs. I have a couple mathematical beliefs.

To answer OP, I guess my parents, moving around a bunch, and being a teenager during George W. Bush years, and having no religious beliefs. I say moving around a bunch is a factor because it made me not get the mentality of "oh I'm from small town XXXXXX and everyone in town goes to the same church and has the same culture and the same blah blah blah, and ol' Joe down the road used to have XYZ job and said that politician Y commenting on XYZ is wrong!". I just read stuff online and watched the news, then my parents never really forced anything on me.

*edit* that's not to say there's nothing wrong with that mentality, just it is vastly different. Just as how most American's probably couldn't imagine living under a parliamentary party system very easily. American's like to vote for individual candidates.

There is like 3 main things I care about the most (not to turn this thread into political discourse, just saying how I actually don't really care much about politics)

Spoiler :

-healthcare. That's mainly a math problem. As a good ol' 'Murcan, I strongly and passionately support the convuluted healthcare system we have that provides pretty much no better care (most cases worse off care, via less available preventative care, etc etc) for 95% of people and is exhorbitantly more expensive compared to other coutries.

-social "issues", which is a backlash against social conservatism on my part. I don't really care if some homosexual 25 year old man wants to check a box on his w4 form [for non USians that's a tax form] that he is married. Let them check boxes for loans and housing purchases and etc I say! Let some potheads smoke some pot instead of wasting money and resources catching 20 year olds on a third offence for a drug no more harmful than alcohol or tobacco. Having basic sex ed in schools instead of abstinence only garbage, get your kids vaccinated already, etc etc. 80% of what America talks about is actually a total nonissue.

-energy policy. That's my intended career field (energy sector), and it's pretty much a math game too. Population goes up, resources go down, can't explain that! I also try to care about agricultural and food needs, since a lot of things (i.e. red meat production) are hugely resource intensive, generally not any more healthy than anything else, and plain inefficient.

 

[warpus]

I hope my OP wasn't worded to make you think that there is a point when your beliefs are set in stone. I don't think that's the case at all, I'm just asking about how you came to your current beliefs. I do not maintain any assumptions that you or anyone else will always have the same beliefs.

Gotcha.. But still, there are so many political beliefs. I'd have no idea where to start explaining where all of mine came from.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

I say moving around a bunch is a factor because it made me not get the mentality of "oh I'm from small town XXXXXX and everyone in town goes to the same church and has the same culture and the same blah blah blah, and ol' Joe down the road used to have XYZ job and said that politician Y commenting on XYZ is wrong!".

That informed me as well, I lived in enough disparate regions that I got a taste of day-to-day life in very different political climates.

Gotcha.. But still, there are so many political beliefs. I'd have no idea where to start explaining where all of mine came from.

Well, if you don't have any sort of over-arching themes of philosophical beliefs then you don't. Nothing wrong with that.

 

[warpus]

I guess I just think it's weird that anyone might have such a theme that holds most of their major political beliefs together. Or maybe it's so early on a monday morning I don't know what I'm talking about yet

 

[hobbsyoyo]

I guess I just think it's weird that anyone might have such a theme that holds most of their major political beliefs together. Or maybe it's so early on a monday morning I don't know what I'm talking about yet

Hmmm.... how to goad the truth out of the Warpus.

Are you pro- or anti- freedom?

 

[Kaitzilla]

Politically, I was formed by Sept. 11th and all the blogs that sprung up from it.

Started out as a Democrat until I learned better.
Stayed a Republican until I learned better.


If you want to change a Conservative's views, merely convince them that whatever change you propose won't eventually produce the destruction of civilization and a return to barbarism.

 

[downtown]

I would imagine everybody pulls theirs from life experiences, education, and culture, right?

I was raised by two very left leaning quasi-intellectual types (a former NYC artist and a south american immigrant turned education professor), but in a very conservative religious tradition and in a fairly conservative part of the country (rural Ohio). I suppose that mix made me somewhat of a pragmatist?

I think that my working experience in recruiting and my teaching experience in New Orleans were dramatic events that changed my political consciousness more than say, my actual political science degree. Working as a staffer on a political campaign also helped me realize that most of this crap doesn't matter as well. I stopped being as "into" politics after that.