I no longer view myself as a conservative

[best3444]

Mainly because of this board. I have been brain washed since grade school and by my peers to view everything in the conservative perspective with no open mind or different type of thinking. Even my HS was conservative but the more logical things I read on this section of the board and the more I have separated myself from not only the Catholic faith but my Christian beliefs as well, I'm definitely leaning to the left. 

 

This will cause a bit of a Rift in my family circle but fuck them honestly. I will most definitely be voting differently in 24. I guess you guy's can take credit for this and I'm willing to keep learning about this beautiful country with an open mind and with an open heart.

 

It took 35 years for the change but better now than later with how the US is heading. I've already been debating things with my parents and @stepee enters my mind when having discussions with my father. 

 

Thank you for opening my eyes. 

[Oberon]

When a political party:

 

Hates education

Hates Helping people

Actively enjoys hurting people

Supports rapists and child molestors

Has no platform

And supports overthrowing the government

 

It's ok to not want to be a part of it and not want to associate with people who support it 

 

[Chris-]

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

While I'm certainly appreciative of this evolution of your political views, I really believe that the most important thing that you can do for yourself (and those you care about) is to continue to engage consistently and productively with your therapist.

[PaladinSolo]

I've been at odds with my family my entire adult life when it comes to politics, even talking about gas prices yesterday my dad truly thought oil companies were struggling and thought it was because of Biden that we weren't producing more oil, when i told him they were making record profits and were absolutely fine with that he just thought i was making shit up. 

 

Then started claiming that they believed whales were beaching themselves because of the construction of offshore windmills, and was wondering why liberals all of a sudden didn't care about the whales, lol, also didn't believe me that whales beaching themselves has been a thing throughout human history, with only sonar being linked in anyway to an increase of beaching events, but nope it was 100% the construction of offshore windmills.  I told him to stop watching the news channel that he watches (fox) and he proceeded to claim he watches CBS all the time, but of course as soon as i look up this insane theory, Tucker Carlson was pushing back in Jan/Feb before he was canned, which then led to republicans repeating it making it apparently true to them.

[stepee]

32 minutes ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

While I'm certainly appreciative of this evolution of your political views, I really believe that the most important thing that you can do for yourself (and those you care about) is to continue to engage consistently and productively with your therapist.

 

I think this is a good point, and I think unfortunately in your current situation you might want to be a bit mindful of what you talk about with your parents considering this.

 

You don’t want to cause a big family rift right in the middle of your therapy and working your way back out to moving out on your own again. 
 

Ideally they would just stop feeding you any political stuff as you work through this important time but hopefully you can try to just steer clear of as much political discourse as possible.

 

Maybe you could let it be known you are working a lot and the political talk adds to your discomfort and anxiety and makes it harder to focus on your own well being.

 

That is great you are willing to look outside of your comfort zone politically though and to start identifying yourself ideologically with what you actually think is right rather than the lies you’ve been told. 

[best3444]

1 hour ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

While I'm certainly appreciative of this evolution of your political views, I really believe that the most important thing that you can do for yourself (and those you care about) is to continue to engage consistently and productively with your therapist.

 

You nailed it here. Also, I'm still on the waiting list for my intensive out patient care so I'm just staying positive, patient, and strong. I absolutely still see my therapist and unfortunately he is big time conservative but he has really helped me out with my medications.

 

But I think I need to move on from him which isn't easy because central Pennsylvania is extremely difficult to get psychiatric care. 

 

1 hour ago, stepee said:

 

I think this is a good point, and I think unfortunately in your current situation you might want to be a bit mindful of what you talk about with your parents considering this.

 

You don’t want to cause a big family rift right in the middle of your therapy and working your way back out to moving out on your own again. 
 

Ideally they would just stop feeding you any political stuff as you work through this important time but hopefully you can try to just steer clear of as much political discourse as possible.

 

Maybe you could let it be known you are working a lot and the political talk adds to your discomfort and anxiety and makes it harder to focus on your own well being.

 

That is great you are willing to look outside of your comfort zone politically though and to start identifying yourself ideologically with what you actually think is right rather than the lies you’ve been told. 

 

On the whole, my parents and I try to stay away from topics that trip us up. Great post and thank you.

[skillzdadirecta]

You were a conservative?!

 

[Xbob42]

I think it's always great to be able to challenge your beliefs, things you hold as axiomatic, etc. Of course, it always helps to have different people to challenge them for you as well, because a lot of people "doing their own research" end up down in the weird flat earth conspiracy holes. Anything I believe to be true, I should be able to unflinchingly challenge from any angle, because if I was scared to do that, then I must know my logic isn't very sound, or that I've believed it just because I always have.

 

Can be a bit of a challenge with so many people trying to twist information, spread misinformation and the like, but as long as you're rigorous in your application of skepticism and have a strong foundation for your logic (plus, again, people to check you on shit and make sure you haven't missed something) then it's not so bad.

All that to say, I'm glad you've challenged your beliefs, and hope you can continue to challenge these new beliefs going forward as well.

[SaysWho?]

2 minutes ago, Xbob42 said:

I think it's always great to be able to challenge your beliefs, things you hold as axiomatic, etc. Of course, it always helps to have different people to challenge them for you as well, because a lot of people "doing their own research" end up down in the weird flat earth conspiracy holes. Anything I believe to be true, I should be able to unflinchingly challenge from any angle, because if I was scared to do that, then I must know my logic isn't very sound, or that I've believed it just because I always have.

 

Can be a bit of a challenge with so many people trying to twist information, spread misinformation and the like, but as long as you're rigorous in your application of skepticism and have a strong foundation for your logic (plus, again, people to check you on shit and make sure you haven't missed something) then it's not so bad.

All that to say, I'm glad you've challenged your beliefs, and hope you can continue to challenge these new beliefs going forward as well.

 

Hell, even as a self-described progressive, I still challenge myself. I'm probably more progressive now than years ago because I did that tbh.

[Chadatog]

I also have had a genesis on this board, I was probably a true neo lib back during the bush years but have evolved to my final form, a socialist anarchy proponent.

[best3444]

And to add, I truly believe Trump is the anti-christ. I don't mean that jokingly either. I voted for him in 16 but feel ill for doing so. Biden has his flaws but he has done a magnificent job on climate change, democracy in general, and human rights. Yes, the climate is changing but there is only so much a man can do. 

[TUFKAK]

26 minutes ago, SaysWho? said:

 

Hell, even as a self-described progressive, I still challenge myself. I'm probably more progressive now than years ago because I did that tbh.

I still attempt to do this today by engaging with what conservatives etc are saying but it’s gone so far off the rails lately I don’t bother as much.  
 

It just ends up pissing me off, like how do you idiots believe this shit!??!

[Rev]

Aside from echoing SFLU's advice that you continue engaging in therapy, I'd just suggest you be aware of the fact that there's a significant amount of space between conservatism and some of the near-consensus political views on this board. I'm a left-wing liberal, for instance, and I find many of the views supported by people here to be pretty absurd. 

[best3444]

3 minutes ago, Rev said:

Aside from echoing SFLU's advice that you continue engaging in therapy, I'd just suggest you be aware of the fact that there's a significant amount of space between conservatism and some of the near-consensus political views on this board. I'm a left-wing liberal, for instance, and I find many of the views supported by people here to be pretty absurd. 

 

I understand. Thanks 

[stepee]

Also I’m sorry but I do need that typo in the subject corrected before I’ll be able to sleep tonight

[best3444]

9 minutes ago, stepee said:

Also I’m sorry but I do need that typo in the subject corrected before I’ll be able to sleep tonight

 

Didn't even notice that. It's fixed. 

[stepee]

And someone can probably state this a lot better than I can, but to add to what Rev said, I think it’s important to find ideologically where you stand.

 

Don’t look of it as not wanting to be a republican and now you’ll be a democrat. Use the time to search what your morals and values are. What you think is important. How far do you think is necessary to go to make the things you think are unjust right, etc.

 

I mean, obviously voting republican is always the wrong choice, but it’s important to know for yourself why that is important to you. 

 

Don’t read opinions or really anything and instantly take it as fact. Double check things. Use common consensus of truth to help steer you towards what is actually going on. Question if the common consensus is right, but if you can’t find anyone who doesn’t talk about lizard people disagreeing, then it’s probably true. And I’m not even talking about common consensus of the best way to do anything, just simply of what is real or not.

 

If you do start paying attention to news outside of fox news what you will find is that everything outside of that sphere has many layers of different opinions/wants/goals. I think comparatively it’s really easy to be conservative because there is essentially an instruction manual of exactly what to think and believe and say, and that instruction manual is read nightly, and everyone always falls in line. In real life things are more complex and there is more ambiguity.

[Fizzzzle]

40 minutes ago, Rev said:

Aside from echoing SFLU's advice that you continue engaging in therapy, I'd just suggest you be aware of the fact that there's a significant amount of space between conservatism and some of the near-consensus political views on this board. I'm a left-wing liberal, for instance, and I find many of the views supported by people here to be pretty absurd. 

u wot m8

[Paperclyp]

I don't know if I know what conservative and liberal even mean anymore. There's such a range of viewpoints within those distinctions. 

[mclumber1]

If being conservative means jerking off to whatever Donald Trump says and does, I don't want to be a conservative*!

 

 

*I'm not a conservative in the first place, just making an observation.

[stepee]

2 minutes ago, mclumber1 said:

If being conservative means jerking off to whatever Donald Trump says and does, I don't want to be a conservative*!

 

 

*I'm not a conservative in the first place, just making an observation.

 

In a better country you would be!

[PaladinSolo]

1 hour ago, TUFKAK said:

I still attempt to do this today by engaging with what conservatives etc are saying but it’s gone so far off the rails lately I don’t bother as much.  
 

It just ends up pissing me off, like how do you idiots believe this shit!??!

Couple guys at work which is in rural NY were talking about how people should just avoid every city anymore because its apparently all shootings, drugs, and homeless people everywhere, and i'm just thinking, one of our employees husband murdered a woman, yesterday i saw a guy sleeping in a gazebo behind the courthouse on the way into work, and at one time our county was the meth capital of the world.  I just don't bother to engage cause it gets really stupid.

 

 

[Spawn_of_Apathy]

I’m glad everyone here could brain wash you to the correct side. I wish I could say you’ll be happier, sadly not. Just a different level of frustration. 

[Guest]

I’m going to conservative even harder then

[stepee]

Just now, sblfilms said:

I’m going to conservative even harder then

 

I, too, suddenly really care about tax breaks 

[skillzdadirecta]

2 hours ago, Rev said:

I'm a left-wing liberal, for instance, and I find many of the views supported by people here to be pretty absurd. 

I consider myself to be center left and I couldn't agree more.

[stepee]

I consider myself to be firmly up up down down left right left right b a start and the only person I consistently agree with is @unogueen

[Massdriver]

10 minutes ago, skillzdadirecta said:

I consider myself to be center left and I couldn't agree more.

Careful

[skillzdadirecta]

1 minute ago, Massdriver said:

Careful

[SaysWho?]

I find myself progressive and know anyone I disagree with is obviously wrong.  

[SaysWho?]

Although there’s always the possibility that the people who find opinions here absurd, have absurd opinions!
 

Everyone thinks their opinions are well formed and thought out. That’s why we have many right wing friends who all sound the same who claim they’re independent thinkers.

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

The absurdity is the point

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

45 minutes ago, SaysWho? said:

That’s why we have many right wing friends...

 

I beg your pardon?

[SaysWho?]

4 minutes ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

 

I beg your pardon?

That’s why we have many right wing humans we observe as if we’re Jane Goodall.