Have you ever had a massive shift in your worldview?

[Dr. MB]

If not, do you ever see one happening in the future?

I don’t think personally I have but idk on online political spheres this sort of thing seems to happen all the time. So I’m interested. What made you shift? Were you just super young and discovering politics for the first time or did real-world events or life events cause your mind to be opened to alternative ways of thinking?

Don’t just focus on specific political parties or policies but a more metaphysical conception of how you view the society we live in.

[T'Chenka]

The pandemic really opened my eyes to how anti-collectivist North Americans really are. I guess "the West" in general. How narcissistic people are.

[Beet]

My worldview was established around the time I was 13 or 14 and I doubt it will ever change.

That being said, the practical politics that it translates into have seen massive shifts in response to events. Harold Macmillan was once asked what the most troubling problem of his Prime Ministership was. 'Events, my dear boy, events,' was his reply.

[Del Tachi]

Yes but not related to politics.

[100% pro-life no matter what]

I was a staunch and vocal atheist in my teenage years

[Anti Democrat Democrat Club]

Not really in ideology, moreso in praxis.

2016 was really the breaking point. After seeing Obama throw the best years of his presidency away by trying to appease the unappeasable Republicans. I disagreed with the party, sure, but I enthusiastically campaigned for his re-election. I gave 60 hours of my life, for 6 months. When my primary candidate lost then, I did the right thing and voted for her. And it felt like they shut me out because I didn't campaign for the party's Anointed One in the primary.

The Democratic Party's actions also alienated me from the party. Superdelegates were legal, sure, but had essentially overturned 5 of Bernie's primary wins and played a big role in stunting Bernie's momentum. I don't believe he would have won, but they proved that. The DNC leaks showed an endemic culture against Bernie Sanders. The outright embrace of fake news from Nevada, with the source being an open Hillary hack, showed it. And don't even get me started on the Bernie Bro thing, which was a blatantly manufactured hit job. Maybe the primaries weren't rigged, but the Democrats wanted Bernie and everyone associated with him out.

The other big moment in praxis, believe it or not, was 2020's election. This was the first real election where Democrats ran like Democrats. Sure, maybe we wouldn't have our Green New Deal or Medicare for All, but Biden didn't run like a mealy-mouthed moderate. And then Ossoff and Warnock won in Georgia on a bold economic plan. They didn't tack to the Washington consensus of "beep boop center good" or sell their souls to their donors. They fought for the people, and the people rewarded them.

It showed me that we needed to get the people voting in the interests of the rich and powerful out of the party at any costs. I had only voted for Hassan because I wanted to sh*tpost on a small map forum about how I wanted to stop Tulsi. I did not vote for Pappas, because he blatantly lied about supporting certain policies to get votes. And even then, they both ran ads on the radio about how they would tackle corporate greed as a part of fighting inflation. Joe Biden, Jon Ossoff, and Raphael Warnock created this great new conventional wisdom.

[They not like us]

After volunteering for the Romney campaign in 2012 when I was 16, I had a pretty significant shift in my worldview after he lost. I started reading more about socialism and had an awkward phase where I went from a libertarian to a full blown socialist. College moderated me somewhat and while I still consider myself firmly progressive, I'm not as far left as I was even 2 or 3 years ago.

[Vosem]

I've shifted on particular issues regarding what is practical for the government to do/stop doing, and my views have gotten much more detailed as I've gotten more educated, but the overall worldview has never shifted since I started reading about politics at around age 10 (and I'm currently 25). I've always been very lib-right and other perspectives have pretty much always struck me as illogical or immoral.

[DavidB.]

The excessive COVID restrictions and lockdowns made me much more libertarian - it made me think in terms of "state power" rather than "government management". Our fundamental rights cannot be taken for granted. The majority are eager to support the most discriminative policies against a minority as long as the media scapegoat this minority and tell the majority it's the right and moral thing to support this discrimination.

Over time I also changed my mind on Islam and Muslims. Most Muslims simply want to have a good and fulfilling life, they aren't here to "take over the West by force" or something like that.

[PSOL]

I suppose the biggest shift was realizing the cowardice that was the global pandemic response. The fact most of the leadership and their spokespeople were pu$$•footing this calamity, and how that reflected and was given down to people’s opinions, made me realize the limits of what not being in a state of war against capital really is.

[vitoNova]

Nope.

[Ferguson97]

I was a staunch and vocal atheist in my teenage years

Conversely, I was a devout Christian as a teenager.

[Aurelius]

The pandemic made me realize that it's very easy for those in power to get away with imposing tyranny on the people.

[Chunk Yogurt for President!]

I did an almost 180 on foreign policy from hawk to dove.

[dead0man]

not really.  I was a "live and let live" kid from a young age, and my politics and everything else flows from that.  Why should some jerk in a suit a thousand miles from me that I'll never meet have any say what I do with my body or what kind of deals I make with another individual.

[CumbrianLefty]

Over time I also changed my mind on Islam and Muslims. Most Muslims simply want to have a good and fulfilling life, they aren't here to "take over the West by force" or something like that.

I will just say that this is genuinely heartening to read.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

My politics has became massively more centered around concepts like "functional government" and more institutionalistic, over time.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Nothing I would call massive, no. I guess the most significant shifts came around 2015-2016, when I lost most of my illusions about European center-left politics being a credible avenue for political progress and decided to embrace the socialist label, and then the past few years, when I lost most of my illusions about the current "left" being a credible avenue for stemming the tide of global fascism especially when it's being championed by America's geopolitical enemies. Honestly, I now feel more politically orphaned than ever. It's not really that my values have changed, though - it's just that I've come to realize how few people share them.