Since joining this forum have you moved leftward or rightward?

[💥💥 brandon bro (he/him/his)]

My worldview has changed considerably in my time here (especially in the last two years) but my political opinions are still pretty much the same. Probably slight moves to the left on economics but slightly to the right socially.

In addition to a left-right axis I've also heard people describe an idealistic-pragmatic axis (think: Bernie vs. Hillary). I've always been on the pragmatic part of that axis, maybe moving a little bit more idealistic, but still very results-oriented and system-thinking. So despite having some very serious changes to the way I view politics and the world my voting behavior and my stances on the vast majority of issues are unchanged since I joined.

Ideologically I've definitely moved from a more cosmopolitan, somewhat neoliberal, meritocratic normie Dem towards being a cynical anti-elite Dem with dirtbag sympathies. I went from being a smug liberal to detesting a lot of liberals because they are smug (people probably still think I am smug, though). I'm much more temperamentally conservative now than when I joined, which makes me more receptive to conservative ideas than I was before, although I think American Conservatism mostly embarrassing hogwash and naked grievance-baiting and that the Republican Party as an institution is fundamentally evil. I'm much less technocratic now than when I joined; e.g., flipping from pro- to anti-means testing. I still mostly believe in the Democratic Party as a force for good and typically give it the benefit of the doubt (i.e. am still a pragmatic party loyalist), although I am much more mindful of its obvious shortcomings and blindspots than I was before.