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Where did your political views originate?
People's political views don't originate from a void. Everyone has experiences which affect their perspective on global issues and a motive for believing in what they think to be right. I'd be interested to know what brought you to the position you are in today.
For me, the critical event that led me to believe in libertarian socialism was learning the true story behind the Cold War. You're likely familiar with the way the story is usually told (in the U.S. and Canada at least): Russia and communism are bad. America and democracy are good. In the end, democracy triumphs over communism because good guys always win in the end.
Then I done some digging and found out all the things that the U.S. did to quash democracy in the name of capitalism. After that, I could no longer accept the notion of the U.S. as a force for good in the world and thus began to question everything. I learned that a many countries had good reasons for wanting to turn to socialism, especially since the accepted neoliberal consensus of recent times was nothing short of a sham. At the same time, I recognized the dangers of ideological zealotry that took over communism, so I instinctively focused on the plights of ordinary people since that's who socialism is meant for. I became more aware of the myriad issues facing the underprivileged and the injustice perpetrated by the wealthy in particular as well as the propaganda surrounding us in our everyday lives. I was ultimately inspired to become socialist by the Nordic welfare system, which has been shown to have the best living conditions and equality of opportunity in the world. Instead of becoming cynical, I had a direction for what humanity could be.
So yeah, that's why I like to ramble on about politics so much: I think that education is the best way to fight injustice and questioning convention helps people decide what is worth changing.
Comments
I don't have a set-in-stone political view.
My more conservative views come from my father. My more liberal opinions come from listening to my high school English teacher and thinking a bit more about politics beyond what my father believes.
A wealthy Russian expat formerly of the Australian SAS convinced me that social democracy is way cool.
I went from there, becoming part of a socialist organisation in university. But that kind of sucked. While I liked their political views, they were pamphlet socialists. And they drew a lot of time I could've spent elsewhere. Then there was a falling out with my girlfriend at the time who was part of the same organisation, so that put an end to that.
I very much like socialism, although I'm not always so impressed by socialists themselves. That's not a comment against anyone here, or anyone here who isn't socialist but is left-leaning. It's just an observation about the way some people do things at large.
I know what you mean. I've noticed socialists have a tendency to shout out radical macro-level solutions while ignoring the micro-level issues right in front of them.
Much of my experiences come from seeing and living in the country in the middle of a civil war and which has had some of the most idiotic presidents in terms of foreign policy. Funnily enough, though, I'm not really anti-government or even anti-Uribe (The aforementioned idiot), but I definetly would have preferred if he had listened more to his senators or didn't jump right away into actions that pretty much made us Latin America's US .
My working class roots have made me deeply suspicious of stuff like privatisation of public services and "trickle down economics". I guess you could call me a Keynesian Social Liberal.
Oh yeah, also, I have no money.
Socialism ftw.
Fuck politics. I washed my hands of the whole thing a long time ago.
^Not wanting discuss politics all the time is one thing, especially on the internet, but going going too far in the other direction leads to voter apathy, which is partly why the US. government is in this state.
Honestly, I've learned that politics are much like philosophy in that you can't evade thinking about it, even if you evade being knowledgeable about it.
> julia gillard
> tony abbot
> kevin rudd
> expecting me to care about politics when these are the three candidates
Then I entered post secondary and slowly my views got changed
Politically oblivious for a long time but probably a lefty, more pronounced lefty in the wake of the post-9/11 xenophobic bullshit venturing into classicism at the start of uni, became more centred in the later years due to lack of compelling rhetoric by the left(probably showing that the right is getting to me purely due to yanking the Overton Window).
Currently vote the single-issue Pirate party due to the conviction that any sort of political mindset that is marred by ideological entrenchment and thinks on a macro-scale only stands in the way of being effective.
When I was younger and still not truly interested in politics, I was a social conservative mostly due to the influence of the environment. Once I grew up enough to think for myself, I figured that social conservativism makes no damn sense and progressively moved towards liberalism. But what I held to are leftism and anti-globalism, due to growing up in a relatively poor family and seeing the effects of globalist foreign policy on my own country's example). However, I've recently became disillusioned by a lot of leftist ideals and have moved closer to the center.
If asked to describe my political views at this moment, I'd say that it's moderate left-libertarianism. I very much like Chomsky.
I guess I must have not yet met the magical old wise epiphany deliverer who'd convert me to the true way of some leftist ideology.
My Godfather was a Law student from the Mother Russia, it cemented me as left-leaning, but what really did it for me was the time I spent a at a jesuit school. I saw and lived with extremely poor people for a month, their lives were out of the XIX century, it pains me we live in a world of haves and have-nots. It also made me pro-church, "helping those in need" that's my motto, and I learned it then!
An owl named Ythar'd-flant came to me in a technicolor dream. It spoke of the cities made of ruby and platinum that would rise if we handed Norway the world's nuclear stockpile. And so now I fight bravely for the NLF of Yugoslavia, countering the Nazi menace in the Balkans, trying to make the world safe for a Communist paradise.
Also I read some pretty darn convincing arguments on the Internet. They even referenced Noam Chomsky so they are correct.
Must've been the owl. Sounds a lot more convincing.
My views are pretty close to my parents' (particularly my dad's), so I guess that's where it started.
But generally I don't know if they "come" from one specific place. They are what make sense to me. On things where I differ from my dad, I couldn't say there's any specific reason for it.
Most youfs are socialist/liberal because of idealism
I was one, too, back when I was about 15. Mweh heh heh.
But you know, I wouldn't say that now I strictly adhere to a particular ideology. There're just certain labels I like to sign myself to, due to a general feel of them.
Not specifically political, but quite a few of my general (liberal) inclinations can be traced to a single song. Which was a freaking fandom song that did not have much to do with politics.
My strongest political beliefs mostly come from growing up in a small town that up till very recently did a good job of taking care of its own. A lot of left-wing ideas strike me as unnecessary and wasteful bureaucracy at best, and stopgap measures that smokescreen or exacerbate far worse things behind it at worst.
Since then I've had my share of nuance pushes and pulls. I've gravitated away from by dad's xenophobia, and also away from my first college's Hippie Hive Mind (fuck hippies, seriously), so it's in both directions.