• @Krauerking@lemy.lol
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    09 months ago

    Yeah I think they misunderstood what was happening cause they were getting wealthier as they got older.

    Honestly, you just become more protective of your stuff and things you consider yours as you get older.

    There are plenty of nerds that are super conservative about their fandoms and what is allowed to happen with them and same for all kinds of niches but the idea we would get more conservative with money really assumed we would accumulate more of it and assets. But what people do have is their apps and thoughts and those… Those people will be just as conservative as the boomers are about their money as they get older.

  • @perestroika@lemm.ee
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    09 months ago

    If conservative means “cautious and wary of unexpected results”, “disillusioned with methods that we tried and failed with” or maybe even “equipped with experience of successful and failed cooperation with various sorts of people”, then yes. Already before age 50, I’m spoiled with various good and bad experiences. I cannot exclude that as my tendency to explore decreases (psychology tends to affirm this trend), I may get prejudiced too. I may have to figure out something to counter it.

    But if conservative means that I suddenly don’t want a society with equality and without hierarchy, then - nope.

  • @Mac@mander.xyz
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    09 months ago

    How is it that some of us get further left and some people go right? Even poors and immigrants go right and vote against their own interests. I really don’t get it.

    • @NauticalNoodle@lemmy.ml
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      9 months ago

      Immigrants being on the right is also implicit. Almost nobody is gonna migrate to some place new because things like recent changes are going well for them in their country of origin. They instead leave and migrate to some place that is relatively more stable & predictable. Host countries don’t like it when people migrate over and start agitating for change. As a result conservatism is built into the process.

      –Consider the Cuban Communist. The Cubans that are happy with Communism have no major incentive to leave and resettle in Miami. The Cuban Capitalists OTOH flee to Miami where they espouse the evils of Communism while advocating for our government to continue the trade embargo, ensuring they can spread their pain to their fellow Cubans back in Cuba. It’s the same exact story with Falun Gong

    • @WhimsicalWood@aussie.zone
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      09 months ago

      Broadly speaking, I’d say it’s done out of fear. Voting conservative feels like staying the course and not challenging the status quo, even if it’s not ideal. Voting change could be seen as a threat to “stability” even when it’s a false narrative.

      • @NauticalNoodle@lemmy.ml
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        9 months ago

        To add to what you said I’d also argue it comes with finding financial success while lacking the awareness of how lucky one had to be to achieve that kind of success in life.

        – although lately I have also seen a lot of people that lack the imagination to consider a reality different from what’s presented to them by the status quo.

        On second thought, that latter point just sounds a lot like Indoctrination.

        • @anachronist@midwest.social
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          09 months ago

          Yep this. It’s a combination of becoming more financially well-off, combined with loss aversion, combined with a sense that the culture starts to alienate you. It’s like grandpa simpson said: “I used to be with it. But what was ‘it’ changed. And now what I’m with isn’t ‘it’, and what is ‘it’ is scary and strange.”

  • @pjwestin@lemmy.world
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    09 months ago

    Whenever people say that you grow more conservative when you get older, they’re working from the premise that you’ll grow more affluent and comfortable later in life. For Americans, that just isn’t true anymore. Wages are mostly stagnant, home ownership is much less attainable, and cost of living is at an all time high. Yet for some reason, pundits just can’t figure out why millenials aren’t getting more conservative as they age, or why zoomers appear to be following this trend.

    • Herding Llamas
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      09 months ago

      All of that is the same here in Germany. Check out the stats on home ownership here… But oh man are the kids flipping to the AfD (far right nazi party) quick and in huge numbers. It’s scary to see.

      • @pjwestin@lemmy.world
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        09 months ago

        Honestly, that makes sense to me. It seems like when economic systems start breaking down for people, they turn to populism. It’s either left-wing populism, which argues for reigning in the excesses of capitalism, or right-wing populism, which scapegoats minority or immigrant groups. Right now, the youth in the U.S. are interested in left-wing populism, but right-wing populism (AKA Trumpism) is the only thing making it into the political mainstream.

        • Cowbee [he/they]
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          09 months ago

          left-wing populism, which argues for reigning in the excesses of capitalism

          Left wing means ending Capitalism, not just “reigning it in,” which never works long-term.

          • @pjwestin@lemmy.world
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            09 months ago

            “Left-wing,” is a very broad term. In the Weimar Republic, yes, the left-wing alternative to right-wing populism was communism. In America today, Democratic Socialists like Bernie Sanders are the left-wing alternative. If that doesn’t fall in line with your definition of, "left-wing,’ that’s fine, but it most people wouldn’t define it as exclusively anti-capitalist ideologies.

            • Cowbee [he/they]
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              09 months ago

              The Overton Window is relative, sure, but that’s only useful in defined constraints, and only for one point in time. Leftism is socialist, rightism is Capitalist.

              Bernie is a Social Democrat as well.

              • @pjwestin@lemmy.world
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                09 months ago

                …and Sanders himself defines Democratic Socialism as the completion of the New Deal reforms, not a gradual transition to a socialist economic system. There’s a difference between the Overton Window shifting and a gradual change in definition over generations, but if you want definitions to remain entirely static, then we’re both using left-wing incorrectly, as it’s, “real,” definition is opposing monarchy’s veto power over parliament.

                • Cowbee [he/they]
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                  09 months ago

                  Yes, he calls himself a Democratic Socialist while being a Social Democrat, I’m aware.

                  Left wing in the modern context refers to anti-Capitalism.

        • @AA5B@lemmy.world
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          09 months ago

          Where are those youth in the US? While they seem loud online, why hasn’t that translated into votes?

          • @pjwestin@lemmy.world
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            09 months ago

            Actually, youth turnout is pretty high right now, with record turnout being set recently for both midterms and presidential elections. In 2020, turnout for the under thirty crowd was 50%, a possible new record, and it was 30% and 27% in 2018 and 2022 respectively, which are 30 year highs. Unfortunately, the Democratic Party leadership prefers centrist candidates, and frequently puts its thumb on the scale to ensure that moderate candidates win, so that turnout isn’t translating into progressive politics.

            Funny enough, just after I made the original comment, I read an article about how the youngest U.S. voters are starting to lean further right than before, so it’s possible the ship has sailed on this all together. Given how aggressively the right wing has been to trying to indoctrinate young voters, who are watching Democrats successfully suppress left-wing populism while Republicans embrace right-wing populism, it’s possible the youth are deciding that the far-right offers them only chance for change. I hope not, though, because then we’re screwed.

          • @TopRamenBinLaden@sh.itjust.works
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            09 months ago

            The youth in the US is mostly actually leftist, and they give them the choice to vote for a centrist or a right wing candidate. That’s a big part of the reason. Also, just the fact that the youth also votes less, on average, even those youth who identify as right wing.

            I know because I am an actual leftist, and I didn’t vote for a long time into my adulthood, because it feels like a scam. I finally got over the fact that not participating in the vote is worse, but I completely understand the apathy amongst actual leftists in the US. We’ve had no true representation in our whole lives.

            • @AA5B@lemmy.world
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              09 months ago

              If you don’t vote for the centrist candidate, you can’t object to the right extremist.

              Actually this does track that a lot of what I see online is people who seem unwilling to compromise: neither are what I want so both the same. You need to be willing to vote for the one closest to what you want, and work toward moving that leftward over time.

              We had a huge success with “The Squad” getting enough attention before Biden’s first nomination to influence the party platform. As a minority voter, this path is more likely to succeed than not voting

              • Cowbee [he/they]
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                09 months ago

                If you don’t vote for the centrist candidate, you can’t object to the right extremist.

                You absolutely can. Voting is not the extent of political action.

                Actually this does track that a lot of what I see online is people who seem unwilling to compromise: neither are what I want so both the same. You need to be willing to vote for the one closest to what you want, and work toward moving that leftward over time.

                You can’t move right-wingers left through thoughts and prayers, this is astrology.

                We had a huge success with “The Squad” getting enough attention before Biden’s first nomination to influence the party platform. As a minority voter, this path is more likely to succeed than not voting

                And yet they accomplish nothing and are kept like barking dogs on leashes. The electoral process is a filter, it prevents radical change. See how the monsters treat Rashida Tlaib.

                • @AA5B@lemmy.world
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                  09 months ago

                  You can’t move right-wingers left

                  Exactly. If you have to chose between right wing and centrist , elect the centrist and move them a bit to the left. prepare to do this through multiple elections

                  And yet they accomplish nothing

                  And yet President Biden is very centrist but has passed some of the most far reaching changes ever on the environment, renewable energy, unionization, etc.

                  An example of both is climate change regulation. Legislation passed during Biden’s term should get us about halfway to our net carbon goal. A pessimist may focus on that not being nearly enough, but I see a new center, where we can have more success working on more substantial change

          • @meowMix2525@lemm.ee
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            9 months ago

            Because for every loud voice you read on lemmy there’s 1000 boomers and nut jobs that either a) don’t use the Internet regularly b) don’t leave Facebook or c) hide away in right wing circlejerk sites like truth social and 4chan. A and B just being old, and none of them being people that can handle having their views challenged, which is definitely going to happen in a space like this.

    • bountygiver [any]
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      09 months ago

      yup it applies only to the privileged class, and of course only people in that class would think that is the general experience.

    • @Commiunism@lemmy.wtf
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      09 months ago

      Yeah, though there’s also the phenomena of older folks generally being more against change and clinging in the past more, the idea being that you have less future to look forward to (since you’re closer to death than your birth) so instead you look towards the past and become nostalgic about it.

      • @UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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        09 months ago

        there’s also the phenomena of older folks generally being more against change and clinging in the past more,

        That’s more a consequence of the moment. Older people like stable material conditions. And with programs like pensions, public health care, and a safe suburban neighborhood with good amenities, they see the status quo as worth defending.

        But swing through North Africa and the Middle East during the Arab Spring (anyone remember that?) or pop over to the UK in the wake of the last election cycle or visit an impoverished neighborhood in Haiti or a bombed neighborhood in Lebanon and you’ll find plenty of elderly revolutionaries.

        you look towards the past and become nostalgic about it

        People may be nostalgic for their youth, but they are rarely nostalgic for being treated like a child.

        And you’re going to find it hard to locate a South African native nostalgic for Apartheid or a Pole or Romanian who misses occupation or a Chinese national who pines for the Century of Humiliation.

        Westerners coming out of their post war pre-Reagan Golden Era just have more to be nostalgic for.

      • @pjwestin@lemmy.world
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        09 months ago

        Oh yeah, that’s definitely why older folks are socially conservative, although usually when I hear people say this (and definitely in the context of this meme) they’re talking about becoming fiscally conservative.

    • @AA5B@lemmy.world
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      09 months ago

      What if you start to become better off, but realize so many other parents are unable to provide for their kids like you can, and you can’t hope to provide for your kids like the wealthy can? What if paying exorbitant amounts of money for your kids education drives home the point that we need to make that investment for all kids futures? What if you are more often on the hiring side and realize your well being depends on the next generation having opportunities and the means to successfully achieve them?

      • @TopRamenBinLaden@sh.itjust.works
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        9 months ago

        Then you are alright with me. I think a large amount of our problems as a species come from those with a lack of empathy. If everyone thought like you, then we wouldn’t have the vast wealth inequalities and greatly varying qualities of life between working class and upper class.

        On the other hand, if everyone had empathy in the first place, I think we wouldn’t have the economic systems that put profits over people.

          • @TopRamenBinLaden@sh.itjust.works
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            9 months ago

            You don’t think that more empathetic people would be involved in creating fairer modes of production? I think sociopaths and those lacking empathy are at least part of the reason that capitalism still runs rampant in the world, but its just my opinion.

            If you downvoted me don’t know why, just adding my opinion.

            I know plenty of people that grew up in capitalism and still have empathy, and also hate capitalism, so I guess I don’t understand exactly what you mean, either.

            • Cowbee [he/they]
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              09 months ago

              You don’t think that more empathetic people would be involved in creating fairer modes of production? I think sociopaths and those lacking empathy are at least part of the reason that capitalism still runs rampant in the world, but its just my opinion.

              The base creates and reinforces the superstructure, which reinforces the base, not the other way around.

              • @TopRamenBinLaden@sh.itjust.works
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                9 months ago

                The base creates and reinforces the superstructure, which reinforces the base, not the other way around.

                I don’t know what this has to do with empathetic people and sociopaths. I understand that the system that we live in is more likely to produce sociopaths than a Socialistic one, but I don’t think that doesn’t mean we can’t talk about them and their hindrance to our advancement, considering that they do indeed exist.

                I usually appreciate you spreading knowledge, but I don’t really see what you are trying to add here. Nothing I wrote disagrees with anything you said, and vice versa.

                • Cowbee [he/they]
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                  09 months ago

                  You said if people were more empathetic we would have a better Mode of Production, but the process is reversed.

      • @pjwestin@lemmy.world
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        09 months ago

        Then you’re a good person, which is a statistical minority. Most people will never intentionally vote against their economic self-interests by raising their own taxes (although you can trick them into voting against their economic self interests; Republicans have been doing that for years by using racist dog-whistles to attack entitlement programs and pushing discredited trickle-down economic theories).

  • @BilboBargains@lemmy.world
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    09 months ago

    Maybe we become more extreme in our existing beliefs. My political compass position drifted right from bottom left as I hit my thirties. After the Iraq invasion of 2003 and recessions following 2008 it swung back towards Ghandi. I became convinced that conservative politics isn’t working in my late forties and that has only been reinforced as I try to access the creaking UK healthcare system.

      • @Olgratin_Magmatoe@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        It’s definitely a terrible system, and there are better ones out there like 10Groups. But astrology is completely meaningless. The PCT at least tells you a vague (terrible, yes), but somewhat meaningful direction in which you believe.

        For example, I know that since I’m libertarian left on the PCT, that I’m going to disagree with 90% of the things somebody who’s authoritarian right on the PCT believes.

        Astrology doesn’t have that ability to reliably compare, since it is literally and completely meaningless.

        But again, shit like 10Groups is better and everybody should switch to measures that have more than 2 axis.

        • Cowbee [he/they]
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          09 months ago

          It’s completely meaningless, actual positions and ideologies are the only way to actually measure.

            • Cowbee [he/they]
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              09 months ago

              It really doesn’t, though. Two people with wildly different views can occupy the same space, what matters is literal positions and stances.

              • @Olgratin_Magmatoe@lemmy.world
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                09 months ago

                Two people with wildly different views can occupy the same space

                Not completely. If two people occupy a similar space, it means they agreed on something. That is meaningful. It’s vague, sure. But it isn’t completely random nonsense like astrology.

                • Cowbee [he/they]
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                  09 months ago

                  It doesn’t. Someone with a “left” view and a “right” view can cancel each other out, occupying the same space as someone with a “neutral” view. It’s worthless.

                  Plus, someone can say they are for something, but actually not support it in reality.

  • Funderpants
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    09 months ago

    I know that conflating Liberals and Conservatives is practically lemmys official pass time, but I have to point out they are not the same.

      • Funderpants
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        09 months ago

        No, I have a lot of experience in liberal organizations and they are not, despite the memes, closer to conservatism than progressivism. It honestly makes me feel like most people on lemmy have never really worked with liberal groups.

        The major differences between a liberal and a social democrat or progressive comes down largely to deciding when a market has failed and when to use government intervention, both Liberals and progressives are fine with intervention, only the threshold changea. We want the same things, mostly, but disagree on how to get them.

        Conservatives, philosophical Conservatives anyway, won’t typically even consider such a thing, and often do not even want the same things as Liberals or progressives.

        This both sides same stuff just hurts progressive causes, because it sours mushy people with little to no real philosophy on voting for liberal parties. Those people flip flop back to Conservatives when they get angry and we lose the progress we’ve made, as is about to happen in Canada.

        • @MotoAsh@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          rofl! The difference vetween a progressive and liberal is NOT just when they decide to intervene in corporations…

          American liberals want to means test EVERYTHING that could concievably go to a poor person. A progressive realizes the red tape is fucking stupid and expensive in its own right. Remember the COVID funds? Sucked up by megacorporations more than small businesses like it was supposed to be for? Notice how American liberals didn’t go after those corporations or really care that the money instantly dried up for smaller fries?

          Yea, American liberals are ABSOLUTELY closer to American conservatives in practicality. It doesn’t matter how many polite words they use if the end result is FUNCTIONALLY THE SAME. No, conservatives wouldn’t have given any money to poor people, but as already said, liberals didn’t care that corporations with lawyers that could push all the red tape got the money, not small businessesthat actually neededrhe help.

          They BOTH serve to drain the government of public funds. You’ve just fallen for the pleasantries they put on the same negative slant of actions. No, liberals are not fascists themselves, but they’re always, always dumb enough to make things suck enough that fascists sound nice to fools.

        • Cowbee [he/they]
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          09 months ago

          No, I have a lot of experience in liberal organizations and they are not, despite the memes, closer to conservatism than progressivism.

          Perhaps if you redefine progressivism.

          The major differences between a liberal and a social democrat or progressive comes down largely to deciding when a market has failed and when to use government intervention, both Liberals and progressives are fine with intervention, only the threshold changea. We want the same things, mostly, but disagree on how to get them.

          Yep, you redefined it.

          Conservatives, philosophical Conservatives anyway, won’t typically even consider such a thing, and often do not even want the same things as Liberals or progressives.

          Conservatives often do, and the distance between genuine progressivism and liberalism is shorter than liberalism and conservativism.

          This both sides same stuff just hurts progressive causes, because it sours mushy people with little to no real philosophy on voting for liberal parties. Those people flip flop back to Conservatives when they get angry and we lose the progress we’ve made, as is about to happen in Canada.

          Electoralism will not save you.

        • @OurToothbrush@lemmy.ml
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          09 months ago

          The major differences between a liberal and a social democrat or progressive comes down largely to deciding when a market has failed and when to use government intervention,

          Okay sounds like you’re just describing different labels for liberalism.

          Compare these people to a communist who thinks we should literally nationalize and worker-self-manage the relevant sectors of economy and you’ll see what people are trying to tell you about how liberals and conservatives are basically the same.

        • @sensiblepuffin@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          I think the fact that you’ve spent a lot of time in liberal organizations is why you think that way about where it falls on the continuum between progressivism and conservatism.

          Interesting that you characterize my statement as "both sides"ing. I would say the thrust of my statement is not “both sides” but “one side”. America does not have a progressive party, only conservative and conservative-lite. Given the choice, of course I’ll choose the latter, not least because the former is so far off the deep end it may never recover as a party. That does not mean I think that both parties are the same.

          Visually:

          --------Progressivism ------------------------ Center ------ Liberalism --------------------------- Conservatism.

      • @IncognitoMosquito@beehaw.org
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        09 months ago

        Based on that link it says that conservatives are at odds with and are critical of liberalism. There is a subset of conservatism called liberal conservativism that incorporates liberal stances into the conservative position however.

    • Cowbee [he/they]
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      09 months ago

      Conservatives are a subcategory of liberal. They aren’t conflated, that’s like saying thumbs and fingers get conflated.

  • @33550336@lemmy.world
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    09 months ago

    Tankiness is in fact a form of conservatism, just without religion and with some other esthetics. And yes, there is a party of highly privileged elite and the rest is just poor bastards

  • Queen HawlSera
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    09 months ago

    On some social positions, I’ve grown more conservative.

    On fiscal issues? Son, at this point I’m only slightly to the left of “Feed the 1% to the homeless and convert their left-over mansions into low income apartments.”

  • Stern
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    09 months ago

    You can only get more conservative when you have things to protect like a house and a pension.

    Most millennials retirement plan atm is die of heatstroke in 150 degree weather in a 8 person shared apartment in Alaska.

    • @CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      09 months ago

      I have a house and a pretty sizable retirement account.

      I will GLADLY take a lower home value, higher taxes on my retirement, higher taxes in general, so long as the ultra wealthy are also taxed accordingly.

    • @OurToothbrush@lemmy.ml
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      09 months ago

      Or you’ll get more communist when you have people to protect, like children or friends who start getting sick now that they’re not young anymore

      • @rockSlayer@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        I became a socialist because I was an “essential employee” during the height of the pandemic. I was treated like shit by my company, the customers, and the government while singing me praise. I watched my grandpa get good cancer treatment with the VA (shocker, I know, but it happens) while my sister and grandma had to fight insurance for cancer treatment.

        We can’t make a perfect world, but we can make a better one. And it starts with a socialist economy.

        • @AA5B@lemmy.world
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          09 months ago

          I became much more progressive after living in a “blue state” for much of my adult life. It’s hard to miss that the most successful economies in the us are also the ones who pay most attention to quality of life. We can look at the contrast in our neighboring states, and see the advantages brought by near universal healthcare, investments in an excellent education system, care about the environment, higher minimum wage, support for unions, and so much more

          • Cowbee [he/they]
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            09 months ago

            If you’re referring to Nordic Social Democracies, they fund their safety nets via Imperialism, they can’t exist without impoverishing and exploiting the Global South. It’s the epitome of the Labor Aristocracy.

            • @AA5B@lemmy.world
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              9 months ago

              No, sorry,I was being us-centric - it seemed like that’s where the thread was.

              As one very specific example, when COViD funding for school lunches ended, some us states decided to no longer provide free school lunches. Massachusetts passed a “millionaire tax” and funded free school lunches out of that

              As a slightly older example, Massachusetts passed effectively universal healthcare coverage, signed into law by governor Mitt Romney, and later served as the model for the Affordable Care Act

              Looking at school system ratings by us state, I see what looks like a strong correlation between excellent schools and a stronger economy.

              • Cowbee [he/they]
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                09 months ago

                It’s the same issue as the Nordics, the US is a de-industrialized nation that makes the bulk of its profits off of Imperialism.

    • @untorquer@lemmy.world
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      09 months ago

      Statement unclear whether increased conservatism is the natural result of property/capital or if property/capital are merely requisite.

    • @GarbageShootAlt2@lemmy.ml
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      9 months ago

      You can only get more conservative when you have things to protect like a house and a pension.

      In aggragate, that’s the more reliable way to make a population more conservative, but remember that a reasonable portion of fascists in a society that is going in that direction are going to be people who either lost that or never had it and, in either case, blame some minority for that fact. (The majority are still people like you describe, though, the petite bourgeois, etc., who feel insecure in their holdings)

      I agree if you mean neoliberal-conservative

  • @Floon@lemmy.ml
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    09 months ago

    I have become aggressively more anti-capitalist as I’ve grown older. At 56, with a nice professional career mostly behind me, I am vigorously ANTIFA EAT THE RICH ACAB.

  • @zeppo@lemmy.world
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    09 months ago

    The people who told me that were 100% boomers. There’s that idiotic saying “if you’re not liberal* when you’re 20, you have no heart. If you’re not conservative when you’re 40 you have no brains” ok boomer.

    Note this is using the US meaning of liberal, not to mean “capitalist”.

  • @Sterile_Technique@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    I grew up in a rightwing household, and unquestioningly drank the koolaid until my late teens. The right’s bullshit eventually became impossible to ignore, so I dove right into the ‘both sides!’ trap and rode the Libertarian train for a while.

    It became really easy to articulate what I didn’t like about the right; describing what was bad about the left was just echoes of Fox bitching about things like them voting on emotion instead of logic… but no real examples.

    Around my mid-twenties I finally realized ^that was projection; then 2016 happened and holy shit they’re running Trump and Hillary?? Easily the two most hated candidates in my lifetime… against Gary Johnson - an admittedly goofy personality but likeable and most importantly not crazy, THIS IS THE LP’S TIME TO SHINE! …yeah they got 3% of the vote. We won’t ever see better conditions for a 3rd victory, so, pipedream shattered.

    Guess I’ll have to just pick a lesser evil, so let’s see what we have to work with…

    • there’s the red team. Burn through our fossil resources with reckless abandon. War, war, war, and more war. Shave social services down to nothing so we can claim ‘fiscal responsibility’ which is good I guess (hey! eyes down here, we’re done talking about the war part), a blatant integration of religion and politics, and they want to make life as miserable as possible for my gay/colored/female/nonchristian friends. Fuck, that’s pretty bad…

    • Alright, next we have the blue team, which is the opposite of all those things, at the exceedingly high cost of… getting cockblocked by the red team when they try to implement those things… and… well there was that time Bill lied about getting a blowjob- outrageous! Surely the red team does a better job of keeping it in their pants… *checks* …uhh, nope! Fuck, I’m starting to become aware of my own cognitive dissonance and it feels like absolute shit.

    So I start voting one issue at a time, crunching both options against eachother and choosing the one that’s best for the US. That way there’s no bias and I won’t be part of this tribal bullshit plagueing our politics… Weird, when I ignore affiliation and vote on policy alone, my ballot becomes solid blue. What are the odds of that?! Next election, solid blue again. And again.

    My desire to be ‘independent’ on label alone is pretty much gone at this point, and I’m being more and more vocal about supporting leftwing policies. Family isn’t a fan, but they hit me with the shit OP is poking fun at - I only shifted blue because I’m poor! Once I make more money, just you wait and see, I’ll come crawling right back.

    Now, I’m not rich or anything, but I’m (finally!) not living paycheck to paycheck. During all ^that I wandered into the military which gave me access to all kinds of socialized resources which have enabled me to get where I’m at now and have made a pretty significant improvement on my life. The thing that pisses me off about those socialized services is WHY THE FUCK DOESN’T EVERYONE HAVE THIS?! So wearing camo for 4 years for some reason got me this VIP tour of what we should should be doing for everyone.

    I was a late bloomer, I got there. I haven’t missed a single election since 2016, big or small. Solid blue. I’ve gotten to the point where I’ll even look up the voter registration of candidates for nonpolitical positions like judges, and red is a deal breaker.

    The better off I become, the more blue I get. The notion of red-shift with income is trash.

    • Cowbee [he/they]
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      09 months ago

      Alright, next we have the blue team, which is the opposite of all those things, at the exceedingly high cost of… getting cockblocked by the red team when they try to implement those things… and… well there was that time Bill lied about getting a blowjob- outrageous! Surely the red team does a better job of keeping it in their pants… *checks* …uhh, nope! Fuck, I’m starting to become aware of my own cognitive dissonance and it feels like absolute shit.

      The DNC isn’t to the opposite of the GOP, they are aligned on the vast majority of issues and use the rest to yap loudly in disagreement. Dems aren’t left.

      During all ^that I wandered into the military which gave me access to all kinds of socialized resources which have enabled me to get where I’m at now and have made a pretty significant improvement on my life.

      Social programs aren’t socialized, that’s a bit of a misnomer.

      • @Keeponstalin@lemmy.world
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        09 months ago

        However US Corporations that exploit US Workers and Workers abroad are subsidized, even for their losses. Us Taxpayers pay them while they exploit us further and Social Services get gutted and crumble. Gotta love neoliberalism, where socialism is bad for workers, but good for corporations.

        • Cowbee [he/they]
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          09 months ago

          Have you read Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism? It analyzes modern Imperialism, where workers in the Global North are both exploited by their bourgeoisie and yet benefit from the fruits of Imperialism, forming a labor aristocracy.

          It isn’t Socialism for corporations, it’s Imperialism in action.

          • @Keeponstalin@lemmy.world
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            09 months ago

            No, I have not. I’ve only touched on the book Consequences of Capitalism so far. Thanks for the req, I’ll check it out

            • Cowbee [he/they]
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              09 months ago

              No problem! Lenin’s writing is very eye-opening as its Marxism applied to more modern, international Capitalism, but he may not make the most sense if you aren’t already familiar with Marxism.

              • @Keeponstalin@lemmy.world
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                09 months ago

                I’m somewhat familiar with the principals, but not enough to thoroughly explain them in a casual conversation.

                It’s definitely eye-opening to contextualize things like Nationalism, Fascism, Colonialism, and Imperialism within the Capitalist mode of production

                Edited my comment to distinguish between genuine socialism and the welfare of corporations being socialized thru taxpayer money for their benefit and our expense.

    • @index@sh.itjust.works
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      09 months ago

      there’s the red team. Burn through our fossil resources with reckless abandon. War, war, war, and more war.

      The blue team is doing the same thing: burning through fossil resources in the name of war. The military complex doesn’t stop or change when blue or red are elected.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_support_for_Israel_in_the_Israel–Hamas_war

      I encourage you to keep studying and researching. Politics isn’t a football match where teams compete against each others and “left” and “right” are two buzzwords.

      https://archive.org/details/lawauthorityanar00kropuoft/page/n5/mode/2up

      • @Feathercrown@lemmy.world
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        09 months ago

        I encourage you to keep studying and researching. Politics isn’t a football match where teams compete against each others and “left” and “right” are two buzzwords.

        No offense but I think OP has a better grasp of this than you do