• prole
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        51 year ago

        Really? Have you not been paying attention?

        • @[email protected]
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          1 year ago

          Yes I’ve been paying attention, however it remains baffling to me as I see curiosity as essential as breathing or eating, so perhaps the question may be better asked as, how is inhibiting curiosity not recognized as a form of abuse?

      • @[email protected]
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        1 year ago

        Well, if you question it, you are a bad person and going to hell. It’s not that God doesn’t love you, but you are forcing God to send you to hell because you are choosing to question.

    • @[email protected]
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      41 year ago

      Yep. They were taught to hate people and that “Trumps” voting to improve things, or bring down costs…

      • @[email protected]
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        51 year ago

        The hate and negativity is such a big part of it. It’s kind of the foundation, really. It sounds simple, but it is the main thing I had to train out of my brain while figuring out wtf I want out of life and how to enjoy the journey.

        If I’m hanging out with family still stuck in that mindset and discussing an acquaintance? You bet I’m going to hear what race they are (if not white, which is the default human in their minds), how big of a house they have, how much money they make, and of course how stupid they are. Nothing of substance.

        All that negativity, paranoia, and anger makes it much easier to get the conservative base to not spend time thinking about the suffering of others, and instead think about how much stuff they’ve acquired and how the “other” people want to steal it.

        It’s a strange position for me to be in, personally. I can see how somebody would stay immersed in that shitty mindset for life without exposure to the wider world, because I know the feeling of living in that mindset (let’s call it high school). However, I also have eyes and ears and access to the internet, and I think all available information should be considered even if reality has a liberal bias.

    • Dr. Moose
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      I’m just perplexed how kids are still religious in 2024 with vast amount of free information out there. I thought this cult bullshit was about to end with my generation when we got free, unrestricted information exchange invented.

      I guess you can’t fix irrationality with rationality huh

      • TFO Winder
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        101 year ago

        Religion is not always a cult. All religions are not like Christianity.

        See Hinduism, Buddhism, confussionism

        • @[email protected]
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          231 year ago

          If I didn’t know about the Hindus and Muslims “beefing” (pun intended) in India, I’d be inclined to believe you.

        • @[email protected]
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          1 year ago

          Religions are cults that have grown bigger than normal cult size. Just because a religion isn’t a Western religion, doesn’t mean it’s any better than a big cult

                • swab148
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                  41 year ago

                  Linux is definitely a cult, and I am a proud cultist

              • @[email protected]
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                41 year ago

                The name of a single character from their religious stories tells me nothing about their behavior

                She’s a god, represents time, change, power, creation, preservation, destruction…she’s a mother figure… You haven’t given me any useful information. Maybe give a link or something with information about her relevance to cult behavior?

                • @[email protected]
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                  51 year ago

                  Hmph. Maybe look up “Hinduism is a cult” and then scroll until you read a preview that fits my beliefs

            • @[email protected]
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              1 year ago

              It still pushes the “us vs them” mentality that any religion does, which in my opinion makes it no better than others. And truth be told, scripture and dogma has nothing to do with it either, it’s all just tribalism.

              The Indian government under Modi pushes a nationalist Hindu agenda which encourages violence against religious minorities like Muslims and Sikhs. This causes religious extremism, directed towards establishing a national Hindu religion in India like you see with Islam and Judaism in the Middle East.

              And before anyone says Buddhism is different (I was raised in a Buddhist household, to clarify), see Myanmar’s conflict with the Rohingya which is perpetuated by militant Buddhists. Sri Lanka has also long been dealing with similar acts of violence against the Tamil Hindus and Arab Muslims perpetuated by the Sinhalese Buddhist majority.

              Any religion has the propensity to become “cult-like” based on social circumstances, and this is heightened all the more when nationalism is thrown into the mix.

        • Dr. Moose
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          131 year ago

          Nah they’re still cults. People have this morphed view that religion is not a cult when it is by the very definition of it:

          cult n: followers of an exclusive system of religious beliefs and practices

          Not to say that cults can’t be net good in some form but once they grow past local community I think it’s just impossible to not lose the mission to bad actors.

          • DrQuickbeam
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            41 year ago

            I prefer this view. Limiting the definition of cults to “small” or “based around a person” is missing the point that all religions are self-preserving in-groups that offer “truths” that will limit your worldview by excluding others, and practices that differentiate followers behaviorally.

            But also beliefs can be useful. For example, the idea of an afterlife or reincarnation can help reduce the fear of death. The belief of forgiveness for sins, can offer redemption. That random events have meaning. That we are not alone when we are alone. All cognitively useful and therapeutic.

            Opposing beliefs can be held at the same time. I can know that probabilistically, or based on personal experience, or empirical evidence, that death is either an ending or an unknowable, and still choose to believe in reincarnation because it does give more meaning to my actions and reduce fear of death.

            And cult practices are often as good for the individual as the beliefs. Having community and regular social interaction is critical to human health. Conducting rituals and ceremonies give structure, meaning and comfort to the parts of our days and lives. Praying and meditating. Charity and service and on and on. These are all useful, healthy to the individual and to society.

            When we can learn to adopt these things without closing our minds to other worldviews and possibilities, without in-group fear and defensiveness, without superiority and proselytization we’ll be in a better world that’s still full of cults

            • @[email protected]
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              31 year ago

              I disagree that irrational beliefs can be net good. Belief in the afterlife isn’t the only way to make peace with death, but the normalization of magical thinking makes people easier to deceive and more likely to try alternative-solutions (as opposed to vaccination or chemotherapy).

              • DrQuickbeam
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                11 year ago

                I understand your point, but I think that magical and mythical thinking are fully part of how our minds evolved and still work, and if we fully develop our faculties of rationalization, almost everyone still thinks magically. Think about ideas like luck, or a fear of something improbable, or most of our expectations in life. Or why many masters of logic still believe in mythical beings and afterlives.

                If you talk to someone from an animistic culture, they don’t need to question or have a structure of reasoning in place to explain why the waterfall has a spirit. It just does, it always has and it’s obvious. However, if a person who lives in a wealthy country today, had public education and believes that vaccines are dangerous. They will believe it rationally, not irrationally, and have a slew of rationalizations for the belief. These are two types of magical thinking, but the former has a magical worldview and the latter does not.

                Rationality is weak against many types of thinking and motivation, and there are many more steps in the maturation of a mind. I do personally agree that a solid foundation in rational thinking should underlie whatever beliefs, morals, ethics, and insights a person adopts. But it is also highly likely that in my examples the former person is healthier and happier than the latter person, and both could be just as gullible.

        • YeetPics
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          Nah, religion is always a cult.

          Imo cults have more to do with in-groups and out-groups and their relation in your mental space.

          If your in-group is worth more to you than the total sum of all out-groups; you are in a cult.

          Humanity is one race, subdividing it and labelling all the chunks is where we went wrong. The fact we have a word to describe this outcome shows we are pretty far down this tube.

          If you’re reading this and think to yourself “surely this person is misled, they’re not a part of (insert religion) so wouldn’t know anything about what they say” congratulations, you’re right (and also in a cult).

      • @[email protected]
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        61 year ago

        By bro still believes because they get you so early. I basically tell him he’s an idiot for being a christian, also fucking his kids up, but jesus says it’s cool. So that is how it happens.

        • @[email protected]
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          81 year ago

          My friend got sucked into it because of a girl. His parents weren’t religious. I don’t think he had gone to church more than twice in his life by high school, and he, just like the rest of us, trash talked our school’s requirements to have a ‘chapel’ hour once a week. He was as blasé as they come about religion, perhaps an agnostic in the christian hemisphere at best, but when he started dating a christian girl, he went to church with her, made friends with her friends at church, etc. Now 15 years later he’s indoctrinating his kids with her, and a deacon at his church. The power of social influence is enormous. I can’t imagine how difficult it must be to break free, or even just consider information that is contradictory, if you have the combination of early influence and the later social influence from family, friends, and the wider social circle that is part and parcel of a church.

      • @[email protected]
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        1 year ago

        That’s taking it too far, in my opinion. I realize it’s supremely unpopular to be a person of faith nowadays, especially online, but you can’t say that anyone with faith is stupid and it’s all bullshit as a blanket statement. You don’t know what happens after we die, and neither do I. I can’t prove that God definitely exists and I’ll probably never convince you of it, but by the same token, you can’t prove that God doesn’t exist.

        Where we diverge is I think it’s okay that you believe that. And yes, of course you can point out the shitty people that use religion to persecute and restrict others’ rights, to punish, and worse. Many people do this, but they are still the vocal minority we hear about. And it’s not like there haven’t been terrible atheists/agnostics who have done awful things not motivated by religion…

        Me, personally, I also won’t attend any church that tries to be political or tell its members how to vote. I am a Christian, but I try to model my religious activity on the Sikhs: quiet, respectful, loving outreach to improve the world. So I can acknowledge the problems, but no, I don’t think all religion is bad nor every person of faith stupid…

        Edit: spelling

        • Dr. Moose
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          21 year ago

          It’s not the belief that makes you “stupid” is the irrationality of the whole package. If you’re looking for metaphysics answers - we got them. People tried to figure out this stuff since the beginning of time with rationality and logic and even experiments rather than blind faith to words they never even heard personally. That’s the difference.

          I don’t discriminate against the religious but it’s really easy to argue that reglious approach is taking the easy approach to metaphysics and it’s something important to consider here.

        • @[email protected]
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          81 year ago

          They didn’t say stupid, you did. They said irrational, which it is. You’re right no one can prove that there is no afterlife, but believing in something that there is no evidence for is the definition of irrational. That doesn’t mean I’m saying you’re stupid, I’m just saying that it’s irrational. No need to get offended, that’s just what words mean.

          • @[email protected]
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            31 year ago

            And remember that it’s not an insult. Even a lot of science depends on taking an irrational position to discover things. Doing irrational things in life can sometimes be way more rewarding than doing rational things.

            Trying to explain to someone that their take is not evidence-based though… most jump to the conclusion that you’re saying they’re wrong.

      • @[email protected]
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        81 year ago

        Most people are not actually people, they are people-like imposter automatons and they are dumb as hell and can be manipulated like clay.

      • @[email protected]
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        81 year ago

        A lot of them need to be actively exposed to other views and opinions to break free. So usually when they go to college.

        • Dr. Moose
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          11 year ago

          but internet does all that too. Especially more immersive social media like Youtube or podcasts. I’m generally very optimistic but the progress of our information network as someone who lived through it turned out much weaker than we thought it’d be. Maybe that human exposure of college is much more powerful thant basically infinite knowledge at your fingertips.

      • @[email protected]
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        21 year ago

        I’m a Zoomer, and one of my best friends is very religious precisely because of the internet. He reads the Bible online a lot, and is in a bunch of Christian Discord servers, and often reads up theology. To be fair, he is very progressive on pretty much all issues except birth control, he isn’t a blind authority-obeyer, and is totally fine with me being agnostic.

      • @[email protected]
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        41 year ago

        Inoculating believers against rational counter-arguments is a powerful tool. Do it right, and the vast amount of information at their fingertips might seem like the whole secular world is conspiring against them.

      • @[email protected]
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        From my perspective its because people won’t change their beliefs unless they stop benefiting the believer. For people who live in a religious community, there church’s sunday social event is enjoyable, there friends are all religious, there denomination provides a entire moral framework and worldview they don’t even need to think about. Confirmation bias plays a major role in preventing alternate thought to block out other worldviews.

        Only when someone does not gain much benefit from there religion or has a important part of there religion proven wrong, can they process alternative ideologies and either switch to a more useful denomination or stop believing entirely.

        • Dr. Moose
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          51 year ago

          But being closer to more “true” metaphysics and rationality is benefiting, though I guess that’s probably not obviously apparent to everyone.

          • prole
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            101 year ago

            But being closer to more “true” metaphysics and rationality is benefiting,

            What does this even mean. What are “true” metaphysics? Please tell me you’re not just going to spew pseudoscientific nonsense at me.

            • Dr. Moose
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              11 year ago

              I put it in quotes because truth in this context is likely not binary. Here, “true” as in something that can be researched and argumented for rather than something that requires pure faith.

            • @[email protected]
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              The funny thing is that those words somehow have actual meaning. Metaphysics is the philosophy of existance. I believe the “true” metaphysics he refers to is the fact that it is unknowable if anything other then you exists, because there is no guarantee you are not a bozmian brain or living in a simulation along other things.

              This ability combined with rationality can allow you to adapt to changes in your perception of reality, while other frameworks can’t (for example there are still people who don’t believe in evolution because there interpretation of god is dependent on god creating all species at the start)

          • @[email protected]
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            11 year ago

            Agreed, though for most believing in irrational things is “fine” (in that it doesn’t harm them) until someone shows up to take advantage of it (I’m guessing at least one person is using ai to make it look like they can perform holy miracles on Facebook).

            • Dr. Moose
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              21 year ago

              But isn’t that harm them? maybe indirectly but restricting your world view will restrict your agency. i.e. people will take advantage of you.

              • @[email protected]
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                21 year ago

                Exactly, its fine until it isn’t. Unfortunately most people don’t seem to realize just because there beliefs work in the present doesn’t mean they will continue to be beneficial in the future (e.g. a christian being recruited to work for free at the pastors business because “it is gods will”)

        • @[email protected]
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          51 year ago

          Yep I have a friend who joined a church after not going to one for years because of the social aspects of it. Lots of people their age to relate to.

          We just need better secular groups to join with those benefits that aren’t tied to religion. It’s one of the reasons I’m always apprehensive about volunteering because I don’t want the connection to religion. I know it doesn’t matter my intent for those who benefit/what benefits from the volunteering, but it affects my long term commitment to the cause.

          • @[email protected]
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            41 year ago

            Its a shame as well because many of the old social places such as rotary club and the masonic lodges have died out, and the new “third places” are online and/or expensive to access (vrchat comes to mind). Its no wonder so many people use social media these days.

    • @[email protected]
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      61 year ago

      See also: reactionary movements.

      I sometimes really want to show those reactionary gamers a trial version of the authoritarian society they stive for…

      • @[email protected]
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        51 year ago

        So send them a documentary on what happened in NAZI Germany.

        But don’t be surprised when they tell you that’s exactly what they want because they’re white men and it puts them at the top of the heirarchy.

    • @[email protected]
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      461 year ago

      Exactly. My nephews seem to complain about the shit their dad told them to vote for. It’s rather hilarious.

      • @[email protected]
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        1 year ago

        The fuck happened to the rebelliousness of youth?

        Should kids be doing exactly not whatever their parents tell them to?

        Kids these days… GET ON MY LAWN!!

        • @[email protected]
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          121 year ago

          They might think they’re rebelling against the normality of voting for basic human kindness and decency.

        • @[email protected]
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          131 year ago

          The fuck happened to the rebelliousness of youth?

          Pure propaganda. Kids are more than happy to follow behind their older peers and always have been.

          It’s “rebellion” if the kids literally anything at all. Speak up? Question anything? Show any kind of agency? Mimic what your elders are doing? You’re out of control.

  • @[email protected]
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    291 year ago

    Do not underestimate the power of algorithms. I feel like instagram or YouTube are constantly trying to pull me back into the far right rabbit hole.

  • @[email protected]
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    1 year ago

    Generational tribalism makes me fucking cringe. Take your dumbass nomenclature and get to fuck.

    Edit: Yeah, you’re right, let’s divide up as much as we can because we know how useful that is!

  • @[email protected]
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    1031 year ago

    It’s embarrassing for everyone gen x and after. It’s especially disappointing to see in gen z

  • @[email protected]
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    311 year ago

    None of you want to face the fact that alt-right campaigns like Gamergate and Qanon has brought a fucktonne of youth over to the cuntservative side. It’s going to be a real problem now that they are old enough to vote.

        • Lemminary
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          211 year ago

          Idk who you think you are or what you thought I meant and I don’t really care, but you’re kind of an asshole for literally no reason. I suggest you practice what you preach and throw in a bit of therapy.

            • Lemminary
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              1 year ago

              If everyone around you seems like a problem, it’s most likely you. I can already tell. Now, earnestly, please go get therapy. Nobody wants to join your pity party or provide anger management for free on a public forum.

              And using therapy as a barb

              Ah, but using lack of education as a barb is ok. And so is using your medical condition as an excuse.

              you know literally nothing about me

              Hilarious, seeing your condescending replies.

              Edit: Brb, redirecting my bot army that I didn’t know I had to this thread 😂🤣

              • @[email protected]
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                21 year ago

                Man, this is what I missed about old school forums. Having real fucking non-sanitized conversations. Fuck reddit.

              • @[email protected]
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                11 year ago

                It’s funny but that little pithy soundbite doesn’t actually work in real life. If it did then all the lemmy users complaining about abusive workplaces are the problem.

                Ah, but using lack of education as a barb is ok

                That wasn’t a barb, you literally responded with a one word misspelled reply for a sentence fragment. I legit thought you were semi-literate.

                Hilarious, seeing your condescending replies.

                What assumptions have I made about you that aren’t source in your ridiculously useless comments? I’d love to see you post links.

                • Lemminary
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                  1 year ago

                  Nah, I see it clearly: you’re assuming shit about people you don’t know based on a single-word reply, you have delusions of vote manipulation or sockpuppeting on an active thread, you’re using your medical condition to excuse your shitty behavior, and you’re here pretending that you have the high moral ground on anything or higher mental sharpness after all this… I’m quite sure the problem is you.

                  What assumptions have I made about you

                  Better question is, what assumptions have I made here? 😂

                  you literally responded with a one word misspelled reply for a sentence fragment

                  Again, hilarious that that’s what you thought happened but I’m the one who needs more education. It’s frankly embarrassing.

    • @[email protected]
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      101 year ago

      Yep, there’s a reason Andrew Tate has a huge following. There’s something attractive about these guys and their worldview to a giant chunk of boys.

      • @[email protected]
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        81 year ago

        I blame 2 generations of failed father figures, every public perception of ‘manhood’ contains toxic elements.

        This isn’t a new problem either, google China’s ‘bare branches’ problem. We have historical records of unmarriable men forming into bands to rape and pillage since the 1200s.

        And every one of them acts the same way as tate and his degenerate edgibois.

      • @[email protected]
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        21 year ago

        I’d argue it’s just one part of the larger “all your negative opinions are not only valid, they are correct and good!” culture that drives so much negative shit in culture & politics.

  • cum
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    201 year ago

    Cuz they can’t get bitches

  • @[email protected]
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    181 year ago

    a few things seem to motivate young idiots into conservative thought:

    MRA their daddy their rural background edgelord BS

  • BeautifulMind ♾️
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    301 year ago

    I can remember when being conservative meant you believed we had a calling to be stewards of creation

    LOL good times

  • @[email protected]
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    61 year ago

    Yeah watching what happens every time the liberal party gets in charge in Canada will cure that left turn most take from 20 to 30.

  • @[email protected]
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    1701 year ago

    Being born into a conservative household can be a hard hurdle to clear. I grew up with the unquestioning belief that the left was straight-up evil (shocker: that was projection) but then moved around a ton and worked alongside a huge diversity of people after highschool cuz I joined the military and didn’t have a choice: that exposure was a real shock, but since our brains don’t like being wrong, I resisted it for a good while before finally acknowledging that I was acting like a moron and started thinking more critically about politics and what political decisions meant for my community.

    Not everyone gets that healthy slap-to-their-senses. Doesn’t excuse shit, but that’s the ‘why’.

     

    It’d be interesting to see some actual political metrics on other service members. The military is always seen as being SOLID red, and while yes it does lean that way, the tiny bubble of the military that was my personal field of view seemed maybe a 60-40 split; and I personally went in red, and separated borderline radical blue. I know at least a handful of others who did the same… no idea if it’s always been that way, or if this is a developing trend. Or if I happened to be stationed in an uncharacteristically blue slice of military. /shrug.

    • @[email protected]
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      331 year ago

      This is my exact story to a “t”. I grew up in a heavily conservative household, joined the military as a conservative, and 15 years later I’m pretty fucking blue.

      I think it’s a combination of a few things that does it to us more often than not:

      1 - Exposure to people from all walks of life/escaping your “bubble” 2 - Access to tax payer funded social programs that the rest of America desperately fucking needs and going “Why can’t taxes do this for EVERYONE!?” 3 - If you’ve been deployed to certain sections of the world, you see first-hand what unfettered religious extremism can potentially do to a country.

      I’m happy to say, that at least for the Air Force, I’ve run into far, far more Active Duty Dems/Libs than I have any Repubs. Now, when the retired veteran GS employees come in, it’s a completely different story. My whole circle save one is fairly left-leaning, and the one who isnt is…fucking weird/all over the place on his stances.

    • @[email protected]
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      111 year ago

      In my experience 20 years ago, it was mostly split between people who didn’t care or at least didn’t talk politics (the majority) and people who were very loud in thinking a Democrat would reduce the pay of enlisted service members.

    • prole
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      21 year ago

      I’m sure conservatives would love this, but we should be using the military in this way as a de-radicalizing force. We should be leaning into it.

    • HubertManne
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      11 year ago

      what was the red/blue percent (in your opinion) if you only included officers and above?

      • @[email protected]
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        11 year ago

        No clue. I was enlisted - talking politics at all was taboo, but rules like that are only ever followed while in management’s field of view.

        I’d assume officers behaved similarly - tending to keep certain topics locked up around enlisted, but talking more openly when it’s just them.

    • @[email protected]
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      181 year ago

      Every single person I know who has gotten out of the military has come out blue. With one (medically discharged) exception.

    • Colonel Panic
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      11 year ago

      Well put.

      I think a lot of your political beliefs start with your parents and people around you, but then are shaped by what happens to you. If you get hit with the hard reality of life in some way (debt, health, etc) it tends to push you to be more progressive/empathetic toward others because you see just how truly cold and cruel the bottom of our society gets treated. If you have coasted through life and have parents and friends supporting you financially and we’re lucky enough to get a good job and have relatively good health and such then you may not know the horrors of what can happen if you hit a few rough patches.

      Similarly in military service, if you get injured and now have to go to the VA and fight to receive the most basic of medical care you were promised and denied it tends to push you left/progressive because you want things to be better. If you are still in the service or left it relatively undamaged then you could easily still see things from a conservative and right leaning perspective.

      When you or people close to you get (denied medical care, denied housing, denied work, pushed into poverty and/or homelessness, used by the system and then discarded like trash) you tend to see things more progressive and want to provide some basic levels of support and humanity and empathy toward others as opposed to exploiting them for profit.

    • @[email protected]
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      English
      11 year ago

      30% of your time being red. 30% of your time coming to your senses. 40% of your time trending towards borderline radical blue.

      There is your 60/40 split.

      Anecdotally, this was somewhat my experience as well, except my parents didn’t talk politics much and they certainly didn’t show the extreme hate towards the left that fox and rush have since incited. I went more from voting on surface level attributes (speaking ability, apparent warmth, etc) and social pressure, to actually [eventually] looking at policy. I was a registered independent when I joined, but I didn’t know enough about actual politics to understand the details of what I was voting for. I.e., I was going with the flow. It has the same effect at the ballot box though.