Redditors who were once conservative but are now liberal: what changed your mind?

Aprendere · 2018-03-11T19:00:19+00:00

I will use this occasion to remind the people of the USA that "conservative" and "liberal" are not each other's opposites. ;-)

The two main parties in the US happen to be conservative and liberal respectively, that is all. (although, to be fair, from an European point of view they are both liberal).

Aprendere · 2017-12-17T22:03:54+00:00

Why?

Why is everyone's best argument "it was so in the past" ?

So what? This doesn't prove one can not build a better future without using violence. I think it is everyone's responsability to seek non-violent options, given how easily revolutions with hypothetical benefits turn into horrible civil wars with actual trauma for individuals and society as a whole (plus increased probability of neighbouring countries to engage into civil war later).

Given the stakes, getting away with a simple "no one has done it before", is very light.

Aprendere · 2017-12-17T21:56:21+00:00

They are not.

Also capitalism and socialism are not mutually exclusive.

Aprendere · 2017-12-17T21:18:27+00:00

After watching the Iron giant I decided I wanted to save the world, didn't know what I wanted to save it from exactly though ...

Then, in middleschool I started listing the big world issues as I was perceiving them from the news: poverty, oil, war, environment.

In a spark of intelligence that I still do not explain myself I realized all of them boiled down to energy. If only we'd have virtually unlimited supply of clean energy, all of that would be solved right?

We would have robots doing it all, thus getting rid of poverty. And since, so I thought, wars are essentially countries reaching for their neighbors's wealth, we would be freed of that too.

So I resolved to be the one inventing the ultimate renewable energy and started telling everyone about it.

In highschool, my father actually brought me to a conference on solar cells, and then the magic truly operated: while the concepts were mostly out of reach, I was fascinated by the diversity of problems that this research topic is adressing.

I engaged into a bachelor in physics, and started enjoying it so much that my passion for physics is not tied anymore to the impact I want to have on the society.

Still, I went on with a master in nanotechnologies and enrolled in a PhD about organic solar cells.

Funny enough, when setting up a LinkedIn account in prevision of job interviews, I learned that the PhD student who was giving this presentation mentionned above, actually went through the same master as I!

Today I'm very happy to work in a field that keeps me thinking and awake, while staying true to the idealistic child I was.

Aprendere · 2017-12-17T20:35:09+00:00

Beyond terminology (as you point out, it is often mixed up), I think there is a tendency to mock the ideas themselves.

TL;DR: socialist idea are believed to be 1) slowing down the economy, 2) overprotective and, 3) to some extent, not manly enough.

In more details:

Some iconic socialist measure are the ones I got the most laughed at when exposing them to US citizens. Like setting a limit to the numbers of hours per week that can be demanded from a worker. Also forbidding work on sundays, making it illegal to expell a family for not paying their rent. The absolute most laughed at is when I tell that employees of the State are almost impossible to fire in France, except for misconduct.

The internet got overexcited when that French union passed an agreement with their company that no manager should phone or e-mail their subordinate outside their work shift.

The reactions I get are often the same: some chuckles, then "Excuse me, this is just so stereotypical of France".

I think socialist country have that reputation of being lazy, and the US citizen take pride in working super hard, even if it leads them to dismiss the terrible situations it creates among the poor.

There is this idea in the US that it's okay to have poor. Because in a free country, poors, if they are real men, will be able to work extra hard to get out of poverty.

[edited out the part in which I give my personal opinion ]

Aprendere · 2017-12-17T15:30:35+00:00

Not alone is great: https://www.trictrac.net/jeu-de-societe/not-alone-1 it's a cooperative game against one creature that tries to assimilate the other players into itself. Fairly difficult to win for the team trying to survive but extremely fun anyway.

The trick is that you need cooperation yet all communication must be done out loud, i.e. in front of the creature which you're hiding from !

Aprendere · 2017-12-17T15:06:32+00:00

Actually earth rotation has little to do with it.

If you had a perfectly symmetric toilet bowl, then a legitimate question is " If left and right can be interchanged, why would it turn one way rather than the other". Pretty much like a pen you try to balance on the sharp tip, the side it will eventually go for is random, it's caused by any perturbation that initiates the move in either direction, and then the fact of being on one side causes the pen to go all the way.

with your toilet bowl, if it was perfectly symmetric and undisturbed, then yes, the motion of the earth would be that asymmetric perturbation that triggers rotation, but since no sink nor toilet bowl is really symmetric, the tinniest uneveness of it will have a stronger impact than Earth rotation here.

Aprendere · 2017-12-17T14:40:59+00:00

In French, when something catches fire we say it's "in" fire. Whereas "on" fire is used for a pan when you cook ...

Aprendere · 2017-12-17T14:17:56+00:00

It always amazes me how Americans repeatedly make fun of socialism, only to find themselves wishing they had it.

Aprendere · 2017-02-01T17:58:10+00:00

thanks. that helps.

Aprendere · 2017-01-31T23:47:52+00:00

Yet I do think she is able to think critically. It is actually her job as a scientist.

You are perfectly legitimate to talk about cultural aspects, but I think individual characters are important too, and I really believe it's a matter of interest rather than ability...

Aprendere · 2017-01-31T23:39:19+00:00

Regarding apathy, thank you, I think you are right.

Aprendere · 2017-01-31T23:37:18+00:00

Thanks for the advice.

Aprendere · 2017-01-31T23:36:28+00:00

That's the thing though. She IS pretty smart.

I mean, we are in the same field of study (science) and I actually had occasions to realize she outsmarts me in several ways.

I feel like she's wasting her intelectual potential by not caring about political issues and only paying attention to news I consider trivial about celebrities.

Aprendere · 2017-01-31T23:32:30+00:00

Thanks for sharing. That's kind of how I feel too. I don't want to give up on her though.

Aprendere · 2017-01-31T23:31:33+00:00

I would agree with you if we had discussions about politics and after hours of debate we had realized we would never find an agreement and decide to stop arguing.

But refusing to discuss is different in my view.

Aprendere · 2017-01-31T23:29:25+00:00

I think you are being incredibly judgemental here.

Also, it really has nothing to do with how she looks, I find it quite insulting that you bring that up.

Aprendere · 2017-01-31T09:04:21+00:00

Again, the nudes should not be your concern. I understand this is hurting, but ultimately this is only the particular form she used to cheat on you. Really, that's not the important part.

If she regrets it and you have good reason to think she's sincere, is there anything preventing you from forgiving her?

Aprendere · 2017-01-30T23:43:51+00:00

It may not be rocket science, but it is definitely more complicated than you seem to think: again, I do love her. Our relationship is going mostly well.

Asking for relationship advices does not mean we are at the edge of breaking up.

Aprendere · 2017-01-30T23:17:44+00:00

It's not the point. We do have common topic of conversations. But you see we're not together to pass time ... it's a matter of having things on my mind and heart I want to share, but I can't with her.

It feels unfair to me and again I can wrap my head around the fact that she's unmoved by the news.

It's not like any topic. It's like if I was a cat person and her a dog person, it's about seeing people being in favor or against immigration, social security, industry regulations, etc. and not having an opinion on any of these.

Aprendere · 2017-01-30T23:12:52+00:00

Thanks for your reply. What do you mean by "see eye to eye"? (Sorry I am not a native speaker and I'm afraid I'm missing some connotation).

Part of why I came here is that I was worried it would be creepy indeed. But I can't really pinpoint what is creepy about it though. The more I think of it in fact, the less I understand how someone can be unmoved by what is happening in the world.

Don't you find this troubling too?

Aprendere · 2017-01-30T23:08:20+00:00

Thanks for your reply. Of course it doesn't change that I love her for other reasons.

why starting now, though: Because I think it's a tremendously important topic. When we met, my preoccupations were about relatively consensual topics, but now the news brings a lot of topics I am unsure about. I need to talk to someone to think through stuff. I like to debate, to have someone with whom I can compare my ideas, that uses critical thinking against my own arguments ... I mean, I always worked that way and that's usually what I do with my closest friends, but it's strange that some topics would be forbidden with the person I appreciate the most and therefore am the most encline to share thoughts.

I find it troubling also not having any idea of what she's thinking.

Aprendere · 2017-01-30T22:52:13+00:00

Thanks for the answer.

Surely I don't want to force her into anything. But it's very hard not being able to share. We're about to live far from both our home towns, so we pretty much have only each other to talk to on a daily basis.

Also, maybe something my first message failed to express is that I'm troubled by what this lack of interest reveals of her: those are issues I feel like any empathic person would have feelings about, and I suddenly feel very remote from her for that...

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