As you've gotten older, tell us one thing you've gotten more conservative about and one thing you've gotten more liberal about

As one ages fashion trends become silly flippery. I honestly couldn’t care less about what pop music or fashion styles are “trending”. That ranks as fairly conservative, but it is also pragmatic, leave the young people things to young people

APPARENTLY I’m more liberal than most considering that I believe in the rule of law and no one man, elected or not, shall stand above it. That makes me a good cut more liberal than a lot of young men it seems.

I’m more conservative on abortion than I used to be. Still pro-choice, because duh, but def in the safe, legal and rare category, and find myself turned off by things like the “shout your abortion” movement.

I'm more conservative on crime. Things like stop-and-frisk are okay with me. I'm more liberal on immigration, both legal and illegal. These people work their asses off doing shit I don't want to do. Come on in.

I find myself becoming the opposite with illegal immigration. I think it’s high time Americans learn how much shit really costs when you don’t have a slave labor and need to learn how to live with A LOT less.

R2. I’m on the same page. It needs to be legal, affordable, and accessible, because abortion bans disproportionately discriminate against poor people and those without the same access to health services (sometimes this is the same population). But I’d rather there were simply fewer unwanted or unplanned pregnancies. On the one hand, as a gay, I also feel like I shouldn’t be opining on what choices women make about their bodies, let alone trying to influence policy. On the other hand, if the issue is sanctity of life (whatever people mean by that), my own gender should not, perhaps, be relevant. Until we live in a society where unplanned pregnancies rarely happen (because of advances in technology) and/or there is sufficient support for all babies once they are born, I’ll remain where I am. And when a therapeutic abortion is necessary for the mother’s life or because the fetus is unviable outside the womb (not simply because the child may have Down Syndrome, for example), there should be no question.

R2 I've become more conservative on abortion as well, in that I believe it's a woman's right to choose but the choice of abortion is the wrong choice 99% of the time.

I'm more liberal on drug use. As long as you're not doing any harm to anyone else, do what you want. But, on the conservative flip side, I'm not paying for your health care from the fallout of drug use.

More conservative: taxes, deficits, government spending

More liberal: sex, sexuality, humor

I am with r7 with the possible exception being the proportionality of the tax code. The very wealthy, who incorporate themselves, shield income legally through LLC's and offshore accounts should pay taxes at a higher rate.

The amount of wealth many people at the top accrue is reliant on the labor of low income class of workers. AI will probably eliminate the need for much of that labor and those people will need some source of support.

Definitely more liberal on the issues of sex, personal liberty, speech and humor.

The number is abortions are about half what they were 30 years ago.

I think I've become more liberal on most issues because I've gained more wisdom and empathy as I've gotten older.

r6 "choice of abortion is the wrong choice 99% of the time. "

Please research a bit more. 99% is a big stretch, truthfully.

Really, R2? And how do you ovaries feel about that?

I've always been conservative on abortion. It's not that I think abortion should be outlawed, but because it is so easily prevented, I get why R6 claims that abortion is wrong 99% of the time; I'd disagree with that quantification, but that's what abortion foes want us to believe (that 99% of abortions are merely post-coital birth control). It infuriates me when people repeat this lie, and I shut them up by vocalizing facts: if you want to prevent abortion-as-birth-control, make actual birth control readily, cheaply and easily available. I don't know what innovation R5 is waiting for ("because of advances in technology") because we have dozens, if not hundreds, of forms of birth control ranging from the ridiculously simple condom to prophylactic surgical intervention. We even have a once-a-month pill that the person most at risk can take with few detrimental side effects and a whole host of beneficial side effects.

But there's the conflict, and why I whole-heartedly support abortion rights. We do not educate children on sexual matters. We make doing the sane and logical thing way more difficult than it needs to be. We ignore basic biology in favor of fairy tales, and then legislate those fairy tales into law. And then we conflate the most difficult, gut wrenching decision a woman has to make with that of what carbonated beverage to order at the fast food joint, as though the decisions were remotely similar or comparable. It's not like the server offers up a developmentally disabled baby that will fundamentally and permanently alter the lives of everyone involved — or a diet coke. And before you go criticising my rationale, please direct your vitriol at R5 who conflates the decision parents have to make when confronted with a Down Syndrome fetus with some other unnamed but nonviable condition. Until you've been there, you have no idea. Stop passing judgement, R5.

Bottom line, abortion is between a woman, her doctor, and her god.

Th drop in crime over the decades is directly proportional to the availability of abortions.

I wouldn’t say I’ve gotten more conservative but I have gained a deeper recognition that the most outspoken visible and high achieving representatives of leftist progressive causes are often motivated by the same malignant narcissistic energies seen on the other side of the spectrum. In the other hand there are many politically conservative regular citizens who are very decent fair and egalitarian in their day to day personal dealings. There’s humanist political affiliation and personal goodness. Sometimes the two align but not always

I’m much more conservative on reparations, gender care for children or trans women in girls sports.

I’m more liberal on higher taxes for the wealthy and universal healthcare.

I’m white and grew up in a small town, although not terribly far away from DC. I’ve come to realize that the democratic party and the left in general has become pathologically obsessed with being “inclusive,” even when it makes no sense.

Now, a perfect example of when being inclusive DOES make sense is in the workplace, and this is especially true in professional jobs. You have a bunch of people on your team from different backgrounds, they are all well educated and highly qualified, and you want to make sure that everyone feels like they are welcome there and they deserve to be there. This is how a healthy society works, and this is where I have become more liberal over the years - learning that people are people.

Where I have become more conservative, and where inclusivity DOESN’T make sense, is the never ending expansion of the gay community into the alphabet soup mess. Taking a bunch of unrelated issues and identities, often identities that contradict each other, and trying to pretend they all belong together under one umbrella is insane. And then on top of that, you have activists gaslighting gays and lesbians into believing that they are required to support things like child transitions, and other issues that have absolutely nothing to do with being same sex attracted.

No one gets more "liberal" as they get older. Look at all you ancient bitter queens on DL foaming at the mouth about Trans. Same mouths that were gulping gallons of jizz on Fire Island in 1975. Pathetic. 1975 ain't coming back. Time to go into the light Gran.

Liberal: I had no clue about microaggressions when I was growing up in the 80's. White privilege is very real.

Conservative: I vote and donate to causes but I don't protest.

I’ve become more conservative with dating, I’ve become more liberal to saying “fuck your religion”.

I don't think most of these supposed conservative positions on this thread are actually conservative, but are more moderate or just not far left. Just because you don't fully agree with one portion of the population's stance on things, it doesn't make it a conservative opinion.

Except the weirdos here going on about abortion being wrong 99% of the time, which I feel shows a religious bias and ignorance of the issue.

Liberal: I don’t bitch about paying taxes as long as the money is being used for something productive.

Conservative: I believe we need to have law and order and serious consequences for unlawful behavior. I live in a city with excessive reckless driving; the lack of enforcement by police is as criminal as the reckless driving itself. Conservatives have this down pat (although sometimes go too far in the extreme right direction). Liberals are weak on this and pathetic, but I do still vote liberal as they better represent my views overall. But liberals are naive on crime.

R13 You misunderstood me (or I didn’t put it well). I’m doing the opposite of conflating Down Syndrome with a non viable condition (say, when a fetus shows no evidence of a brain in ultrasound or vital organs are outside the forming body and the child, when born, is unlikely to live). Many people with Down Syndrome are living longer lives and, depending on the degree or kind of impairment, lives that are happy and meaningful to them (I realize this is not true for all people with DS, nor for all of us “norms,” to use a problematic shorthand). Yet, in the years since it was possible to test for DS prenatal, the rate of abortion of fetuses with trisomy-23 or -21 has risen to 90%. I still think women should have the legal right to terminate such pregnancies, but they give me more pause. That’s all.

R19 Agree 100%.

Conservative: I have no compassion anymore for Republicans, or those who vote Republican. Nor do I feel empathy anymore for conservative immigrants.

Part of the reason we are in this mess is because they hate Gays, Muslims, Jews, and Women just as much as Republicans do. They came here for a better life, except they did not want the citizens who already lived here to keep their hard-won freedoms. They wanted to turn this country into the same (usually) ultraconservative and intolerant culture they left behind. If they are deported because of it, good.

Progressive: I learned so much over the past 20+ years about LGBT+ lifestyle. Coming from an intolerant family, I now vote exclusively based on Gay Political support. And I firmly believe now that the wealthy should pay the same tax% i have to pay.

Liberal: I used to be a bit suspicious of "socialized medicine." Now I realize that was a term invented by conservatives to scare people away from universal health care.

Conservative: I used to believe that transsexuals (the term then) were people "born into the wrong body." I don't believe that any more, but I do believe in letting people live the way they choose.

Liberal - I used to support the death penalty, but now think the risk of innocents being executed is too high. This is not about a bleeding heart for the guilty, but about the dangers of a flawed system.

Conservative - I wouldn't call this conservative, exactly, but progressives starting around ten years ago would. I don't think men can really become women and vice versa. I believe adults have a right to dress like they're whatever, to get sex surgeries, etc. And I don't think they should be harmed when walking down the street for it. But I don't think biological men should be in women's sports or taking over women's spaces. Basically, I'm tolerant of the T, but not truly accepting. I used to think I was both, but then I realized better the repercussions of that.

I'm also not a big fan of "woke" stuff, such as cancel culture, but the attack on "woke" is now being used by some as an excuse to go to the extreme the other way, so that's not good either. A reasonable middle ground is difficult for humanity to achieve it seems.

R23 - being a parent to a kid with Down's Syndrome is no picnic and is usually a life-long responsibility fraught with a lot of worry in your later years of what will happen to them after you die. It also comes with a significant financial burden.

I know DS kids are loved - but it's an extraordinary burden that never leaves you. And in America, there's not much help. I understand it - people are squeezed by everything nowadays.

If they're not prepared for that - let them make that choice. It's something they've thought over and aren't flippant about it.

Liberal: 1) I'm pro abortion up until the 30th trimester. 2) I've changed my mind about forgiving college loan debt. I was against it, and now I'm for it. Why the hell not?

Conservative: 1) I am against color-blind casting when it changes the historical nature of a non-fiction subject or long-standing canon 2) I am pro trans rights to live their lives as they see fit free from discrimination, but I don't think they should be allowed to play against biological women in sports, or that language around biological women should be changed to accommodate non biological women (for example birthing persons)

Liberal: On most issues, I've become more compassionate and tolerant as I've grown older. I want everyone to have the same opportunities to live, thrive, no matter who they are. I am in favor of affirmative action and anything else that helps the less fortunate become more fortunate.

Conservative: I've become more anti illegal immigrant. I believe immigration is the basis of America's success but people who come here should come here legally.

I don't even know what conservative is anymore. For example, I truly believe we need to address the deficit situation, which used to be a conservative position. Except now the conservative party is the one blowing up the deficits.

I also believe taxes will need to rise for everyone because the situation is so out of hand. Higher taxes for fiscal sanity. What exactly is that position in the spectrum?

I never thought I’d see the day when believing that there are two sexes, male and female, would be an extreme far right position.

I know I’m wasting my breath, R18, but trans has nothing to do with being liberal. It is, in fact, one of the most conservative movements going, basing what it “means” to be a boy or a girl on 1950s ideas about makeup and clothing. This is why its earliest critics, well before most people were paying attention, were radical leftist lesbians.

I've become more conservative about "soft bigotry of low expectations" and social-cohesion stuff, such as the need for assimilation by immigrants, including learning the language. I'm from a small country, the Netherlands, and some time ago a prominent Turkish-Dutch writer and TV personality expressed anger that his mother, who'd been in the country for 40+ years at that point, was required to enroll in free Dutch language classes. His mother only had an eighth-grade education back in Turkey. I would understand it if he felt this government campaign, after all these years, to get immigrants to learn the language was motivated by cynical, political reasons and that he was pissed off for that reason, but he was actually angry that his poor 60-something mother, with her lack of formal education, would be inconvenienced by having to attend these classes. So, I suppose I'm conservative in thinking that being a long-term resident of any country comes with certain obligations.

I've always been left of center when it comes to taxation, the environment, animal rights, fighting corporate welfare, and most social issues. Seeing the irrational hatred of trans people in recent years has made me more sympathetic to that cause, though I think their movement has terrible representatives, who pursue a self-defeating form of activism with their overreach. I think genuine trans people deserve better representation.

R27. As I say, I realize that people with DS range from those who can work full-time jobs and live independently (or in a group home) to individuals who are completely non-verbal, cannot take care of themselves (in such basic tasks as dressing and keeping themselves clean and fed), and have severe intellectual disabilities. And prenatal testing, as far as I know, can’t predict which end of the spectrum the child will be on. If the parents-to-be genuinely don’t think they can handle it (or do not foresee having financial means or other people to provide care), I do not judge them for making the decision to terminate. I am sure it is not a decision entered into lightly—and I suspect many doctors nudge or even push such potential parents to terminate.

Always been left of centre but when Trump started talking about annexing my country I began to question my stance on firearms.

I think in the name of political correctness/woke - whatever you want to call it - employers are increasingly terrified of calling people out on their shit, requiring a tremendous burden to get rid of underachievers, drama queens and other under performers in the workplace. If you fit into a special class, you can get away with murder

Like others, paying taxes is part of life & while I certainly don't like it, I recognize you have to pay if you want good schools, infrastructure, reliable services, etc. I have no patience for the wanting something for nothing types.

Old Queens become tiresome sanctimonious prisspots. Hypocritically condeming all the "vices" of their youth they are now too feeble to commit. Hilarious.

More pragmatic (I'm not saying conservative because I'm not giving anything to those fuckers)

1) Western countries can't continuously be the release valve for other nations to immigrate to. The economy is boosted by immigration - that's said over and over. However, the economy has only benefited the top 5% the last 30 years. That's not up for debate - that's a fact. So no new immigration until everyone in the country sees an increase in their standard of living first.

2) Each state receives only as much in federal aid as they contribute. No more redistribution of blue states money to red states.

3) No more handles or unverified social media accounts. You have to be responsible for everything you say on the internet - not just at work or home or in the public.

4) Police and judiciary should have a citizens' oversight committee. No institution should be allowed to 'police themselves'. Also Wall Street.

5) No lifetime appointments for anything.

I’ve gotten more conservative about immigration. Since the 2000s when we started seeing a lot of new immigrants things have gotten much worse. I’ve become more liberal when it comes to drug use and sex work.

Maybe I'm dense, but I've never understood the strong personal feelings against immigration. The entire country's reason for being, other than money, is immigration. E pluribus unum, it's right there. What are immigrants taking from you?

Where I live the amount of immigrants and refugees we’ve started bringing in had increased a lot. We have a housing crisis and they’re kind of obnoxious sometimes. I wish we would have just kept bringing them in at a reasonable rate.

R40 it’s really more about pandering to a certain demographic, mainly uneducated hillbillies. For all the talk about illegal immigration, certain kinds of businesses, especially industrial farms, love them, because no one else is willing to do that kind of work, and they can get away with paying them less.

R18 - you need to educate yourself.

r43 It's one of Teafake's accounts - it has no education.

I have compassion for the homeless, particularly those with mental illness. We definitely need programs and resources to help, in particular, people who lost their home due to some financial hardship and need assistance getting back on track, and (of course) people who are being trafficked or pimped.

However, I’ve concluded over the years that we need to bring back state mental institutions to deal with the…others. The resolute druggies, the crazies who eschew medical intervention, and all the other willfully homeless. They’re a public nuisance; their lunacy and their filth are all over the sidewalks that the rest of us pay for; public mental hospitals used to the public’s recourse. I can’t walk five city blocks without hearing some lunatic ranting and raving or getting in peoples faces or struggling while being handcuffed. It’s gotten worse and worse the last few decades, but the bottom really fell out when Covid hit. It costs the city economy just as much to “house” these people in the park across from the West 4th Street McDondalds as it would to keep them in the “Saint Perpetua’s Hospital for the Criminally Insane”.

R37 we are not all sanctimonious prisspots. Some of us are just crashing bores.

I can no longer keep track of the Overton Window.

Conservative: Capital punishment for first degree murder. More severe penalities for repeated DD offenses.

Liberal: Shorter terms for political positions, testing before being able to vote, protection from cuts to federal social welfare prorgams.

[quote]Where I live the amount of immigrants and refugees we’ve started bringing in had increased a lot. We have a housing crisis and they’re kind of obnoxious sometimes. I wish we would have just kept bringing them in at a reasonable rate.

I also lived in an area with an influx immigrants & the schools & social services were flooded with people speaking spanish when most services/schools couldn't really support no-english/100% spanish speakers, particularly in the schools. It was a poor rural area & people came there for the jobs, but the community couldn't really handle this influx. Hence, I can see the kind of resentment that Fox News feeds: the poorest communities that are the least equipped to deal with this immigration carry the burden integrating these people & their kids. At the time i lived there, housing wasn't an issue but i'm sure it is now. So as other posters noted, there have to be seem kind of reasonable controls, though that's currently not the kind of thing anyone is interested in these days: they just want them as a permanent underclass, with no rights and can be kicked out or imprisoned if they step out of line

I’m more conservative about identity politics. I’m less conservative about abortion, in that I feel that the fetus is a person but recognize that my reasons for believing that stem from my religious beliefs, which I don’t believe I can compel on another person.

R50 the fetus can be seen as a person. But also as a person that needs to unfortunately die. That happens in societies.

Is that Orson Bean in R18’s link?

Liberal: more supportive of Medicare and Social Security retirement benefits.

Conservative: less tolerant of obscenity and what should be adult-only displays in public areas.

I’ve also switched from being a supporter of using the military (for example, Iraq and Afghanistan) to being anti-interventionist. I’m still processing the political realignment of the Democrats now being the party of interventionists and the Republicans largely being the anti-neocons, so I don’t know now if my switch is more liberal or more conservative.

I think I have gotten more liberal (at least within the gay community) with the idea of a “beard” being a genuine relationship. As I have gotten older and have been in a very long term relationship myself, I realize the best partnerships are between two best friends. I can’t say I totally agree with someone who is solely a transactional cover for someone. But if a gay man and his best female friend want to be married, like DVF and Barry Diller, and there is a true love, why not? This life is all about finding people you want to share your time with while you’re here. And that relationship usually transcends sex.

Conservative: my money. No one is going to help me when I'm ancient, so stay the fuck out of my wallet. Also, school funding. I don't have kids. Teachers have off all summer. I resent them, their annual strikes right before school starts back, and the fucking McMansion style schools that they build. What high school needs a fucking climbing wall? You want to climb? Knot a rope, hang it from the gym ceiling, and make a kid climb up it. There's your "climbing wall". And if you fall? Well don't worry. Here's a 2 inch thick foam pad to cushion the tumble from 15 feet up.

Liberal: pretty much everything else, as long as you leave me alone.

Also, I'm not sure where it falls now on liberal / conservative: but give every American a fresh fruit / vegetable allowance each month to get government-subsidized, American-grown fruits and vegetables. And remove all the sugary crap from being eligible to buy with government assistance. I feel like this is something Michelle Obama might have liked. But it's also something RFKJR might have liked. So I don't know where it sits on the spectrum anymore.

More liberal: Our society is not ready for what’s coming in terms of AI, next-level globalization, and the US labor market. We will need to tax the rich Bernie-level and bring in some degree of Universal Basic Income, or it all gets uglier and uglier, fast, within just one generation. Anybody sincerely wishing to Make America Great Again can start by returning us to the Eisenhower era… in terms of our national tax structure and of fewer absurd loopholes available to the very wealthy.

More conservative: Wokeism is indeed rampant in the more liberal public schools. My 7yo daughter is already groaning at all the (Race/Ethnivity) Pride/Heritage Month assemblies and classwork she’s subjected to; complaining there is never one for white kids; and she has to go to school until July because of all the random non-federal holidays the school district closes down for. (Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, Eid, Diwali, Juneteenth, etc etc) We are actually missing the first week of her summer camp that kids in less “woke” schools get to attend because they’re done with school this coming week.

[quote]My 7yo daughter is already groaning at all the (Race/Ethnivity) Pride/Heritage Month assemblies and classwork she’s subjected to; complaining there is never one for white kids

Your 7-year-old daughter is groaning because she is reflecting your beliefs. That's how it works.

My natural setting is bleeding heart liberal and the dial does not budge in the slightest to the right.

R45 - I'm with you but I'm going to go one step further for the homeless.

If you don't have a mental illness or drug addiction before getting on the street, you will likely develop one quickly from 2 undeniable factors: lack of sleep and constant stress.

The lack of good restful sleep is huge - when you don't sleep well ONE night, you can see the difference. Now, do that for weeks at a time or longer. You will soon want some sort of relief to knock yourself out - sometimes just to fucking sleep. So here comes drug dependency.

Also stress is a huge killer - the constant need - shelter, safety, food, water - is almost unbearable and will have an impact on your mental health FAST. The problem is that you have to team up with other people to learn how to survive and that creates a homeless sub-culture and dependency - a 'family' if you will - that will KEEP you on the street.

No one should be allowed to be homeless - you get picked up and sent to a center for either psychiatric care or other.

And this next sentence is going to get people mad - but we can have modern work houses that aren't the punishing Victorian era of squalor and abuse. Same with psychiatric institutions - just because they were awful before doesn't mean we throw ALL of them away like we did.

We spend ungodly amounts on security, police, courts, incarceration -multiple tens of thousands a year per inmate - up to over $100,000+ a year sometimes. You can't tell me we can't fund other programs more cheaply that are more humane and beneficial.

The other part of immigration that isn't talked about is that we have a HOUSING CRISIS - particularly affordable housing, but not enough new housing is being created. That's not up for debate either - it's a fact.

How the fuck can we take in millions of people when we don't have enough housing? It's a recipe for disaster and exacerbates the existing problem. Nobody talks about that though.

Canada had 1.3 million new immigrants and had 230,000 new housing starts - that includes housing of all sizes, single family homes and apartments. That's not nearly enough. US has similar numbers.

They say - oh immigration spurs housing development - REALLY? I don't see it - everything keeps going up. So now you've put more price pressure on average citizens who are already dealing with stagnant wages and inflation.

Some of you bleeding hearts about immigration are just not realistic. We can't keep doing this without real plans for integration and for housing. THIS is part of what people are pissed off about.

Let's not forget the public resources doled out to the new arrivals - many of them get free apartments and assistance for the first couple of years. It's a slap in the face to native citizens.

Putting up with assholes.

R62 - that's the cross we have to bear as gay men. As mom always said "as long as it is clean, you have nothing to be ashamed of."

I definitely have gotten more conservative on law & order and the broken window theory. And state taxes too sometimes. Like where does it be going cause I just don’t see it implemented in society. Is it a Ponzi scheme?

R64 - over half goes to schools K-12, colleges and universities. Then a significant amount goes to health care and other costs for low-income people. Then prisons and courts. Then highways, infrastructure, etc - with some large $$ projects going on in areas you never go to.

That's why you don't see anything.

Low-income issues like crime, unemployment, health care, subsidized housing is all because of lack of living wages so rich people can stay or become rich. It's a trickle down thing that the middle class have to pay disproportionately for the poor in their state.

I am a little bit more conservative about people crying racism, homophobia, transphobia, or Me Too. These things do happen and far too often but some things seem suspect from the start like Jussie Smollett or are self-serving like Oprah’s Hermes story. And Al Franken was crucified over a gag photo where the woman is clearly not really asleep in the chair. I think people should investigate something more before immediately acting as judge, juror, and prosecution. Too many times we get egg on our face. This is not say that there aren’t a lot of scummy people doing scummy things.

I am just as liberal about abortion rights as I ever have been. Ever read mid-20th century American novels? Abortion happens quite often and is discussed a lot. Making it illegal never made it go away.

More conservative: common courtesy, decorum, manners, public clothing, grammar.

More liberal: don’t have a good answer for this - I’ve always been really liberal and that’s remained steady.

pubic clothing, you say!

I’ve become more financially conservative. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to have a work requirement for welfare if you’re a healthy person and you have access to employment (but also think govt should better help people on welfare get jobs and not just force them to work).

But I’ve become more liberal on almost everything else.

Do you know which specific things you are referring to when you say “on welfare”?

Abortion:used to be pro life. I am still morally against abortion especially in specific scenarios, but I believe I cant make others responsible for my moral judgement. You do you, and if it's wrong, then thats on you.

Immigration: I'm not anti immigration, I just dont think wanting it to be limited if you feel it's bad for the economy means you're a nazi