'You get more right wing as you get older' - discuss

[Echobelly]

My mum has always said to me ‘Ah, you’ll get more right wing as you get older, everyone does’, but I really think this isn’t the case anymore.

Caveat first: I am aware I am writing from a white middle-class standpoint here, though I think we are the group of whom ‘you’ll get more right wing as you get older’ is most often said.

I think there’s been a fundamental change since my parents’ generation (they are approaching 70 now) – they grew up believing fairly comfortably that their children would do as well or better than they had, but their children have no such assurances about their own offspring. We have done pretty well by most people’s standards, but we still bought our family homes much later than our parents did, and we can’t afford the same lifestyles as they did on equivalent money (eg my parents could go to the opera and theatre often, buy new cars, send a child to private school) due to housing and childcare costs, and then when it comes to our kids, at this rate they will struggle to do as well as we have unless something changes fundamentally.

The ‘getting more right wing’ thing comes from the idea is that as you get older you are more invested (literally) in the system with wealth and property, and perhaps we are, but we know that the system as is will be unlikely to work for our kids. So we’re not getting more right wing because we recognise something has to change, although we are on the horns of a dilemma as we have to admit we ourselves have done OK from The System

I've always been right wing.

Was left wing in my youth and still am. I’m sure it must hold true for many people but it hasn’t for me.

It’s probably a true statement - it certainly seems borne out by evidence.

I’m actively resisting it though. To me, being right wing is a failure of empathy. I intend to check myself remain a lefty.

I don't know about more right wing but I think less idealistic. Because it's hard to be idealistic when you've got kids of feed and bills to pay, and you can see how spending a youth being idealistic has not necessarily set you up for a long old age.

I'm confident that I haven't got more right wing but I think I started fairly left wing. Perhaps when much younger I would have been more radical but as I've aged I've become more of a realist and (sadly) realise no system is perfect and there are always compromises and knock-on effects. I am very saddened by the right wing views I hear from people who I otherwise like, they are generally selfish and shortsighted.

Many years of marriage to me has definitely made my DH much more left wing! (Also, discussions with our DC.)

I had a teacher who said if you're not left wing when you're a youngster then you have no heart and if you're not right wing when you're older you have no brains - or something close to that.

I never thought I'd nudge across to the right as I got older but I'm much more to the middle now. Watching the attacks on freedom of speech from the left has been a real eye opener and seeing a dogmatic, unthinking approach by the political left has made me cynical.

I think, theoretically, I still lean to the left but watching the left in practice has made me listen to the criticisms from the right.

Maybe "you get less wing" is closer to the mark.

There is a big divide between those who think society should take care of those who need help & those who think their misfortune is their own fault, & I can't imagine many people cross it.

I'm still pretty left wing, but I think I'm more tolerant of different viewpoints than I was when I was a self-righteous 20 year old.

Yes it's true for me. I have always been a labour voter. Where I once would have been a member of the Labour Party I no longer am as committed. My viewpoint is still that I want investment in public services as a priority. But other things are less 'left'.

I'm with GiantKitten on both remarks.

I became more left wing with age. My parents have always been quite conservative and still are (they are in their late 70s and mid 80s now).

I'm more left wing.

I think I am more left wing, but a different left wing from the current Labour Party. (Which I realise doesn’t really make sense.)

I think they would probably accuse me of being a Tory or a Blairite.

I’ve kind of gone the other way. I think I have more empathy now and know that not all people on benefits are lazy scroungers and don’t think people with no money just aren’t trying hard enough
However, as we now have our own business and earn a lot more money than when we were younger I’m still Right wing in many ways and although I’m glad society generally helps people in need ( probably not as much as it should) I also think that people need to take more responsibility for themselves

I've definitely swung leftwards as I get older, two reasons I think. First, the worry for my kids' future if house prices go up and up and no one thinks about how to manage employment when machines can do more and more work, and no one prioritises the environment.

Second - social media. Twitter especially (where I go for that kind of thing, not following friends) has opened my eyes to some things. I was initially irritated by phrases like 'rape culture' or 'white privilege', but once I read more about them and the people affected by them, I came to see their validity and importance.

My parents are both tories (in local politics for many years) and for many years I found it hard to move away from conservatism because I respect my parents so much and I think I found it hard to credit they could believe in something fundamentally wrong - this was entirely internal, BTW, my parents always made it clear to the 3 of us that our politics were up to us. I've voted for tories, Lib Dems, Green and Labour in my time.

If I don't like any parties at election, I might go for whichever candidate I think best. Not sure where I sit at the moment... I am not hopeful about a Corbyn Labour.

SpoonBlender thank you

(Just realised I missed out "left" from my post but you knew what I meant )

DM feels more outspokenly right wing, but it's probably that she has stuck with attitudes that are looking increasingly dated. Decades of the Daily Mail being delivered to the door will have that effect. I do a lot of quiet eyerolling as I know when I'm wasting my breath.

As DH creeps towards middle age, he's becoming more conservative in a financial sense, but not in a direct social sense. However current polictical financial strategy has its social consequences. Socially he is more liberal than his Catholic upbringing was.

I'd say my viewpoint is fairly central/ liberal. Leaving the bubble of my hometown was definitely good for me, and I am aware of my own day to day bubble having taught in various communities across my county. Some white working class, some mixed working class. Middle class bubbles can be very oblivious to the rest of society.
Politically, I have little identity at the moment. The economy needs to be sucessful and invest into social structures of education, health and social support for society to flourish, especially in the face of additional challenges. I don't feel that any political party currently has a viable, sustainable financial and social model. I feel slightly nostalgic for the New Labour days which I know is rose-tinted at various policies such as academisation were founded then. There was an excess of investment at the cost of national debt, and too much given away in public/ private finance. It felt good at the time, but those benefits have been lost so easily.

I'm not yet at middle age, but already I've got the sense of "progress" whizzing by quicker than I keep up.

Nope, DH and I have got more left wing.

I’ve been all over the place politically! I was hard left as a youngster, then swung to the right in my early 30s, now firmly left again in my 50s! The austerity measures finished any leaning to the right that I had.

In laws have always been very right wing and are even more so in their old age. But both of them have had an empathy by pass so that’s not surprising really.

I've actually got more left wing as I've got older although I'm only 28.

I think it's because I was very self sufficient when I was younger - I didn't go to university and started working full time and living by myself at age 17. When I became a single parent and had to access benefits and other help for the first time I actually experienced how difficult life could be for people who didn't have the wonderful family support that I did and it changed my views.

Absolutely the opposite. The more I see and know of the world, the more left wing I become.

I'm not altogether convinced that left and right are helpful concepts anymore. My views are mixed, drawn from both sides of the spectrum, and I suspect that might be true of many people. A few weeks ago, I saw a graph that plotted the "leftness" and "rightness" in the published manifestos of both Conservative and Labour parties over the past fifty years or so. Key words and promises in each one were rigorously assessed and each manifesto was given an overall rating. It was fascinating. Mrs T was the furthest to the right and Jeremy Corbyn was the furthest to the left - so no surprise there - but Tony Blair was noticeably to the right of John Major. This would explain why I went against the habit of a lifetime and voted Labour in 1997. It would also explain why Momentum is so scathing of what it sees as the Blairite/Brownite wing of the Labour Party.

Nig sure about left and right but if you think in terms of big government versus small government arguments :

I think you can start to see individuals' self destructive streaks as beyond the realms of government intervention. The converse would be noticing structural reasons for problems that you think grouo action by government could solve.

So I still think it could go either way depending on life experiences and interpretation of them.

"Not sure" that should read.

Nah I've always been on the right