'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

As Churchill once said - "if you're not a socialist at 20 you have no heart, if you're still a socialist at 40 you have no brain".

What is now counted as right or left wing is different to how it was a few decades ago so even if your viewpoints never change then your position could.
As a statement, it's probably true of quite a few people but not all. Some definitely go the other way.

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.

This is me.

I think because I've spent most of my life working in social services, homelessness and so on, I still feel connected to that. It's easy to inoculate yourself against suffering once you start to do better. And therefore have thoughts like 'they could too if they only...' and 'hard work is what counts'.

DH and I are more left wing.
Or maybe we've stayed still and the parties have got more right wing.

I'm near 60 and getting lefter as I get older. I'm not quite sure what constitutes the 'Left' any more. I suspect that as politics has become more fragmented and issue based (LGTB Rights / Environment / Asylum seekers/ Scottish Independence etc.) it is possible to be 'left' on some things and 'right' on others.

(But anyone who voted Leave and doesn't regret it is still a twat, whichever side of the fence they think they're sitting on.)

I don't think I have become more right wing, but as other posters, I have become more tolerant of different views and approaches. I no longer think every Tory voter is an evil fascist, I can see people can be kind and caring but have a different view on how to handle societal issues that is honourably held and often a result of their upbringing.

I am increasingly repulsed by the hard left and hard right and am probably more wishy washy as I lack the certainty of youth. But I think I have more empathy as a result and will always support the helping hand over the iron fist.

I think it makes sense - as you get older you (by necessity) have to live more in the 'real world' - you understand that it's fair that if people work hard they get rewarded and that if you're a scrounger it's really unfair on those who get up and go out to work each day. As you get older you also learn more about finite resources and develop more of a moral code.

Don’t forget Churchill was speaking from the point of view of a white upper-class man bolstered with a lot of family money. In his position you would look a bit of an idiot declaring yourself to be a socialist. The same does not apply to those of us one pay cheque away from the breadline.

Just checking............

Er.............

Nope.

There is nothing on this planet (or any other) that would make me align myself with JRM and Gove.

I've always been quite 'middley' and never in favour of any party. As I get older I'm becoming more victor meldrew, more cynical and miserable.

CatGoals nope, I will never feel anything but sorry for those "scroungers" as having been on benefits myself it's a horrible life and not one that I would ever want again. I find people who think it's "unfair" weird because it's hardly an enviable lifestyle so there's no reason to feel that way.

Having kids with disabilities has made me more left wing, if anything. I want a society that will care for them when I'm dead and gone.

Fundamentalism in either direction is dangerous. As I have got older I have got more left wing (as a young teen was more influenced by my parents choices), swung left at uni, and now am pretty middle, left of centre, Blairite "red Tory". Feel completely disenfranchised by the main parties ATM, mind you. Waiting to see what TIG comes up with.

I agree that RW and LW may no longer really be useful concepts. And they're often just thrown around as insults.

I think my main political beliefs are:

• Capitalism may be the lesser of all evils - attempts to artificially equalise everyone inevitably result in restrictions of liberty IMO
• BUT the wealthy and big business can and should pay a lot more. My household could cope with £100 per month more in tax far more than a single mum with 3 kids can cope with losing that much in benefits a month, so I should cough up rather than her losing out
• And we can't just have unchecked capitalism where the shareholders' return is everything - more and more people, especially working people, are being pushed into a situation where they can barely afford to live, and therefore can't really contribute to the economy, and also we're going to trash the earth if we leave it to business to sort shit out
• Yes, privilege is a thing, a big important thing that impacts on countless lives and 'reverse racism' is not a thing

Something like that anyway

being more invested for me as I get older means:

being more invested in my dc's friends - and their children- getting a decent chance in life, not just myself

being more invested in a health system that works for us all

being more invested in the idea of a stable society with as little crime and violence as possible because as many people as possible feel we are pulling together for the good of all of us

being more invested in a society where poverty and lack of healthcare does not provide growing ground for contagious diseases

I'm just as left wing as I was, and I am much wealthier than I was. In theory I have more to lose so should be veering right. No sign of it yet.

'If people work hard they get rewarded' is bollocks. If you believe that then you do not live in the 'real world'.

Im moving to the left. Actually Im not sure I am, maybe its that the party I used to identify with is moving to the right in order to gain votes.

Like your Mum, I'm approaching 70. Far from getting more right wing my left wing views have solidified. I was, and remain, a left wing pragmatist. As an example, if there is a general election called I'll be voting Labour because

• i live in a Labour strong hold, even if their manifesto doesn't promise either revoke or Peoples Vote

• If we have to leave the EU, id rather not have a government who thinks austerity is a dammened fine thing, as long as it doesn't hit the rich

Don’t forget Churchill was speaking from the point of view of a white upper-class man bolstered with a lot of family money. In his position you would look a bit of an idiot declaring yourself to be a socialist. The same does not apply to those of us one pay cheque away from the breadline.

Exactly -- though I believe it's also been attributed to people other than Churchill. I wish people wouldn't quote it with an air of producing a brilliant political bon mot, either way, as it's a pretty lazy statement that seems to confuse 'innocence' with idealism and 'cynicism' with the pragmatism/experience of age, and to naturalise a failure of empathy.

I'm as leftwing as I ever was, now at 46.

I don’t like demands like ‘discuss’

No not moved Right on large political issues, however do feel more irritated by petty things, am now for hanging and flogging for littering or not picking up dog pooh, that kind of thing.

You can't have written many essays then Faerie.

LOL, fair enough @TheFaerieQueene - I do have a problem with it when people use it in thread titles then say nothing about their own views, so I hope I've at least not done that!

Interesting re the 'thinking too many people are "scroungers"' thing - it's associated with the RW, but I imagine there are plenty of people who vote Labour and think that way too. Sadly it's an attitude that exists across the board!

I'm far less bothered by 'scroungers' than I am about those who commit fraud.

And in the 'fraud' bracket I include the ludicrously wealthy who can afford top lawyers and accountants to fiddle their taxes for them find tax loopholes.

Well, I've stopped buying the Grauniad after 30-odd years and I can't stand current left wing politics - Labour are a shower of shit, I don't much like the Lib Dems or Greens either due to their stance on 'gender' ; but I am never going to be a Tory either.

I am totally politically homeless; I still feel like a liberal lefty but hate so much of the current ideology I have found myself subscribing to the Spectator and am considering the Times too. So going right? Maybe.