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The older we get, the more conservative we become?

318 replies

EddyF · 03/12/2024 18:28

Just wondering if people believe this. I’m in my thirties and although I have always had real socialist views and I have always voted Labour, I am struggling with some of my current viewpoints which lean more to the conservative way. I think I have lost a bit of societal empathy and seeing things as a ‘dog eat dog world; everyone out for themselves’.

There are so many issues I see locally (London) that I just think not everyone can be saved. The services are stretched; high streets are depressing and people have too many needs and often those needs are not isolated and are multiple. I feel less empathetic and more “can’t you just help yourself”. There doesn’t appear to be a safety net or one that is efficient enough, which to my surprise, has harden me a bit. Maybe it is age😆

OP posts:
ichundich · 04/12/2024 13:45

BIossomtoes · 04/12/2024 08:35

Not any more. The average age at which people are turning right is rising. It’s 70 now.

Younger generations are more right-wing than people in their 30ies and 40ies nowadays. www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-youth-vote-is-turning-right/

brislereg · 04/12/2024 13:45

Not exactly left/right but.....::

I went to a strict all girls catholic schools run by nuns in the 1990s. In order to rebel, lots of us became goths and loved Marilyn Manson. The nuns were horrified and told us of for admiring a satanic singer. We thought they were awfully prudish and conservative.

Anyway......it turns out, the nuns were right about him. I often think about that when thinking about how we change when we get older.

BIossomtoes · 04/12/2024 14:30

ichundich · 04/12/2024 13:45

Younger generations are more right-wing than people in their 30ies and 40ies nowadays. www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-youth-vote-is-turning-right/

From that article

The rightward shift, however, is too recent for conclusions to be confidently drawn. For now, we’re in the realm of hypotheses.

Tillow4ever · 04/12/2024 16:08

I'm mid 40's and more left wing than ever. My parents on the other hand, although they'll never admit it to me because they know my political standpoint, I believe are much more conservative.

I suspect it's more to do with money than age - the more money you have, the more likely you are to be conservative as they look after those with money more than those who don't.

zingally · 04/12/2024 16:39

I'm remember my mother memorably saying that to me when I was in my early 30s.
I've voted left all my adult life and am a public sector worker. I agree with a lot of what the Tories say, but so far never enough to vote for them. Honestly, I don't see myself ever voting Tory.

Garlicwest · 04/12/2024 17:14

Plastictrees · 04/12/2024 08:30

Not for me. I still value having a safety net for the most vulnerable in society rather than protecting my own wealth.

This is what a lot of 'right'-leaning people miss, I think. If you've spent any time in places that don't have functional welfare provision, you'll have witnessed the outfall.

If you're okay for your city streets to be lined with people, often whole families, living on the pavements; the diseases they suffer and spread; aggressive robbers and beggars trying to raise food money; widespread, organised crime with violence; huge shanty towns that trap families in generational poverty & crime; those shanties regularly collapsing with thousands of deaths; public services that don't work; sewage in the street; broken education systems; unsafe working practices endangering everyone's life; universal corruption ... then have at it. Go and live there. At least your taxes will be low (though you'll pay more in bribes and getting robbed).

We're fortunate to be able to live in ignorance, because our systems do work - although some of us can see how they are working less well, thanks to the gradual shift to the 'right' we've been experiencing.

I once phoned the police because I heard a revolver shot. They asked me how I knew it was a gunshot. "I used to live in Rio de Janeiro," I said, "I heard them every night". They sneered at me. It clearly meant nothing to them. One of my neighbours was killed by a bullet that ricocheted off his garden wall from a robbery outside!

I caught dysentery. I was vaccinated up to the eyeballs. I've waded through raw sewage. I used to keep a stash of ready cash for the young muggers who approached me once a week or so, I worked with prostituted children (one girl was only three), I saw skeletally-thin rural parents put their kids on a bus to the city to fend for themselves ("At least they'll find food"). I did love living there - and Brazil is far from the least functional place, it's 'second world'.

It's fairly easy to feel you don't need the public services and welfare systems that taxes pay for. But you do, because they protect your clean, safe lifestyle.

thepariscrimefiles · 04/12/2024 17:50

Garlicwest · 04/12/2024 17:14

This is what a lot of 'right'-leaning people miss, I think. If you've spent any time in places that don't have functional welfare provision, you'll have witnessed the outfall.

If you're okay for your city streets to be lined with people, often whole families, living on the pavements; the diseases they suffer and spread; aggressive robbers and beggars trying to raise food money; widespread, organised crime with violence; huge shanty towns that trap families in generational poverty & crime; those shanties regularly collapsing with thousands of deaths; public services that don't work; sewage in the street; broken education systems; unsafe working practices endangering everyone's life; universal corruption ... then have at it. Go and live there. At least your taxes will be low (though you'll pay more in bribes and getting robbed).

We're fortunate to be able to live in ignorance, because our systems do work - although some of us can see how they are working less well, thanks to the gradual shift to the 'right' we've been experiencing.

I once phoned the police because I heard a revolver shot. They asked me how I knew it was a gunshot. "I used to live in Rio de Janeiro," I said, "I heard them every night". They sneered at me. It clearly meant nothing to them. One of my neighbours was killed by a bullet that ricocheted off his garden wall from a robbery outside!

I caught dysentery. I was vaccinated up to the eyeballs. I've waded through raw sewage. I used to keep a stash of ready cash for the young muggers who approached me once a week or so, I worked with prostituted children (one girl was only three), I saw skeletally-thin rural parents put their kids on a bus to the city to fend for themselves ("At least they'll find food"). I did love living there - and Brazil is far from the least functional place, it's 'second world'.

It's fairly easy to feel you don't need the public services and welfare systems that taxes pay for. But you do, because they protect your clean, safe lifestyle.

Great post. When people talk about low tax economies as a right wing ideal, I often think about the reality of living in extremely wealthy gated communities with their own security but being too scared to leave the compound. Extreme poverty leads to violent and lawless communities.

Our public services and welfare systems are coming apart at the seams and they need fixing urgently. I would rather pay more taxes in order to do this and to live in a safe, relatively prosperous country without the extremes of rich and poor.

Plastictrees · 04/12/2024 17:54

@Garlicwest This is a brilliant post and I completely agree. I think there can be elements of people being wilfully blind, of denying and minimising inequalities experienced by more vulnerable groups and communities. It is so easy to live in a bubble and not give too much thought to other peoples realities.

LavenderHaze19 · 04/12/2024 18:01

It doesn’t hold true for me. I’ve definitely become more liberal and tolerant with age - I think because life experience has made me more compassionate and understanding of other people. I now understand that virtually nothing is black and white.

Chouradanilova · 04/12/2024 18:04

BluebirdBoogie · 03/12/2024 18:39

I've gone completely the other way. I see so much more unfairness in my 50s than I saw in my 20s. Would never, ever vote for a right wing party.

I’m the same (aged 65).

NeelyOHara1 · 04/12/2024 18:04

It seems we have the worst of both worlds now with laissez faire economics and laissez faire morals.

pointythings · 04/12/2024 18:14

NeelyOHara1 · 04/12/2024 18:04

It seems we have the worst of both worlds now with laissez faire economics and laissez faire morals.

Please define laissez faire morals.

username299 · 04/12/2024 18:16

pointythings · 04/12/2024 18:14

Please define laissez faire morals.

Anything goes.

pointythings · 04/12/2024 18:17

username299 · 04/12/2024 18:16

Anything goes.

You'll need to be more specific than that. What is it that goes, and what is the comparator?

NeelyOHara1 · 04/12/2024 18:19

@pointythings growing numbers of people feeling free to do what they like despite the effect on society. Possibly in response to the same happening with the economic side of things where making money trumps everything.

lavenderlou · 04/12/2024 18:19

I'm in my late 40s and feel that I've become more left-wing as I've got older. The longer I've spent under a Conservative government, the more left-wing I've become.

SharpOpalNewt · 04/12/2024 18:19

Chouradanilova · 04/12/2024 18:04

I’m the same (aged 65).

Me too aged 49.

anchorage81 · 04/12/2024 18:21

pointythings · 04/12/2024 18:17

You'll need to be more specific than that. What is it that goes, and what is the comparator?

People voting in a known liar and not minding him lying again and again and taking the complete piss.

Menopausalsourpuss · 04/12/2024 18:25

Garlicwest · 04/12/2024 17:14

This is what a lot of 'right'-leaning people miss, I think. If you've spent any time in places that don't have functional welfare provision, you'll have witnessed the outfall.

If you're okay for your city streets to be lined with people, often whole families, living on the pavements; the diseases they suffer and spread; aggressive robbers and beggars trying to raise food money; widespread, organised crime with violence; huge shanty towns that trap families in generational poverty & crime; those shanties regularly collapsing with thousands of deaths; public services that don't work; sewage in the street; broken education systems; unsafe working practices endangering everyone's life; universal corruption ... then have at it. Go and live there. At least your taxes will be low (though you'll pay more in bribes and getting robbed).

We're fortunate to be able to live in ignorance, because our systems do work - although some of us can see how they are working less well, thanks to the gradual shift to the 'right' we've been experiencing.

I once phoned the police because I heard a revolver shot. They asked me how I knew it was a gunshot. "I used to live in Rio de Janeiro," I said, "I heard them every night". They sneered at me. It clearly meant nothing to them. One of my neighbours was killed by a bullet that ricocheted off his garden wall from a robbery outside!

I caught dysentery. I was vaccinated up to the eyeballs. I've waded through raw sewage. I used to keep a stash of ready cash for the young muggers who approached me once a week or so, I worked with prostituted children (one girl was only three), I saw skeletally-thin rural parents put their kids on a bus to the city to fend for themselves ("At least they'll find food"). I did love living there - and Brazil is far from the least functional place, it's 'second world'.

It's fairly easy to feel you don't need the public services and welfare systems that taxes pay for. But you do, because they protect your clean, safe lifestyle.

The most chaotic places are often run by the left. In America it is liberal/left places like SF, California in general, Portland Seattle that are disordered with drugs everywhere, homeless and crime and very dirty. The more ordered places (and where the rich from those other places are fleeing to) are run by the Republicans. The left tend to be soft on crime (defending the police) and drugs. All of the self-described socialists I have ever met were very wealthy and could escape the problems they create (and never gave away their own money) whereas poorer people tend to live in the real world and are often conservative (with a small not the Tory scum we have now). I was vrought up on a rough council estate and been small c conservative my whole life.

pointythings · 04/12/2024 18:28

NeelyOHara1 · 04/12/2024 18:19

@pointythings growing numbers of people feeling free to do what they like despite the effect on society. Possibly in response to the same happening with the economic side of things where making money trumps everything.

Nope, still not clear enough. What do you class as 'free to do what they like', and what is 'the effect on society'?

I agree with you that there are too many people who think making money trumps everything though. But that's not a right wing point of view at all.

pointythings · 04/12/2024 18:29

anchorage81 · 04/12/2024 18:21

People voting in a known liar and not minding him lying again and again and taking the complete piss.

That makes sense, but not sure that the person I asked the question of feels the same.

Crikeyalmighty · 04/12/2024 18:29

@Garlicwest I totally agree - my H hated Rio by the way - he went as tour manager with a band and the very first day the driver just skirted around a dead favella child in the middle of the road - and just said 'they are just scum' - my H was horrified and incredibly upset - the hotel told him not to walk to the nearest shop as it was 'too risky' Guys on hotel doors with guns- he hated a lot of the south east of USA too

Paddymcpaddy · 04/12/2024 18:30

Jesus, if anything I’m the opposite! Turning into a right old save the planet, you can’t eat money, educate the masses, get rid of private schools, and billionaires, etc hippy!

livanlaterlaterlater · 04/12/2024 18:31

Disagree. I have become more empathetic and can really see how difficult it is for people to improve their lives .
If they are unfortunate enough to need UC help, it is very hard for people to get out of the rut they are in .
MH is a massive problem and it's only going to get worse!

Beetlebumz · 04/12/2024 18:32

I have gone the other way and feel a lot more empathy and am far more left leaning than I used to be.I work in a multicultural setting with young people and it's really opened my eyes to how unfair the right wing are.

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