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Society has a left-leaning tinge. Especially society in the age range that reddit caters to. There's no grand conspiracy. Right politics are wildly unpopular wi

Society has a left-leaning tinge. Especially society in the age range that reddit caters to. There's no grand conspiracy. Right politics are wildly unpopular with young to middle-age people.

AntiImperialis2 6y ago
That's true. Younger people seem to lean left. As they grow older, a lot of them start to lean conservative. My hypothesis is that when they are young and underdeveloped, they have incomplete understanding of the world, are prone to believing in unrealistic utopian ideas, and hence are easy to manipulate. No wonder, the leftists want the voting age to be lowered even further. As they grow older and wiser, they see it for what it is. The younger conservatives are explained by the fact that some kids who grow up in conservative households don't fall for the same manipulation and older liberals are explained by the fact that some people are more reluctant to change, mostly because they weave their personalities around their identities in early adulthood. Some is of course explained by influence of peers (i.e. people adopt a political view to fit in) and hence location... but I think this covers it all. I know I will get downvoted for this which is fine but I'd like to know your hypothesis for the same population leaning conservative as they age is... if it's not too much trouble.
- strenholme 6y ago
  [Citation needed] Please compare https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984_United_States_presidential_election#Voter_demographics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984_United_States_presidentia... and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_United_States_presidential_election#Voter_demographics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_United_States_presidentia... Observe: The 1984 youth voted conservative. The 2004 youth voted liberal. And, oh, the 2020 youth voted even more liberal: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_United_States_presidential_election#Voter_demographics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_United_States_presidentia...
mech422 6y ago
I can't respond to AntiImperialis2 directly anymore, so I'll leave this here... I don't think that because Boomers and (a lot of ?)GenX tended to grow more conservative as they got older proves it's 'the natural order'.. Millennials are approaching 40 now and the liberal ones I know are still very liberal.. I'd argue that Truman getting elected in 1948 meant that there were a lot 'progressive' older folks back then. Especially since there was a more conservative "Dixiecrat" on the ballot as well. So growing old and becoming conservative may not necessarily go hand in hand...
- aaron-santos 6y ago
  Telling someone they will more conservative as they get older is a great in innoculation against that event occurring.
  - mech422 6y ago
    Perhaps... I've also read it cyclic, with the pendulum swinging from very conservative to very liberal every couple of generations ?
  - kibwen 6y ago
    People don't get more conservative as they get older, they get more conservative when they have more to lose. It just so happens that as people get older they tend to get houses, families, long-term careers, etc, which tilts them towards preserving the status quo in amber so as not to threaten what they have. And if, hypothetically, a generation were to grow up and find themselves unable to afford a home of their own, unable to afford a family, and unable to land a career, they will find themselves with very little to lose and very little incentive to preserve the status quo, regardless of their age.
    - berryjerry 6y ago
      People get more conservative as they get older because they realize things cost money, how hard they have to work to earn it, and how bad the government is at spending it for them. I'd say modern day conservativism is more akin to individualism - don't let others spend money for you because you spend your money more wisely, and if you don't it's your fault. I think you'll find most young people don't even make the correlation that everything governments spend costs money and that money comes from their own pockets. They usually consider the government to have infinite money and have barely stopped being taken care of by their parents or still are. You even see cities like Detroit going bankrupt because, no, governments don't have infinite money. You do have to pick and choose what to spend it on and you can't get everything that just sounds nice.
noema 6y ago
(Responding to now defunct comment claiming that conservatism is correlated to age because of life experience blah blah) Age here is a proxy for wealth, of course.

Society has a left-leaning tinge. Especially society in the age range that reddit caters to. There's no grand conspiracy. Right politics are wildly unpopular with young to middle-age people.

AntiImperialis2 6y ago

That's true. Younger people seem to lean left. As they grow older, a lot of them start to lean conservative. My hypothesis is that when they are young and underdeveloped, they have incomplete understanding of the world, are prone to believing in unrealistic utopian ideas, and hence are easy to manipulate. No wonder, the leftists want the voting age to be lowered even further. As they grow older and wiser, they see it for what it is. The younger conservatives are explained by the fact that some kids who grow up in conservative households don't fall for the same manipulation and older liberals are explained by the fact that some people are more reluctant to change, mostly because they weave their personalities around their identities in early adulthood. Some is of course explained by influence of peers (i.e. people adopt a political view to fit in) and hence location... but I think this covers it all. I know I will get downvoted for this which is fine but I'd like to know your hypothesis for the same population leaning conservative as they age is... if it's not too much trouble.

strenholme 6y ago
[Citation needed] Please compare https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984_United_States_presidential_election#Voter_demographics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984_United_States_presidentia... and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_United_States_presidential_election#Voter_demographics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_United_States_presidentia... Observe: The 1984 youth voted conservative. The 2004 youth voted liberal. And, oh, the 2020 youth voted even more liberal: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_United_States_presidential_election#Voter_demographics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_United_States_presidentia...

mech422 6y ago

I can't respond to AntiImperialis2 directly anymore, so I'll leave this here... I don't think that because Boomers and (a lot of ?)GenX tended to grow more conservative as they got older proves it's 'the natural order'.. Millennials are approaching 40 now and the liberal ones I know are still very liberal.. I'd argue that Truman getting elected in 1948 meant that there were a lot 'progressive' older folks back then. Especially since there was a more conservative "Dixiecrat" on the ballot as well. So growing old and becoming conservative may not necessarily go hand in hand...

aaron-santos 6y ago
Telling someone they will more conservative as they get older is a great in innoculation against that event occurring.
- mech422 6y ago
  Perhaps... I've also read it cyclic, with the pendulum swinging from very conservative to very liberal every couple of generations ?
- kibwen 6y ago
  People don't get more conservative as they get older, they get more conservative when they have more to lose. It just so happens that as people get older they tend to get houses, families, long-term careers, etc, which tilts them towards preserving the status quo in amber so as not to threaten what they have. And if, hypothetically, a generation were to grow up and find themselves unable to afford a home of their own, unable to afford a family, and unable to land a career, they will find themselves with very little to lose and very little incentive to preserve the status quo, regardless of their age.
  - berryjerry 6y ago
    People get more conservative as they get older because they realize things cost money, how hard they have to work to earn it, and how bad the government is at spending it for them. I'd say modern day conservativism is more akin to individualism - don't let others spend money for you because you spend your money more wisely, and if you don't it's your fault. I think you'll find most young people don't even make the correlation that everything governments spend costs money and that money comes from their own pockets. They usually consider the government to have infinite money and have barely stopped being taken care of by their parents or still are. You even see cities like Detroit going bankrupt because, no, governments don't have infinite money. You do have to pick and choose what to spend it on and you can't get everything that just sounds nice.

noema 6y ago

(Responding to now defunct comment claiming that conservatism is correlated to age because of life experience blah blah) Age here is a proxy for wealth, of course.