Do you believe people typically get more conservative the older they get??

[SKKY]

I was watching a Beau of the 5th Column video talking about this very subject, and it reminded me of a conversation I had with someone who was one of the more influential mentors I had in the early days of my Navy career. He said as we were sitting on a bench in Naples, Italy finishing off what must have been our 4th or 5th Peroni Blue Label, "Everyone is a liberal when they're young, but as you get older you will no doubt get way more conservative."

Here's the thing though. For me, it turned out to be the exact opposite. And so I'm wondering if perhaps he was wrong, or if I'm just a different breed of cat.

[Skittles]

1. only if they get more selfish

yes indeed

[Joinfortmill]

2. Born a liberal will die a liberal.

[MLAA]

3. I'm 62 and I haven't gotten more conservative. Hubby is 87 and he has gotten more

conservative either.

[Maeve]

4. Hasn't worked that way for me, either

And my Mom is more liberal than she used to be (when she isn't listening to my brother)...it's one of those bits of conventional wisdom that is not to be relied on.

[liberal N proud]

5. Not if they like their Social Security

And only if they are opposed to continued learning. Closed mindedness and selfishness lead to conservative attitudes.

[dweller]

6. Not here

Not me, myself, I


✌🏻

[niyad]

7. That nonsense is the "accepted wisdom", which I have found to be totally false.

Many of the people I have known over the years get more progressive, radical even.

An old BS saying (roughly paraphrased) "If you are not a liberal when you are young, you have no heart. If you are not a conservative when you are old, you have no brain." FUCK THAT BS.

[we can do it]

8. Selfish people become more selfish.

[Akakoji]

9. Yes

Absolutely.

[Shellback Squid]

10. Shell Back squid?

I've become more liberal, I remember a sailor who I was stationed with, telling me he was getting kicked out, I asked why? and he said we wouldn't be friends anymore if I knew, I told him not to tell me, I am ashamed of my response but at the time I was 19 and didn't understand but he was smart and funny and a great guy

and well groomed

[SKKY]

16. Indeed. Crossed the line on the USS Trenton (LPD-14) after...

...the pull-out of Somalia.

Becoming more liberal is my experience as well, but I will say that after having worked in several joint commands, I found the Navy to be way more liberal than any of the other branches (Although, it was a Marine LtCol who turned me on to DU. So yea.).

Did he get booted because someone turned him in?

[Shellback Squid]

22. I don't know how he got outed and never considered it as it didn't matter at the time

once the process is started it was inevitable

[SKKY]

29. I've heard stories like that...

...but I was a CT ("O" Brancher), and in the CT community, we all knew who was and who wasn't yet I never knew anyone, or even heard of anyone getting kicked out for it.

[Shellback Squid]

32. Cryptology?

I was a PH, E4

[SKKY]

55. Yea, I came in as a CTO.

Later, the Navy merged DS, RM, and DP into a new IT rate. Later after that, any CTO that didn't merge into the newly established CTN rate was merged in with the ITs. So, I retired as an IT1.

[Shellback Squid]

57. changes, lol, my rate is now MS, CT and PH are now with the "Powder Monkeys"

[NewHendoLib]

11. I am nearly 67. I only get more liberal every year. My wife too.

Then again, we are not "thing" and money people. We are empathetic people.

But I had friends who did indeed get more conservative as they aged. They became selfish assholes.

[allegorical oracle]

87. "Money people" seems the key, imho. Former liberals I've known became almost overnight

conservatives when they got wealthier. Some inherited the $$; others had good jobs. I've asked (politely) why they changed politically and it came down to tax policies they claimed are too liberal -- too many breaks to poor people. Seems to me that they always lacked empathy, but it became evident after they had some wealth and grew afraid to lose it. They also seemed very determined to ensure their wealth passed to their children.

[griffi94]

12. I've gotten more liberal as I've gotten older.

For me, it was because as I got older, my critical thinking skills developed.
I stopped thinking about politics as a game to be won and "my team, right or wrong".
When I applied critical thinking to the policy positions of the GOP, they didn't hold up.

[Solly Mack]

13. I don't think aging causes anyone to embrace conservatism.

Other factors, maybe. Not simply getting older.

[Lithos]

14. My take is it depends on your life experiences

I have always associated US style of conservatism with a fear of change, fear of losing control, and fear of being socially different. I definitely associate it in people who switch to extremely dominating cult-like religions (or religious themed cults). Ginni Thomas, Mike Lydell, etc.

Definitely not myself - I believe the more I have seen of this world, the more liberal I have become.

L-

[SKKY]

20. Bingo! See? This is why I ask DU questions I can't find the answer to...

....because invariably someone will say it in a way that clears everything up. I grew up a union kid, so my tendencies lead Dem from that. But, having served in the Navy for 20 years, and seeing the world (17 countries), I think that has played a much more prominent role in me becoming more liberal.

[SomedayKindaLove]

83. Fear is the mind killer

Yale did studies using guided meditation scripts and found that people who considered themselves conservatives and scored less empathy towards others improved their empathy responses if they were made to feel SAFE during meditations, ie cues such as "you are in a safe place", "imagine you are in a place where you feel safe", etc. If they were read scripts where the participant is flying, which can trigger fear responses, their empathetic responses afterward did not improve.

Machiavelli says it is better to be feared than loved as a leader, because if they fear you, well, you own them.

The GOP knows how to stoke the fear response. Cheney with his "mushroom clouds", Trump with his demonizing of Mexicans or Others, the GOP in 2022 trying to make crime a top issue.

Basically if the amygdala (fear response) in the brain is triggered, it takes over the frontal cortex or reasoning part of the brain. The GOP is always trying to flip that switch. And older people may have more to fear: death, crime, running out of money, etc.

I always enjoyed the movie "Everybody Says I Love You". A liberal family has one arch conservative son. Later it was discovered he had a brain cloud or something, and he had been cured of his extreme right wing views. It was a good joke, but extreme conservatism it is starting to seem like it could be triggered by a brain disorder.

[secondwind]

15. I will be 76 years young this month, still very liberal!

[roamer65]

17. Some things yes for me, most no.

[GP6971]

18. No. If anything

I'm more liberal.

[tanyev]

19. Could be people who just go along with the crowd know more liberals when they are young,

especially in college and decide they are liberals to fit in. Then they get a couple decades of work under their belts, work their way up into management and realize the people they want to impress are all conservatives. Voila! Now they decide they are conservative.

[ITAL]

21. Generally speaking

I think it's true. Obviously not with everyone, but generalities are never gonna apply to all people. Maybe not in that people become more conservative per se (though I have seen it happen), but that people get set in their ways and society in general becomes more liberal, so they feel like what was once leftish now is more in the center or even to the right. So then they drift toward the right themselves.

[GoCubsGo]

23. Add me to the list of "WAY more liberal now than when I was young."

The only ones who become more conservative with age are those who allow themselves to be trapped in their own little bubble, without ever going anywhere new or meeting people who are different from them.

[NoMoreRepugs]

24. I couldn't agree more.

[vercetti2021]

25. I'm 32

I hear from my right wing relatives constantly as I get older I'll be more like them. Like na I'm not batshit insane to be you. Never will be conservative ever. I'll die a liberal

[NameAlreadyTaken]

26. Beliefs don't change.

[Phoenix61]

60. My Fad's sure did. He got way more liberal as he got older. nt

[AngryOldDem]

72. They don't?

I must be an outlier, then.

[JPK]

27. Not me...

I'm almost 70 and I am an ultra liberal. My wife, 66 is also.

[Trenzalore]

28. I think people's views remain pretty much the same unless they have a life event

So if the country becomes more conservative they look liberal and reverse.

[Judi Lynn]

30. As you experience more, have had longer to study things, you see how infantile and diseased

the conservative view of life actually is. It's a dead end road. Goes nowhere at all. Gets steadily more negative, and alienated, the world gets smaller, judgement comes more quickly and harshly. Bitterness! Hostility. What's to like? I'll bet they are actually becoming more frightened.

[MustLoveBeagles]

31. Some do but it's not a requirement

I'm like you and got more liberal with age.

[Doodley]

33. I'm a Brit now in US, about as left as you can get. Being more conservative is one thing - coming to

think that the idealism of youth isn't always fully achievable, but conservative in America today is being batshit crazy. Yes, they are becoming more crazy with age because the GOP leadership is becoming more and more crazy too, and so is the right-wing media.

[Grey]

34. No, but I can only speak for myself.

[mahina]

35. Same w me

[sorrybushisfromtexas]

36. Nope

My father taught me that there are two types of Conservatives:
A. Rich
B. Stupid

Still holds true for me, and I am 73. I have the misfortune of living in the reddest county in Texas. I am surrounded by stupid.

[young_at_heart]

37. At 83, I'm more liberal than ever!

I don't remember people talking about "liberals" or "conservatives" in my early years. But, when Watergate erupted I really started becoming political and Trump pushed me over the edge!

[Akacia]

38. 67 and more liberal now.

Also much better informed and involved in politics.

[TigressDem]

39. We are trying to CONSERVE DEMOCRACY because we are old enough to know it matters

Last edited Thu Nov 17, 2022, 02:17 AM - Edit history (1)

We are trying to CONSERVE ENERGY because we know the planet cannot survive much more pollution

We are trying to CONSERVE EQUAL RIGHTS because we know they matter

We are trying to CONSERVE money by taxing those who can afford it and allowing those who are struggling day to day to keep more of it so they can keep growing the economy.

CONSERVATION CORPS are about keeping the planet green.


WHEN YOU GET OLDER, you CONSERVE what is important because you have learned a thing or two.


YOU ONLY BECOME A REPUBLICAN "conservative" if you have been brainwashed and/or made enough money to want to keep every fricken penny to yourself and like Scroodge McDuck take a running jump into your money pile for a happy moment.



THIS AGE of "older people" are trying to CONSERVE something ENTIRELY different from what OTHER generations do.


WE MAY BE OLD, but we aren't DUMB and BLIND to the REALITY of what NEEDS TO HAPPEN to REALLY

Make

America

Great

G ET
R ID
O F
WHINER
T HE
H ORRIBLE


ALL THIS MAGA CRAP HAS BEEN A HORRIBLE WASTE OF TIME that AMERICA and the WORLD DON'T HAVE TO SPARE


OUR WORLD IS ON FIRE


Grandstanding Egotists are NOT doing ANYONE any favors.... unless it keeps making that party such a NON OPTION that we get more people elected who will ACTUALLY DO THE JOB THEY ARE ELECTED TO DO.

[usonian]

40. Getting more progressive by the minute.

Keeps me young. Conservatives?

[Mr.Bill]

41. The older consevative people I know tend to be more wealthy.

They have less reliance on social safety nets and they hate taxes.

[Clearheadsam]

42. We are losing the over 40 vote but especially 49 to 64

according to last 2 elections. I am 68 years old annd an Independent voter all my life who leans left of center. My baby boomer friends are probably 30%Republican and 70% Democrats. Although a few of my Republican friends blocked me on Facebook. 😁I did vote for my Republican Governor Charlie Baker but he didn’t run so I voted for Healy who was a very good Attorney General. I live in the bluest state in the country. Republicans have no chance here.😎

[Efilroft Sul]

50. A lot of the Gen X people I grew up with gleefully chugged down Reagan's first batch of hogwash.

Now they chug orange-flavored Kool-Aid from their six-pack MAGA hats.

We can't ever count on the majority of Gen X to do the right thing for the common good, because so many of its members view their selfishness as a feature — not a bug — and believe "greed is good." Better to focus on Gens Y and Z. They got the numbers, and I think they more than earned a seat at the table to have their needs and concerns met.

[cemaphonic]

67. At least among the Xers that I know, I think there is a political divide by age

The ones that I know born in the 60s tend to the conservative, while me and my group of school friends born in the mid 70s are all pretty liberal. Although, as in all things in American politics rural/urban and blue collar/professional make a big difference as well.

But yeah, generationally, we're a mixed bag.

[Corgigal]

43. Only

if you don’t care about your kids, and grandkids. If you decided not to have children, then you don’t care about the people coming up behind you.

[Meadowoak]

44. I'm wayyyyyy more liberal now, than I was 20 years ago.

[SharonClark]

45. Gloria Steinem once said men get more

conservative but women get more liberal.

I think her logic was that women’s experiences with sexism makes them more empathetic to others.

[betsuni]

63. And having to be more adaptable and practical in general.

[Efilroft Sul]

46. I had a strange trip to get where I am now.

In my formative years, good ol' Catholic guilt made me something of a conservative, a real boy scout. But to my surprise, I had a falling out with the church, for various reasons, when I turned 14. The aftermath left my belief system such a mess (and I was politically aware as a teenager) that it probably took me 11 years to figure out what I was. At 25, I was firmly in the Democratic camp and a moderate. Then Florida 2000, 9/11, and the bogus war with Iraq happened in rather quick succession. Next thing I know, I was a liberal Democrat. And the older I get, the more liberal I have become.

I am the black sheep in the family to my older and peer-age relatives, and the Dark Uncle to my younger relatives.

[TygrBright]

47. Some do, some don't. Depends on how vulnerable they are to fear and insecurity. n/t

[C_U_L8R]

48. Many get more susceptible to fear

And are preyed on by fear merchants.

[arthritisR_US]

49. I definitely haven't.

[Midwestern Democrat]

51. I certainly think you become less "idealistic" as you age - an 18 year old college freshman is more

of an optimist about the ability to enact his favored agenda because he hasn't witnessed all the political setbacks/reversals that an older person has. This was certainly true for me.

[iemanja]

52. I have

I was 40 before I called myself a Democrat. I considered myself a radical leftist before then (who mostly voted Dem.), but essentially I was ignorant. I think more than anything, I've gotten more pragmatic as I've aged.

[usonian]

53. I think it boils down to compassion for others.

How anyone can have children and grandchildren and still want a society permeated with selfish greed, race hatred and belief in SSB (self-serving bullshit) just wants the world to end with themself, because they have no life and don’t want others to have one.

Conservatives just project their own fears and flaws onto others.

Lust for power and money can never be satisfied, because someone else always has more, or is determined to take yours away.

As I have said (not original with me).
BIG people lift others up.
SMALL people try to cut everyone down to their own miserable size.

We’re BIG people here.
Growing in generosity, compassion and wisdom.

[Chellee]

54. I was pretty liberal then, and I am way more liberal now.

People who say that the older you get the more conservative you get really just mean that they decided to stop hiding their assholishness.

[nakocal]

56. It is not more conservative but more racist

The republican parties hold on elderly white people is more based in racism than in being conservative. They have convinced their supporters that Democratic policies want to take money from them and give it to "lazy" minorities.

[betsuni]

66. Yes. In 2008 there were roughly the same number of white Republicans and Democrats

and by 2016 the Republican Party had something like a 30% increase of whites.

[Hamlette]

58. my Dad went from Republican to communist in his later years

He hated Reagan who he considered to be irresponsible about nukes. Dad worked on building nuclear subs.

[Bread and Circuses]

59. No, that is just another scare tactic

People who have lived and seen the ups and downs of life and how people navigate these situations will have MORE compassion as they age. Thus be democrats.

Unfortunately people who are selfish stay selfish and create a backstory how they had to work hard and everyone is lazy.

It's all about greed. And narcissistic behavior.

We no longer have civility in this country. The MAGAts want to scream over everyone.

We will miss Nancy Pelosi as Speaker. A great public servant.

[Kennah]

61. I think the opposite is true

I think it's a storyline that is sold that one is liberal in their youth, but one becomes more conservative as one "sees the ways of the world."

One becomes more liberal as one gets older. Conservativism is mostly an obsession with property and money.

As one gets older, one places greater importance on making things better.

[Sympthsical]

62. Less partisan, more cynical, more attuned to hypocrisy

My core values are still progressive, and I still vote for the same progressive policies I always have.

However, the older I get, the more the scales fall from my eyes about what our political system is. It's a hypocrisy-ridden corporate-funded mess. Whether or not something is bad depends on A) who is accused and B) if it benefits someone's team.

That's it. It's very simple, and also wholly depressing.

The ease with which the media can exploit this team loyalty is also depressingly easy and depressingly simple. Write a story, throw in some key words, boom, you're off to the races. People will talk about it - and they will use your narrative framing to talk about it - as if it is an obvious, self-evident truth. Even if there's no evidence at all. Hell, no evidence is a feature, not a bug.

When I was younger, I thought adults would be a little more resistant to manipulation. However, I'm finding adults are easier to manipulate. Once someone falls into team loyalty, they will literally believe anything they're told as long as you can frame it as, "Thinking about it this way is good for the team."

So, I've fallen into the idea that nothing is sacred in any of this, people aren't very bright, and actual issues are very complicated things that media and political spheres will actively disallow us to discuss as rational adults.

My latest evidence of this is Twitter. Before Musk, Twitter was generally considered by political and media circles as a good. They censored the Right and fought against, "Misinformation, you guys!" which was increasingly just whatever people didn't like. And when you said censorship wasn't great, it was, "But they're a private corporation!!!!!!"

Enter Musk.

Well that all went out the window, didn't it? All those arguments, fwip! All gone.

Now he's right-wing (LOL, he's not. He's just an asshole.). And something must be done, and why isn't he being investigated. And on and on and on.

Hey. It's a private corporation. Wasn't that a thing, like, three months ago? No? Oh. No.

Turned on an absolute dime, with all the arguments reduced to sound bites and lemming-like repetition.

I loathe Twitter, but you'd have to be blind or deeply invested in the team to not see just how fast the media snapped their fingers and large swaths of people hopped to repeat it all verbatim.

After about 20 years of this, I don't feel any loyalty to any of it. I'm not partisan. Still progressive as always. Just not part of that club anymore. It's tedious, dull, and sad.

[Bev54]

64. Nope, the older I got the more travel I was able to do to other countries

Travel has helped me to be more flexible and to accept differences.

[SKKY]

74. That has been my experience as well.

17 countries and counting. I don't know how seeing the world wouldn't make you more liberal/progressive. Other countries do a lot of things I wish we would do here.

[Xolodno]

65. I believe its more about those who accept change...

...by thinking critically about it vs. people who fear and want to reject change, as they don't know how to handle the ambiguity.

For the latter, they expect to go through life expecting the status quo. Right wing media plays to their fears and boom, they reject all new changes.

[Metaphorical]

68. The Amygdala and Openness

The amygdala.is a small organ at the base of the brain that regulates rage and impulse control. In psychopathic individuals, it is usually enlarged and denser, and there are indications that age and genetics may both play a factor in this condition. This means if you are already predisposed to psychopathic tendencies when younger, these increase as you get older, but if you are not, then you are likely to be more thoughtful.

Other things can affect the amygdala: strokes, cancer, viral infections, alzheimers disease, others. This may accountvfor the seemingly balanced individual suddenly going ultraconservative.

[betsuni]

69. No. "Not even the best magician in the world can produce a rabbit out of a hat if there isn't

already a rabbit in the hat."

[treestar]

70. Some percentage, perhaps

It's not as general as the saying makes it.

I also heard "You get conservative when you have something to conserve."

[AngryOldDem]

71. With me, it was the opposite.

I was quite conservative when I was younger. BUT…I was also willing to open my mind, read, consider other viewpoints, and take off my blinders as to reality. I don’t follow anything blindly.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

73. If we discount the subversive fascist elements now common in society.....

such as lies and deceptions on social media and politically biased public media, then we can look at the natural human processes.

At the age of 75, I think we should become more wise and not so much "smart" and we have an instinctive desire to pass our wisdom on. It also seems natural and normal to be old-fashioned in our ways and therefore somewhat less tolerant of change and the speed of the youngsters.

People typically mistake old-fashioned for conservative, but conservative can mean many things. For example, I'm not a tightwad but am highly resistant to wasting our planet's resources. Therefore, I believe in conserving. Much of my resistance to waste comes from my Great Depression-era parents, something my two kids can't comprehend.

No, I don't think we necessarily become more politically conservative but are prone to become more socially and environmentally conservative.

KY rant done....

[48656c6c6f20]

75. What is this highfalutin Peroni blue label?

When I drank peroni in Naples I am almost sure there was only one kind. I didn't read Italian but I am sure the label said something about horse urine and massive hangover.

[scarletlib]

76. No. Always liberal even in my older years.

[msfiddlestix]

77. Generally speaking, yes.

[Torchlight]

78. In an apolitical sense, yes.

I think personal/household decisions generally become more risk-avoidant as well as a heightened degree of change-avoidance also. But these are not political choices in any sense, any more than deciding to hike instead of sky diving is.

I consider those directions to be more conservative on a personal level, but in regards to politics, no. I'm watching friends and family I've known for 40 and 50 years remain entrenched in the same convictions held for many years. Liberal and conservative, they're all staying pretty much where they've been since as young adulthood.

The lifelong liberal term applies to enough elderly voters, established voters and older adult voters that I tend to believe Churchill's was more an excuse at waxing laconically in public and less a measured observation.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

79. Not me.

I've been a dedicated liberal since the end of my first tour in 'Nam and have only gotten more liberal as I've gotten older.

[Liberal In Texas]

80. No.

I think that it might have been true in the 1950s when people as they got older decided they didn't want to pay taxes on the higher income they were now getting compared to when they were younger.

But not since the '60s with the awareness of social justice and illegal war mongering.

I am much more of a progressive, liberal, than I was in my early 30s.

[XanaDUer2]

81. No

Personally, I keep going lefter

[Happy Hoosier]

82. Some but mot all... i was the opposite.

I was born into a mostly “conservative family… Ronald Reagan-voting types. I questioned this point of view in my teens but voted for Ronny Raygun in my first election… And Be sh 41 in my second. But college worked its magic eventually the ideas I had been exposed to ate away at that and the damn burst in 1993. The rise of right-wing talk radio and Newt Gingrich convinced me I was on the wrong team. Once the first leak sprung in that damn it was over. Never looked back.

[inthewind21]

84. It has been

My experience that people get more "conservative" the more money they make. It's all about tax breaks and suddenly thinking YOU are paying for all the "slackers"

[tblue37]

85. I am just as extremely liberal now at 72 as I was when I cast my first vote for George McGovern

when I was 21.

[GusBob]

86. throwing pea soup on a Van Gogh painting

Me at 20: I would approve of the tactics no matter the motive: "Hell yeah, stick it to those rich snobs!" Shit I may have done something similar myself. Who knows, my friends and I were stoned all the time

Me at 50: While trying to understand the motive, would totally disagree with the tactics. "What a waste of good soup" And I hate drugs and would rather be dead than hang out with stoners.

Not more conservative, way more moderate

I reckon there's a reason most folks are middle of the road politically