I find the idea that your politics are ingrained from birth to be harmful and a similar mindset has been used by the right to demonize the mentally ill and criminals I am a strong believer in rehabilitative justice most people are not completely doomed to be bad people even nazis can change their ways.
in my case I considered myself a rightwing libertarian I always had a bit of an anti-authoritarian mindset but it was misdirected by my upbringing and education. I do think there are a lot of right wing people who don’t necessarily like authority you can see this with their skepticism of the government, big pharma, their propensity for conspiracy theories about “elites” but it has been co-opted in a way that does not actually challenge authority.
the right teaches people that instead of rightfully blaming the problems of capitalism on capitalism they find other groups of people for you to blame these problems on and since the education system is so biased a lot of people will just buy into this they don’t know any better they have been lied to in some cases their whole life. I blame the education system so much for the rise of the far right.
I did buy into some bigoted ideas I was transphobic, Islamophobic, anti-immigrant learning the actual facts about this learning that I have been lied to about all of these people I changed my mind and it taught me an important lesson about myself I am capable of hate. a lot of people who are bigoted don’t see it as hatred because they are not seething with anger, for example with my transphobia I thought that they were mentally ill and needed treatment to “fix” them it didn’t come from a place of hatred but pity it is still just as harmful.
my mindset is not the same as it used it has definitely changed can it change again sure but I highly doubt I would ever become right wing again because most of their ideas are thoroughly based off of misinformation and I have spent a lot of time deconstructing that and I also try my best to change people’s minds so I am exposed to right wing bullshit on a regular basis I know exactly why these people are wrong and if I don’t I research.
I find the idea that your politics are ingrained from birth to be harmful and a similar mindset has been used by the right to demonize the mentally ill and criminals I am a strong believer in rehabilitative justice most people are not completely doomed to be bad people even nazis can change their ways.
in my case I considered myself a rightwing libertarian I always had a bit of an anti-authoritarian mindset but it was misdirected by my upbringing and education. I do think there are a lot of right wing people who don’t necessarily like authority you can see this with their skepticism of the government, big pharma, their propensity for conspiracy theories about “elites” but it has been co-opted in a way that does not actually challenge authority.
the right teaches people that instead of rightfully blaming the problems of capitalism on capitalism they find other groups of people for you to blame these problems on and since the education system is so biased a lot of people will just buy into this they don’t know any better they have been lied to in some cases their whole life. I blame the education system so much for the rise of the far right.
I did buy into some bigoted ideas I was transphobic, Islamophobic, anti-immigrant learning the actual facts about this learning that I have been lied to about all of these people I changed my mind and it taught me an important lesson about myself I am capable of hate. a lot of people who are bigoted don’t see it as hatred because they are not seething with anger, for example with my transphobia I thought that they were mentally ill and needed treatment to “fix” them it didn’t come from a place of hatred but pity it is still just as harmful.
my mindset is not the same as it used it has definitely changed can it change again sure but I highly doubt I would ever become right wing again because most of their ideas are thoroughly based off of misinformation and I have spent a lot of time deconstructing that and I also try my best to change people’s minds so I am exposed to right wing bullshit on a regular basis I know exactly why these people are wrong and if I don’t I research.
knowledge is power