Did anyone else start liberal and then got to 28 and their perspective on people, friends, decisions and everything changed?

FH-7497 · 2025-12-28T01:16:28+00:00

You literally didn’t explain ideologically specific anything about why you shifted perspectives tho. You could just as easily say that you started conservative and listening to the bible thumpers before getting to the party that now you’re changing and only listening to advice of those you’d want to be like (which I wholly agree with).

Maybe liberal v conservative is less important that integrity/character vs their lack

Ghost-Writer · 2025-12-27T22:33:24+00:00

Lol no. There is more important things at stake in politics than gender dynamics.

No matter how hypocritical rights between men and women get, it will never lead me to support greedy billionaires, anti intellectuals and pedophiles.

Kingkept · 2025-12-27T21:14:04+00:00

admitedly I was quite naive when i was younger about certain things. And as Ive grown older i’ve grown more tolerant about certain viewpoints.

still very much liberal, and recent politics have only made me more liberal.

also hippies aren’t really liberal democrats, they’re more antiestablishment, which isn’t in-line with socialism or democratic viewpoints in my opinion. they just hate trump and pick the lesser of two evils.

i don’t support anarchism or anarchist ideals.

Melohdy · 2025-12-27T21:26:31+00:00

I was a liberal while in college, but had no idea why. I later realized that I disagreed with almost everything liberal.

SilverBison4025 · 2025-12-28T00:46:09+00:00

I’m a male, almost 40, and ex-liberal. The older I get the more left wing I get. The liberals are conservatives as far as I’m concerned. It’s always been said that adults become more conservative because they’ve taken on adult responsibilities: jobs, taxes, bills, rent or mortgages, taking care of children. It’s the opposite: seeing how much everything costs and how I’m not getting paid enough to keep up, have enough money to spend however I want after bills and groceries, live a comfortable life makes me see how fucked up, unfair, oppressive our capitalist system is. How can Americans accept this? Conservatives are also hypocrites: they want people to reproduce and have families, yet they endorse and enact policies that make it expensive and almost impossible to take care of a family; they want freedom and liberty for those who are white, rich, Christian but if you’re not a member of these groups you deserve to be discriminated against or worse.

And I’m still a men’s rights advocate as I think feminism goes too far, but I’m not a misogynist.

Wild_Karrde11 · 2025-12-28T00:52:55+00:00

Just the opposite. I saw things very black and white when I was young. I began to travel, and learn and grow. I am now very left leaning. I am empathetic. I struggle to see anything positive on the right now. I am now in my mid 40s and happier than I have ever been.

Le_ed · 2025-12-27T21:58:44+00:00

Huh, no?

thedisliked23 · 2025-12-27T22:05:38+00:00

You don't have to be a hippy liberal to still have a rational take on how the current crop of conservatives are hurting people and the country. It's not a one or the other situation and letting it be so leads you towards ideologies and decisions that are led by party loyalty rather than ethics and morals. Are many far left talking points anti-male? Absolutely. Are many far right policies anti-male? Absolutely. If you disagree with that you only care about the "right" kind of men, not men in general and you're cutting off your nose to spite your face.

adam-l · 2025-12-28T00:37:33+00:00

If you read a '70s liberal, such as e.g. Herb Goldberg in The Hazzards of Being Male, you realize that there is such a thing as a true liberal. And then you have what Malcom X said about "liberals", those that are like conservatives just more hypocritical.

There's a precious little book called Political Ponerology by a Polish psychiatrist, Andrzej Łobaczewski, who survived the Stalinist regime to research and write it. He concluded that any ideology starts and inspires people with honest intentions, and when it becomes a regime it gets taken over by psychopaths. That's what has happened to liberalism.

The thing is, it has happened to conservatism as well.

The solution is, unfortunately, neither simple nor easy: it is to discern what each has to offer and keep it, while discarding its bleak points.

So, for example, in raising children, you need to keep liberalism's wamth and respect for the kids, while discarding its laissez-faire distortion, and you need to keep conservatism's firm limits while discarding a stifling authoritarianism.

You need to always apply judgement.

Oxetine · 2025-12-27T22:03:51+00:00

Being a centrist is the common sense and correct stance in most cases. People on both far sides of the spectrum are insufferable.

Miserable-Thanks5218 · 2025-12-27T22:07:18+00:00

Similar but different age group, started out conservation/edgy during 2016-17 (age 13-14) era, then became liberal 2018-2023, 2019 was my peak lib era. Have been becoming more and more right wing/conservative since, it all started with me trying to get a software engineering internship as a dude (soo much gender based discrimination). Since then i have started to notice more and more bigotry/misandry in day to day life.

Noid1111 · 2025-12-27T23:45:11+00:00

Nope I've been a leftist pretty much my entire life

mwts · 2025-12-28T00:59:54+00:00

Opposite here.
More left the older I get and more comfortable with violence too. Eat the rich.

Aexaus · 2025-12-27T22:06:14+00:00

When I was growing up, they literally pitched the bicameral system as like "Good vs. Bad". Clearly the party with the blue color is good and the red one is evil, right? That's how it works in movies and games! The Democrats surely just want a democracy. Surely, the answer to everything is letting everyone do whatever the hell they want.

You know what proved that notion wrong? When I became an adult and started to understand the nuances behind the way liberals would treat me. They see me as inferior and nothing more than a tool to get their vote.

Semisonic · 2025-12-27T23:28:58+00:00

I think a lot of people continue to see themselves as 90's or early 2000's liberals. But the Democratic party left those people behind a long time ago, and people are just waking up to that at different speeds.

rv6xaph9 · 2025-12-28T00:14:43+00:00

knowing when someone says they are happy but you can tell they aren’t.

So true man. The idiots are unlimited in this world.

OldSchoolNewRules · 2025-12-28T00:29:54+00:00

Yeah, Im a leftist now.

ScurvyDawg · 2025-12-28T01:07:38+00:00

Nearly 60 now, and as far left as I could go. I wish more people understood left and right. Mostly I see people referring to left and right and really they mean conservative or democrat, that's not right and left. That's right and right, both owned by the billionaire class.

Last_Dentist5070 · 2025-12-28T01:34:32+00:00

Changed when I was 14. I didn't approve of double standards because "muh whitez are the source of evil everywhere". White liberals tend to be the most idiotic, intolerant, and racist people I've ever met. This is my speaking from a largely non-western traditionalist view but they are ASSHOLES. I can tolerate the town racist in Louisiana where I was born. We eventually became drinking buddies. I cannot tolerate the fucking white man's burden liberals who tell me what I should think, what I can eat, etc etc. Fuck them.

When I say white liberals I largely mean the loud annoying ass bitches who can never understand other POVs exist and they don't think they can EVER be wrong. There are plenty of decent (usually older - Gen X) liberals I am fine with because they respect my beliefs and we can all get a drink together.

I'm a devout believer of natural governance and policies. Let countries/cultures be alone and beautiful in their ways, instead of a homogenized bland bullshit that has no substance and obviously kowtows to the liberal westerners.

infinitofluxo · 2025-12-27T21:26:55+00:00

It took me a few more years to realize that. What was promised to me was a lie. Unfortunately, my family influenced me on these views, so it was hard to figure out what to believe in.

Anon_049152 · 2025-12-27T22:54:42+00:00

I grew up a “shallow” conservative, with the slogans and the trickle-down economics. Over time, learned about how corrupt and captured both government and private organizations are, and witnessed the failure of trickle-down. I realized how much my vote didn’t matter, or make a shred of difference. I realized what a crock organized religion is. I realized the devaluation of currency hurts the non-asset, non-debt class. My early suspicions of increased worker productivity not returning equivalent value to the worker continues to be proven with every decade that passes. I realized early that what started as “political correctness” would lead to thought police, intolerance (ironic, considering the “tolerance” bullshit) and social, political, and economic punishment if one had the temerity to not be in lockstep with the hivemind.

I ended up more of a humanist libertarian, which has no political or social presence at all.

Good thing I’ll be dead soon, one way, or the other.

Living-Intention1802 · 2025-12-27T21:25:03+00:00

Most people become conservative when they realize the bias when they apply for college, but it’s even more obvious when you actually start applying for job jobs.

Enter the workforce and see the obvious double standard for men versus women. Women are much less likely to be laid off and much more likely to be promoted and less likely to work overtime or to become a subject matter expert.

x_JUGRNOT_x · 2025-12-27T23:29:48+00:00

Only until they started supporting fascism, racism and pedophilia.

Turns out it was good vs evil.

When i look around and see I'm on the side of the kkk, North Korea, Russia and Pedophilia i realized i was on the wrong side.

The left isn't perfect but it's so much wiser than this.

MariachiArchery · 2025-12-27T22:58:29+00:00

I moved to one of the 'liberal hell hole' cities about 5 years ago from a swing state. My views have changed drastically.

The democratic party of today is right of Reagan.

AirframeTapper · 2025-12-27T21:49:58+00:00

There are things I am definitely more conservative on, but I cannot subscribe to the political right in America. At this juncture, I would consider myself a moderate liberal - strong social supports with strong systems of accountability. Attachment to objective reality and facts, not speculation or “faith-based” solutions.

ImaginationNo9953 · 2025-12-27T22:33:16+00:00

I'm the opposite. I was more conservative at first, and I still am, and I understand personal opinions. Before, with comments I sometimes read, I would have insulted them endlessly.

SarcasticallyCandour · 2025-12-27T23:25:24+00:00

I started to see that liberal isn't actually liberal. It's progressive, now imo.

As in it's supports, government funds, mentorship for only certain groups and not others. If girls are behind in math/physics millions of dollars are thrown at them. But if boys are behind in literacy then fuck them. That's to do with male is the oppressor so if they are behind its a good thing.

In terms of the other side of things I think left wing parties have become progressively more and more toxic, more and more obsessing over narrower ideologies talking points like trans, abortion , language control. Instead of homelessness, poverty, crime etc. The reason the blue is good (dems in US) is bc they were tolerant, self reflective molding views as new issues arrive. Now the left wing uses an ideological filter to process everything. So it is ideology first, always. Even Obama deported 3.5m illegals , but now the ideology is "theres no such thing as an illegal human". So we see in 10 years the views are ramped up.

The left promotes censorship and wants to prosecute you for different ideas. This is not liberal at all! Its a flipped-over right wing.

Generally we get more conservative as we age. As you go to work to support people who dont work you get pissed. As you save for a mortgage you will see illegals come into your country going into a 4 star hotel, and fake NGOs setting up scamming public funds that are your taxes. I start to become anti immigration as my country rapidly becomes a mix of everyone but people pouring in often dont work but get priority for social housing. Again the native homeless dont get this because like boys, they are the oppressors due to being Westerners.

You can see in the US, 54% white women (who voted) voted for Trump, i guess a lot of this is similar.

I know what yoh mean, but I think liverals aren't liberal they are lie the right but their ideology is flipped.

Conservatarian1 · 2025-12-27T21:16:13+00:00

If you're not a liberal by 20, you have no heart; if you're not a conservative by 40, you have no brain.

aabum · 2025-12-28T00:13:29+00:00

I've long said if you reach age 25 and don't realize that both political parties don't give two shits about you, that they serve themselves, you are demonstrating a severe intellectual deficit.

Colejohnley · 2025-12-28T00:17:48+00:00

"If you're not a liberal when you're young, you have no heart; if you're not a conservative when you're old, you have no brain.”

Some French guy a long time ago.

analfarmer2pnt0 · 2025-12-28T00:30:08+00:00

I started out Liberal, then went conservative then went to a more Asian conservative like what you see in Japan. I think there's a lot of things in America that is very stupid on both sides and I realised it came down to the culture and the corruption. The Democrats are the worst offenders but when I started seeing the hypocrisy with the Republicans I started gearing up to leave the US. No one here represents my values.

MorgothTheBauglir · 2025-12-28T00:32:53+00:00

The switch generally flips when you expect the system to help you out in some way but you realize the system is the one actually holding you down. Doing your taxes is generally when you get the first sting that people have been lying to you all the time.

bryoneill11 · 2025-12-28T01:07:42+00:00

Your path is the 99% of people.

Thats why the famous saying is so relevant:

If you are not left winger before 25 you have no heart. But if you are not a right winger after 25 then you have no brain.

katoso22 · 2025-12-28T01:30:36+00:00

I see this trend in folks that are religious.

CawlinAlcarz · 2025-12-28T01:36:57+00:00

The first time I thought about how I aligned politically was when I was 16 in high school (1986).

I thought I was liberal because I wanted to be able to smoke pot without getting in trouble. I was definitely a NORML type of guy.

Ironically, that's also when I started working as a W2 employee and seeing taxes coming out of my "tipped" minimum wage salary (at the time, minimum wage was $3.35, tipped min. wage was $2.01, and I was a busboy in a restaurant.)

I made an extra $60 or $80 a week in untaxed cash tips, and my biweekly paycheck for hours worked after taxes would be like $45.

That was when I learned that not liking taxes was not a liberal thing.

To put that into perspective, I got concert tickets for both U2 and Pink Floyd in the fall of 1987 for around $30 apiece (all fees included).

So while my personal politics did not massively shift, I do remember getting to my late 20s and looking around at my friends who were STILL liberals and realized I'd been tolerating their jibber jabber up to that point, based on my certainty that they'd figure it out eventually. Anyway, as I realized these folks were unlikely to change, I concluded that my friendships with a lot of them had run their course.

jtstii · 2025-12-28T01:56:41+00:00

Me. Absolutely happened to me.

katoso22 · 2025-12-28T02:00:29+00:00

We are all different. I got more liberal the more I traveled the world and learned. Especially history. Nothing is new but social conservative views are almost always rejected over time.

redlawnmower · 2025-12-28T02:04:12+00:00

If you’re not liberal at 20, you have no heart. If you’re not conservative at 50, you have no brain. - Winston Churchill (falsely attributed)

Global_Rate3281 · 2025-12-28T02:06:39+00:00

As I’ve gotten older I’ve gotten much more liberal. A lot of my family and friends have struggled and needed help and I don’t want the right wingers slashing food stamps and other public benefits. All the modernized countries have universal healthcare and strong public benefits so I don’t want to see us heading towards third world countries where the poor can’t get helped.

StockButterscotch764 · 2025-12-28T02:09:01+00:00

I was a flaming progressive in my younger days…the nuttier the cause/issue, the better….I’ve since migrated to some kind of moderate/independent center due to how both left and right (or what passes for them) are shitting on whatever remains of our Western tradition - including men’s rights.

PacoBedejo · 2025-12-28T02:16:02+00:00

Age 27 to 32 is the time I started learning that unrestrained empathy can be rather destructive. It's true. Don't feed the bears. They'll stop feeding themselves. I stick to making sure the horse knows where the water is but I don't bother trying to make it drink.

I'm 48 now and my son, adopted at 13 from foster "care", is now 27. He's understood this stuff since he was about 22. Hopefully we can get his 7yo son to understand it during his teens.

HungryBanana07 · 2025-12-28T02:49:00+00:00

I think a lot of modern liberalism realistically is just teenagers whose only experience of politics is on the internet or in school. They want to believe in all the nice things but haven’t had to deal with the harsh realities. It’s normal to grow out of that in time and with experience in the real world.

stupid_dumb_idiot_II · 2025-12-28T02:49:34+00:00

I went to college for political science, and went in very liberal. A few years of constitutional law shifted me to the right. This was in the early 2010s before MAGA.

dibzim · 2025-12-28T03:02:48+00:00

Hold up. Is this a conservative subreddit? If so, I’m out of here.

Fuck the billionaire class and the Republican party that protects it.

NoVeterinarian3973 · 2025-12-27T22:00:18+00:00

Soon as I had to start paying taxes so other people could enjoy NOT working. This does NOT apply to the elderly (who have paid their dues), Veterans (who have sacrificed much for this country, risking their lives and coming back physically or mentally maimed-PTSD,) nor those intellectually or physically disabled. Purposely making poor life choices absent a medical diagnosis does not count as disabled.

dope_star · 2025-12-27T23:34:12+00:00

I was always around center left while growing up in the 90s and 2000s. Now in my 40s I would be considered center right if not fully right. My views have not changed. Just the left went crazy. I still hate the far right and religious idiots but because I don't believe an 11 year old should have life changing surgery, and I still believe in the 90s idea of color blindness to combat racism (among other things)I'm considered a Nazi by the left. I'm still pro gay rights and women's/mens rights though so the right wing consideres me a left wing libtard too. Both parties are full of extremist retards is the tldr.

13e1ieve · 2025-12-27T21:33:04+00:00

Everything has shades... part of becoming an adult is realizing and accepting the nonsense and hypocrisy of the world.

ICE going through communities in the way they are is wrong and abuse of government power. But we shouldn't have so many illegal immigrants and the law should be enforced. But it could be done with kindness and humanity instead of cruelty and racism.

Women should have the right to have an abortion. Unplanned and unwanted children result in poverty and broken homes, and fatherless children result in poor outcomes for society. But it's also killing babies.

People should have the right to be gay/trans etc without harassment or government discrimination. But we don't need to celebrate it in our culture or media or pay for their transition related healthcare expenses. And definitely don't need them winning in women's sports.

I can work for a megacorp to earn as best as I can in this world to take care of myself and my family, but in doing so I need to accept that I am part of the evil in the system; abuses of foreign labor, exploitative pricing,

We can accept that a large portion of the US society was wronged in prior generations, but that doesnt give them carte blanche to rob, steal, murder and abuse our social safety systems or have positive discrimination within education and hiring system. asking me to pay reparations for something my great great grandfather did isn't right either.

Socialized healthcare would result in many people have worse access; longer wait times etc. But our current system of rampant profit driven private equity owned healthcare results in gouging against the paying customers and the hospital emergency room being used by the poor. At the same time nobody is talking about how a doctor makes $1M/year while a surgeon in Germany makes $140k/year. The rampant inflation of salaries for medical professionals due to gouging of education price and limited supply gatekeeping by the AMA/residency system monopoly is designed to extract maximum revenue from patients to the providers. It plain shouldn't cost so much.

AGWorking24 · 2025-12-27T22:15:37+00:00

No, much more liberal as time goes on. Conservatives are anti education and anti science and pro war and pro corporatism over workers (in America). I will never be those things.

valspare · 2025-12-27T21:24:54+00:00

I'd say you are affected by having a brain and using independent, reasoned thought to have reached this conclusion.

Welcome.

TrendsettersAssemble · 2025-12-27T22:21:53+00:00

Politics aside Ive been antifeminist since around 22

notsowrong · 2025-12-27T21:15:50+00:00

It’s often said that if you were never a socialist you don’t have a heart and if you insist on being one, you don’t have a brain.

I am personally a centrist. If you spend enough time on right wing forums (even on Reddit) you will come to understand why these people are so hated.

OmNamoShivaya44 · 2025-12-27T21:45:12+00:00

51 and still a green party liberal and support men's rights

Comfortable-Side1308 · 2025-12-27T22:11:07+00:00

I voted for Obama to n 2008. Voted for Trump each time.

Typical-Weakness267 · 2025-12-27T21:11:30+00:00

I changed at age seventeen, when I started to watch HBR.

NewMoonlightavenger · 2025-12-27T22:20:12+00:00

That is me. I just waited.until I was around 44.

khalilliouane · 2025-12-28T00:18:47+00:00

You are communist until you get your first salary.

But to your point, this is typical when you start experiencing reality. I would say you become more of a centered conservative with an open mind.

johnnycarrotheid · 2025-12-27T23:03:03+00:00

Nah, I've been like this all my days near enough.

40 now, but I was born and bred into it, in the UK working class with the mindset of "whatever you want, you have to work for" 🤷

Always seen the warning signs with Politics for example, with Party's coming bearing gifts or freebies. My mindset screams "nothing is free, what are they up to ?🤔"

Also makes us look funny at people supporting "free stuff" in our lives, that didn't crawl up from the working class. Makes us suspicious unless we view them as just idiots lol

greenzie · 2025-12-27T23:52:29+00:00

No one gets blue-pilled. Only red-pilled.

TradesforChurros · 2025-12-28T00:06:44+00:00

RumHamFightMilkDiet · 2025-12-28T01:16:41+00:00

Until human rights are a given rather than a political stance I won't entertain any of the right's ideologies.

SentientGonorrhea · 2025-12-28T00:42:26+00:00

Yikes, this place is filled with idiots!

Mollywobbles77 · 2025-12-27T22:07:38+00:00

One of my fav political quotes is "Any man who is under 30 and is not a liberal has no heart. Any man who is over 30 and is not a conservative has no brains." -Winston Churchill

Title	Did anyone else start liberal and then got to 28 and their perspective on people, friends, decisions and everything changed?
Author	ProfessionalNose6520
Upvotes	89
Comments	168
Date	December 27, 2025 9:03 PM UTC (6 months ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/MensRights
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/1px8jjr/did_anyone_else_start_liberal_and_then_got_to_28/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/MensRights/did-anyone-else-start-liberal-and-then-got-to-28.1569823 https://theredarchive.com/post/1569823

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