Since I made those scales, might as well use them to show my past and my current politics, and how I shifted through the ages. I've gone over my political journey before, I just wanna add to this by adding my rating system.
2002 - 5E/5S/6F
I started off relatively apolitical and motivated primarily by 9/11. I remember always being conservative but I started off kinda moderate, outside of 9/11 itself which drove me to be a neocon.
2004- 6E/6S/6F
Became a pretty strong religious conservative who was big on Reagan and Bush
2006- 6E/5.5S/5.5F
I became a little more moderate and started to wear on Bush a bit. Socially was the big shift, where I moderated quickly on say gay marriage, but I was still pretty conservative. Foreign policy wise Bush's troop surges had me wearing on his invasions in Iraq, and the war wasn't going well.
2008- 6E/5S/5F
Became more of a Ron Paul style libertarian. More permissive on social issues but still somewhat conservative, less interventionist on foreign policy. Kinda aligned with the dems at the time but couldn't vote for Obama as I saw him as too extreme. Hillary I could accept though. I did end up holding my nose for mccain despite him being a 5.5E/6S/6F.
2010- 6E/5S/5F
Didn't really change from 2008 much. Maybe became a bit more conservative, but still that Ron Paul type ideology.
2012- 4E/4S/3.5F
At the time this came off as a massive shift, but honestly in the grand scheme of things, it just seems like a natural progressive. I was an obama liberal. Secular humanist, but hadnt really fully grown into my new worldview. Still a little conservative compared to where I am now but the basis of my current worldview starting to come into focus.
2014- 3E/3S/3.5F
Developed the social libertarian view I have now. Very aligned with social democracy. Kinda sorta embraced a touch of woke but not a ton of it. Never had a really strong alliance with those guys. Foreign policy I was pretty much like let's stay out of stuff. Still had some liberal inclinations where we cant pull out entirely, but kinda started trending that way.
2016- 3E/3S/3.5F
Didn't really change, wanted Bernie, Clinton started alienating me on the "woke" front. Keep in mind even though I call her a 4, she's kinda all over the place. a 3 on wokeism but like a 5 on religious issues. Still, I tried to be more friendly at first and recognize them we're all on the same side, right?
2018- 2.5E/3.5S/3.5F
Kinda flirted with socialism but never really committed to the ideal. Embraced a lot of the edgy/cringey stuff at the time but all in all still had my core convictions. Did kinda start distancing myself from woke people socially though as they started being 2s or even 1s at times.
2020- 2.75E/3.5S/3.5F
Kinda an extension of 2018's politics but did start to question my relationship with the left after they started bashing Yang for not being a literal socialist.
2022- 3E/3.5S/4F
Ukraine animated me to move toward a more active liberal perspective on foreign policy, recognizing we cant just let russia get away with whatever. Shifted a bit back to the right on economic issues, closer to my pre 2016 baseline. Still questioning my relationship with the woke left.
2024- 3E/4S/4F
More formally breaking with the woke left and solidifying my position as a "liberal", probably a long time coming as they've been alienating me since 2016, but I always tried to toe the line of kinda agreeing with them while criticizing their methods, but I kinda realized they're insane. And I'm really realizing leftists are insane. And while I maintain my core economic positions, I have become a bit less rigid in how I approach situations with them, kinda settling for more moderate progress while my core ideal positions are the same.
But yeah. For the most part since 2012-2014 I've been dealing with just about the same worldview with modifications. Before that I was a lot more conservative and moderated over time. Given how i set up the rating scale we can see a lot more linear progression in my ideals, with even the 2012 shift being not too massive and only a point or two in a direction, not a shift to like the radical left. In 2014 I called myself left of the left, but that didnt age well. I really only approached it from a more liberal/socdem position where the standard left position was 4E/4S/4F or even more moderate. Now I'm dealing with weirdos who are like 2E/2S/2F or god forbid 1E/1S/1F at times (those guys are REALLY crazy) and I'm just like "nope, didn't sign up for this. Anything left of 3E/3S/3F is just no go for me at this point. Dems are still around 4s on everything, but the left is going in the direction of being 2s on everything and here I am like a 3-4 on most issues. 3 on economics, but I'm clearly going back to a 4 on the non economic issues, as I reject woke social ideology and leftist foreign policy. I'm really just a lib with further left economic positions. I'm not crazy, after all.
But yeah, that's how I see it. Am I becoming a bit more conservative as I get older? A little, but mostly in backlash from rejecting what the left is becoming. I still hold just about the same ideals I have since 2014, I've only changed incrementally either way since then in actual positions.
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