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When I was in high school, I was vehemently anti-choice, even for cases of rape. As I approach 40, I cringe that I could have ever thought that, and fully believe a woman's choice should be hers only.
I'm just the opposite. When I was in high school and my college years, I was very pro-choice. I truly saw nothing wrong with abortion back then. I even helped a couple of friends get abortions. One I loaned $50, the other I drove her to the clinic and back. The abortions I was familiar with were of the first trimester, and I honestly felt it was simply the removal of some benign tissue. As time went on, however, I I found myself re-thinking the entire issue. Although I still believe its ultimately the woman's decision, I am now personally opposed to it. I suppose as I've gone through the journey of my life I've learned to think for myself, rather than allow social trends to do my thinking for me.
For the original question, about the only thing I've changed my views on is legalization. It's a law that just isn't going to work. So instead of criminalizing use, criminalize results -- IE DUI, crimes committed under the influence, etc. Basically I don't care how high you get so long as you stay in your house and don't get in the car, come to work, so forth where you could hurt someone else.
That sums up my first "180." I don't think adults should be punished simply for possessing and using drugs, so long as they don't endanger others, don't allow minors access to said drugs, and purchase them with their own earned income (IOW, not on welfare).
I have always believed that one forfeits their own life if they intentionally take the innocent life of another. In keeping with that principle, I now believe capital punishment should be limited to murder, although I don't think an aggravating circumstance should be necessary as is currently the case. I no longer support capital punishment for crimes where an innocent life is not intentionally taken, "crimes against the state" such as treason, espionage, large-scale drug trafficking, and in certain states aircraft hijacking.
I used to believe that (government-run) welfare was a costly necessity, but now I'd prefer to see the welfare state eliminated (and taxes reduced accordingly) so that individuals, families, charities, and religious institutions can directly and more effectively assess and meet the legitimate needs of people in their own and surrounding communities.
I've also shifted by beliefs in favor of keeping power closer to the individual, so I'd prefer a confederation of strong states instead of a strong national government, and citizen-controlled taxation.
I'm still staunchly pro-life, pro-gun. pro-liberty, pro-faith, and pro-business.
I'm guess I'm technically still a conservative, although I've become much more libertarian over the last 10 or so years.
The one social issue I've done a 180º on is marijuana. Although I was never really against it and had used it recreationally in my twenties, it was mostly just to be social, and I wasn't a fan. I never got what the big deal was. I also had experienced unpleasant reactions from it such as anxiety and paranoia. I stopped using it almost completely from my 30s onward. (I'm now 68) and didn't miss it at all.
More recently cannabis became legal here and in a lot of other places. All the publicity about its potential health benefits made me curious to give it another try. All my life I've had issues with insomnia and anxiety. I had been using Benadryl for sleep, but news stories had alerted me that in older people, chronic use is correlated with a higher risk of dementia. I was hoping cannabis might be a safer way of getting help without the risks and side effects of pharmaceutical drugs.
My doctor was supportive of this idea, so I got a medical card last year and am very pleased with how it's helped me so far. So I've gone from being someone who couldn't care less about marijuana and would refuse any offers to share a joint to someone who uses MJ daily and has become an advocate for the benefits of this amazing plant.
I consider myself a moderate independent. I've become less liberal concerning abortion: needs to be early pregnancy. More liberal concerning recreational marijuana: legalize it. More liberal gay rights and marriage. More fiscally conservative, need balanced budget, less social and defense spending.
Career military and have absolutely no view on transgenders openly being in the ranks - but I felt the same way about gays in the military.
I think of myself as a radical left wing conservative. I seem to be the only one. Always believed in strict constitution, small government, and personal responsibility, but have become more lefty on social issues than the typical conservative.
I don't care who gets married to whom, or if someone else decides to get an abortion, or if a nice illegal lady from Mexico wants a job at the Motel 6.
When I was younger, I was optimistic about my own prospects and role in the world, and rather irritated and pessimistic about the rest of humanity. Now it’s the reverse. I feel a lilting confidence that somehow we’ll muddle through the crises of demographics, the environment, armed conflict, ethnic and national tensions and so forth. I feel a peaceful satisfaction that in 100 or 200 or 500 years, the ensuing world will be more pleasant and more sophisticated than the current one. But on a personal level, I feel enervation and frustration. I’ve grown bored with life, detached from its various stimulations or elations. I’ve come to celebrate human life and the human condition overall, but not personally.
Politically, I had some fairly extreme opinions both on the right, and on the left. Over time, I’ve become more centrist. Comprehensive solutions, regardless of their provenance on the political spectrum, now strike me as being impractical, if not outright phony. I’ve come to prefer gradual, incremental change.
Never bugged me...gotta pay for the public good even if it doesn't benefit you directly....I never had kids but I pay a ton of property tax!...I've only gotten more liberal over time but I can trace the start back to a sociology class in college. The structural causes of poverty and discrimination are huge and have changed little over the decades.
I don't have an issue paying taxes-as long as they pay for the right things-schools, roads, police, firefighters, etc. I do have issue with our tax dollars given to oil companies, big farm (not the little farmer-don't have an issue with that), and other major corporations-not to mention for wars.
I would have to say a lot of my life has been a 180, or maybe I was always this way, but too afraid to come out,so to speak.
I grew up in a fundamentalist very republican home. Took those views with me when I left home. Probably the first to go was anti gay. As I worked as a nurse it became more and more apparent to me that being straight or gay wasn't a choice. Those people were very much just people like me. 180 there.
I got married, he was a nasty person in real life, but a pillar of the church we attended. I lived that life for 20 years. When I finally left, I of course was the bad one. Stopped going to church, haven't been in20 years and really haven't missed it. I who was in church at least 5 times a week! Now, i can't do the hypocrisy. 180 there, including divorcing, which was considered practically unforgivable in th circles I traveled in.
Now, I would rather spend my tax dollars on an undeserving child's glass of milk than war. I can't stand all the corporate welfare. I see myself much more connected to my fellow humans and their struggles, I don't see myself as paternal and right as I did earlier in my life. I changed from thinking those people didn't work hard enough...that why they are where they are.. to seeing society as stacked against them. I became a democrat. Another 180.
So I am pretty much not who I started out being. That most certainly has been hard on my family of origin, oh well!
I'm just the opposite. Although I still believe its ultimately the woman's decision, I am now personally opposed to it. I suppose as I've gone through the journey of my life I've learned to think for myself, rather than allow social trends to do my thinking for me.
I am personally opposed to crime, traffic, air pollution, wife beating, fast food and MANY MANY other things.
I think you are doing just what the "culture warriors" want you to - thinking you have changed, when you really haven't. Only a tiny percentage of Americans ever "believed" in Abortion. As an example, I lived on the biggest and most successful "hippie" commune in the USA. I mean...total hippie culture! Guess what our policy was? Complete anti-abortion in 1972....yet we were "far left" in many other ways. We even stated that we would (we had the best midwives in the country) deliver babies for free and keep them if the moms didn't want them.
So - I was 20 then and I am 63 now. Have my views changed? No. Yet, culture warriors would classify me as the enemy.
Being a male and voter/taxpayer which of my actions define my world view? IMHO.
1. Supporting education - including sex ed.
2. Supporting ALL forms of birth control so that the need for Abortion is lessened.
When we were 16 the first thing we did was to take our GFs to Planned Parenthood - never for abortions, but for careful checkups and education and birth control. I feel the same way today.
So take this test to really see if your views have changed. If you support #1 and #2, the evangelicals and GOP as whole are working against you. Even GW Bush cut out funding for sex ed in favor of only abstinence.
It comes down to the question of how hypocritical we all are. Any male who has had sex before being officially married should support my items above....or else they are hypocritical.
Abortion itself has been declared legal by the SCOTUS. Therefore, IMHO, the sane view is that it should be "legal, but rare".
It's not a question of thinking for yourself - rather politics is the art of thinking for the entire society and for the other guy and gal. Just because I was lucky enough to be married young and have 3 children I could afford does not mean that is the experience of everyone else.
Of course the entire related subject is whether men take responsibility for their seed spreading. Many don't - which is even more reason for "choice".
I think of myself as a radical left wing conservative. I seem to be the only one. Always believed in strict constitution, small government, and personal responsibility, but have become more lefty on social issues than the typical conservative.
I don't care who gets married to whom, or if someone else decides to get an abortion, or if a nice illegal lady from Mexico wants a job at the Motel 6.
I think there are a lot of similar people to you.
There is always a difference in what one believes in personally - and the practically of living in a country of 320 million.
Ideally, I'd want smaller government starting with 50% discount on the "Security State". But I'm no fool and it's not going to happen. Therefore, we have to live within the sphere of reality.
So - we (my family) is super frugal and have saved and worked and taken responsibility. At the same time I don't cheat on my taxes and pay for all the excesses of government, etc.
But the bottom line is that we are living a life which represents way into the top 1% in the history of mankind. It would be awful selfish for me to want to climb even higher at the expense of the poor or needy.
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