John Bull

To add a serious point to this great tweet:

The traditional drift rightwards as people age is really a drift towards maintaining the status quo once you feel part of it.

But if you can't buy a house, see a GP, afford childcare or get a stable job you never become the status quo

RT @[email protected]

“You’ll get more conservative as you get older” I definitely won’t but I am starting to appreciate Bruce Springsteen more

🐦🔗: https://twitter.com/DrakeGatsby/status/1589287710182690816

Nov 7, 2022 at 8:59amWeb
Show threadTane Piper ⁂Nov 7, 2022
@garius You could put a positivist spin on it - each generation the Overton window actually goes to the left, but it takes another generation to throw people out that window.
Show threadJim WrinkleNov 7, 2022

@garius

Need to be careful about generalisations here.

In the context of the current political environment where there has been a strong shift to the right, I find that as I get older my political views have shifted left.

I want to see MORE equality and fairness not less.

I am sure I am not alone amongs mature folks.

Show threadmartin_fffNov 7, 2022
@garius the older I get the more I see that I'm only where I am, for better and not worse, by the support of others, friends family and society at large. If anything it easier to see how fragile it all is...
Show threadBrother MunroNov 7, 2022
@garius I’ve become increasingly *left* wing as I’ve gotten older
Show threadGlasnoztNov 7, 2022
@garius It's not a certainty. I don't think it's just me but I've become MORE progressive as I get older. I'm cranky about some things (spelling and fashion) but politically - much more progressive. (I grew up as the child of a Liberal voting family and continued that way for the first few elections until I went my own way)
Show threadRebeccaNov 7, 2022
@garius I find myself becoming increasingly left wing but perhaps that's because of the factors you mention
Show threadIain MooreNov 7, 2022
@garius
I think the big danger too is people feeling progressively socially and politically excluded - and all the potential for radicalisation and fragmentation this creates.
A simple rightward drift (while not what I'd want!) would be much less damaging.
Show threadDave HounslowNov 7, 2022

@garius I think I >have< got more conservative as I've got older

But mainstream conservativism has swung so far and so rapidly to the right that I'm relatively more left wing than I was as a teen

Show threadAlan Wright 🇬🇧 🇮🇲Nov 7, 2022
@garius definitely more rage against the machine😂😂😂😂
Show threadMuzNov 7, 2022
@garius
I've definitely gotten more liberal as I've gotten older, but that's mainly due to my own circumstances and growing up in a pretty conservative household.
For most people it's all about money. I know people who in the 80's were die hard left-wing trade unionists but as soon as they benefited from their job security and are either retired or approaching retirement they became hardcore right wing brexiters afraid that the current generation of workers will "steal their hard-earned cash"
Show threadAnn HawkinsNov 7, 2022
@garius "People may become more conservative as they age" means they are more change averse, so if they are already politically left they are not going to drift right. They'll become more entrenched in the beliefs they already hold. Speaking from personal experience and that of friends - not as some abstract boomer group dreamt up by marketers.
Show threadSea of CrisesNov 7, 2022

@AnnHawkins @garius
Do you mean small-c conservative as opposed to big-C Conservative?

Probably a fair comment. Though in the past the two were at least a bit synonymous. The interesting thing is that appears to be breaking down with Gen-X and younger.

One interesting straw in the wind: actual Conservative party membership dropped below replacement level a few years ago. They’re dying off faster than new people are joining.

Show threadAnn HawkinsNov 7, 2022
@SeaOfCrises I don't know what @garius meant but a look at the replies to the tweet take it both ways and a lot of people say there's no way they're drifting to the right and many become more liberal as they get older.
Show threadJohn BullNov 7, 2022

@AnnHawkins @SeaOfCrises definitely small c.

And to a certain extent I think it was a quirk of the post-war generation, both in the UK and US, and even then obviously not universal.

And yes. I think the reason it's dropping off for Gen-X and below is because economically and socially it's harder to 'climb the ladder' and thus see yourself (subconsciously) as benefiting from the status quo.

Show threadSwelterTheChefNov 7, 2022
@garius I am finding, as I get older, currently late 50's, I am getting more socialist and more rabidly anti Tory.
Show threadWendy Bohon, PhDNov 7, 2022
@garius I agree with the person that said “I’m glad that as I’ve aged I’ve gotten chubbier instead of more politically conservative.”
Show threadJack AllnuttNov 7, 2022

@garius I'm honestly not sure if the premise is even true.

I think that it's (more of) a cohort effect in Boombers (and to a lesser extent Gen X) than it is an ageing effect.

Show threadFish Id WardrobeNov 7, 2022
@jack @garius If anything I've got more left-wing as I got older. Teenage me assumed those in charge knew what they were doing, and getting older has in part been a process of continually discovering new ways in which that was incorrect
Show threadCharlie StrossNov 7, 2022

@garius I saw a grim suggestion that "you get right wing as you age" is to some extent survivorship bias—the poor/excluded die young.

(I—late fifties—am only getting angrier and more vehemently anti-establishment as I age, and I consider myself well-off. But the 0.1% elite are systematically looting the state and degrading the quality of public life while they hide behind high walls, and I'm not *that* well-off.)

Show threadJohn BullNov 7, 2022

@cstross to be honest i think in part it's a 'boomer thing'

i.e. it's very much a post-war generational convergence of factors.

Show threadJohn BullNov 7, 2022
@cstross (i know, not all boomers etc)
Show threadCharlie StrossNov 7, 2022
@garius True. We're also in the decade of Boomer retirement, and they're liquidating their assets to cover it, which may explain some of the market whackiness (housing prices were a retirement savings shelter for decades) while they're spending less on Stuff (cars, homes, office attire, conspicuous consumption) and what they are spending is going on experiences.
Show threadJohn BullNov 7, 2022
@cstross We're living through Douglas Adams shoe shop economic collapse model, but with Viking Cruises.
Show threadStubbsNov 7, 2022
@garius I always thought you went the opposite way, I’m getting more and more left as I get older (almost 50 now) and I see plenty of people going the opposite way, from left to right. I also think environment has a lot to do with it, which is the status quo I guess.
Show threadJohn BullNov 7, 2022

@Stubbs it's why i suspect it's somewhat generational.

when you're not staring down a decent pension and council-provided old age care anymore, it tends to make you drift leftwards!

Show threadNoojoiseyNov 7, 2022
@garius Is the rightward drift really true though? Or is it a more of a "you stupid young kids will understand when you get older"? I heard that a lot growing up (in the '70's). I grew up in a conservative family, and definitely became more liberal I as I grew older. I was liberal when I was young, but my understanding of politics and society has deepened as I've aged and experienced life.
Show threadErik Uden => [email protected]Jan 14, 2023

I’d argue that the younger you are the more you have time to inform yourself about politics! Lots of topics are heavily complex and need nuance, additionally if you’re younger you think more idealist than ‘realist’. Revolution seems more logical than reform.

But once you’re older, truth will be what’s on TV or whatever the local newspaper writes, and if what’s on TV is Tucker Carlson and your ‘local’ newspaper is really part of Sinclair Broadcast Group, then of course you’ll become more conservative. Why would a different world be possible if oil oligarchs pay me to tell you it isn’t?

Show threadChiasmJan 14, 2023
@garius I looked into this at one point cuz I wondered about what Gen X was doing as it aged, drifting left or right, and I found some research that basically said you set your political opinions in early adulthood, and the different generations reflect what was going on at the time they hit their 20s. There actually isn't a lot of evidence of drift one direction or the other with age. I'll have to see if I can find it again...
Show threadJason_DoddJan 14, 2023

@garius I'm getting more liberal as I get older.

One of the more influential parts of my life found me, white-y mcwhite face, living in a sea of black people experiencing first hand day by day how the world treated me differently from my friends and family. Racism is alive and well in the US. Believe you me.

But I didn't support same sex marriage, homosexuals, or transgender people.

About 15 years or so ago I started to see how wrong I was.

I've mostly always been liberal financially

Show threadJason_DoddJan 14, 2023
@garius Case in point, I liked Mike Rowe's podcast when it was short. Now that it's in long form his the opposite of liberalism view points have put me off to the point I only listen to about every 3rd of 4th episode as a mean to not be trapped in a liberal bubble. But I find his show more and more distasteful even thought it's not what I'd call extreme.