I've seen it said that this is less true than that conservatives more often have the wealth and power to live to older ages.
Progressives don't become more conservative with age, so much as fewer of us get to age as long as those with wealth and privilege do.
I'm in my 30s and I think I moved to the right on some matters but further to the left on some others.
It's complicated because the "political offer" is not static and depends on time/place. The whole spectrum is shifting to the right, at least in Italy, so by "not moving" you shift left
I’m probably more right on economics (but hey I was a Marxist in uni) but way way more left on social issues. And right wing economists also support UBI.. so that’s what I’m predicating this on.
I was born into a conservative Evangelical family and went from a Republican to a libertarian to a progressive Democrat by my mid 20s and just kept going left and left and left. Probably could be classed as a radical anarchist by now at 47. Watch out for me in 40 more years should I live so long!
I’m the same way on most issues, though have moved very slightly to the right on drug decriminalization after seeing how poorly it worked here in Portland
Not saying it can’t be done, but it really cannot be done like that
i'm also 48 and about the same place i was politically at age 18 (well to the left). my opinions are more reasoned and clearly defined, but they're basically the same opinions backed with better arguments, my fundamental values didn't change.
My father is *counts fingers* 88; he has been a dyed-in-the-wool Tory expat my entire life - he used to have an overseas subscription to the Daily Express (not the International Express, that was 'too leftist' for him)...
...and yet he's been giggling all day over the Cons getting trounced.
I think ultimately what makes you a conservative is privilege and the need to protect your privilege. Boomers had everything, but because the world changed in ways they don't like they've done their best to burn it all down. Leaving a world worse than they found it.
I think that was strictly pre GenX America. I think people are getting more radical because we're being shut out of the benefits of our own efforts, put at the end of the line, told to wait and wait and wait endlessly while rich people jerk off right in front of us. They didn't used to be so bold.
I've never seen it to be true either, and I have some very old, quite wealthy centre-left/left-wing people in my circles.
I think it's another conservative fantasy along the lines of "If economic conditions were better, people would have more babies and believe in traditional marriage again"
It's actually that people become more conservative as their proportional share of wealth increases. That's no longer happening in the era of late stage capitalism
I think the idea behind this concept is that as people earn more money, they tend to like the government less, assuming that income generally increases with age. I've found this to be false.
Agreed. I have definitely become less idealistic and more pragmatic, but I've also become more empathetic to people in hard circumstances, probably as 54 years living has taught me that a bit of bad fortune can hit hard, and that the world ain't no meritocracy.
The cw is based, in large part, on the generational transfer of wealth as aging/dying parents passed their wealth down to their children.
That has been happening to a far lesser degree with the Boomers, who are living longer and spending/hoarding inheritances.
Tl/dr; we're poorer at age now
Serious question for you. Are we moving further left, or is the supposed right moving so far away from normal, that left is moving toward us? My fundamental beliefs haven't changed. But where I stand on the spectrum seems to have.
