I remember when my ex-sister-in-law told me this verbatim. I was enraged.

She's backed off of that sentiment ten years later now that she's seen what her votes have gained. But I won't forget.

The reason people assumed this was the case was that statistically the more money or influence you have the more conservative you become, and for most generations you were able to build savings or property or status slowly as you got older. This stopped being true with milenials.

Somewhat related observation: gen-Z entering the work force right now are highly radical because even while actively working multiple jobs theyre actually losing wealth and are percieved as entirely disposable by employers no matter how long or hard they work.

I'm definitely less liberal. Now I'm an anarchist, leftist, socialist. They were right!

I grew up hearing, “a person should be liberal in their youth, otherwise they have no passion; and conservative as an adult, otherwise they have no sense.”

I’m in my late forties and still think it’s as much bullshit as I thought it was as a teen.

You usually become more fiscally conservative though because you have decades of savings, home, car, etc that you've worked for.

That only works when people are able to successfully find a comfortable place in the system, then the urge to say “fuck you, got mine” grows more and more, making conservatism increasingly likely. But when the system breaks and multiple entire generations stop getting theirs, FUGM stops being a possible option— you ain’t got any to say got mine about.

Accumulated lead poisoning over decades also helps contribute to an increase in likelihood of conservatism as a person ages. Perhaps even more substantially than what I said before.

Uh huh. And you old people picking up your social security, index linked pensions, subsidized healthcare are just so anti-socialism.

You're supposed to become more conservative as you gain a larger nest egg to conserve. When even a nest is out of range of affordability for most, these is no nest egg to be conservative about.

50s here. I've only gotten more to the left than ever. At this rate, I'll be an anarcho-communist by the mid terms!

I was always told I would become more conservative as I got older.

Joke’s on them. Actually understanding capitalism and conservatism and how politics are corrupted by money has bodily yeeted me so far left that I am two good shakes away from being an anachro-communist.

The real irony being that idealized “pure” democracy - fully participatory democracy where the people vote directly on policy, and politicians and most of the political apparatus no longer exists - is essentially political communism. All that remains are bureaucrats whose only job is to implement and coordinate the policies that the people vote for.

This is something I was always told, my family members that would say that were all boomers. Which is just another example of how they fucked us.

Good music and drugs, cheap education, sex in the 70’s along with cheap housing and job security. They voted it all away and said we didn’t deserve it and to pull the bootstraps.

Can’t wait for that generation to go away.

As a child I went to this man’s Halloween show at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, WA where he was a professor of chemistry. Amazing show! Love seeing this meme.

I remember hearing that I’d become more conservative as I got older. 15 year old me thought “sure, communism and anarchism are great IN THEORY but they could never work in the real world!” and 48 year old me thinks “anarchism-syndicalism is the ideal, we just need to smash the state so they don’t crush the movement in its infancy!”

I haven't become more conservative, i have become more dedicated to the values of my youth that weren't misinformed. I have become a lot less blue-eyed about the world and people in general, while still thinking conservatives are all full of shit while constantly being on the brink of becoming full-blown nazis.

I was told the same thing. 20-ish years later, and the average US Democratic nominee makes me think, “you fucking fascist.”

Downvote away but I'm still a fan of free markets. But that's not really an option in my country, because our Libertarian party are actually neo-feudalists who think landowners deserve free rent. So my only real voting choice is for whichever anti-FPTP candidate is most popular. The party "closer" to my beliefs is actively working against them too.

Only if you've never known the benefits of positive social experiences.

I can see people who've been hurt by groups, repeatedly, come to believe their safety and welfare lies in more individual power and less group power. I can understand becoming selfish if you've experienced the freedom of significant individual power.

I do not understand how someone can know billions of us exists and that we have to function as groups, suggest individual power, and less group power, is better for the future of everyone.

I'm starting to wonder how much of that saying had to do with all the lead in the pipes and the gas back then making people paranoid and violent combined with the whole "Fuck you, I got mine" thing we all know about.

I too feel I was if anything more conservative when younger although I was never conservative enough to be called conservative. im in that middle where right wing calls me a crazy super ultra communist X alpha turbo edition and ultra left says im crazy super ultra capitalist X alpha turbo edition.

I became more conservative in my thirties. By the time my forties rolled around I had already shaken off that virus. Even then, I was only fiscally conservative.

i think it boils down to if you have success or no. When we are young, have no money, uncertain future, we want a fairer system. When we are older and settled we want the security everything earned stays.

The boomers who told us that were living in the time of affordable housing and cars, listening to the conservative frontrunners claiming it was all because of their policies.

When the economy failed to deliver such wonders to the next generations, they just told the boomers to blame the kids.

My hair will probably be that color too by then, life is rough.