Ask Lemmy

Hanlon’s razor

“Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity”

Evil does exist, and it wears the mask of imbecility

Jeez, so many things. The most influential 180 for me has been from being what others have called a "super Christian" to an atheist. This caused a few 180s for me: young earth creationist->evolution is a fact and the cornerstone of biology/big bang cosmology is probably the most correct Sex outside of marriage is bad->sluts are cool as fuck, actually Marriage is hierarchical->loving someone is a partnership and marriage is tax break for it The Bible is a revolutionary infallible divine guide->the Bible is an interesting, remarkably well-preserved text, a wildly inconsistent mythology, and with a weirdly cobbled mess of regressive morality even for it's time Gay bad->ARM EVERYONE WHO IS LGBTQ

My political journey has been pretty wild, too. From a self-described "ultra-conservative" to Christian liberal to Christian "anti-patriot"(an aggressive political apathy because Jesus) to full communist(anarcho-syndicalist...ish) to Christian Socialism to Market Socialist to DemSoc to Libertarian Socialist to a kinda Cosmopolitan Anarchist/Socialist.

Another 180 for me that has strangely stayed independent of my religious and political views(mostly) is my views on feminism. I guess more specifically my views on what feminism is. I've always been a feminist deep down, but I had some pretty warped views on what feminism is, especially in my conservative days. The two things that always bothered me as a Christian about Christianity were slavery in the Bible and the treatment of women. The thing is, I really bought into the whole "feminism is when men bad and women rule world" bs for an embarrassingly long time. I may be a straight cis man, but even as a kid I thought the systemic unfair treatment of women was a real problem that urgently needed fixing, but feminism is just a pendulum swing to the other side. lol. Not only have I come to a better understanding of feminism with the goal of establishing equal rights for women, I've come to understand the role feminism plays for men's liberation as well. Bell Hooks has really opened my eyes to the simplicity of feminism really being about our collective liberation from patriarchy. I truly appreciate feminism because I finally joined the movement in order to fight for the rights of others and instead of turning their nose at a perceived enemy, I was taught to fight for myself as well. I think it speaks volumes when a movement seeks to empower everyone that joins, despite the gargantuan disparity in the level of oppression they experience. I'm not a sideline cheerleader, I'm a fucking comrade. So I guess: feminism bad-> FUCK THE PATRIARCHY

Did you do psychedelics, by chance?

Having children: I was completely against it for most of my adult life, then dated someone who wanted children while I still didn't and realised what compromise meant. Now I've got a kid with another person and the person who changed my mind is almost set against having kids.

Recreational drugs: I thought they were stupid and should be banned harder until my friends started smoking weed, etc. I eventually became a stoner for a while, but have since figured that the issue is more around disordered drug use which is more socially circumstantial than individual.

My opinions on the death penalty would turn liberal philosophers in their graves enough to power a town.

That comunism was wrong

The only thing I've gone 180 on is my hatred of Bob Dylan. Couldn't stand hearing his voice growing up when my parent's played him. Then I learned to like cover versions of his songs. After a watching a complete unknown I became a Dylan fan.

I was pro death penalty as a teenager, then anti death penalty as a young adult. The last few years have shown me that some people are so awful and so insulated from consequences that maybe killing them is the best outcome for society. I still have a lot of reservations about the state being able to kill, but I believe there are quite a few instances where individuals killing others are justified. Is it vigilantism? Yes. Has the US justice system been rigged to the point that vigilantism is the only way that the worst of the worst see justice? Also yes.

I used to make fun of vegans. Now I am one of them x)

That a revolution might work out well.

I used to think starting over fresh sounded like a great idea, and the only question was if it actually justifies spilling any blood. Now, having learned a lot more about human nature, and having seen a bunch of politics as it's actually practiced, the French and Russian revolutions turned out exactly like they always had to.

For reference, the French one sucked all the way through and then failed, with the silver lining that it planted ideas which became useful and important generations later. The USSR is too recent to objectively comment on in that way, but it's not impossible it will end up seen in the same light.

I used to eat mostly plants. Ended up with NAFLD, had to change my diet entirely.

Until i was 24 I fell into a camp of thought called transmedicalism. Which is shitty because I am cis and didn't support a friend because of it. By the time I learned what a jackass I was being he died. Don't think my absence in his life was the nail in the coffin at all but there were way too many of us who ignored him when he was almost alone.

I don't think just doing a 180 on my opinion there was enough

A less shitty turnaround was my atheist heelturn. I only think it's worth mentioning because I wasn't awakening from Christian I was awakening from loose agnostic spiritualism. Thought I should be tolerant of people's idiosyncrasies because finding personal meaning is a deep need that we rarely ever get (Fucking ironic considering the transmedicalism, right). 2016 and the following events were my little clue-in to the possibility that people aren't using belief as a way of building meaning, they're using it to justify their worse impulses full stop. I never really respected enlightened reddit athiest brainlets but if there's one thing to take away it's that you don't hate belief in the supernatural enough.

Damn near most of them. I was raised by stereotypical mildly narcissistic boomers who were mildly racist and very conservative. I've only gotten more leftist as I've gotten older.

I'd say that the biggest one was that people's situation is largely their fault. It's not. It's somewhat their fault but a TON more than is obvious is actually the context and environment in which they live. Like in a card game, some cards are dealt to you and you choose to play them. You don't pick the cards you get.

Even then, the choices we make are not independent of the context. I was raised with the idea that we're 100% free will. I'd say it's 20% at most. If I had free will, I'd never lose my temper. I'd never have a break down. I'd never do dumb stuff because it seemed like a good idea at the time. (thinking to myself, why did I do that?!)

'social justice'.

Used to care about it, but then I realized over time that it's mostly bullies and wannabe bullies. And that most people who claim they are for social justice, aren't. They are just for screaming and belittling other people who are different than them.'

I realize social justice is something you do, not something you say. And the people doing the saying are very rarely doing anything to help the people they 'advocate' for so much as they are using them as a soapbox to grandstand about how they are 'good' and anyone who isn't as 'concerned' as they are is 'bad'.

used to be reddit atheist (extremely cringe). now im much more agnostic and acknowledge that it's pretty impossible to be completely sure about these things.

That I was a straight Christian.

Freeing myself from those chackles are probably the biggest pivots in my life.

Idk what to write here, i haven't done so much "180s" but i have shifted a lot of beliefs pretty significantly.

Actually i think the things i'm proudest of are understanding that in the modern western society, a lot of categories are often used to describe things (such as "democrat", "republican") but when you really think about it, these concepts are kinda meaningless. they're empty significands, i.e. they make you adhere to a group-think even though there's not much of a content in these concepts.

the truly important concepts are entirely different ones, such as the four elements in the aristotelian worldview.

think about it: if you visit a random village in india that has been disconnected from modern civilization for centuries; these people do not think in terms of "democrat" or "republican"; because neither of these things are natural. they do not appear in nature. why do we classify our natural world with them?

that I was straight

Not all Republicans are bad.

Wrong triple Trumpers are demons pure and simple.

Capitalism is ok with regulation.

Wrong the system is inherently flawed and feeds into humanities worst impulses.