Your political background and how it sculpts your views.

[AchtungNight]

I consider myself an awake moderate, left leaning on many issues and conservative on others. I grew up a diplomat’s kid in Taiwan, exposed to many different cultures and religions. Even when I came back to Texas to finish out high school, I was educated on a liberal Catholic campus where all political views were honored somewhat. My stepbrother is openly gay and proud while condemning Democrats. My sister used to work for Fox News and owns a gun store today. She recently told me she’d be fine with it if her kid was gay. I have no children but I feel the same way should I ever have kids. I have plenty of positive queer sexuality characters in my erotic stories here. Plenty of diverse ethnic characters who are positively portrayed too. I am not capable of being one way online and another in public. I tell people who act prejudiced around me that they do not have my support.

Religion-wise I’m spiritual agnostic. Can’t know what God is really like, seen enough crazy things to assign them all as coincidence, and have a code of honor I want my afterlife to support. If there is an afterlife- I have accepted that until I die I won’t know for sure. I’m a fan of D&D and Pathfinder, hope it’s similar to that if it exists.

Seen too much hypocrisy to put my complete loyalty behind any political agenda. You?

Please note that this thread is not an invitation to scorn anyone. I hope people won’t try.

 

[Chernosoth]

Blue collar poverty in the rust belt. My grandparents were a single income family and then comfortably retired homeowners while my parents worked more difficult jobs and struggled to pay bills in a rented suburban apartment. Jobs and wealth have been leaving my area long before I could vote. I saw Ross Perot be absolutely right about NAFTA, which was passed with bipartisan support.

 

[PaxNurgle]

Born middle class California Bay Area kid. I was raised as a Reagan era conservative, but my social views have certainly moderated as I grew to know, and appreciate, more people from different backgrounds. In the 80's, homophobia was far more prevalent (and tolerated) by the mainstream and I had a similar attitude myself. It took me a few years of really getting to know and interacting with people- out of my own comfort zone- to get over that mindset. I simply do not like- and actually never did like- the idea that the government should moderate people's personal, sexual, or reproductive choices unless it involves the more vulnerable population. I view myself as somewhat isolationist in terms of foreign policy but I did not agree with how the previous American president tried to implement such a policy.

And keep in mind that what passes for "Conservative" today has nothing to do with the conservatism I believed in as a youth. Back then, such people as call themselves "Conservative" these days would have been dismissed as harmless kooks at best, or violent sociopathic extremists at worst. Now, many such people (e.g. certain female congresspeople from Georgia and Colorado respectively) hold public office!

 

[BabyBoomer50s]

Middle class, Republican, Greatest Generation parents, WWII & Korean War vet dad, 3 time cancer survivor and Reach for Recovery volunteer mom. Frugality, work, education, work, personal responsibility, work, saving and investing, and work were emphasized.

 

[AchtungNight]

Middle class, Republican, Greatest Generation parents, WWII & Korean War vet dad, 3 time cancer survivor and Reach for Recovery volunteer mom. Frugality, work, education, work, personal responsibility, work, saving and investing, and work were emphasized.

My Greatest Generation grandparents and boomer parents emphasized similar values. If I ever have kids I plan on doing the same.

 

[Lazaran]

Middle class, Republican, Greatest Generation parents, WWII & Korean War vet dad, 3 time cancer survivor and Reach for Recovery volunteer mom. Frugality, work, education, work, personal responsibility, work, saving and investing, and work were emphasized.

Meanwhile…

https://www.history.com/news/gi-bill-black-wwii-veterans-benefits

“The Burnetts weren’t the only Black Americans for whom the promise of the GI Bill turned out to be an illusion. Though the bill helped white Americans prosper and accumulate wealth in the postwar years, it didn’t deliver on that promise for veterans of color. In fact, the wide disparity in the bill’s implementation ended up helping drive growing gaps in wealth, education and civil rights between white and Black Americans.”