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

I used to believe that the percentage of Americans who are horrible people wasn’t different than any other group.

I used to hate furries back in highschool, mainly because I didn’t understand it and all my peers hated them too. At some point I made the connection that just because people don’t understand lgbtq people (something i do understand) doesn’t mean they have to hate them, and I took that to heart.

I still don’t quite understand it all, but I’ve become way more accepting. Live your life and be who you want, it’s not my place to judge.

I used to be excited and optimistic about new technologies. Now I’m just jaded.

that getting into biotech/research field is actually harder than people think and the statistic heavily skewed towards health in job search and is on part with unemployment rate of the next highest rate of stem majors. plus its also HEAVILY gatekeeped so that the amount of scientists already employed dont have to compete with less salaries of fresh graduate pipeline.

Basically all conspiracy theories, got into deep rabbit hole during Myspace days. It was weird watching all people during the pandemic gobble all that shit like it is breakfast

Politics. We have always been a conservative family (to relate: “conservative” here is the equivalent of the US Democrats, not Republicans!). My grandfather was a party cofounder and lived next door to our countries first chancellor after the war.

But the sheer disregard for the law by the (conservative) chancellor who was in office when I grew up turned me to the political left.

that people as a whole are inherently good

nope. nope nope nope. people are inherently selfish

half the population of the world seemingly needs to believe in fairy tales and a magic book to give them a moral code. people will, time and time again, do things for their own convenience or desires at a greater direct and immediate expense to somebody else, i.e. knocking somebody over to spill $10 out of their pockets and only steal $2 and run away.

fuck people. people will get respect when they earn respect. everybody else gets basic decency and nothing more, until they prove they’re not an asshole. and the moment they prove that they are an asshole, they get treated like one.

idolizing celebs, prof athletes, actors, singers…etc.

I turned 13 and learned what they basically do and how much they earn compared to doctors and teachers.

I used to be a conservative who shot guns weekly and reloaded ammo. I was deep into the group for years.

The last 6 years I’ve been democratic, gone to protests and do my best to educate others about the dangers of being on the right.

Problem is, on social media, everyone assumes your lying or a bot, so I can’t help convert anyone over to the brighter side.

Jeffrey Sachs is a cool smart and good guy. He gets how things work and wants things to go well for people.

I was raised conservative, back-country compound with apocalypse preppers, israel prophecy, the whole nine yards. I was raised with The 700 Club and Rush Limbaugh playing every day and night.

I read science books that distant family members managed to smuggle to me in gift boxes alongside other “safe” books like Kid’s bibles, I learned more and more about the world around me, I started collecting my own book collection and just read and read and read, and the doubts started to grow, uneasy, shameful, scary-as-fuck doubts.

But the big turn happened when I got out of there, and America started one it’s many wars and I was watching FOX news cover it. A humvee passes a civilian box truck and shredded it to pieces with an automatic grenade launcher. Probably a family trying to escape the city… cut to the host, smiling and praising America’s might, and that’s when it hit me: We’re the bad guys.

A few more things really sealed it, when I had friends start to come back from these conflicts in boxes, or a couple guys I knew who blew their own brains out after coming home. I still despair at these horrific wastes of life and I can’t figure out why more people don’t see life as precious. How fucking stupid do you have to be to justify war, murder and causing destruction to society.

So many of them. So, so many.

Maybe the only one I’ve kept perfectly intact is my belief that the golden rule is prime.

I was raised a young earth creationist, picketed abortion clinics when I was elementary school aged but don’t worry I was home schooled from kindergarten through high school. Was basically a republican/libertarian until about 2015 when my spiritual leaders, including and especially my parents, began to compromise all of their values.

More recently, probably even until 2020, I viewed myself as an aspiring centrist.

Now I’m an agnostic atheist who is seeing how far left the political spectrum goes, and I still think centrism is a nice idea, in a totally different world than the one we live in, with a totally different meaning to “center”.

Here is the thing I should disclose though, because I suspect it applies to a lot of things.

I was raised steeped in a level of bigotry that was all-encompassing but cloaked in Christian love.

I have intellectually separated myself from that bigotry, but I believe I still have instinctive/subconscious/unidentified bigotries to work through.

I am trying to be very conscious of that as I make my way in the world, trying to love my neighbor as myself, and trying to continuously expand the definition of “neighbor”.

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.

First of all, I liked America as a kid, that opinion changed fast. I was very fundamentalist Cristian conservative, but this strongly went against my values of compassion at some point, and I was the type to constantly question things. So at first I just lost faith due to how there was no evidence for Cristianity being based on anything real, since I would be putting my own and other’s wellbeing for a belief in what is anectodal evidence, I told myself that I had proof, I would believe it, I got tricked, and started to believe in it again, then did a 180 AGAIN.

I would see trans people as degenerate freaks, but by some point, I knew this was irrational, and then a friend revealed they were trans, and I didn’t show even a hint of the disgust, even though I was weirded out, I just went with the online trans support script on how I’m supposed to act, but I had like zero experience (or personality). So they kind of faded out of my life, sadly. Either way, they instantly Wolololo’d me just by existing. I no longer think ill of trans people, but ngl, thinking about their very happy expression as they stretch some latex shit they found, still weirds me out (not trans related).

I as far as recently, utterly hated furries, and would see them as groomers. Again, having furry friends helped, but I was never 100% comfortable for a long time, until I meet a certain (ironically no longer furry) person. No, I did not do a 180, I was guarded and would sometimes be rude and dismissive. I disliked a game for being furry, but I basically grew into it thanks to OpenMindedness™ that again, developed from some sort of philosophy.

(Note: this is getting to dense to phrase properly, so I will try to make it more TL;DR).

I was asexual for more than one reason, I was questioning why I was like that, but never did anything about it, until ironically a roleplay bot did something inappropriate that I punished it for, but it made me think, and I knew I was cutting myself out of a very human experience for dumb reasons, went very freakish on Reddit and Lemmy NSFW for a while, then due to both constraints, and my well…moral disgust with humans, I did a 180 AGAIN, and I’m now at least behaving like an asexual, my only exception is a friend who I don’t directly have an NSFW relation with, but I talk NSFW, and I’m more than willing to hear him out on anything they need (so long as it’s not myself).

A few other things: I used to be very bootstraps, which ruined me. I do believe help is important (but no longer have the trust for it). For a long time, I valued forgiving and accepting people, and I put up with a lot. This unfortunately, has come to an end as well, and I am VERY wrathful now, want to smell burnt flesh level of wrathful, cut off friends suddenly level of wrathful, cut myself from things I need to hurt others level of wrathful. It took a long time of what amounts of being tortured, and massive injustice for me to become like that, and it serves a purpose, it is not a character flaw. There are many things I forgot and don’t think about here that are an extreme departure of my previous beliefs, and I am nothing like my old self, and my old self would probably want to burn my new self at a stake.