#47

Once you’ve read a pinned thread it drops down the board until someone else replies to it.

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#48

wormwood scrubs was it?

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#49

I sometimes wonder if in a non-DiS world I might have gone full FBPE centrist.

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#50

Being lefty/Labour was undoubtedly a family thing - the old man was a dope growing, fully unionised steel worker and my Ma a similarly ageing hippy who shouted at the news whenever Tories were on for as long as I remember.
But I’ve gone beyond the folks, I’m a lot more radical really, and I think the coalition was what did it. I went to university in 2008 so practically grew up remembering only New Labour and thought of government as a helping hand, then the global economy bottomed out and in came a regime that persecuted my family, killed disabled and poorer communities in their thousands, destroyed most semblances of fairness or help in public society and ultimately has got worse, and worse, and populist, and fascist and I’ve gone further and further left in response.

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#51

My mum and growing up as the child of a single parent under Thatcher

#52

Knew “Tory” as an insult before I knew what one was.

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#53

Sort of got it from osmosis, mainly during my formative years (16 - 24 years old) and I live in Brighton which is incredibly left wing.

My views on equality - womens rights etc have been refined via the internet.

#54

Ha ha, you should try saying you’re from Islington! :grinning:

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#55

Had a very middle class priveleged upbringing but very left wing politically engaged parents (one of the reasons I hate the lazy conflation of “middle class” and “Tory”) so I was lucky I didn’t have much to rebel against.

As a teacher I’ve worked with kids from every walk of life and seen the inequalities in their lives in a very raw way which has cemented my beliefs.

#56

Mostly through experiences in work and welfare. Working in the restaurant industry is probably the #1 thing.

before that I guess it’ll have been family who are a mix of left of centre & socialist people. Maybe that seeps into you? but I never knew sections of my family were trade unionists growing up so it wasn’t directly influential?

I’ve spent quite a long time finding excuses to speak to workers about their experiences. That probably helped.

I’ve got a friend who knows loads of theory and leftist history and he gave me a pin for a group and I was like “who is this group?” and then I realised anarcho-syndicalism is like the best thing of all time and centred worker solidarity as like the thing that can address so much stuff. So that probably lead to me moving further to the left.

I have some sort of huge anxiety trigger when I have to encounter people who have the power to fire me.

& reading things from some people here

and also sounds stupid but I think having a low opinion if myself as a stupid idiot has been useful. leftist spaces/stuff still seems to reproduce men with power speaking over other people.

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#57

I was a cosseted little prick when I was a kid, from a comfortable middle class vaguely apolitical family. Didn’t understand anything. My values then appall me, though I was always apparently very into fairness and have pacifism in my heart (my mum likes this story where she came to pick me up from playgroup and all the other boys had made guns out of blocks - I was stood on top of a slide proudly holding a flower I had made).

I’ve just become more lefty the more I’ve seen the world, read things, experienced what wealth looks like and what it means not to have it, or not to use it fairly. I’ve been friends with and worked with unimaginably wealthy people. I’ve been unable to feed myself or pay my rent. I see how the game is stacked against people without privilege. I see how even if you come from privilege you can still get totally fucked by it. I know it’s not okay to say this, but I can’t see how anyone could be a conservative. I don’t understand it on a fundamental level. I think that’s just always been there.

It’s not bitterness either, I’ve experienced kindness and cruelty from people all over the spectrum. If anything that just highlights how broken everything is to me.

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#58

Never really put much thought into this before, to be honest

  • Family on both sides are Tories, so not them. Grew up in Cambridgeshire, so… not really a location thing either.
  • My history teacher at secondary school (she’s the best) was really balanced when teaching us about Soviet Russia and went above and beyond in explaining the merits of socialism. Did some extra uncredited philosophy and politics classes at University because I wanted to learn more.
  • Working as a waiter in one of the Cambridge colleges from 16 was the first time I really understood the large wealth disparities, class divides, etc.
  • The entire coalition government shit show (I was 17)
  • Generic ‘meeting people from all walks of life’ at University
  • Private renting on just student loans/stipents and/or near minimum wage, mostly in London.
  • Corbyn, frankly
  • Joining a union
  • Got and still get a hell of a lot from here as well, ofc, especially on things I’d previously never had any education on or heard little about, such as trans rights
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#59

so would it be fair to say that for many of you it comes from direct experiences of bad and unfair stuff happening? i’m interested in where the ‘making sense of it all and coming to a position’ bit of it comes in.

#60

not sure what you mean tbh.

are you familiar with the miners strikes… the closing of the pits and the impacts its had on the towns and generations of people?

#61

Both my parents are lefties and my mum was involved in political activism when I was much younger. She loves to remind me of the time I had to use the potty in the middle of a local poll tax march.

That aside, I joined an old hippy/anarchist/punk band and then became aware of bands like Crass, Zounds, The Mob, and I suppose that opened my eyes up a bit more, though I don’t think I paid full attention to it all, but I was intrigued.

When Cameron became PM, and the austerity programme started, and people like my brother (who has a lifelong disability) were treated absolutely appallingly, I got angry. I guess that was my first actual experience of what they are willing to do to deliver on their ideology. It was even more infuriating just how many people around me (when I lived in Welwyn Garden City at least) were supportive of it all. My brother is still constantly asked to jump through hoops, his condition has got worse over the past 10 years and it’s horrible not knowing when he might have a chance of a more dignified life without constantly having to prove to faceless institutions that he is really not well and needs support. So it was personal, really.

#62

Don’t think I’ve inherited any direct political beliefs from my parents. What I’ve very consciously inherited though is a sceptism of radicalness/extremism. But then again that is also a condition of my personality. Think that’s the thing that informs who I am politically above all else tbh.

#63

cool, thanks for pointing that out (genuinely), let me try again.

For me personally, I have a whole collection of experiences of stuff happening to myself but also other people around me which is shit and unfair. I would include reading about the straight up facts of things that I haven’t directly experienced in that category as well, which would include stuff like pit closures and their consequences to use that example.

there’s then a bit of a jump from that to thinking ‘the solution to this is a social democratic policy platform’, or ‘this is happening because of how income is distributed’. I guess it’s that almost theoretical explanation of the causality of things as complex as (eg) the impact of Thatcherism on the UK, and where people get those explanations from, that I’m trying to get at.

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#64

Not for me personally, no. I’ve had to learn and inform myself from the life experiences of others and empathy.

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#65

Very definitely NOT my family or local area. My dad absolutely worships Thatcher, at school we all mocked one of my friends relentlessly for being staunchly Labour (I was apolitical really but I’d never really heard anyone be pro Labour before, it was totally alien and seemed ridiculous. This was when they were in government. I would struggle to tell you I knew anyone who was pro Labour apart from her until after 2010) and until 2017 I would have been the only person apart from my uncle to have voted something other than Conservative in a general election in my entire family. I’m certain I’m the only one who’s voted Labour in a GE.

Originally it was Nick Clegg being hot. But since then it’s DiS, eventually meeting people who weren’t either well off or temporarily inconvenienced millionaires, the coalition’s failures, and understanding that not everyone has had it as easy as my family (that sounds really snotty but it is true - my dad just cannot understand anything outside of his own life experience, which makes it impossible to get through to him about any kind of issues involving poverty).

It’s been a really bumpy road and I still cannot fathom unions, which is a dirtier word in my family house than any swear word is. I skew a bit centrist because of my upbringing which has benefits (being able to gently persuade people who are a bit confused/misguided/not wedded to their voting habits) and hindrances (being very easily spooked by radical stuff even if I personally agree with it, finding lots of left wing polemic really annoying and unconvincing, not feeling comfortable openly sharing my allegiance even if it’s really obvious I vote left in some capacity).

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#66

The first paragraph there sounds like me growing up. I was a bit libertarian :open_mouth: . My parents and most of my family voted tory and I didn’t start taking an interest in politics (outside of HIGNFY n stuff) until 2007/8.

I started reading politics threads on gaming forums and other places and realised that leftest views were valid and something that deep down I supported. Most of my extended family is Tory (and voted brexit). I think it would be easier coming out to my grandparents as bi than a Labour voter still.

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