this post was submitted on 14 Nov 2025
935 points (98.5% liked)
memes
18021 readers
2515 users here now
Community rules
1. Be civil
No trolling, bigotry or other insulting / annoying behaviour
2. No politics
This is non-politics community. For political memes please go to !politicalmemes@lemmy.world
3. No recent reposts
Check for reposts when posting a meme, you can only repost after 1 month
4. No bots
No bots without the express approval of the mods or the admins
5. No Spam/Ads/AI Slop
No advertisements or spam. This is an instance rule and the only way to live. We also consider AI slop to be spam in this community and is subject to removal.
A collection of some classic Lemmy memes for your enjoyment
Sister communities
- !tenforward@lemmy.world : Star Trek memes, chat and shitposts
- !lemmyshitpost@lemmy.world : Lemmy Shitposts, anything and everything goes.
- !linuxmemes@lemmy.world : Linux themed memes
- !comicstrips@lemmy.world : for those who love comic stories.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
It worked on me ๐คทโโ๏ธ
I used to be rightwing but after learning things about how the world actually works the contradictions were too much and I changed my mind about many things and now I am a filthy socialist.
I have also been able to change a few peoples minds on some things.
Welcome to the fold comrade๐ค. Currently in the process of trying to deradicalize my family from the right as well
Try appealing to their egoism. Don't say that the ones that have nothing must be helped. Tell them that if they lose everything, society will help them. Let's say they have a farm. If a year the crops don't give enough or the animals get sick, they'll be helped by society.
Also point out how social programs often end up costing less in taxes in the long run.
Our healthcare system is the most expensive per person in taxes in the world but we get nothing from it if we switched to universal healthcare we would likely end up saving money in taxes
Use all of the things that conservatives say they value and point out how right wing ideas do not actually uphold these values
Small government
Ice agents rounding everyone up isn't very small government now is it? Its also very expensive
The constitution
Point out how our constitutional rights are being taken away from us right now
Freedom
Is it really freedom to be controlled by corporations?
Meritocracy
Point out how the game is rigged in favor of the rich
Patriotism
Is it really patriotic to be in favor of laws that hurt your fellow Americans?
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt3771626/
https://youtu.be/FS52QdHNTh8
Just curious, how old were you when you changed your mind?
mid 20s
I do think it's possible for older people to change their mind but the longer that they hold on to these ideas the more entrenched they become in their minds and the harder it is for them to change
It's also the more they have to lose. If they've built their whole personality and social group around bullshit, they will hang onto the bullshit.
I think this has a LOT to do with how susceptible a person is to reason that goes against their existing beliefs. I also turned away from the conservative rhetoric in my early twenties. I wasn't really invested in any group, just talking with a few dudes on a gun forum. I didn't have a lot to lose in terms of social investment. But for rural people, going against the right wing narrative could mean being isolated from their whole physical community.
agreed. some people are completely unwilling to consider other ideas because they don't want to be wrong when presented with anything that conflicts with their world view they will double down instead you can see this with cults that make a doomsday prediction a lot of people will still stay in the cult even after the doomsday prediction has been undeniably proven to be wrong they will find a way to continue to rationalize their beliefs and stay in the cult.
I still feel like there must be a way to get through to these kinds of people after all people do still leave cults even after being in them for many years but I'm not sure how to do that.
๐คท๐ป We're still fundamentally irrational animals. Our powers of reason are limited, and our quirks are easily manipulated.
I really think some people still think 2012 was the end of the world. But not in a "nuclear war" way but in a slow motion. Just to "be right" about the 2012 bullshit.
I think it was when I gave up just about everything that I did do the near 180 on my thinking. It was a culmination though, not just out of the blue.
Mid 30s.
Same. I was an ethical vegetarian once. Then i found out why vegans are vegans and had to accept that there was no such thing as being an ethical vegetarian.
Hey Iโm interested in you as a datapoint.
Friend of mine suggested that left vs right is fairly ingrained from near-birth, like temperament. Iโve been thinking about it and personally my leftism certainly does feel like a predisposition, as much as Iโm able to entertain and accept some subset of right wing ideas.
Do you think that you were always left leaning but biased by upbringing, or does it simply feel malleable to you? Could you see yourself swinging back on a balance of evidence?
I find the idea that your politics are ingrained from birth to be harmful and a similar mindset has been used by the right to demonize the mentally ill and criminals I am a strong believer in rehabilitative justice most people are not completely doomed to be bad people even nazis can change their ways.
in my case I considered myself a rightwing libertarian I always had a bit of an anti-authoritarian mindset but it was misdirected by my upbringing and education. I do think there are a lot of right wing people who don't necessarily like authority you can see this with their skepticism of the government, big pharma, their propensity for conspiracy theories about "elites" but it has been co-opted in a way that does not actually challenge authority.
the right teaches people that instead of rightfully blaming the problems of capitalism on capitalism they find other groups of people for you to blame these problems on and since the education system is so biased a lot of people will just buy into this they don't know any better they have been lied to in some cases their whole life. I blame the education system so much for the rise of the far right.
I did buy into some bigoted ideas I was transphobic, Islamophobic, anti-immigrant learning the actual facts about this learning that I have been lied to about all of these people I changed my mind and it taught me an important lesson about myself I am capable of hate. a lot of people who are bigoted don't see it as hatred because they are not seething with anger, for example with my transphobia I thought that they were mentally ill and needed treatment to "fix" them it didn't come from a place of hatred but pity it is still just as harmful.
my mindset is not the same as it used it has definitely changed can it change again sure but I highly doubt I would ever become right wing again because most of their ideas are thoroughly based off of misinformation and I have spent a lot of time deconstructing that and I also try my best to change people's minds so I am exposed to right wing bullshit on a regular basis I know exactly why these people are wrong and if I don't I research.
knowledge is power