Sometimes I find it difficult to accept other people’s thoughts or views on government or religion or anything else, and doubt that I’ll ever really completely change my mind about anything. That might be arrogant and close-minded of me, but that’s what I think. My question is, have any of you ever changed your mind about something really big? Not like, I used to hate mustard but now I like it. Something like changing from a liberal over to a conservative or vice versa. Or even completely changing religions. Maybe even the change was caused by something from this forum?
I would have put this in some other board, but felt it would be more appropriate to ask people who hang out in GD.
I used to be a liberal, and a sort of devil worshipper. Now, I’m a conservative Christian. One day I was in a remarkably singular situation and looked up at a set of trees blowing in the wind, while brushing my teeth repeatedly by the side of the road, and at that moment my life changed completely.
Yes, I have changed my mind about something really big in my life.
I used to tell people not to thank me for proper conduct and that neither should I need to thank them at all for doing the right thing (even though I did).
I now realize that I am not to give them my thanks but my admiration, just as I can only desire that all I hold good will be deemed of value by them as well.
Yes, I used to be a liberal. Then I grew up and am now a conservative. Just kidding. Actually, I feel exactly the same way about changes that need to be made to make this world better, I just realize now there’s better means to those ends.
My opinions have changed over the years. I consider it a process of maturing, gaining wisdom. I’ve realized that the more I learn about the world around me, the less I am willing to set my views in concrete and cling to them despite of anything I might encounter. For me, life is continual education and change.
I never make up my mind about anything without carefully reviewing the points of both sides. For example, I’ll read both conservative and liberal literature on an issue of politics. I think it vastly important to know what “the other guy” is thinking.
I don’t think I have a single belief that could not be changed by reason, logic and solid evidence, and I hope that I remain as flexible and open-minded as I age.
It occurs to me that if most people were as willing to admit they might be wrong, or that the “other side” has valid points, a lot of the rancor and destructiveness that has plagued our time would end.
This is a question I’ve been considering starting a thread to ask, too.
And, yes, I’ve changed my mind about a Big Issue. (Or maybe I aquired a real opinion where I had previously not really had one.) I thought we’d be better off if we outlawed guns. But I had never really thought much about the gun issue. As a liberal, I basicly bought into the anti-gun arguments: that guns were dangerous – if you had one in your home, the most likely outcomes were:
> Someone would rob your house while you were out or asleep. The gun would be part of the loot.
> Someone would rob your house while you were at home and awake. He’d get the gun away from you and shoot you.
> The presence of the gun would make it easier for you or a family member to sucessfully commit suicide.
> In a moment of rege, you’d use the gun to kill your SO.
But one day I had an epipheny. I realized that the gun issue is quite similar to the abortion issue. (I’m strongly in favor of keeping abortion legal and safe. I think any woman or girl who wants an abortion should be able to get one, quickly.)
I was thinking, don’t the anti-abortion people realize that re-outlawing abortion wouldn’t stop it, but just drive it underground? Don’t they realize that women and girls with unwanted pregnancies are going to get abortions regardless of legality?
So it hit me that it’s the same with guns. The people (and there are a lot of them) who believe strongly that they have a right to bear arms are going to have guns regardless of the law. All the above-listed bad results of gun ownership will, if they are valid, happen regardless of gun laws – because anyone who wants to own a gun will do so regardless of the law.
Gun laws serve only to saddle us with another bureaucracy to soak up tax dollars without accomplishing anything.
Commenting further on the OP, I have a mental exercise that I recommend: ask yourself this in regard to the opinions you hold on the Big Issues – at what age did you form this opinion? 14? 18? Have you ever re-examined the issue? Don’t you know a lot more about life, the universe, and everything now?
Also, on any issue, if you hold either (a) the same postion as your parents, or (b) the opposite opinion from that of your parents – you probably have not really examined the issue to form an opinion of your very own.
I second this, and add that many people loudly voice opinions, (and, sadly, vote based upon them) but when questioned, are not even vaguely educated on the issue, relying either on entirely biased, or third-hand information which may not be entirely accurate. They’re merely parroting what their parents, preacher, friend or co-worker says without bothering to do any investigation.
Um, not to hijack this thread or bust Hazels chops but. . .
[HIJACK] Hazel, the anti-abortion people understand the idea that everyone who has an illegal abortion when it’s outlawed, would then be breaking the law. Yes, they’ll do it anyway, but I don’t see that as an excuse to make it legal. People have their justifications for these issues, but since all laws are broken, and many times over, it’s not a good excuse to legalize something. To hit an issue closer to home, what if rape were legal, because people do it anyway? Or LSD, heroine, cocaine, ect.? Pedophilia?
Right, so while I’m glad you have an opinion that you can stand on, I really think you should toss out some more solid points.
[/HIJACK]
This is not necessarily a bad way to make a decision Lissa. While it’s certainly preferrable to educate yourself well and become versed in all aspects of every issue, sometimes that just isn’t possible. If you know several people that hold many of the same viewpoints you hold, perhaps more educated than you, same religion, ect. and they all hold the same views on a subject you are not well versed in, you can actually go with that decision, and it’s not really uninformed. As an example, I’m willing to take Stephen Hawking’s word on many aspects of time and the universe. For someone who’s less intelligent and perhaps less educated, a pastor, teacher, or parent may fill that role.
I’ve changed my mind on a few Big Issues, thanks a lot to these boards.
Like Hazel, I’ve changed my mind about guns. I used to just hate them, and thought they were all BAD BAD BAD and no one should have them EVER. Thanks to quite a few responsible gun owners here, I’ve come to see that it’s not the guns that are bad. It’s idiots who don’t give a crap about the law, basic responsibility, or other people. I’m still for some gun control legislation (background checks and a waiting period before purchase, for instance). But I no longer believe that guns are bad, and no one should have them.
The current Iraq situation is another. The thought of a war horrified me. And had I not taken some time time to read some threads here, I’m sure I’d have been out marching with the peace protestors. Now I understand a lot more, though. The thought of war still horrifies me, but now I understand that there’s stuff I just plain DON’T understand, because I don’t have top-level security clearance. There’s stuff that I cannot know. I didn’t vote for Bush, and I don’t think I’ll vote for him if he runs again, but I’ve come to believe that going to war just cannot be a decision he made lightly. I believe that he was presented with evidence that I will never see, evidence that convinced him that we must do this thing. And he knew that when he had to make this choice, he’d be all but tarred-and-feathered by the public for it. So now I believe that while going to war sucks, it’s probably a necessary evil, and I’ll stand behind my government’s decision on this, for now.
If you are not well versed in a subject you should reserve forming an opinion until you can study the issue. With the exmple of Stephen Hawking, I’d first read his book, and then one by someone who thinks he’s full of it. On this basis, I might be able to form a tentative opinion, but since I don’t really fully understand all of the implications of his theories, or the arguments against them, I can’t set an opinion on the matter in concrete.
As much as you may love and respect the people around you, it does not make them infallible. Your father, for example, may be a rocket scientist, and yet still believe in phsycics and the Loch Ness Monster. So, just because he’s a genius in physics, should you bow to his judgement on everything?
A pastor I used to know quoted scriptures that didn’t exist, yet his congregation thought he was a paragon of wisdom. They parroted his opinions on all manner of subjects. Was this man a reliable source?
Your teachers are there to make information available to you, and, more importantly, to help you learn how to study and research. By no means should you take what a teacher says as gospel. They’re human. They make mistakes. Sometimes, they lie, either knowingly, or out of ignorance.
To just “go along with the crowd” because the crowd happens to be educated and of the same socio-economic and religious background as yourself is foolhardy. Perhaps it’s just the skeptic in me talking, but I don’t believe anything unless I’ve checked it out for myself and the facts bear out.
Let’s take the famous McDonalds Coffee case. The first I heard of it was from my mother, who told me in tones of outrage this idiot woman was suing McDonalds because she spilled hot coffee on herself. Had I not looked into the matter further, I might think that this was all there was to the case. She had heard her version from a co-worker. However, when I looked into it, I found that there were quite a few pertintent details which had not worked their way down the grapevine, such as the fact that the coffee was so hot that the Health Department had demanded several times that it be brought down to a normal temperatures, but McD’s refused because boiling-hot coffee goes longer without skunking. I also did not hear that the woman’s injuries were so severe that she required skin grafts because her thighs had melted. Had I not looked into it, I would have had a fun story about a frivilous law-suit, but not the full truth.
You know, a famous reporter once said, “If your mother tells you she loves you, look into it.” While I’m not going to go quite that far, I’m not going to take anything anyone tells me, despite my respect and love for them as the 100% truth.
Lissa: As I said, it’s always best to learn a subject before making a decision. However, not everyone has the time, opportunity, or ability to formulate complex arguments on every subject they care about or feel a need to be counted in. Also, I specified several people. For example, many people will vote party line on candidates they’ve never heard of. What’s that guy’s record who’s running for the third city council seat? Since the decision impacts the quality of your life, you may well select someone on the basis of party support, rather then let the race fall to whomever takes it. It might be a better country if only the people who knew what was happening voted for someone, but since that’ll never happen. . .
Have I changed my mind over Big Issues? Sure! I do it every day.
I operate under the concrete iron clad belief that being wrong is a bad thing, but having been wrong sometime in the past isn’t bad, because it means you’re right, now. So, at the moment, I’m right about everything, until someone proves me wrong. Then I’ll be right again. Open minded people are always right! (Except when they disagree with me )
Yes, I’ve changed my opinions on just about everything “big”. I expect to continue to do so, based largely (I hope) on goodly dopers. I can only hope that I have a marginal impact on others changing their opinions, too.
And as I said, if you don’t know enough about the issue, abstain from forming an opinion until you can educate yourself. To feel a “need” to be counted as supporting or opposing an issue when you have no idea what you’re talking about is the height of ignorant arrogance.
It’s much like posting an answer in General Questions when you haven’t got a clue what the correct answer is. But you feel a “need” to put your two-cents in, either to pad your post count, or to make others think that you’re smart.
To put it succintly: (and harshly) If you don’t know what you’re talking about, sit down and shut up. You may actually learn something from listening to others.
Yes, it would be a better country if only informed people voted, but unfortunately, there are a lot of people who think it’s just fine and dandy to accept others’ opinions as their own because they’re too “busy” to bother looking into an issue or candidate. Worst of all, this is dangerous. Public pressure can cause a politician to espouse a solution which has no chance in hell of solving the problem, and might actually make things worse.
The wisest choice is to refrain from voting unless you know your candidate. It defeats the entire voting process to have ignorant people pressing buttons. Which is why low voter turn-out has never particularly bothered me. I would prefer it if apatheitic and uninformed people stayed far, far away from the voting booths on election day. Perhaps it’s the deep respect for the voting process that I have which makes me deeply resent anyone who would cast a vote not knowing what it is they’re supporting.
I also disagree with voting along party lines. I am registered as a member of a particular party, but on occasion, have voted for candidates from others because, after research, I have supported the ideas of that candidate over the one which my party offered. Just because a candidate or cause is supported by Party X does not mean that they are the right person, or the solution is the correct one.
Public pressure also causes politicians to lie, which means that to form your decision you often end up having to trust someone to give you facts that the politician is not going to share.
I don’t think there can be such a thing as only “informed people” voting. When I vote, I always think I’m informed about Candidate X or Candidate Y. I’m always wrong.
I don’t know if I’d say that I change my mind very often, because I so rarely feel that my mind is made up about anything. That is, I have opinions that I can express and defend, but I don’t often have the feeling that these opinions are set. They’re always growing and evolving. I don’t think I’ve ever done a 180 on an issue, but if I ever do, it will be a slow 180.
Then again, I can think of a few times where I had opinions I didn’t realize I had. I’d developed them somehow, but allowed them to go unexamined. When a particular debate or discussion threw them into the light, I usually changed my mind about them. I’ve found that ideas you don’t think about much are rarely good ideas!
There’s not really any hope, even with low voter turnout. Those who are rallied up enough to get to the polls are often voting a straight party ticket, regardless of how informed or otherwise they think they are. And I know a lot of people who are “informed”, or at least, more so than the average Joe Sixpack, who make a decision to abstain from the political process altogether in protest, which is really Not A Good Thing, although in today’s political climate I can fully understand them not wanting to put an X next to either of the two major parties at the moment (In England, this is, although it seems as though the US is having the same trouble with the “theoretical opposition” not doing much in the way of opposing the government).
In my limited experience, it can be the best “qualified” to voice their opinion who don’t do it.
As I get older, I find that once-very firm stances of mine are getting squishier. I think abortion must remain legal and accessible, but it makes me squeamish. While my younger self had no moral problems with abortion, now I don’t think I could have one. I’m not going to restrict other women’s rights, but I’ve come to see it as a complex and very gray issue.
Thanks largely to fellow Dopers, I’ve also mellowed on guns and gun owners. Again, I wouldn’t ever want one in my home, but I’ve come to realize that plenty of good, rational people own guns and use them responsibly.
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