# Were you taught your political views, or did you arrive at them yourself? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 28, 2019, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-taught-your-political-views-or-did-you-arrive-at-them-yourself/842596 "2019-10-28T15:08:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2019, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-taught-your-political-views-or-did-you-arrive-at-them-yourself/842596/41 "2019-10-31T03:02:32Z")
I don’t know how anybody could honestly say nobody influenced their political decisions. For myself, I was as conservative as my parents were, then skepticism (and challenges by others) made me discard those beliefs one by one (kicking and screaming). I thought I could split the difference and be libertarian, but as I kept educating myself I realized that wasn’t going to be it either. So I’m now in whatever left-wing twilight zone of people who rejected conservatism, centrism, whiggism, and libertarianism, and generally votes with liberals, but can’t bite the bullet and self-identify as a liberal. (complex story for another thread) ---
**Author:** ![Personal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Personal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Personal)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2019, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-taught-your-political-views-or-did-you-arrive-at-them-yourself/842596/42 "2019-10-31T03:13:04Z")
I voted 70-30, but it is closer to 90-10, my family comprising most of the 10. My political views have developed from life-long personal study, and they have changed, or I guess evolved, considerably over the last three decades, with probably the highest degree of change occurring over the last five to ten years. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Colossus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.colossus/32/9423_2.png) [@Dr.Colossus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Colossus)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2019, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-taught-your-political-views-or-did-you-arrive-at-them-yourself/842596/43 "2019-10-31T03:21:15Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > And how did you come to those conclusions? Completely in a vacuum? > > Of course not. You were influenced by other people. Any political view you care to name can be demonstrated to have been affected by other people. I believe you’ll find I’ve twice (now three times) said I could never come to my opinions without some external influence. I merely responded as I did because the intended indoctrination lopped off on me had the oppositey affect. ---
**Author:** ![Personal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Personal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Personal)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2019, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-taught-your-political-views-or-did-you-arrive-at-them-yourself/842596/44 "2019-10-31T04:36:23Z")
wrong thread ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2019, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-taught-your-political-views-or-did-you-arrive-at-them-yourself/842596/45 "2019-10-31T06:18:15Z")
Politics weren’t discussed in my parent’s home. I was taught to care about people and put myself in their position. Both my parents came from low income homes. That’s influenced me greatly. I lean Conservative but in areas like welfare & prison reform I’m liberal. ---
**Author:** ![Author\_Balk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Author\_Balk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Author_Balk)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2019, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-taught-your-political-views-or-did-you-arrive-at-them-yourself/842596/46 "2019-10-31T18:01:37Z")
Raised very conservative. My mom was on a local TV program espousing conservative views, and so forth. In college I took a labor economic course and was going to do a paper on how bad unions were. But, we had to do research for the paper and was exposed to the other side. Oh… they do have some valid points. Now moderate, but now that conservatives are supporting Trump it looks like I’m going to the dark side. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-taught-your-political-views-or-did-you-arrive-at-them-yourself/842596.md?page=2)