# What has been your biggest change of opinion/position in your life? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 20, 2011, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-been-your-biggest-change-of-opinion-position-in-your-life/572021 "2011-02-20T17:09:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2011, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-been-your-biggest-change-of-opinion-position-in-your-life/572021/1 "2011-02-20T17:09:55Z")
This can be political, religious, personal, whathaveyou. What change in your opinion or view or position or intention has been the most significant in your life? You get to define what makes something big or significant or even a change. ---
**Author:** ![FloatyGimpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/floatygimpy/32/7750_2.png) [@FloatyGimpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FloatyGimpy)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2011, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-been-your-biggest-change-of-opinion-position-in-your-life/572021/2 "2011-02-20T17:51:21Z")
I’d say that the biggest change in position for me as been going from vocally anti-gay to vocally pro-gay rights, including marriage and adoption. ---
**Author:** ![Heyoka13](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Heyoka13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heyoka13)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2011, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-been-your-biggest-change-of-opinion-position-in-your-life/572021/3 "2011-02-20T17:57:25Z")
I’ll think of a better one latter, but I now think President Carter was a real disaster as a President. I still hate Reagan though . . . Go figure . . . ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2011, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-been-your-biggest-change-of-opinion-position-in-your-life/572021/4 "2011-02-20T18:00:56Z")
I’d say that my biggest philosophical change, mostly from reading these boards, has been from being anti-gun to ‘meh, don’t care about them’ in most situations. 🙂 Of course, I’m in Canada, so that doesn’t have the same connotations as it does in the States. And it hasn’t made much difference in my life. Criminals who use guns are still criminals, and hunters in rural areas still hunt. The change has been the reduction of a non-rational emotional opposition. ---
**Author:** ![KinkiNipponTourist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e9bcb4/32.png) [@KinkiNipponTourist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KinkiNipponTourist)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2011, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-been-your-biggest-change-of-opinion-position-in-your-life/572021/5 "2011-02-20T18:05:48Z")
In college I had this class where we had to deliberately take the opposite position of something we felt strongly about, and come up with good counter-arguments to our original beliefs. I guess I made a pretty good argument to myself, because before very long I had talked myself out of being pro-death penalty. ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2011, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-been-your-biggest-change-of-opinion-position-in-your-life/572021/6 "2011-02-20T19:52:57Z")
The change from feeling that I want to have debates and involved discussions and hash things out with people… to the feeling that I’d do anything to avoid it. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2011, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-been-your-biggest-change-of-opinion-position-in-your-life/572021/7 "2011-02-20T20:14:10Z")
Going from pro-capital-punishment to anti-capital-punishment, I guess. I wasn’t really super duper attached to it, so it’s not that big a deal. ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2011, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-been-your-biggest-change-of-opinion-position-in-your-life/572021/8 "2011-02-20T20:17:44Z")
A loss in faith accompanied by a complete opposition to organized religion\*. \*I no longer believe in a benevolent God who has a personal interest in or a plan for me. My Southern Baptist indoctrination still flares up and makes me believe I will go to hell simply for making such a statement. I now believe that organized religion has accomplished more in the way of pain, suffering and death than anything in history. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2011, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-been-your-biggest-change-of-opinion-position-in-your-life/572021/9 "2011-02-20T20:27:15Z")
pro to anti death penalty. Probably about late teenage years I think. When I was younger it seemed a simple solution to a simple problem and I was probably dazzled by the glamour of it. Just came to me one day that life wasn’t actually that neat and tidy. ---
**Author:** ![Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aji_de_gallina/32/260_2.png) [@Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aji_de_Gallina)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2011, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-been-your-biggest-change-of-opinion-position-in-your-life/572021/10 "2011-02-20T20:44:24Z")
Death penalty: from moderatley pro to basically completely anti. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2011, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-been-your-biggest-change-of-opinion-position-in-your-life/572021/11 "2011-02-20T21:00:57Z")
I can’t pick between the following two, as both were pretty significant: 1. Went from staunchly pro-life to being very, very pro-choice. All the more significant because this happened years before: 2. Went from devoutly Catholic as a teen, to agnostic as a young adult, to atheist now. ---
**Author:** ![kapri](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4491bb/32.png) [@kapri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kapri)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2011, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-been-your-biggest-change-of-opinion-position-in-your-life/572021/12 "2011-02-20T21:13:26Z")
I was raised as a fundamentalist Baptist. It was never a good fit for me, but I adhered to it anyway and even enjoyed some aspects of it. In my late 20s I walked away and became more myself, which I could not have done while still in that belief system. I went from being extremely conservative to fairly liberal, from judgmental to live-and-let-live, usually. ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2011, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-been-your-biggest-change-of-opinion-position-in-your-life/572021/13 "2011-02-20T21:43:12Z")
I learned how to be honest, and applied that to my personal view of myself. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2011, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-been-your-biggest-change-of-opinion-position-in-your-life/572021/14 "2011-02-20T23:10:50Z")
Maybe I’m just turning into an old crank, but I have become much more blunt and speak my mind more readily. I used to be meek and near silent, and take all kinds of abuse as a matter of course. I would listen patiently to a telemarketer and it would take forever to terminate the call. I was afraid of ‘hurting people’s feelings’/coming across as unladylike/not wanting to rock the boat. (I grew up with a foul-mouthed, bitter old bag of a mother who just spat out shit as the spirit moved her, with never, ever a trace of tact. So maybe my timidity was a reaction to that). Now? I really don’t care any more about being soft-spoken and genteel at the cost of not having my opinions register. Now I can say ‘no, I can’t do whatever’, ‘no, not interested, goodbye’, ‘please give me the date/dollar amount/information right now, I don’t want you to get back to me later’. In other words, I grew a firmer backbone. ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_Stimulus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Digital\_Stimulus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_Stimulus)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2011, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-been-your-biggest-change-of-opinion-position-in-your-life/572021/15 "2011-02-20T23:59:06Z")
My biggest change has easily been a shift from being somewhat conservative to more liberal. In my late teens/early 20s, I was swept up in Ayn Rand’s work and truly took it to heart…to the point of becoming heartless. Some would say that I misunderstood Objectivism; from what I’ve seen and read, I don’t think I strayed too far from a commonly held viewpoint. At worst, for instance, I argued that people who couldn’t afford health care – no matter what the issue or why – should be left to deal with the consequences, even if it meant death, being crippled, whatever. Seriously. I actually argued that. :eek: Nothing seismic in my life occurred that caused me to revise my views; I just thought about them more, realized what an asshole I was, and then realized that I didn’t have to be that way. So, now I’m not like that anymore. Although I’m still an asshole a fair bit of the time, it’s in a different way. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_Stimulus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Digital\_Stimulus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_Stimulus)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2011, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-been-your-biggest-change-of-opinion-position-in-your-life/572021/16 "2011-02-21T00:06:28Z")
> [@salinqmind](#): > > …In other words, I grew a firmer backbone. Or, maybe you’re simply on your way to becoming your mother, the foul-mouthed, bitter old bag that she was. :eek: (Do take that in the kidding manner in which I meant it, please. :)) ---
**Author:** ![meenie7](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7993a0/32.png) [@meenie7](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/meenie7)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2011, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-been-your-biggest-change-of-opinion-position-in-your-life/572021/17 "2011-02-21T00:13:25Z")
Mine would probably have to be going from very strong, almost bitter atheist in my 20s to converting to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in 2010. Probably the opposite move religion-wise from most on this board, but there you have it. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2011, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-been-your-biggest-change-of-opinion-position-in-your-life/572021/18 "2011-02-21T00:14:39Z")
I grew up thinking I was clever and talented, and any dissapointments I experienced were due to injustice. Somewhere along the line I noticed that I’m nothing special and I pretty much got what was coming to me. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2011, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-been-your-biggest-change-of-opinion-position-in-your-life/572021/19 "2011-02-21T00:19:57Z")
I’ve stopped calling myself a Republican. Not that I’ve changed, but the Party has. ---
**Author:** ![Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e480ec/32.png) [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Least_Original_User_Name_Ever)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2011, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-been-your-biggest-change-of-opinion-position-in-your-life/572021/20 "2011-02-21T00:27:36Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > I’d say that my biggest philosophical change, mostly from reading these boards, has been from being anti-gun to ‘meh, don’t care about them’ in most situations. 🙂 Of course, I’m in Canada, so that doesn’t have the same connotations as it does in the States. And it hasn’t made much difference in my life. Criminals who use guns are still criminals, and hunters in rural areas still hunt. The change has been the reduction of a non-rational emotional opposition. This more or less, and minus the Canadian part. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-been-your-biggest-change-of-opinion-position-in-your-life/572021.md?page=2)