And I don’t mean things you previously had no strong opinion about.
What is a belief you used to hold that you no longer do, and what/who made you change your mind about it?
Free speech… not absolutism per se, but I certainly had more faith in it than I do now.
The basic idea, that you should argue sensibly against points instead of censoring them, shutting them down or drowning them out, remains a good one. Censoring happens all the time, often for pretty shit reasons. The problem is that if your stance is “censorship is never acceptable”, you assume people are reasonable, rational, informed about the subject matter and how civil discussions work, and not specifically looking to start shit.
When that’s not the case, which is the vast majority of the time, the whole idea just doesn’t work. It’s too damn romantic and ignores some unfortunate facts about the human mind. People aren’t rational by default. Not even about utter trivialities, let alone things that involve sense of self, values or strong feelings - all of which tend to bleed over into unrelated topics.
A lot of the idealists seem to have no understanding of how mere speech can actually damage individuals, groups and society as a whole. A lot of what’s left just want to be able to say literally anything without repercussions, or as a “magic answer” instant knee-jerk defense to any criticism.
Nothing I will always be right
Eating animals. I used to be the Making-fun-of-vegans, I-will-never-be-vegan type of person until I realised that 1) I don’t have to eat animals to be healthy and 2) if there is no need to do it, killing animals for taste pleasure is fucking evil.
So you’re a hypocrite?
I used to identify as Libertarianian. Resented taxes, overreaching, infiltrating my life, all about independence, don’t want to be interfered with.
Then I became homeless. Realized how the social services, ssi, Medicare are important. Sure there are lazy people, but also those who genuinely need help, who want to get back on their feet. Care a lot more now about wanting to live in a society that actually cares about the people in it.
For a long time I thought the whole pronoun /name /being outta the closet thing didn’t personally matter to me to make the effort to attempt to change it.
Yeah I figured out I was trans at age 21 in the quite distant past but like my partner had sex characteristic preferences that meant that as long as I prioritized him in my long term goals I wasn’t physically changing. I figured you know boo hoo I was ugly and people didn’t really get me most of the time but you know… Big deal? I was stable enough. I wasn’t under particular hardship because aside from some vague presentation pressure from time to time everyone just basically accepted I was quirky and liked me enough without putting much emphasis on my gender anyway… I ended up trying gender neutral pronouns basically as a lark, a way of proving to myself that I was fine.
Turns out I was not fine.
I didn’t realize how shit I felt on a regular basis nor how much less energy all my social connections would need once I made the changeover. I really didn’t realize that such a tiny thing was subtly poisoning every single interaction I had with people. I stopped experiencing stress heartburn and headaches after time spent with friends. I was usually pretty quiet and withdrawn but I actually started being generally more gregarious and active. I stopped feeling invisible and lonely. I went from low key disliking people to actually liking them. It was like someone suddenly replaced my batteries. I never expected something so small to make so big a difference.
Off the top of my head, I used to think that economic growth of a country equals wealth growth for its people and equals good leadership is steering the country policies.
Turns out that good leadership and economics are rather loosely correlated and also a large inertia allows bad leadership to reap what others saw
Was a hardcore Libertarian till I finally read theory and realized how much Propaganda i had soaked up to think that Socialism was bad and unfettered Capitalism was good. Cringe so hard thinking about it now that I am a full blown Socialist.
For me one of the most recent things I’ve changed my mind about was my stance on (Finland) joining NATO. I used to oppose the idea because I was uninformed and thought that if a member state somewhere far away gets attacked that means I’m almost guranteed to be sent there fighting. I also didn’t think an actual hot conflict was a realistic threat in the civilized western world or atleast that the possibility of something like that was extremely small. Suffice to say I was proven wrong.
haha exact opposite for me
Trigger warnings.
I used to think they are for overly sensitive people, then life happened and now I have my own triggers and would like a trigger warning for certain topics.They still are for overly sensitive people.
Duh doy! That’s the point of them! They let people know who’s experiences lead them to be over sensitive to things so they can choose whether or not they avoid media. And that’s a good thing! Trigger warnings hurt no one and if you can’t spare literally three seconds at the start of something to protect someone else’s peace, you’re selfish and probably not a good community member.
how, how is it possible for me to know each persons triggers so i can warn them? even this discussion could be a trigger, did u preface ur comments with a warning? Its arrogant and only for spoiled privileged people to ask for trigger warnings. It takes 0 efford to stop talking or listening to what “triggers” you. just because ur entitled ass thinks that you are the center of the world and everyone should care about ur silly sensitivities doesn’t mean its going to happen. I swear only rich (relatively to the rest of the world) first world people have these arrogant and entitled demands.
Let me put things in this perspective.
It’s not realistic to expect to be able to put trigger warnings for a large population of strangers on the internet. You’re right; when putting it in blanket terms like that, it is silly.
However, there are two things where you could be mindful of others. The first are talking about highly prevalent and violent topics in detail: rape, csa, domestic abuse springs to mind. Things where you probably either know of, or have heard of, someone suffering long term as a direct result of the trauma these events inflict.
But if that’s still too broad for you, then you should keep your close friends and family into consideration and talk to them if you know one of them has gone through an extremely difficult life event. If nobody in your personal circle has experienced such things, then like the other commenter said: I’m very happy for you and them. If someone has, then even just saying “Hey do you want a heads up if this topic comes up in our group chat?” is enough. Maybe they’ll say yes. Maybe they’ll say no. But now you know what their wishes are and can act accordingly with respect to that.
Honestly that’s all people really want, I think.
Nah I think it’s pretty clear that reading a post that describes rape in detail could be triggering for someone who is dealing with the trauma of rape.
For me personally it’s anything that talks about children in hospital. My son spent his first 10 weeks on a ventilator and almost died many times.
Even typing that out I can hear the machines beeping, smell the hospital and feel the doctors and nurses running around faintly in the back of my mind.
PTSD is nothing to fuck around with.
Aren’t you saying the same thing with different wording? You had some trauma, now you are more sensitive.
I heard my father die because his throat cancer was blocking his airways, and the 10 weeks after, everytime someone’s breath sounded raspy or non-optimal in some way, I would be reminded of his final moments. Is that a trigger or am I more sensitive to weird breathing noises? Or is that pretty much the same?
I wouldn’t call it “overly sensitive”. That is implying an insult 100%
I think my sensitivity is totally justified given what I went through.
I used to think that adoption was basically “buying a kid” and was very cut-and-dry.
Now I know that adoption is really about merging another family into your life to do what’s best for the kiddo. It’s an ongoing journey that will change the lives of everyone involved.
I consider people who adopt to be basically heros. I can hardly think of a more selfless act than to give home to a child without one. That is an absolutely glorious thing for someone to do.
I have heard of families who adopt to get government assistance checks, and the kids are mostly just ignored/the adopters do the bare minimum. I hope that’s not that usual.
I don’t know about this. My cousin is trying to adopt and it’s not only a lot of work to get approved it’s also extremely expensive. Like in the 5 digit range
The ussr and china were evil and nato were the good guys fighting for freedom.
Boy was I wrong on that one. What changed my mind were the tankies on hexbear who consistently were the most knowledgable on a topic and kept being correct with (what I thought at the time) the most obviously incorrect takes.
I’d be curious to hear your justification for the attack on Ukraine then or the treatment of Uighurs in China.
That comes after very in-depth reading. What got me that far to even trust their judgement that this kind of research would be worth my time was the fact that they were consistently right about takes on the USSR that seemed ludicrous. Just that they seemed to really know their stuff about USSR history especially the Stalin era. So I started reading
Michael Parenti - Blackshirts and Reds
a rather short book about anticommunism in the west. I already had very left views but what stuck with me was that I required a revolution to be “perfect”, the outcome sure and everyone had to be happy, an unrealistic standard considering the kind of fundamental change I envisioned. Or in Parenti’s words:
The pure socialists’ ideological anticipations remain untainted by existing practice. They do not explain how the manifold functions of a revolutionary society would be organized, how external attack and internal sabotage would be thwarted, how bureaucracy would be avoided, scarce resources allocated, policy differences settled, priorities set, and production and distribution conducted. Instead, they offer vague statements about how the workers themselves will directly own and control the means of production and will arrive at their own solutions through creative struggle. No surprise then that the pure socialists support every revolution except the ones that succeed.
Once I had conceded my previous “anti-tankie” views and thought of the USSR not as a failed revolution that started of well-intentioned but was led astray by power hungry dictators, but as a successful revolution that had to endure a constant onslaught, physical as well as political, I was “through the looking glass” so to speak.
Then the genocide in Gaza happened and I kind of looked at the countries we were allied with, who were consistently some of the worst offenders of human rights. The whole supporting violent dictatorships in former colonies wasn’t news to me, but when put into perspective I had a “Damn we really are the baddies aren’t we” moment.
I realise that this doesn’t answer your question on Ukraine and the Uighurs but that’s because I don’t have the time right now to get into a debate on that, and the original question was on what changed my mind about it which was less the actual research I then put into, but the heavy-lifting on even questioning the western narrative was done before that.
To answer your question in a nutshell however: The reason the situation in Ukraine deteriorated this far, to the point that the ethnic russians in Ukraine had to even put up “self-defense” forces was meddling of western capitalist forces. The article that I keep referencing on that is ( CW for pictures of dead bodies and gruesome descriptions of fascist violence):
The open fascism in the paramilitary groups that later got put under the umbrella of the Ukrainian army was an open question mark for me, this article gives a very detailed answer to that. The details in that report post 2014 are corroborated in the UN reports as well:
As for the so-called “genocide” of Uighurs in China, the “evidence” is very very circumstantial especially considering the scale alleged. Millions of people are alleged to be held in internment at some point, a scale that should be visible from space. I mean manhattan has a population of 1.7 million, where are all these people interned?? As an example of one of the oddities about the whole allegations. The only countries that seem to care are outspoken anti-communist countries, with the whole muslim world not considering the crackdown on religious extremism in Xinjiang a genocide. All the articles I kept getting linked were “oh how terrible the situation there is, what an evil evil government” with no one seemingly caring about the actual people. It’s all just treated as an abstract talking point. And the only references boiling down to two reports by Adrian Zenz
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02634937.2018.1507997
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02634937.2021.1946483
a person with some questionable viewpoints
All the stuff around it seems to be pushed by Washington based anti-communist thinktanks trying to establish an “east turkestan”. The whole movement is heavily US-financed. See here for more info:
That’s what changed my mind about it all anyway, but like I said I probably will not be able to go into more depth about this, as I have spent too much time on this already.
Ukraine… Russia isn’t socialist anymore you know? Gorbachev ended that back in 1991 with the help of his western allies, against the wishes of the population, over 90% of which voted for the USSR to remain.
Still, this current war started in 2014 with the CIA-backed fascist coup and the subsequent killing of ethnic Russians in eastern Ukraine, like in Donbas and Crimea, for resisting the coup gov.
This was the results of the 2010 elections for example.
Eastern Ukrainians don’t support the current gov, and even welcomed the Russian army as liberators in 2022.
And as for China, the US and its allies are the only ones accusing them of mishandling the ETIM in Xinjiang. Muslim countries and the Global South approve of China’s policies.
35+ mostly muslim UN states have approved of how China handled this after sending delegates and diplomats to Xinjiang:
…separatism and religious extremism has caused enormous damage to people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang, which has seriously infringed upon human rights, including right to life, health and development. Faced with the grave challenge of terrorism and extremism, China has undertaken a series of counter-terrorism and deradicalization measures in Xinjiang, including setting up vocational education and training centers. Now safety and security has returned to Xinjiang and the fundamental human rights of people of all ethnic groups there are safeguarded. The past three consecutive years has seen not a single terrorist attack in Xinjiang and people there enjoy a stronger sense of happiness, fulfillment and security. We note with appreciation that human rights are respected and protected in China in the process of counter-terrorism and deradicalization.
We appreciate China’s commitment to openness and transparency. China has invited a number of diplomats, international organizations officials and journalist to Xinjiang to witness the progress of the human rights cause and the outcomes of counter-terrorism and deradicalization there. What they saw and heard in Xinjiang completely contradicted what was reported in the media. We call on relevant countries to refrain from employing unfounded charges against China based on unconfirmed information before they visit Xinjiang.
The Organization of Islamic Cooperation approve of China’s treatment of its Muslim population.
- Welcomes the outcomes of the visit conducted by the General Secretariat’s delegation upon invitation from the People’s Republic of China; commends the efforts of the People’s Republic of China in providing care to its Muslim citizens; and looks forward to further cooperation between the OIC and the People’s Republic of China.
Unlike other countries, China has mostly responded to ETIM’s attacks by building vocational training centers and integrating the region better into the rest of China’s economy, that is to say they are tackling the material reasons for why someone would have to resort to violence in the first place. And it has been successful, hence the Global South countries approving of it.
You can visit Xinjiang and see it for yourself btw since covid restrictions are gone now, and there’s alot of yt videos doing just that.
First of all - you’re not the person my question was directed at.
Secondly - you’re just firehosing me with information that I couldn’t fact-check in any reasonable amount of time nor figure out all the things you’re omiting. You also state as fact things that you or nobody else could possibly know to the degree of cerainty you present it as such as “this current war started in 2014 with the CIA-backed fascist coup”
However, even if I grant you that everything you stated above is factually correct it still leaves unanswered what the main point of my question was; how do you justify this? Take the Russian invasion of Ukraine for example. If west is evil and east is good then how does a murderous campaing like this fit into the equation? How is it moral to invade a sovereign nation, attack their civilian population, target critical infrastucture in the middle of winter, send your own people there to die in meatwave attacks after two days of training and bomb cities into rubble. Cities where their alledged supporters are living in? Not even China is endorsing this and the whole “evil” west has united in support of the underdog being bullied by the second most powerful nation in the world. I can’t possibly imagine how someone can look at this carnage and think Russia is good.
Poe’s law strikes again. “What changed my mind were the tankies on hexbear who consistently were the most knowledgable on a topic” is just so on the nose that it might just be what some people actually think.
Right? I’m sitting here like “this has to be satire… right? But it’s just absurd enough not to be…”
Weapons as a human right.
I was on the fence about it before. But then I was homeless, got attacked by a stranger and beaten pretty badly, was saved by some other strangers because the guy showed no signs of stopping.
After that I went to buy some pepper spray to carry with me, and was notified it required a license. Being a homeless man I couldn’t get licenses for things.
I realized that it’s a problem if weapons are treated like something you need to earn privilege to own, because the underprivileged then won’t have them.
That’s why I realized it’s important we treat weapons as a human right, not as a privilege to be earned if you’re nice.
I was homeless (thanks to 2008). My mom got attacked by a nutcase over fresh water. A metal pipe that was lying about seemed to work just fine.
See, having weapons as a human right just creates escalation. Nobody died that day. People got hurt, sure, but nobody died. Now imagine the same situation, my mom getting attacked over fresh water, but everyone involved was armed with weapons.
Yeah, that would’ve been a bloodbath.
LGBTQ+ rights.
I was a strong supporter, but the media presence of some “influencers” and subsequent discussions and even proposed laws went way out of hand and into untreated mental health territory.
So now I just ignore any and all mentions about it, to preserve my own sanity. Live and let live, I hope everyone can have the life they want, but I just don’t want to hear about it anymore.
Edit: Typos
If you want to update your post it sounds like you may be more fed up with LGBTQ+ advocacy rather than rights.
That’s an opinion. Everyone in entitled to one.
But let me shed some light, the LGBTQ community that is outspoken needs to be to get to those “in the back of the room”.
In my opinion, they are doing just what suffregets, african americans and other marginalized people have done within the media scope of their time.
In time, their rights and privileges should be part of the mainstream so you won’t (shouldn’t) even think about it, it’s just another niche of humanity that binds us all together.
I, personally, don’t want to hear about someone’s lord and savior, but I live in a society that some people do.
