I have questions too.

How does one get to the point where this statement rings true?: Democratic presidents keep having to save the US economy after Republican presidents run it into the ground.

How does one tolerate mainstream news treating you like an idiot?

How long do you have to be in the cult where genital mutilation and debasement becomes fashionable?

Why is it the excuse of "It's their culture" when civil rights are trampled upon in uncivilized countries, while at the same time trying to pull the rug out from under sayings like "boys will be boys" and instilling a notion of "white privilege"?

Do you still believe George Kirby didn't martyr himself?

Yes, all those reasons. Also, sadly, manipulated emotionally. Brainwashed. The left is very good at that and has control mechanisms in place to keep people that way. I see people giving walkaways shit and I don’t think they realize how hard it is to do. Not saying that to toot my own horn, I think we are owed some shit. Anyone worth their salt gives it to themselves. I know I do. Which is why I will speak up. It’s important to understand how the left operates in order to overcome it. You’re not allowed to ask questions on the left. That was a huge thing for me personally when I was walking away. Just being able to question things without being attacked and actually having people want to answer them and talk.

When you see people trolling, don’t immediately attack them. I would suspect it can also be a cover for them. What I mean is that person could be questioning their beliefs or are seeing things that aren’t sitting quite right. If you’re caught cavorting with the enemy in a friendly way, holy shit. Also, they could be there to confirm their beliefs that all Trump supporters are X so they troll to elicit the expected response. The left expects you to swallow whatever bullshit they hand you, no questions asked. Many aren’t strong enough on their own to stand up against it and it’s easier to have an army all backing each other up. They’re all very insecure, weak minded people who have no original thoughts. It’s why they can’t meme, can’t create humor, don’t find anything funny anymore, etc.

The last democrat I voted for was Al Gore because I knew Bush would take us into a forever middle east war. After that, until this last election, I voted libertarian/third party.

I've always been a Ron Paul supporter.

French here but I used to systematically believe that people who voted for the right were reactionary and backward-looking. However, I also felt strongly about people trying to push identity politics, and never accepted that either. I think I was a redpilled person in the making. I never used to think and only repeated what the MSM said, thought I was wise when I would switch from WaPo to NYT to Fox News or CNN and would congratulate myself on how openminded I was. So, to cut this story short: when I didn't think, I think I was for the Left (even though I agreed with nothing (fiscal policies, social policies) and when I started thinking, I moved to the right (without my knowing it). Now, I know, and I state my political beliefs proudly.

Great post/question!

Then 3rd wave feminism went full retard. Friends went from logical and center left to authoritarian left commies.

I lost friends and family to being woke. Lost all hobbies. Constant trouble at jobs because I'm the only one willing to be a man.

I'm independent since 2012.

I just need 1 year without losing a job to be fully checked out

Not quite democrat, somewhat liberal, don' give a fuck about gays marrying, and would rather pay for an abortion than 18 years of welfare, though abortion is morally wrong, lesser of 2 evils.

I care more about fiscal policies, republicans fucked us there, last 20 years have been awful when it comes to fiscal responsibility,

20 years ago I was a “radical liberal,” and today I’m a “right-wing extremist.” My politics have literally never changed.

I voted for Gore because he personally helped out a family member in the SEAL's who was in a really tight spot.

I voted for gore because he invented the internet

There are tons. I was conservative before I was liberal. I became liberal for a period of years due to college brainwashing. It didn't take long at all after leaving to wake up though.

I thought the Democrat's truly opposed wars. That and I don't care about gays getting married. Lastly, I thought that the left valued freedom of expression more the the right.

I grew up with a very liberal mother. My parents divorced when I was four and my dad only had my brother and myself visit for 2 weeks out of the year (wouldn't even save his vacation days for us, so we sat in his apartment in whatever state he was in while he was at work). Because of my mom being abusive emotionally and mentally, I thought she knew everything. Even when I was a teen and SHOULD have been going through the anti-parent phase.

During high school government class we were told to take a political spectrum test (sort of like the political compass, but this was only left/right economically, not up/down with authoritarian/libertarian). We were told we were either Democrat or Republican depending on that test and a handout with a list of things each party was expected to believe in was handed out. Everybody in the class decided to do their best at being whichever label we had been handed.

I was upset initially that I wasn't more left than I scored because my mom had always pushed the whole "Republicans are for white, wealthy, male, Christians" and we were female, poor, and not Christian. So how could I be close to center on the axis I got handed to me?

My mom's views were pushed onto me, hard. She used a LOT of logical fallacies that I didn't see until after my philosophy class in college covering logical fallacies, reasoning, and critical thinking. So as much as a lot of people, including myself, bash on colleges as the re-education camps they are, I struck it lucky with that class. It's one that I think should be a required.

The thing that caused me to go down a path leading to MAGA is actually the thing my mom pushed hardest. Question everything and listen honestly to others when they speak. So, I questioned why I believed why I did, how that was considered "Democrat belief", discovered it wasn't a Democrat belief, amd kept it in the back of my mind. I disagreed more and more with Democrats the more I followed the rules of that philosophy class and was honest with myself about what I REALLY thought and felt about different issues.

It was in 2007 that I found issues online like circumcision to research and body disphoria where people would amputate their own limbs (like legs etc). I was raised to be a hard-line egalitarian, not feminist even though my mother destroyed me with her (what's now called) third wave feminism. The body dysphoria thing led me to the trans issue WAY ahead of schedule compared to the rest of society as a result. As soon as I found the trans issue, my first thought was "ok, so it's the same mental illness as the videos I've seen of people talking about their strategies of self-amputation because doctors won't do the procedure."

So it kept going from there. I listened to as many opposing viewpoints as I could and challenged my own. I tried to research as impartially as possible and each time I did, I wound up realizing that my original view was never Democrat/leftist. It was ALWAYS right and I just didn't know it because I didn't look deeper as a kid.

There's a lot more detail that goes into it than that. Mostly my mom has a low IQ or brain damage from a stroke in her late twenties (her eye still droops today). She has no reasoning skills and refuses to accept facts when presented. When I bring up the issue of the baker who refused to do a custom cake for the gay couple, she gets mad and goes off about how evil the right is and how it's a lie about the fact the baker DID offer to sell any other already made cakes to the couple. I'm no longer under her thumb and a ditto mark of her. She had me believing that if I wasn't part of that "white, male, wealthy, Christian" group, than we ALL had to vote Democrat. Just like what has happened with the black community. I woke up though. My mother no longer talks to me unless I'm in dire straights for cash, which isn't much change from normal because she was a pretty bad excuse for a parent to begin with. Before our falling out, she could go 4 months without responding to a single text from me.

My dad just never cared because I wasn't his first born son, and my mother never let me forget it.

So I guess part of my Democrat voting ha it was partly because I needed the government to fill the roleof parent that my parents never did. I think this is why so many young people vote Dem. They're freshly on their own and in many cases haven't been raised into adulthood properly, so they want a parental figure around still and need a substitute for their biological parents. This is likely why so many immature adults in their thirties and suchare still Dems, you can see their lack of maturity which leads to a dependence on the state to tell them what to do.