From the 2000s—mid-2010s, I was a fairly run-of-the-mill gay marriage, gun control, universal healthcare, etc. liberal. Like quite a lot of people, I drifted rightwards considerably between c. 2016—2022 due to left-wing radicalization during this period, especially re. racial and gender issues. And I thought this might be permanent. But now (i.e... since 2025 and especially since the Charlie Kirk shooting), though, I'm finding myself drifting leftwards again due to right-wing radicalization during this period. I've come to believe that which side in American politics—liberals or conservatives—is more r-slurred fluctuates over time. And while liberals were obviously the more r-slurred side between 2016—2022, I believe that now, the pendulum has swung back to conservatives hard. Liberals scared me back then, but now it's conservatives who are scaring me. So much of their rhetoric now—re. non-whites, women and feminism, China, Canada and Greenland amongst other things—strikes me as just cruel, hateful, arrogant, delusional, bloodthirsty, etc. "Street-shitters", "repeal the 19th", "bomb the Three Gorges Dam", etc. The overwhelming vibe I get from them is that they hate women, hate non-whites, hate liberals, hate the Chinese, hate Europeans, hate... basically anyone and everyone who isn't a white American conservative man. And I get that a lot of this is a reaction to 2016—2022 liberal excesses—I'm a white dude and can empathize with the resentment against much of the rhetoric from this period myself—but you're taking it too far, Chuds, and alienating me away again the same way liberals once did.
nope. grew up with reagan and the right has been pushing me away my whole life. Im in the us and they keep getting worse and worse. Sure there is some extreme left that are not my thing but the right just gets worse and worse. reagan, gingrich, bush jr, now trump. they were bad enough then tea party and now maga. Basically I was left of center and should be still but the right has run so far right I would appear super left. To me though is moderate right just no longer exists. Heck extreme right disapeared. tea party. maga. thats not even right its just plain ole nuts. so to me in my life there was a spectrum when I was young. extreme left, left, left of center, center, right of center, right, extreme right. Then like over time the right has lost any moderation so it went xtremeleft, left(right treats it as extreme), loc, center, right xtremeright. then xtremeleft, left (right treats as extreme), loc (right treats as extreme), center, extremeright. then the various lefts and center now treated as extreme left and the right abandoning pretty much everything they had professed to just do crazy. patriots are those who ignore the constitution and other founding principles, christians are those who believe aggression is good and wealth is a sign of gods divine grace, and presidents can do whatever they want as long as its theres which is fine because they plan for there to never be anyone different in the role.