I’m Canadian, my sister had kidney disease years ago and had to be on dialysis, years of expensive meds, appointments with kidney specialists, hospital stays, the works… it was all free
I think quite often about how me at 20 years old and my single mother would’ve swung all that in the US and always come away thinking that we would’ve had our lives irrevocably financially ruined, if not have been made straight up homeless. My heart aches for people in the US in a similar situation who also have to reckon with the financial burden on top of the obvious health related one. It’s a thought that always saddens me and radicalized me to be a cheer leader for ppl like Bernie and AOC
I’m not radical. I support the party that any decent, informed person would. They are not radical either, fuck I wish they were. It is the right that is radical, but that is putting it mildly: the right is psychotic.
Just being informed about current events and the state of the world, knowledgeable about history, and having a strong belief that people should treat others the way they’d like to be treated.
Considering the things I’ve been accused of being “radical” for, I guess what “radicalized” me was seeing what happened to the women who stood up for themselves.
Sesame street told me to share. Mr. Rogers told me to care. Steve Irwin told me to be kind. LeVar Burton told me to be curious. My parents told me to play nice with the other kids.
I later found out this was "Socialism!!!"
Then I learned more about history and economics.
I’m not radicalized. Wanting to feed hungry people and be kind to people and help people isn’t radical. It should be the default human values.
Nothing in particular, just witnessing the continuous abuse of the institutions of civil society by, quite frankly, bad people.
Everyone wants to say they aren’t a radical, but if you believe in any basic principles of liberal democracy, of America, you are a radical right now. We don’t have rule of law, we don’t have consent of the governed, we don’t have secularism, etc. We have a country where tyrannical and hierarchical ideologies are prevalent.
I mean i left the minute I saw McCarthy got kicked out, Jan 6th was a boiling point but the way the house was functioning during that time was a circus. The nail to the coffin was trying to abolish the education department and cut Medicaid funds.
I think poor people shouldn’t die because they can’t afford medicine or care. I think everybody should have affordable, easy access to healthcare.
I am fine with my taxes fixing roads, building bridges and feeding hungry kids.
I don’t think young adults who want an education should be in crushing debt that limits their future.
I think that people should have individual freedoms. They can be gay, trans, purple and have a dozen abortions and a thousand guns for all I care. Your beliefs are yours, and no more important than mine.
That people find any of this radical makes me sad.
“Radicalized” is a meaningless trendy buzzword without a definition.
A far right person would likely see me as radicalized because I believe in the enforcement of a living wage for full time work, and in affordable taxpayer-funded healthcare and education for citizens.
What “radicalized” me believing in those things? Simply put: I see pain.
Being witness to constant corporate corruption (law violations, environmental damage, workforce maltreatment, artificial price inflation, insane CEO bonuses, intense corporate lobbying, etc) that don’t event ultimately TOUCH their bottom line. Tens-of-billionaire CEOs fucking around on their yacht and flying cars to the moon and cashing their $20mil end of year bonus check while their workers or consumers must supplement their stagnant full time income with food stamps or a second job to make ends meet, and even then live paycheck to paycheck… is next level ridiculous
education debt. My own friends who got good degrees and work hard (teachers, veterinarians, doctors, nurses) are individually saddled with loans they will NEVER be able to pay off.
Healthcare debt: again, I have friends with healthcare debt from births or injuries that they struggle to pay or will never pay. I have a friend with type 1 diabetes who is currently freaking out about insulin prices. That is insane. It is well known that these private insurance companies are inflating these prices and raking in the profits- why do we let this system continue?
And yet our biggest political fights over the last few elections has been over these silly culture wars that do not truly touch the lives of the average American. Banning gay marriage or preventing child transition surgeries (which aren’t even happening btw) is not going to help you afford college, pay for your rent/ groceries, and make sure you can afford to put a cast on your child’s broken arm.
Other countries citizens do not struggle the way we do, and yet we believe we are the richest and most powerful country in the world? Give me a break.
I don’t really consider myself to be that radical, but how difficult basic human dignity is proving to be due to capitalistic and monopolistic billionaires.
It’s like they think we want their yachts and we really just don’t want to die on the side of the road.
The class conflict is completely absurd.
If they had 5 yachts instead of 7, all would be well enough with life for everybody else.
Purportedly the greatest country in the world can make healthcare a birthright so a cancer patient doesn’t lose their home before losing their life.
If we’re truly “great”, appendicitis or gallstones, or fuck… raising a child to 18… cannot bankrupt you. Seems we’re great, if you can afford it.
Making kids say the pledge of allegiance in a school or terrorizing 8 trans athletes in an entire state ain’t the way forward. Republicans think it is.
Funnily enough, college. The right says that college indoctrinates people to the left. That isn’t true, but it is true that college graduates come out much more liberal than they went in.
Learning how to do proper research and learning how the world, particularly the business world works, is why I am where I am.
Believing in a responsibility to the common good isn’t "radical." Just having to type that pisses me off.
I’ve always believed that we need to care for others and that greed and abuse of power are threats to individual and communal human wellbeing. I’ve only recently come to understand that apparently my views are anathema to many in the society of materialistic individualism that I live in.
I prefer facts to lies – no matter how deliciously packaged.
I think our American caste system* creates a lot of unnecessary suffering and harms the nation in many ways. So I’m in favor of equality, the dismantling of the system, and working to heal harm it has already done to the nation.
We cannot seem to name or even talk about our caste system. But it’s most of what we fight about. Conservatives want to enforce it; liberals want to dismantle it. Here are its dimensions:
All "white" people above all other "races"; all "black" people below all other "races"
Men above women
All cis/het people above all LGBTQ people and the latter has no right to participate in public life
The wealthy above the working above the poor
The mentally and physically healthy have a right to participate and others do not.
These are basically the rules of conservatism and the Rosetta Stone for everything Trump is trying to do.
My mother having to work 3 jobs to support us because my dad left for good. I find it disgusting that some kids see their parents 100% of the time but some maybe 10%. This led me down a path of questioning why that is and why our economy brings injustice to good honest people. Growing up, I was so miserable, I thought God hated me but now I know that the old phrase "God didn’t do this, we did" applies to more than just war but our economic framework as well. My mother wasn’t to blame for our material conditions, the system was.
That and I grew up in the deep red south where prejudice was rampant. I noticed when it finally came to address core issues in conversation, it was always the "other" that was to blame. What senselessness it was to hear that lazy people were the problem. I was very young when I realized that typically, the opposite of what republicans say is actually just the truth they don’t want to hear so I became curious and predisposed to leftist arguments. I did my own research and found that trickle down economics makes no sense, etc. etc.
I was never anti ID pol, I was never a backer of Reaganomics, I was never a conspiracist. I’ve been a leftist my whole life and the only time I considered being pro life was briefly when I was maybe 11 years old. I remember my oldest sister explaining what the debate was all about so I told her I think I’m pro life. She told me quite frankly, "of course you do because you’re a man". As much as we bickered, I found myself pondering deeply her words and understanding that the other perspective actually matters a whole lot and we need to hear it. Maybe I was lucky to have such a level headed gifted student as my oldest sibling.
Better question would be what de-radicalized you, as this is a liberal sub and liberalism has been the default centrist position throughout the vast majority of the last 150 years of Western history.
I can say what originally radicalized me into becoming a far leftist at first: Liberals often framing issues of economic inequality around arguments of justice and merit, which is simply a lie. Your station in life largely really does depend on ZIP-code, connections and the wealth of your parents, as well as other minor factors, that don’t have anything to do with "hard work" at all. People from mainstream politicans to economics textbooks claiming that something is just or merit-based, just because the market says so, angered me extremely and had the exact opposite effect on me – it radicalized me against capitalism.
In general, framing everything under the sun almost exclusively from the angle of justice, what an individual does or does not deserve, should and shouldn’t have is the most toxic single attribute of our current political culture. It opens the door for all sorts of grievance politics, petty personal excuses, identity politics, conspiracy theories as well as missing out on the bigger picture completely and ultimately strenghthening the extremes.
I received a more healthy outlook by slowly learning to appreciate all the myriads of ways in which our neoliberal order was cleverly and meticulously created by experts who really did optimize outcomes for all people to the best of their ability. I learned the value of horizontal empires, inclusive institutions, independent central banking, managing incentives and much more. On the flipside I became more apprehensive of rent-seeking, populism, and smooth talkers trying to re-ivent the wheel, as well as all sorts of folks who try to do politics by eliminating what they deem evil.
Being a human being with basic humane values plus living a religious life.
Welcome the stranger, feed the hungry, take care of the sick, love your neighbor etc
The Republican party radicalized me, if you want to call it that, but I mostly just give a shit about having a functioning society that treats people well
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i keep seeing this trend on tiktok so im curious
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January 6th
Nothing
Helping negotiate medical bills.
COVID
No particular event. Gradually becoming more educated has made me more “radical” over time
Working and austerity measures. Reading economical and political theory helped me understand, maybe you could call it radicalize.
I’m not radicalized. That’s why this is "Ask A Liberal" Not "Ask a far leftist"
Gun politics. Made me into a single issue voter.
I’m Canadian, my sister had kidney disease years ago and had to be on dialysis, years of expensive meds, appointments with kidney specialists, hospital stays, the works… it was all free
I think quite often about how me at 20 years old and my single mother would’ve swung all that in the US and always come away thinking that we would’ve had our lives irrevocably financially ruined, if not have been made straight up homeless. My heart aches for people in the US in a similar situation who also have to reckon with the financial burden on top of the obvious health related one. It’s a thought that always saddens me and radicalized me to be a cheer leader for ppl like Bernie and AOC
I’m not radical. I support the party that any decent, informed person would. They are not radical either, fuck I wish they were. It is the right that is radical, but that is putting it mildly: the right is psychotic.
Reality. And the failures of the status quo.
Just being informed about current events and the state of the world, knowledgeable about history, and having a strong belief that people should treat others the way they’d like to be treated.
Nothing so far.
Gitmo
Hah, I was radicalized by Tom DeLay and it’s been a downhill slide ever since.
Seeing just how much Right-wingers hate others.
i’m not radical at all, but whatever.
Drinking too much Capri Sun EXTREME
Not radicalized.
Just am a fan of living under the rule of law.
If they come for my family, then I’m radicalized.
Considering the things I’ve been accused of being “radical” for, I guess what “radicalized” me was seeing what happened to the women who stood up for themselves.
Sesame street told me to share. Mr. Rogers told me to care. Steve Irwin told me to be kind. LeVar Burton told me to be curious. My parents told me to play nice with the other kids.
I later found out this was "Socialism!!!"
Then I learned more about history and economics.
I’m not radicalized. Wanting to feed hungry people and be kind to people and help people isn’t radical. It should be the default human values.
I’m not radical, but what got me engaged was:
Trump’s mishandling of COVID
Trump saying in early 2020 that he would refuse to accept the election results if he lost
Nothing in particular, just witnessing the continuous abuse of the institutions of civil society by, quite frankly, bad people.
Everyone wants to say they aren’t a radical, but if you believe in any basic principles of liberal democracy, of America, you are a radical right now. We don’t have rule of law, we don’t have consent of the governed, we don’t have secularism, etc. We have a country where tyrannical and hierarchical ideologies are prevalent.
If you are against that, you are a radical.
To swap parties or?
I mean i left the minute I saw McCarthy got kicked out, Jan 6th was a boiling point but the way the house was functioning during that time was a circus. The nail to the coffin was trying to abolish the education department and cut Medicaid funds.
I don’t think my views are radical at all.
I think poor people shouldn’t die because they can’t afford medicine or care. I think everybody should have affordable, easy access to healthcare.
I am fine with my taxes fixing roads, building bridges and feeding hungry kids.
I don’t think young adults who want an education should be in crushing debt that limits their future.
I think that people should have individual freedoms. They can be gay, trans, purple and have a dozen abortions and a thousand guns for all I care. Your beliefs are yours, and no more important than mine.
That people find any of this radical makes me sad.
“Radicalized” is a meaningless trendy buzzword without a definition.
A far right person would likely see me as radicalized because I believe in the enforcement of a living wage for full time work, and in affordable taxpayer-funded healthcare and education for citizens.
What “radicalized” me believing in those things? Simply put: I see pain.
Being witness to constant corporate corruption (law violations, environmental damage, workforce maltreatment, artificial price inflation, insane CEO bonuses, intense corporate lobbying, etc) that don’t event ultimately TOUCH their bottom line. Tens-of-billionaire CEOs fucking around on their yacht and flying cars to the moon and cashing their $20mil end of year bonus check while their workers or consumers must supplement their stagnant full time income with food stamps or a second job to make ends meet, and even then live paycheck to paycheck… is next level ridiculous
education debt. My own friends who got good degrees and work hard (teachers, veterinarians, doctors, nurses) are individually saddled with loans they will NEVER be able to pay off.
And yet our biggest political fights over the last few elections has been over these silly culture wars that do not truly touch the lives of the average American. Banning gay marriage or preventing child transition surgeries (which aren’t even happening btw) is not going to help you afford college, pay for your rent/ groceries, and make sure you can afford to put a cast on your child’s broken arm.
Other countries citizens do not struggle the way we do, and yet we believe we are the richest and most powerful country in the world? Give me a break.
I don’t really consider myself to be that radical, but how difficult basic human dignity is proving to be due to capitalistic and monopolistic billionaires.
It’s like they think we want their yachts and we really just don’t want to die on the side of the road.
The class conflict is completely absurd.
If they had 5 yachts instead of 7, all would be well enough with life for everybody else.
Paying attention to national politics and having a moral compass.
Probably the news and bad faith Republicans holding power. I just got tired of people profiting off of suffering.
Weirdos told me that if people like me got married the country would be destroyed.
Living in Alabama for 37+ years.
Imagine living your life thinking that everybody who thought differently than you was a "radical."
Realizing other people get to live in countries where an emergency doctor visit won’t financially destroy them.
Purportedly the greatest country in the world can make healthcare a birthright so a cancer patient doesn’t lose their home before losing their life.
If we’re truly “great”, appendicitis or gallstones, or fuck… raising a child to 18… cannot bankrupt you. Seems we’re great, if you can afford it.
Making kids say the pledge of allegiance in a school or terrorizing 8 trans athletes in an entire state ain’t the way forward. Republicans think it is.
Funnily enough, college. The right says that college indoctrinates people to the left. That isn’t true, but it is true that college graduates come out much more liberal than they went in.
Learning how to do proper research and learning how the world, particularly the business world works, is why I am where I am.
Believing in a responsibility to the common good isn’t "radical." Just having to type that pisses me off.
I’ve always believed that we need to care for others and that greed and abuse of power are threats to individual and communal human wellbeing. I’ve only recently come to understand that apparently my views are anathema to many in the society of materialistic individualism that I live in.
You should be asking this on ask conservatives
Che Guevara.
Empathy.
I’m being a little glib, but it’s better for my psyche not to assume anyone I don’t know isn’t dangerous, evil, or lazy.
Nothing about it seems radical to me.
I prefer facts to lies – no matter how deliciously packaged.
I think our American caste system* creates a lot of unnecessary suffering and harms the nation in many ways. So I’m in favor of equality, the dismantling of the system, and working to heal harm it has already done to the nation.
We cannot seem to name or even talk about our caste system. But it’s most of what we fight about. Conservatives want to enforce it; liberals want to dismantle it. Here are its dimensions:
These are basically the rules of conservatism and the Rosetta Stone for everything Trump is trying to do.
I think that’s heinous. Because it is.
Being gay
My mother having to work 3 jobs to support us because my dad left for good. I find it disgusting that some kids see their parents 100% of the time but some maybe 10%. This led me down a path of questioning why that is and why our economy brings injustice to good honest people. Growing up, I was so miserable, I thought God hated me but now I know that the old phrase "God didn’t do this, we did" applies to more than just war but our economic framework as well. My mother wasn’t to blame for our material conditions, the system was.
That and I grew up in the deep red south where prejudice was rampant. I noticed when it finally came to address core issues in conversation, it was always the "other" that was to blame. What senselessness it was to hear that lazy people were the problem. I was very young when I realized that typically, the opposite of what republicans say is actually just the truth they don’t want to hear so I became curious and predisposed to leftist arguments. I did my own research and found that trickle down economics makes no sense, etc. etc.
I was never anti ID pol, I was never a backer of Reaganomics, I was never a conspiracist. I’ve been a leftist my whole life and the only time I considered being pro life was briefly when I was maybe 11 years old. I remember my oldest sister explaining what the debate was all about so I told her I think I’m pro life. She told me quite frankly, "of course you do because you’re a man". As much as we bickered, I found myself pondering deeply her words and understanding that the other perspective actually matters a whole lot and we need to hear it. Maybe I was lucky to have such a level headed gifted student as my oldest sibling.
Fern Gully
Thomas Paine
What do you mean by "radicalized?"
Being from a US colony and being a DV survivor would probably be the two main things.
Why does this get asked in this sub at least once a week?
Nothing radicalized me. Because my views aren’t radical. It’s the status quo that’s radical, and it needs to be shown its place.
Having the entire Republican Party openly try to erase me and people like me from public life.
Better question would be what de-radicalized you, as this is a liberal sub and liberalism has been the default centrist position throughout the vast majority of the last 150 years of Western history.
I can say what originally radicalized me into becoming a far leftist at first: Liberals often framing issues of economic inequality around arguments of justice and merit, which is simply a lie. Your station in life largely really does depend on ZIP-code, connections and the wealth of your parents, as well as other minor factors, that don’t have anything to do with "hard work" at all. People from mainstream politicans to economics textbooks claiming that something is just or merit-based, just because the market says so, angered me extremely and had the exact opposite effect on me – it radicalized me against capitalism.
In general, framing everything under the sun almost exclusively from the angle of justice, what an individual does or does not deserve, should and shouldn’t have is the most toxic single attribute of our current political culture. It opens the door for all sorts of grievance politics, petty personal excuses, identity politics, conspiracy theories as well as missing out on the bigger picture completely and ultimately strenghthening the extremes.
I received a more healthy outlook by slowly learning to appreciate all the myriads of ways in which our neoliberal order was cleverly and meticulously created by experts who really did optimize outcomes for all people to the best of their ability. I learned the value of horizontal empires, inclusive institutions, independent central banking, managing incentives and much more. On the flipside I became more apprehensive of rent-seeking, populism, and smooth talkers trying to re-ivent the wheel, as well as all sorts of folks who try to do politics by eliminating what they deem evil.
You’re on a liberal sub – its really hard to be a ‘radical’ left-friendly centrist.
I don’t think I’m radicalized. I think resisting fascism is normal
Being a human being with basic humane values plus living a religious life.
Welcome the stranger, feed the hungry, take care of the sick, love your neighbor etc
The Republican party radicalized me, if you want to call it that, but I mostly just give a shit about having a functioning society that treats people well
To have empathy, care and compassion for everyone should not be radical.