I was curious how common it is to be, say, a leftist in a very conservative area.
My county, family, and school are all very conservative. It makes it a bit intimidating to engage in any political discussion. I also rarely get to hear leftist opinion anywhere in person, which means i need to devote a lot of time to considering and thinking about arguments that are probably already solved.
Are you, or have you been, in a similar situation?
I live in America in a deep blue state. The divide is about as classically pronounced as the railroad tracks here when the trailer parks grow numerous. Representation is deeply gerrymandered.
It’s also extremely militarized out here, with most people being attached to the military bases in some way.
I spent 10 years working on the county level. For a time in a rural red area and for a time in the bluer area. Blue areas tend to be corporate owned and worship police. Red areas are desperately poor and distrust government.
Out here the first point of wealth is to insulate and isolate from politics. So it has always been much easier to discuss politics with the rural poor folks. Free breakfast and childcare is a service that’s appreciated and used.
I don’t even know how to reach the deep blue folks living beyond their gates. Maybe the delivery workers can try to leave fliers.
I’m in Missouri, but in a major city here, so there’s a big mix.
The inner-city is strongly liberal, as in we support our own taxation because we like the services liberal and even have a free commuter train line. The suburbs are deep, deep red, and they think they should dictate policy to us because they commute into the city often.
On my island generally people are very close-knit (at the village level) and unfortunately give too much credit to right-aligned politicians, especially when it comes to immigration. The place is a migration crossroads, and there’s always vultures ready to rile people up for political gain. Otherwise very community-minded, kind people who are abundantly helpful and welcoming. Make it make sense
My personal, close social circle is pretty much only leftists, both egg and hatched
Am in Scotland. Frequently overhear people talking about how Trump has a plan to save us. Never tried to engage with any of these people, but they dont sound like theyre joking.
I’m in a blue state, so not very. But I work in an interesting environment where people hold a lot of conspiratorial and junk-science views (recently there was a rumor about an upcoming seven-second loss of gravity.) I navigate it with shutting down any sense that I would ever humor it. I don’t maintain any sort of connection beyond general courtesy otherwise. Worst case was “we have to agree on reality to discuss it” and that was that.
My friend group consists of a mix of people on the “far-right” wing and the “far-left” wing. Some of them are political active, some are active politicians. None of them are racists. My experience is that they all want the same for our society, they just disagree on how to get there. All discussions are civil and we don’t think less of them on the opposite wing.
Disclaimer: I’m not in the US. Obviously.
I bet at least one of your “far right” friends is a racist.
I would probably actually put money on it.
I’m curious what makes them “far right,” but not enough for you to think less of them. Do you have any ideals whatsoever, or do you just think they’re all created equal?
I cannot think of a single “far right” concept that would not make me think less of a person for believing.
I’m pretty sure they aren’t.
For the longest time in Denmark the most racist party was a left wing party. Their followers are often those who have the least resources, so they don’t vote on the suits on the far-right wing. I don’t get why it seems to be the opposite in the US.
The most far-right party we currently have don’t spend too much time on emigrational issues, but they still have this stance:
Over the past 40 years, Denmark has undergone the largest population change ever. Immigration has had major consequences for Denmark, not only in terms of terrorist risk, social tensions, economic challenges, crime and religious requirements, but also culturally. Liberal Alliance believes that the influence of cultures that are contrary to the values and fundamental freedoms on which Danish society is based should be countered. Free and liberal societies do not arise by themselves. They must be defended in order to be preserved.
Asylum
Therefore, the Liberal Alliance wants to put an end to spontaneous asylum, which is given to asylum seekers standing at the Danish border. Asylum should be given to those people who are most in need. That is why we want to abolish spontaneous asylum, as it is primarily given to people who are relatively resourceful and therefore need less asylum compared to other groups such as f.ex. quota refugees. If you have managed to get all the way to the Danish border and are not a refugee, you have less need for asylum than people who are outright refugees and seek protection from war, conflict and destruction.
Nationality
Obtaining citizenship in Denmark is a gift. It is not a right. The Liberal Alliance wants to tighten the requirements for citizenship, because we believe that there are a number of requirements and expectations attached to the privilege of becoming a citizen in a liberal democracy. We want to have greater certainty that nye citizens have understood what it takes to be a democratic citizen than is the case today.
We want citizens who apply for citizenship to be subjected to a profiling that analyzes their behavior ift. some defined requirements and expectations. If a citizen f.ex. ad has repeatedly hailed terrorist acts, threatening other citizens ifm. apostasy from a religion, acted hostile or threatening towards homosexuals or has acted as informants towards authorities in countries Denmark does not cooperate with, this will count down in the assessment of whether there is reason to believe that they will comply with applicable law and respect the spirit of the basic law.
The profiling is submitted to the Committee on citizenship, which makes a decision on whether the citizen should be set to receive citizenship by law. Read more about our immigration policy here.
Integration
The best way to integrate foreigners in Denmark is to ensure that they enter the labour market. Bl.a. know that it pays better to be at work, rather than on transfer income.
By coming out to a workplace, people get a better knowledge of Danish culture and Danish norms. It also provides an individual responsibility for one’s own existence when one gets out of passive support and starts earning one’s own money. This is the path to good integration.
In addition, the Liberal Alliance will fight parallel societies by taking a stand against social control on, among other things.a. our educational institutions. We will do this specifically by banning the so-called prayer rooms, which are largely used to retain Muslim students in religious dogmas.
Im in a technically far-right town, but most of the people i know about are either left-wing, either right or far-right, but in that case never militants : they’re just too stupid, too lazy or too mistaken to get over their reactionaries prejudices, and most of the time they end up agreeing with progressive views when there’s a political discussion. But those are quite rare tbf, people dont talk that much about partisan politics.
My whole life has been a weird back and forth of this. I grew up in a hyper conservative household and lived in a hyper conservative town, but I wanted to go to art school. So I moved to Seattle.
Fast forward I was a conservative in Seattle of all places, and racist af to boot. Being 18 coming off the heels of my family meant I had no original thoughts and just repeated everything my mom taught me.
I quickly learned better, both through college education but also meeting the people I’d been brought up racist against. Being in a multicultural hub like Seattle means having to see the charicatures my mom had painted for me live, breathe, and talk to me, and it’s hard for anyone with 2 braincells to run together to keep thinking those things when you interact with the people daily.
I stayed in the area after college and became increasingly more leftist. Then at a point I ended up moving to a small conservative town again due to financial issues.
Here I faced the flip side of what I’d experienced in Seattle. I’m white so everyone would try to pull me into conversation about immgrants or people on welfare or LGBT people and I was the sole voice against those views. I tried to reason with them, provide an alternative perspective, and over the years I’ve had mixed results. But the thing I’ll say that was different was the amount of violence and threat I’ve felt being the outsider in these communities.
I said some straight up racist shit when I was younger in Seattle. I lost friends and reputation over it but I never felt afraid. In the small town though, I lost jobs, was threatened, flipped off, verbally abused… I never had anyone physically attack me but it came close a few times. And the only thing I said in those areas was things like “they aren’t bad people because they are Mexican, they’re bad people because they did X to you, Debra.”
The racism and homophobia was the biggest hurdle honestly. People in that sphere dont think the things they are thinking are wrong. Often they only know what they have somehow been slighted, and they misatteibute their frustrations to race or politics. “I can’t afford groceries because so many (insert race) people are on food stamps.” No, you can’t afford groceries because your work isn’t paying you anything but beans and Walmart is the only grocery store in town. There are so many people on food stamps because they are socio-economically disadvantaged. Perhaps if you can’t afford groceries you might also qualify for food stamps."
But that’s hard to quantify, it’s easier to blame the have-nots as being morally lacking than it is to be mad at systems that are hard to quantify.
Wildly surrounded. I’m very used to interact with people with vastly different political opinions.
I have a straight up openly francoist coworker.
But I’m also surrounded by a lot of left leaning people. It’s kind of diverse here right now.
Anyway, I think it’s better for you to have to think the arguments rather than you repeating arguments you heard somewhere else. It would make you find your own believes, and have a firmer consolidation on why you believe in what you believe.
Most people I talk to in real life have similar political views to me. Except for a few kooky relatives
I live in a supper conservative, traditionalist and patriotic country… I’ve worked in different corperations from small to big and most people have been racists conservative at worst and reactionary centrists at best.
At work I’m often considered a mood kill as I often can’t take it and have trough in a sarcastic remark that breaks their minds a little bit so they move on from their distastefull discussion.
In my free time I mostly hang out with people that are leftist as well and I also enjoy going to leftist political marches and activities.
I’m in a socially conservative country, in a smallish town populated by elderly retirees, families and dirt poor marginally educated people. In the days before people were scrolling conspiracy theories about George Soros and litter boxes for cat identifying kids in librul schools on Facebook and Twitter, I wouldn’t been a more open person. Now, they’ll only get to know my public deaf-mute alter ego and never know that I’m a vigilante lol.
I wish I was in a city where there’s a bigger chance of meeting others like you.
We’ve got a handful of parties. I don’t know how anyone votes, except one guy who is an elected official in the municipality. Think my best friend votes for the party that I’ve got the least in common with. The surrounding area is dominated by the party I don’t vote for.
My state is overwhelmingly conservative and I stick out like a sore thumb that wants universal healthcare.
I filter out the vast, vast majority of people and basically have a dozen people I know and hang out with who are also not conservative.
I have slowly but efficiently removed every single Republican from my life (except for my grandmother, because I love her to death).
If I find out that you are a Republican, that will be the last voluntary interaction we have.
I have eliminated all from both parties. They both are the problem. They both are guilty of genocide… even little precious AOC
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