Are people born with their political beliefs?

I was raised Roman Catholic. In Middle School I was Republican because I liked military stuff. I didn't know Republicans of the 2000s were so prudish. I went to a rich suburban Middle School full of teachers who liked the show 24. One teacher asked me if I played video games. Another asked if there was blood in my favorite games.

I was a child of the 2000s. And like a lot of kids I enjoyed video games. I enjoyed gamer magazines like Game Informer and PC Gamer. In one article I heard about some crazy lawyer from Florida named Jack Thompson and a blog named GamePolitics.

and through GamePolitics I had a front row seat to the culture war.




This was the first step to alienating me from the Republican party.

I also went to church every Sunday but only to make my family happy. I never cared about anything they said there. Sex is a sin? I don't care.

And I remember back in 2006 hearing my Dad say we don't need gays in the military. I didn't know what a gay person was. I looked it up on Wikipedia. And even then I didn't see a problem with two people of the same gender loving each other.

Yet I was spiritual. I believed in ghosts, monsters, and UFOs. My spiritual side seemed to die out as I got older. Science and technology interests me more now.

In HS I only cared about becoming rich and I was a typical CoD brodude. I never cared about any issues back then that I care about now such as environmentalism, science, and sexual freedom. I only said I supported gay marriage to make my friends happy and annoy my parents. It was only until after a few of my friends came out of the closet shortly before the 2015 ruling on gay marriage that I became fully supportive of LGBT rights.

Despite being exposed to porn during my middle school years I never got fully comfortable with sexuality in media until I played Mass Effect 1 and watched a few episodes of Game of Thrones during my college years. And I loved seeing two hot chicks kiss each other in Sims 4. And funnily enough during my Middle School years after hearing of the Fox News Mass Effect controversy I looked up the scene on YouTube and asking where the hell is the sex? This isn't porn. What the hell were they talking about!

I am no fan of the SJWs but I never got sucked into the alt right. I had "SJW" teachers in college but I never really got into social justice.

After I got out of HS I found liberalism to be exciting and refreshing. Non SJW liberalism.

My liberalism dealt with science and sexual freedom. I think a future full of spaceships, aliens, freedom, and hot women would be more awesome than a future decided by an ancient religious text that demands slavery to an "antichrist" and an apocalyptic final battle.

Is my liberalism shallow and superficial?

Does culture or genetics influence a person's worldview?

Politics, like religion, is heavily influenced by family and culture; it becomes a part of their identity. This is primarily why people become so entrenched and tribal about it, even if it means throwing logic, ethics, and facts out the window.

Father Heathen said:

Politics, like religion, is heavily influenced by family and culture; it becomes a part of their identity. This is primarily why people become so entrenched and tribal about it, even if it means throwing logic, ethics, and facts out the window.

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Then why have I been able to reject the culture of 2000s conservative suburban America? On my Dad's side his Dad left the Baptist church and went to the Roman Catholic Church because he didn't like being told to do. Perhaps I am a logical evolution of that.

Nevermind that reply if you read it before I deleted it. I confused this thread for another one.

A biological proclivity for liberal vs. conservative views has been demonstrated. I rather doubt that that is the entire story, but it is a piece of it.

From what I was told my first words as a baby were "Let's make America great again"

N7OperativeSentinel said:

Does culture or genetics influence a person's worldview?

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Culture is different from genetics. Can a culture influence a person's worldview? Sure. Can their genetics? No.

Gandalf said:

From what I was told my first words as a baby were "Let's make America great again"

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Mine were "Starve the beast!".

Sapiens said:

A biological proclivity for liberal vs. conservative views has been demonstrated. I rather doubt that that is the entire story, but it is a piece of it.

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A genetic predisposition for religiosity (or lack thereof) has also been shown I believe.

Gandalf said:

From what I was told my first words as a baby were "Let's make America great again"

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I remember in the 60 and 70s how people seriously took America as being a great and respected country to live and raise a family and had the sense of being lucky to be born in this country.

Nowhere Man said:

I remember in the 60 and 70s how people seriously took America as being a great and respected country to live and raise a family and had the sense of being lucky to be born in this country.

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I remember when gangster rap was actually on the news and talked by politicians as if it would become a national epidemic. Now I hear Snoop blasted in wealthy white neighborhoods at elementary schools during family events. It is absolutely weird.