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View Full Version : How many different ideologies affect your life?



Islamosocialist
30th August 2011, 07:02
I'm curious, how many ideologies affect your life?

We tend to think of people of any given background as being surrounded by others of that background, but it's often not the case.

To give you an idea the sort of question I am asking, I will answer:

I grew up for the first part of my childhood in a socialist country that was previously great but near collapse.

My maternal grandmother was a very narrow-minded Muslim woman. She would vote for the most left-wing parties but she never lived those ideals. Even when I started dating, she would be furious if he wasn't from a house she could hit by spitting from her front step.

My father was very conservative. My mother once told me he even tried to convince her to veil all the time until my sister and I were born, then he changed a little. He was so gentle, though. He was such a good man. He was so respectful of my mother and always balanced her opinion to make his decisions.

My mother was very socialist but also very spiritual and Muslim. She read a lot. She was... if you could have met her, you would have thought, "You are far too much for your life. You should be something bigger, somewhere else!". My mother could have been a better Oprah.

My sister is not religious at all. She wouldn't know a Koran from a Torah at this stage. She has a daughter, born during the war. Locals will know what that implies. She is... not normal in her emotions. She has strange mood swings, my sister. Politically, she votes for whichever party is winning among Muslims in the polls. Her most important issue is security, she's very Republican that way--afraid of her own shadow, willing to sacrifice anything for feeling safer.

But, during the war, as they said, "During bombings, I would have felt safer with a lace curtain around my shoulders than without one!" I disagree completely with... accepting right-wing government for security purposes. Foolish. And counter-productive.

My husband is deeply religious but, thankfully, he usually votes for left-wing parties. We have some different views. He is FAR more financially liberal than I am. And he is far more socially conservative than I am. But both of us would be too liberal for the Democrats in America.

So, I would say I am surrounded by:

"Anything but what we've had since socialism collapsed": 99%
Socialism: 0.5%
Liberal Democracy: 0.5%

Ha!

And what about you?

Do you have any conflicts from these differences? How do you handle them?

Please, share as much as you're comfortable!

Agent Equality
30th August 2011, 08:14
me being a white boy from california, Theres plenty of ideologies in my life.

Crazy christians, crazy conservatives, crazy liberals, crazy muslims, crazy hindus, crazy latino catholics, crazy asians, crazy capitalists, a couple of sane agnostics, crazy rascists, crazy sexists, crazy libertarians, and last but certainly not least, crazy crazies.

Smyg
30th August 2011, 08:44
Quite few. A tiny bit of social democracy from my maternal grandparents, a heavy dose of religious conservatism from my paternal grandparents, Christian socialism from my mother, liberal environmentalism from my father, and general liberal and capitalist non-politicalism :rolleyes: from everybody else.

ComradeMan
30th August 2011, 08:47
me being a white boy from california, Theres plenty of ideologies in my life.

Crazy christians, crazy conservatives, crazy liberals, crazy muslims, crazy hindus, crazy latino catholics, crazy asians, crazy capitalists, a couple of sane agnostics, crazy rascists, crazy sexists, crazy libertarians, and last but certainly not least, crazy crazies.

No surfing on your list? :D

Kornilios Sunshine
30th August 2011, 09:22
Here in Greece there is a shitload of many ideologies people have

Nationalism and Neonazism makes me wanna punch the shit out of those who support it.
Capitalism makes me angry and I am full of unfairness about it.

What ideology affects my life the most however, is anticommunism.
I think it is the biggest insult of all in the world for all communists because it is fascistic and anticommunists always tell lies and as a result they give a wrong assumption of what communism really is.

BTW Both of my parents are communists.

Leftsolidarity
30th August 2011, 09:27
Hardcore conservatives and poorly disguised racists thoughout my family tree that I know of. (excluding one of my aunts who is VERY left and a fucking awesome person, also one of my uncles seems left leaning)

Rafiq
30th August 2011, 16:12
Ideologies do not effect my life.

Ideologies are reflections of society so therefore society affects my life and not the latter.

Comrade1
30th August 2011, 16:23
Conservative father, convervative mother, Liberal Grandparents, and that one teacher who seems like a socialist...:lol:

Weezer
30th August 2011, 19:38
My father is pretty conservative, my mother is also conservative but in a weird different sense. My brother grew up a staunch conservative, but doesn't really care about politics anymore and probably would be considered a centrist or maybe even liberal.

Most people I know don't care about politics and if they do usually are centrists or progressives. My close friends are left-leaning, and I have a friend or two who considered themselves socialist. I have a friend who is a member of the SPUSA and he convinced and helped me to join.

Thankfully, I've never encountered a fascist or neo-nazi in my life, but I have encountered some crazy libertarians and Tea Party nutters.

Tenka
30th August 2011, 19:45
Apolitical quasi-religious/new-ager liberalism (parent), apolitical crazy roman Catholicism (grandparents), and Communism (internet). I don't get out much, but general environment would probably emanate xenophobic christian conservative lunacy.

RichardAWilson
31st August 2011, 02:54
Hell, there are a number to which I subscribe: I.e. Nihilism, Agnosticism, Marxism.

bietan jarrai
31st August 2011, 03:37
Both my parents are left-leaning so it was only a matter of time before I became a leftist, starting with anti-fascism, then going from anarchism to marxism to marxism-leninism which is where I stand now... I guess I'll have to agree with rafiq, being a middle-class kid in a country where most people don't care for politics, I was more affected by society than by ideologies themselves. The whole questioning myself, why are there rich and poor people and things like that.

EDIT: 100th post fuck yes!! :D

Islamosocialist
31st August 2011, 03:44
...I was more affected by society than by ideologies themselves. The whole questioning myself, why are there rich and poor people and things like that.

I can understand that, I think.

For me, there was always labels. You were Communist, Nationalist, BosniaK, Serb, Croat, Muslim, Catholic, or whatever else... and some of those you got at birth, no matter your own personal choices. Even if you considered yourself above labels and chose a non-ethnic, less political identity like Yugoslavian or BosniaN, that was a label too.

Summerspeaker
31st August 2011, 03:47
I grew up in the Baha'i Faith (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bah%C3%A1%27%C3%AD_Faith), with the associated homophobia, aversion to political action, and institution hierarchy. On a positive note, the Baha'i Faith exposed me to critical race theory and critiques of white supremacy. The views of my parents fall between liberalism and social democracy, with sympathy for socialism. One of them encouraged me to read Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States as a teenager. My grandparents and perhaps others in my extended family hold a Christian fundamentalist ideology. Conservationist environmentalism - the kind that venerates that white dude supremacist imperialist warmonger Teddy Roosevelt - infused my early years through involvement with the local museum of natural sciences.

I currently associate with liberals, anarcho-capitalists, social democrats, socialists, Marxist-Leninists, and anti-capitalist anarchists of countless varieties.

Islamosocialist
31st August 2011, 03:51
Summerspeaker: Baha'i has homophobia? I had no idea. I have Palestinian friends in Haifa, Israel. They're Muslim, but they've exposed me to the Baha'i faith there. I thought it was like... perfect record... in terms of human rights and so on?

RichardAWilson
31st August 2011, 03:56
A People's History was an enlightening read.

Summerspeaker
31st August 2011, 04:09
Summerspeaker: Baha'i has homophobia? I had no idea. I have Palestinian friends in Haifa, Israel. They're Muslim, but they've exposed me to the Baha'i faith there. I thought it was like... perfect record... in terms of human rights and so on?

Hardly! Queer Baha'is don't openly exist. The official position welcomes us but only if we refrain from actually doing anything and try to straighten up. I've never heard of queer folks who accept this. Despite growing up in the Faith and devoting a full year of my life to volunteer service, I literally just learned about queer Baha'i groups as part of making that post. They're in the closet of the closet.

The Baha'i Faith also has an authoritarian (and dude supremacist) religious hierarchy that tolerates not dissent and a problematic engagement with the state of Israel.

RichardAWilson
31st August 2011, 05:20
I actually considered converting to the faith when I was much a teenager. After researching it further, I concluded that it wasn't for me.