How have you changed your reactionary beliefs?

[Kill all the fetuses!]

There is a thread about reactionary beliefs one used to hold. What I am interested in more is what made you change your reactionary beliefs? Was it a book or a conversation or what? What happened to you psychologically, like how did the train of thoughts go? I think this thread might be beneficial as it would allow to see what makes people change their views. I think we could discuss all kind of reactionary beliefs, pro-capitalism, sexism, homophobia, nationalism etc.

My own story is quite a boring one. I've never been nationalist or homophobic, but I used to be sexist, but absolutely unconsciously. Some basic reading on feminism fixed that. In terms of politics, I used to be apolitical and then good old Chomsky introduced me into radical politics and the rest is history. As far as I recall there was nothing psychologically interesting that happened to me, because all the reactionary beliefs that I held were due to ignorance and once I got into politics and started thinking through things it didn't take much time to radicalise me.

But how does it work when you have a rather strong reactionary beliefs that aren't necessarily out of ignorance?

[Rosa Partizan]

As for me, my feminist development started with debating about prostitution and pornography. At this time, I was like, it's free choice and everyone having another opinion is uptight and moralistic. However, the more I read about it and confronted myself with it, the more I realized that I had to reconsider it. This is when I started reading a feminist print magazine, some blogs etc. I started accessing all the other feminist issues like everyday sexism, female careers, abortion etc and I was having a ton of aha experiences all the time.

[AnaRchic]

Well I used to basically accept the status quo while I was a kid, though I always had humanitarian concerns and hated war. As soon as High School came around that all changed though.

My social Anarchism has always been an extension of my personal Anarchism; I have always resented authority and valued freedom. Experiencing the prison-like authoritarianism of high school drove me to seek out a way to conceptualize my hatred of authorities, and that's when I discovered Anarchism.

I started off reading Bakunin and my life was changed forever. Then came Berkman, Malatesta, Goldman, Kropotkin and many others. I discovered an eminently rational and fundamentally correct critique of all institutionalized authority throughout society, and it completely changed how I saw the world around me. I had found a harmony between individualism and society, existent only in the absence of coerced order.

Basically, a combination of instinct and knowledge eroded my old reactionary positions and brought me to embrace Anarchism, both as a way of life and a revolutionary movement.

[Admiral Swagmeister G-Funk]

just realized things aren't always the way they're spoon-fed to u.

critical thought is a wonderful, depressing thing.

like j s mill says, its "better to be Socrates unhappy than a pig satisfied." although i'm unconvinced. pretty sure i'd be happier as a pig

[fear of a red planet]

I used to be suspicious of anyone with a well paid job that wasn't a plumber or in a really well unionised industry. I used to think that all coppers and probation officers and teachers and social workers, and managers were automatically bad people who just wanted to screw the honest worker over.

It is gaining a better understanding of Libertarian Socialism and other revolutionary ethics that led me to realise that the issue really is the system not the individual.

Which is not of course the same as anti-social elements who can be found in any sub-group of the population.

[Creative Destruction]

Through middle school and a first little part of high school, I was a typical Libertarian/conservative who would had a The South Will Rise Again attitude. It was pretty typical small town attitude toward politics.

In high school, though, I started flirting with anarcho-capitalism, had some discussions and ultimately came to think that capitalism was untenable, but I still liked the "anarcho" part. Around this time, I saw a lot of people in my town start losing their houses and livelihood. Sometimes, to combat this, little ad-hoc committees were set up to dole out food to families. That inspired me to look more into communism and syndicalism. What crystallized and clarified things for me was Leo Tolstoy's "How Much Land Does A Man Need?" which I read in my high school's -- surprisingly enough -- English textbook. That got me on board with Kropotkin, Tolstoy, and some American anarchists. That's really how I came to Marx, which is probably why I hold to left-communism.

[tallguy]

There is a thread about reactionary beliefs one used to hold. What I am interested in more is what made you change your reactionary beliefs? Was it a book or a conversation or what? What happened to you psychologically, like how did the train of thoughts go? I think this thread might be beneficial as it would allow to see what makes people change their views. I think we could discuss all kind of reactionary beliefs, pro-capitalism, sexism, homophobia, nationalism etc.

My own story is quite a boring one. I've never been nationalist or homophobic, but I used to be sexist, but absolutely unconsciously. Some basic reading on feminism fixed that. In terms of politics, I used to be apolitical and then good old Chomsky introduced me into radical politics and the rest is history. As far as I recall there was nothing psychologically interesting that happened to me, because all the reactionary beliefs that I held were due to ignorance and once I got into politics and started thinking through things it didn't take much time to radicalise me.

But how does it work when you have a rather strong reactionary beliefs that aren't necessarily out of ignorance?
Is this one of those "when did you stop beating your wife" questions?

[boiler]

From an early age I could feel that there was a lot of injustices going in the world. When I was about 17 I was working on building sites. To my shame and embarrassment for about a year I was very reactionary, the best way to describe my politics would have been extreme nationalism. I seen and worked with workers from other countries. I knew people that were applying for jobs on the same sites, but they weren't getting the jobs. Workers from other countries were getting hired over them. This would have helped my support the views I held at the time.

When I was about 18 I got involved with Irish Republican politics. I was getting involved with community and social issues, I came into contact with Republican Socialists I was getting reading material from them and was going to public meetings and debates, reading books like the manifesto of the communist party, quotations from chairman mao. I wasn't long coming to the conclusion that it wasn't the foreign workers fault that they were getting hired over Irish workers. They were just being used and exploited for cheaper labour ,the bosses and the capitalists were the enemy.

[Blake's Baby]

I stopped thinking 'bad people' should killed when I was about 9.

[Ro Laren]

Post-college frustration is what prompted me to think about politics. Reading The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein is what got me interested in leftism.

I had read the communist manifesto back in high school but sadly bought the "it was good in theory but in practice..." crap. There was also a brief, embarrassing Ayn Rand phase, but I was mostly the wishy washy college liberal type.

[A Revolutionary Tool]

I started realizing the people I thought of as my enemies had done nothing to me. When had anyone gay done anything but be nice to me? Turns out I had Muslim friends I didn't even realize were Muslim so it was kind of hard to believe they were all trying to attack us. Inconsistencies everywhere. Started to realize there was a large disparity between the conservative rhetoric of being free and my actual existence.

[Quail]

I think that we're all products of a sexist, racist, etc., society so we absorb subconscious prejudices from that environment. By acknowledging the possibility that those prejudices exist, we can be more open to being called out and ready to re-evaluate our beliefs. I try to read stuff from a wide variety of viewpoints and challenge my own attitudes, and take criticism without getting defensive. I don't think anyone is perfect and unprejudiced, and I actually think it's a barrier to progress if people don't accept the possibility that they're wrong and get defensive all the time. There's no shortage of sexist people who believe that they're against sexism in theory so they can't do anything sexist, for example.

[consuming negativity]

Back in high school, I remember wondering why anybody would possibly disagree with free market capitalism and freedom and democracy. So I did some research and found out.

It was a progressive "oh god, this is why that is like that" train of thought that led me all the way from conservatism, through social democracy/liberalism, through democratic socialism, finally to Marx and then the zillion tendencies of dirty splitters, etc.

[motion denied]

What got me into politics was a teacher's strike. I wasn't necessarily pro strikes, but I saw how their situation was shit. I went to a demo and police beat the hell out of everyone.

I guess I should be thankful to the pigs on some level.

Maybe not.