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So this thread is to discuss how this election has changed your political beliefs or just how your political beliefs have changed over the past few years.

For me, its been a pretty rapid shift from left to right. (As evidence by my change in my political compass)

At this time 2 years ago, a was a socialistic feminist. Now I'm conservative and will probably only get more conservative. I laughed at the anti-feminists and /pol/ and thought they were insane but now I find myself agreeing with them more and more. I'm against feminism now and blame it for the degradation of morality and the family unit, I'm against BLM and I see it as a masses being manipulated by cherry-picked stories, that Islam is not generally a peaceful ideology and the peaceful Muslims are the outliers (except you Samekichi, you're still cool) and that the Islamification/Arabization of Europe is dangerous. I believe in conspiracy theories now: I think communist subversion/cultural Marxism is very real, that there are actually groups of elites attempting to control the public. I've even started becoming suspicious of Jews, because of their disproportionate influence and their pushing of leftest ideals (not to sound antisemitic, ). I didn't want to pick up these beliefs but it happened. I started getting pushed away from the because the insanity of PC culture, then the election happened and I realized how easily people are influenced by media; believing the spin that they gave on Trump and going out and harming people and disrupting society over things that never happened or were taken out of context. Then I looked back and saw this is exactly what happened with BLM. After started visiting alt-right websites I learned about communist subversion and thought about how similar it is to what is going on. Now I feel like this guy.

2 years ago I would have mocked this and seen it as cringeworthy, now I see it as a pretty accurate chart of my change. I've seen myself go from leftist, to realizing something is wrong, becoming depressed and reclusive, to right wing.

Sorry if this sounded like a manifesto, what changes have you gone through?

From 2008 to now, I went from Sweet Summer Child to some sort of mix between "the dog who sits on a sofa while everything is on fire and says 'this is fine.'" to a guy with binoculars looking at discourse from a safe distance. Course in 2008, I was 16, did not have the great Type-1 Technology of idea communication that was the Internet, and believed one political party could do no wrong. How could I not think that at the time, though? I had Fox News, CNN, NBC, and CBS for news stations and the opposite political party members at school were….not very smart people. I did not have anyone in close proximity who could communicate opposing ideology effectively.

But now that I'm 7 years older, have internet, and let my brain simmer in knowledge juice, I went from heavily Green to slightly Purple (that political compass up there).

Was basically a /pol/yp minus the hate for minorities and women at the beginning of the election, then I started browsing 8chan's /leftypol/ out of curiosity and after debating with them they kept telling me what is popularly labeled socialism was either the Stalinist/Marxist-Leninist tendency or social democracy rather than legitimate socialism and recommended me some literature so I could gain a proper understanding of what economic and political policies the various forms of socialism advocate for. So I began reading basic theory, found myself in near total agreement with what I was reading, and decided to become a leftist, specifically a market socialist with nationalist tendencies.

Side note: politicalcompass.org is a terrible way to measure your political leanings. It asks loaded questions and calculates results in a way that's designed to make you seem more left-libertarian than you probably really are.

Not much. Many of my view points have always been to the left. Not so much because of the people associated with the left, but because of how i see leftist ideas at their core.

I've always found myself vexed at the behavior of people who hold my viewpoints. Which is why i consider myself to be more centrist, because i believe what i believe not out of adherence to dogma, but because i simply reasoned the the policies i support are whats best for the country and the world at large.

I don't believe in aligning one's self with political parties and movements, since doing so will cause someone to support an idea on the basis that the idea is supported by the movement and party as a whole, even if the ideas are totally unrelated.

For example, as thinker Sam Harris pointed out, things like climate change, gun control, abortion, and immigration, are completely unrelated issues, but people probably already know where they stand on those issues because of whatever political party they're in.

That's why i can support things like climate change policies and not act like some batshit green peace nut. I can support some feminist ideas, but not act like a batshit insane sjw, cause i dont view people who disagree with me as being evil demons, but people who simply hold a different perception than i do. And i'm willing to change my views on those issues, provided people can meet my standards.

I used to think a lot of stuff was gonna be the make or break of society, and that everything fought in the modern time was of the upmost importance for defending a legacy of only correct choices the liberal and democratic parties made. Anyone who was conservative was an automatic enemy of sanity and logic, and it was just that simple to me. I was a mostly passive kind of guy though, so I never really picked fights but more just ignored people of the right leaning. Basically I mentally blocked out one side of the argument and payed attention only to the other side.

I was a kid, 12 to 18 raised mostly on limited knowledge of the internet, dubbed anime, cartoons, action films, and whatever dreck the schools showed kids in the 90's and 2000's.

As I have gotten older, went to college, found out what these strange things called "forums" were, and memes, and watched youtube go from a cool place for videos and youtube poops to a mess of corporate bs and google dicking around, I have come to settle more as a Left-Libertarian, and a person who cannot stand either side but rolls my eyes much more quickly at the left side of the argument then the right.

I only went to 4chan about 6 times in my life, all of which I decided it was a shithole and didn't bother with much else. Gamergate was, sadly to say, the first time I questioned the left wing outside of just "Oh you guys are just over reacting" and a good natured mild disagreement. It made me take stock of stuff, not listened solely to the media, and actually think for a moment and talk out arguments to see what was or wasn't correct and logical. And I'd be darned if a lot of left wing stuff spouted didn't make a whole lot of sense.

Of course, I am also a man out of my time. I didn't have faith in politicians even when Obama was getting into office, because I saw him as just a man. He was a human who was tackling issues nobody else had answers to, and having faith that he'd change the country entierly was extreme. Still, the left wing side of politics getting more entrenched in islamic defense, affirmitive action championing, and general just non-empirical stances really helped to drive me closer to center then any redpilling by pol ever would have.

Stating a fact, that if a person was never racsit in their life, they shouldn't be called racist because of their skin color or ancestry, and seeing that get hatred and vitriol from the people supposedly on the right side did wonders to make me leave their side of things, and never look back.

So the problem with me is, I'm already all over the fucking place. There are bits on all of the "How Red Pilled Are You" chart that could apply to me.

I'm from on of the Reddest States in the United States and live on a farm, who values science and majored in natural resources. The two people in my family who I talk politics with the most are my (fairly) liberal Grandfather and his son, my (fairly) conservative baby boomer Father.

I've also had the luxury of being able to travel to various parts in the Western United States relatively recently, from towns in Nevada and Idaho, to big cities like Portland, Seattle and San Francisco.

I don't really think I belong in either group. Certain things I do support like LGBT rights, the environment, the world is several billion years old, etc. kinda forced me to be more left than right, but yeah… that's not a real endorsement either. While I don't like Trump, the current protests around #NotMyPresident make me cringe. "Reverse racism" (aka non-whites can't be racist towards whites because whites have more power yadayda) Is just the same thing as regular racism and just as wrong. Being in a red state has some negatives, but, for the most part, (and maybe because they know they are outnumbered IDK) I've not seen too many crazy left things happen personally. Compared to actually being with kids in my grade school who felt creationism should be taught as a valid alternative to evolution, or who thought that people becoming gay was a real problem that needed to be stopped. Compared to things that happened in cities that were thousands of miles, you gain a mindset based on what you actually see on a regualr basis.

While I still feel like I'm more left that right, I'm not going to pretend that the left is free of flaws. Still, I don't really believe that the majority of people on the left or right want to make some dystopian future where only their side rules. Most of them ultimately do want a better world for everyone; they just disagree on how to get there. Of course, that doesn't mean you can't still point out how some of their beliefs are really dumb.

I'm struggling to understand how you let yourself deviate to the right so easily.

Judging by your political compasses, you've never truly been one for freedoms for the people, so I guess it was only a matter of the hateful internet convincing you that the left is sensitive and stupid for you to change your mind, and personally I find that rather petty.

I understand your points, OP, but I disagree. I feel like you've read that feminists only complain about non-issues, left-wingers complain about too many things too much and are just plain annoying, etc.

I suppose my point is that you've heard the alternate view (right, authoritarian) and taken it on board 'because it sounds right', which I find dodgy because you've abandoned your original ideals and jumped right into the same pool of people who elected Donald Trump and voted for Brexit.

Sorry for the TL;DR.

I've honestly done near the same thing Scream did. Most of my life I was actually becoming more and more liberal to the point of almost crossing the border into SJW. But actually the last year or two, mainly due to the election, I started talking to people. I could not previously even imagine why people could be right wing in any way. I hated SJWs but I didn't see them as a threat and I still thought everything left was more correct by default just for being left. But when I started talking to people who were right wing and having meaningful dialogue, I understood they weren't hateful nuts.

One big thing that pushed me over was just the revelation that right wing doesn't equal bigoted automatically. I realized more and more that most younger right wing people only valued some right wing policies more than some left wing they believed in. Like all of them were staunchly pro LGBT and climate change too. They just had their own priorities and I learned to respect that.

Over these 2 years, I started realizing SJWs are actually a threat to Western society. It's a mix of both me changing my perception and actually them gaining social strength but holy shit they kinda scare me now how effortlessly SJW ideas are seeping into every crack of civilization and becoming the norm. Even little kids are threatened by this toxic garbage. One really stand-out story to me is the elementary school that was gonna write kids up as racist on their permanent record for not attending a Muslim event.

Same as Scream, I've been believing in conspiracies a little more. Like I finally understand what people mean by "politics are deeply corrupt". And in my eyes the Dems are actually the more corrupt ones (but neither side is very scot free). I don't entirely believe in, but I honestly find the Clinton pedophilia conspiracies as easily plausible, same with the Clinton assassination thing. To me the Clintons are the kind of people Orwell warned us about and every other dystopian story.

SJWs in general have been pushing me right. Even if I'm probably technically centrist/libertarian in ideas now I feel like I identify more as right especially this week more than ever in order to oppose the current heavily aggressive leftist climate. If in the future the right wing becomes a bigger threat again I might switch back over in identity but currently I feel like this is how I'm needed. I won't never criticize the right but like it's not my priority right now when I'm in the face of huge government conspiracies and violence.

Being on a college campus also causes this. I'm not even in a lefty-hell state but it's still near as bad as the legends I heard about before SJWs have legitimate power here. One time someone drew a dick on a whiteboard in a dorm and people were threatened with consent classes for that act of "sexual assault". There are "diversity boards" and cultish safe space clubs everywhere. In general the consent class thing is just invasive and cancerous and condescending every on school job has consent classes and you have to take one in order to be admitted. I was told first day here you're not allowed to say "that's gay" or "that's retarded" or you'll face punishment. There is special therapy offered here because Trump won. Some of the people I got to know here this week I had to completely cut from my life because they turned psychotic and started sobbing and calling for people to actually be killed for liking Trump. Most of these people are also literal communists I didn't know even existed irl until now.

However, I'm still centrist as I explained. I believe in transgender bathrooms, but believe they should be decided locally. This was a part of my political shift as well I gained more of a respect for states' rights I think we need them back I used to be super central government fan. Now I think everyone would be better off overall if we had more local stuff. I hate how saying "I think this lgbt issue should be solves locally and on the local level I have a pro opinion" is still considered bigoted by leftists because they believe in such hardcore central power, yet complain when trump gets elected because you think he's a dictator. Now who gave the feds that kind of power to begin with you geniuses?

I believe non-binary gender identities exist. However, an addendum is I believe like 99% of the people who claim to be non-binary are lying out their ass and have a fundamental lack of understanding of dysphoria and gender. I believe in mass legalization and then regulation of drugs. I'm pro choice but even that has changed I'm not sure what I think anymore. I'm kind of a first trimester person but when the mother is threatened it gets way more confusing.

Honestly this might be it in terms of overtly liberal positions I hold I might as well be right leaning. What right wing means has really shifted in the last decade or so. Like the old view of the right wing as an almost theocratically Christian ideology in the US is dying and the new tolerant right is rising. More of a libertarian right and as I said my new worldview is probably closer to libertarian.

I still barely understand economics and feel it's impossible to understand them truly. But I've grown to believe that overall freedom (as long as not complete freedom) benefits people better and faster as well as being the morally better option because I like freedom you know. I don't think freedom always equals better in terms of the market but I lean that way nowadays. I believe climate change requires an active government, but even that has been changing. Like I believe lots of the subsidized monopolies are just horrible ideas and are actually slowing green tech progress.

I've become way more pro gun control like waaaay more. I now believe that racism barely exists. It exists but more on an individual basis than institutional or societal. Mostly just random assholes nowadays than mobs of assholes with power. Most stuff people claim as racist/sexist/whatever is just grasping to me. I think BLM is basically a completely worthless movement almost every case they pick is not defendable at all. The ones that actually are bad cops I've noticed are more a problem of the cops just being shitty and violent in general not just towards black people. The black cases just get more attention because of the disgusting mess that is BLM.

I believe immigration should be stricter. My mom is an immigrant and I know many immigrant families but I still think at this point we need boundaries. I think it should be refined though and have some kind of due process,especially for deportation. Because of my family and family friends I've had experience with horror stories of just bad management with how Visas and all are dealt with. But I still think we need rules, just better ones. No specific ideas since I'm no expert, just the general direction we should take.

Why the fuck did I write all this

As far as I can remember, I have always been left-wing. I used to be a social-democrat who thought Socialism meant roads, government, and healthcare; pretty much a caricature of what a "socialist" is. I used to believe in Cultural Marxism, until I started to look up what Marxism is and isn't. Funnily enough, I joined this site purely because of 'GamerGate', I used to be 'pro-GamerGate', but now I have no real opinions, considering the movement got filled with idpol (the identity being 'gamer'), as well as weirder & weirder people starting to support the movement (like Davis Aurini, a white nationalist and neo-reactionary). GamerGate could have turned into an anti-capitalist movement, but instead, it didn't. It got surrounded by more conservatives, reactionaries, instead of left-wingers.

My views changed after touching George Orwell's works; making me more libertarian. I started looking up what Socialism means, and started to agree with it. A lot of people who touch George Orwell, attempt to create a narrative around him; for example, that Orwell's Socialism was social-democratic, or that Orwell was a "democratic socialist" and not a socialist. The reality is that George Orwell could be considered a marxist, and a socialist, even if he saw British culture as nostalgic and good.

I do no longer see "SJWs" as a threat, I see them as a mild annoyance, but still a toxic movement that's damaging the 'actual left', the 'actual left' being socialists, communists, anarchists, etc. "SJWs" are painted by the alt-right, and conservative movements, as an extreme left-wing movement of some sort, even if most "SJWs" probably haven't touched Marx or Engels. Marx, Engels, and most left-wing writers would be called cucks by the alt-right and racists by "SJWs" anyway, because they would be against identity politics.

I have not read much literature, I did read more a few years ago, but now I don't. I have touched Kropotkin (Anarcho-Communist) , Bart de Ligt (Anarcho-Pacifist), Karl Marx (On Communism, Socialism), plus some Proudhon (Mutualism). I see Capitalism – our current system – as an unsustainable mess that will destroy the enrivonment, create more inequality, before collapsing on itself because of the contradictions within it.

Now, I see myself as a left-libertarian, but I have gotten less tolerant over the years towards right-wingers and right-libertarians. I believe that the workers should own the means of production, and that private property should be replaced by personal property. I see violence as bad as long as it serves no purpose, with self-defense being a good reason. I have gone from anti-gun to pro-gun, believing that no one should have a clear monopoly on the legitimate use of violence, if time should come when more authoritarian beliefs become central in a government or state. I have become more anti-state, but not anti-government, as government can be seen as organisation while the state enforces a hierarchy.

On a bad day, I feel like an anarchist. On a good day, I'm a libertarian socialist cinnamon rollist.

{ I’ve seen myself go from leftist, to realizing something is wrong, becoming depressed and reclusive, to right wing. }

That's called maturing lololol

I've always been conservative (and I'm easily the most conservative of my family iyc). In 2008, the first election I could vote, I wouldn't have supported a burn it down candidate, nor would I have the non-mainstream sources and awareness to remain convinced he would win despite the media coverage and polls calling Hillary. I don't think that has to do with this particular election so much as watching how the past 8 years has gone.

The first two years were obviously far too liberal for my taste but didn't deviate from the realm of things that could be undone or reconfigured in the future by a conservative elect. Then effects from the 2009 eco-stim package and Obamacare's first penalty increases hit. The media has claimed for the past eight years unemployment is at an all time low while totally disregarding the TANKING labor participation rate. The cost of everything manufactured started going up because of carbon regs and penalties while American manufacturing continued its death march, hours were cut to part-time to avoid Obamacare fees, prescription prices soared, it all finally started hitting the people. While all of this was happening, GOP politicians were promising their party that if we elected them back into the majority, we would see conservative action get passed and Obama would only look bad if he kept vetoing bill after bill. What we got instead were a bunch of corporate "Republicans In Name Only", the RINOs. They facilitated bill after bill for the Democrats that didn't secure the compromises we were promised, they didn't even try.

So when this election came around, half the population despondent and betrayed by the party's established politicians we'd been dutifully supporting in local and state and federal elections, what else were we supposed to do? There was honestly not one point during this election where I thought Trump would not eventually become President, it was extremely clear to a lot of people who had simply been looking around themselves.

& this has been a global phenomenon. After Trump Win, Parallel Path Is Seen for Marine Le Pen of France’s Far Right

{ Ms. Le Pen is not alone. From the Balkans to the Netherlands, politicians on the far right have greeted the election of Mr. Trump with unrestrained delight and as a radical reconfiguring of the political landscape -- not just in the United States, but in Europe as well.

Far-right leaders competed in their fervor to support Mr. Trump. Those already in office, like Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary, took the news of Mr. Trump’s victory as a vindication of their stances. Those seeking office, like Ms. Le Pen or Geert Wilders of the Netherlands, saw it as a hopeful sign for their own aspirations. That revolution, they said, has overthrown what they called the “elites” -- the mainstream news media and establishment politicians -- who are in a tacit alliance. }

As far as I'm aware, actually not that much – I was a left-leaning centrist at the start, and a left-leaning centrist at the end. The nuttier sides of both camps have always rubbed me the wrong way, while I've always found the moderates in both to be rather agreeable people. I have seen myself think a little better of /pol/, though, especially in late October.

{ Ms. Le Pen is not alone. From the Balkans to the Netherlands, politicians on the far right have greeted the election of Mr. Trump with unrestrained delight and as a radical reconfiguring of the political landscape -- not just in the United States, but in Europe as well. }

Can confirm.

However the guy in my country, Geert Wilders, will never get my vote. Not because of some of his political views, but because this guy actually is a racist nut. He's currently standing trial for having a crowd chant that they want less Moroccans. He was also the support in parliament in a minority government once, but that government failed thanks to him. I got little trust in him.

Regardless, they're expecting a dominating victory for his party during the elections next year. Things like the refugee crisis, Greece, Ukraine, Brexit, have all been playing into his hand. Unfortunately I expect a big victory for him to generate a Brexit-effect, where racists will see it as a green light to be racist.

But that's also where he's in danger. The Ukraine treaty referendum and Brexit both passed because one party kinda couldn't be arsed to vote while the populists all made certain to vote. It's a method that can only work for so long. Those that are against populist parties will realize at one point that they succeed because they're the only ones actually giving it their 100%.

As for myself, these last couple of years made clear to me to not underestimate the extreme left and right as a loud minority too quickly. The extreme right was always pretty clear, because it's not hard to find clear racism in the extreme right nowadays, and the Brexit generating a wave of racism in Brittain didn't help.

But seeing how the extreme left is pretty much sweeping college campuses nationwide in the US, alongside all the protests, is showing me those guys aren't much better; they were always kinda silent because the political climate was going pretty smoothly for them, but with Trump they suddenly got kicked of their pedestral and crawling out of the woodwork now.

I was always more of a social-democrat, but things like the refugee crisis might've made me more of a left-leaning centrist instead of just left, but still a social-democrat.

Well, as a bisexual cross-dressing faggot born in an extremely conservative Eastern European shithole I started out veeery liberal. Then my family moved to Germany when I was a teenager, and boy did I get redpilled very quickly.

I believe the system that exists in Europe now is literally destroying it, and I don't care when people say "luuuulz a conspiracy theory nut", I believe my own eyes. I believe the distopian world you see in the movies and read about in the books is where we live right now. So every win against the elites (Brexit, Trump, etc) makes me happy and hopeful.

My views haven't really changed since then.
End interventionism. Completely. I don't care what happens in other countries, that's non of your fucking business, stop waging endless wars and wrecking the world. Stop overthrowing governments you dislike. I don't want people dying and countries being ruined just because our elites deem it necessary for some reason. Then I want a more traditionalist society, where a family unit is the top priority, because there's nothing better than good ol' family values, and otherwise we will literally become extinct. This of course automatically assumes the end of intersectional feminism. Then, end the identity politics and replace it with cultivating a strong national identity. Finally, I don't know what exactly needs to be done, but we need a political system, where we make sure that what has happened won't happen again.

The funny thing is, I still think of myself as sort of a leftist, it's just that I don't think that what we call the "Left" now is what it's supposed to be.

I don't really think my politics have changed too much in this election. I've always considered myself among the more left-wing of the spectrum.

I suppose one of the biggest things that have caused me to not so much change but to look more critically at would have actually been the whole Gamergate saga. It showed me that the left is not an infallible, totally tolerant and rational group, while the right was by far not all racist aggressive assholes. I stopped paying attention after a while however, namely because I felt like the movement made its point and now its full of people just there to get mad at anything that smells remotely of SJW.

That being said, I never felt myself becoming right wing. I've always tried to adhere to the principle of keeping an open mind, but there are certain policies that I can't get behind. And although I agree that the radical SJW's are not good at what they want to achieve, I feel like they're invoked by the right to try and provide some convenient boogeyman/strawman to hate around.

If there is anything I'm starting hate a lot however, it's this sort of negativity and lack of compromise that's infesting the internet right now. I know the SJW's rightly cop a lot of flak for it for branding everyone they disagree with as a racist, but that gives the right or alt-right no real right (heh heh) to start branding everyone who is skeptical of their theories as being an uninformed tool, cuck or shillary.

One thing the election has shown me however is that the alt-right is most certainly not to be underestimated. And if the left wants to retain the advances it has made, it needs to stop moping around about their loss and focus on how to earn everyone's trust and respect again. They're going to need to swallow the bitter pill and compromise for now.

In conclusion, I consider myself as being a more centrist lefty. I know some people call the centrists out as being wishy washy people who always treat every opinion as being equally valuable even when they are not, but to those people and I dare ask forgiveness for saying this:

Fuck You. Figuring out whatever is best for the future doesn't revolve around adhering to a particular ideology. That sort of attitude leads to almost tribal politics that cripples discussion. I'm not ashamed to be where I am.

My politics haven't changed much since about 11:00 AM, September 11, 2001. I went from being a centrist who grew up during the "end of history" era to someone who realized the world had evil people in it capable of inflicting tremendous harm on myself and those around me.

As a result national security became the big issue for me, and Republicans at the time seemed to be much more serious about it than Democrats. While some of my opinions about specific national security issues (the relevancy of the Iraq War to US security, the collection of metadata) have changed, I still consider it the most important issue when it comes to politics and still believe the right has a better approach to it. And as I have become older and have developed a better understanding of the way the world works, most of the other major tenets of conservatism have aligned with my personal observations.

Perhaps the only major change in my outlook over the last two years is a greater awareness of the political establishment shared by both parties, which works for the benefit of the establishment members and appears to be a stronger driver of policy than political ideology or philosophy. This is why I so adamantly opposed Clinton, who is perhaps the apogee of the American political establishment and all of its corruption. I would actually say it is her identity as the ultimate insider, rather than her ideology, which I found threatening.

I've found myself growing more cynical and disillusioned as I realize that the Republican Party and Democratic Party care far less about promoting their respective ideologies and more about defeating their opponent. This was further reinforced by frequently visiting Huffpost and hearing Fox News--both sides have grown ignorant to anything that isn't colored red or blue or doesn't have a D or R next to the name. They're so dug in with their side that they refuse to even consider listening to the other. It's better to just unfollow them, to stay home at Thanksgiving, to only read and listen to news that leans in their political direction and live in a bubble. We're increasing becoming two countries while the Republican and Democratic Parties high five each other as it assures total party loyalty.

Meanwhile, voter turnout is at record lows, people have a higher opinion of root canals and cockroaches than Congress and SCOTUS, and we can't get through an election without rioting and protests over who won because the other side is absolutely shocked and appalled that there's another half of the country out there that's outside their bubble (and, yes, this would have likely happened with Trump supporters if Clinton won as well).

Ideologically, I think my views have stayed relatively the same over the years (conservative), although I do think I've drifted a little more libertarian as time's gone on.

Quantum メメ said:

Judging by your political compasses, you’ve never truly been one for freedoms for the people…

Just because someone's a quarter of an inch over the "authoritarian" line doesn't suddenly mean they want reeducation camps and a one party state. For instance,

All of the major UK parties are more "authoritarian" then OP. I guess that mean the UK's been Airstrip One all along.

…abandoned your original ideals and jumped right into the same pool of people who elected Donald Trump and voted for Brexit.

>that awkward moment that Clinton and the Democratic Party share the same pool as Trump and Brexit

That political compass is a terrible measure of anything. Not only are many of the questions seemingly biased toward neoliberalism (giving many takers a more leftist result than they should have received), but there's no reliable point of reference because the methodology they use to position political parties and famous people is dubious at best.

They've released commentary on the 2016 election. While not necessarily incorrect, it's very clearly partial to the creators' personal beliefs. I doubt every test taker would agree with their conclusion that the electoral college is an "undemocratic absurdity".

According to the graphs on their political figure analysis page, Trump is about as authoritarian as Stalin, and about half a tile less authoritarian than Hitler. That tells me that there needs to be greater detail than can be represented on a 2D plane.

A few years ago i would have considered myself a donkey-flag waving liberal, that thought all conservatives were literally the devil, not unlike the idiots you see rioting over trump now. But that all changed when i started watching some more subversive youtubers, my favorite being TJ Kirk, The Amazing Atheist. Despite some folks thinking he's this foaming right wing bigot, he's actually a pretty open-minded-but-not-to-the-point-of-mindlessness moderate that has a great many criticisms of all kinds of demagogues of many flavors.

Their videos taught me that many right wing ideas aren't necessarily Hitler spawn, though some certainly are. But even more importantly, they taught me that the left wing is very fallible as well. They showed me that the PC crazy "social justice" of the extreme left was just as toxic and harmful as the bigotry and close-mindedness of the more rabid right.

More than anything, the lesson i learned was that i actually don't have much of a place in mainstream political thought. The majority of people appear to be pretty solidly for one side or the other, and don't take to kindly to a nuanced critique of the positions of both sides. You're either with them, or you're against them, and that just doesn't jive well with me. I can't really cast myself fully into any group anymore, because i don't feel comfortable doing so these days.

These days, most of my views would be considered progressive, though i am more than incidentally conservative on certain major issues. The primary difference, i find, is that i no longer toe the party line on anything. i evaluate every issue individually. And i refuse to vote for someone i don't like out of fear. All in all, I mainly just grew jaded over these last few years, and the mindless passion i once harbored has been replaced with a carefully measured pessimism for all political aims. And this, i feel, is a decent way to be.

Myself, I've always been right leaning centrist and that didn't really change, even if some would claim that just being a religious catholic already makes me as far-right as it can get, whatever. It's kinda difficult to say, really, as I'm fairly conservative on some issues and fairly non-conservative on others, particularly on things like nationality. Mostly, I believe that any political extremes are highly dangerous.
About American elections, well, I'm not American, so I honestly don't give a shit. Hell, I wouldn't care if they started ideological purges or whatever, really. I'm just glad that Clinton didn't win, so war with Ruskies ain't happening and us small European countries aren't getting crushed inbetween because we're in the way. For now, at least.
Honestly, what angers me the most, is that elections in some shithole on the other side of the ocean can't be irrelevant to us. Because suddenly, on the basis of a few votes of difference, we're with no choice but to live through a war someone else started.

On that redpill list i started out as 2-3, now i am 7-8
I wish i had the charisma and political knowledge to try and save the west from its path of self destruction.
This election made me a putin fanboy too.

I mostly got a lot more libertarian and left, with an overall extreme dislike for almost all politicians and all companies.

If anything, I've become a social centrist as I see bad things on either side and I don't know where balance is.

I've become more economic left as I've started to despise copyright, patents (especially their abuse) even more. Also, the limited resources on Earth are a concern. Small households and communities are also a problem as they increase economic risk.

In authoritarian/libertarian scale, I stay where I was before.

For the most part my personal views haven't changed. I'm primarily a moderate but I supported Trump because he could possibly help my family by repealing or otherwise doing away with Obamacare.
However, my views on liberals have changed a rather bit. At first, I thought they were well-meaning people. I mean they just want equality right? Well that's what I've believed at first, but as this election went on I started to see more and more anti-white behavior. I'm just going to flat-out state it, that's racist. Blacks, whites, hispanics, asians, native americans, they're all races. Being prejudice towards any of them makes you racist, and that's what these people are doing. They're being prejudice towards white people. Now I will admit, white people have had it quite easy over the years, however these people said they support equality right? So wouldn't that mean they'd support equality for all races, including whites? Or do they think that we have special super-powers that make us invincible to racial discrimination?
As well, their smugness pre-election was really getting to me. They were acting like they were superior to anyone who didn't agree with them, like they were patricians while we were the plebians.
Also, I really disagree with how politically correct they've become. I mean they've been taking it to extreme levels and it's only gotten worse with this election.
And finally, the final nail in the coffin for them was their collective "unrequested fission surplus" after Trump won. I mean I thought they were bad before, but now they've just gone full primal. I mean I've seen them make death-threats towards Trump, Pence, veterans, third-party voters, Harambe (for some stupid reason), Trump supporters, and even just white people in general (which if it wasn't racist before it definitely is now). I've seen them burning effigies of Trump in the streets and even burning flags. Not only that, but I've also seen them assault innocent people, without knowing who they supported and stealing from them. I've seen them oust their own friends and family because of who they supported. One of the worst things I've seen them do is one person parade around naked, get a Trump sign and an American flag, and proceed to shit on it and light it on fire.

Beforehand I might not have agreed with everything they did, but I at least respected them for their goals. However, after this election I've lost all my respect for them. This might sound a little melodramatic, but at this point they are…I don't really even know. Animals perhaps? Anarchists? Insurrectionists? Either way, I have no respect for them and they've shown they really don't give a shit about what their previously stated goals were.

I used to be a stereotypical Anti-SJW ever since the Steubenville rape case. I didn't have a kneejerk reaction to the concept of rape culture or patriarchy theory, but I was just really confused by it all but had no strong feelings one way or the other. After reading and watching a lot of videos against feminists and the like, I became an Anti SJW.

However, my opinions have basically done a hard 180 over the years and now I see a lot of merit in what feminists and social justice advocates say. I follow blogs online by people with very progressive views and my favourite news channel is Al Jazeera english which is VERY left wing.

It's not like I don;t listen to opposing opinions anymore, I'm just more partial to one side though I'm willing to change views and I'm aware I still have a lot to learn.

The election has changed my views on what I consider an ideal society. It's better for people to live in smaller communities with more localised industries and smaller companies. This whole election left me frustrated with how politicians are consumed with their own selfish ambitions and how they'll willingly screw over countless people to get what they want.

I'd like to see a world where mega-corps don't exist and the common people have absolute power over how their country is run; i'd like education to be more accessible to all people to guarantee we'll make good decisions.

Many political and humanitarian crises, and the decisions made by companies have taught me that we should stop expecting any country or company will ever do anything out of the kindness of their hearts. Companies and countries are not people and they come first in their list of priorities. It's better to entice nations and organisations with some sort of advantage or reward to get them to do anything. The world is ruled by money not morality. If you can't play that DIRTY, DISGUSTING, HORRIBLE, but necessary game, you will lose.

I have slowly warped into a monarchist.

I still stand by my conservative values, even after voting for Trump.

Ive become more willing to give the right wing credit than when I was younger, and have reached this impasse where I dont subscribe to either side 100%

I'd like to point out to everyone that there is more to politics than conservative-to-liberal, and conservative-to-liberal means more than Democrat to Republican. Also, there are wonderful and intelligent people in nearly every, if not every, strain of political thought.

Now then…

I've moved socially left, in terms of accepting. I don't have much picky-ness as to what people do, as long as it's not screwing over others.

As for economics… I have less of a clue now that at the beginning. Earlier, I had a strong laissez-faire economic viewpoint. However, as time went on I saw holes in it, and trusted corporations less and less. I still feel like the government isn't exactly out for our best interest either (and this election certainly didn't help that), but I'm not sure corporations are the magic bullet I believed before.

Heck, something like six months ago I was fiddling with a sort of neo-feudalism ideology that I thought might have been better than what we have now. Eventually though I found flaws in it and dropped it.

Now I have no clue what I think is best. Probably plays into the whole "accepting" thing.

I never cared to learn shit like "Left wing" or "right wing" but I Damn sure didn't deviate from my liberal ideals. If anything this election, more specifically the last few weeks, left me more stoic and unresponsive. After Trump got elected, nothing surprises me in the slightest.
But strictly politics, this election, if I HAD to put a label on my thoughts, made me more Libertarian-Anarchist. As ABSOLUTRLY RETARDED as that definitely is, I can't help but have this nagging desire to either not have a government at all or simply have less government power overall. My view of a good world is one where people can govern themselves.
Which this election proved to me was a shitty fantasy. People are as berserk and fucking stupid as ever, which honestly leaves me with no faith in my own political ideals.

"The Ukraine treaty referendum and Brexit both passed because one party kinda couldn’t be arsed to vote while the populists all made certain to vote."

You're suggesting remain didn't win either because of one party or because not enough people voted, which isn't exactly true. I see what you mean, but if so you can apply that logic to Trump's election also.

By the by, I've always found it's important not to become an Ultra-left or Ultra-right, and just realise what's fair, I guess. Hence how I'm not right wing and never will be; the closest I've ever been to right-wing is central-left.

When I was in middle school and through most of highschool I was pretty communist/socialist/left. Until I started actually looking into what it is I actually believe, and starting to talk to my family about the realities of the USSR that, I, as a kid, only had a small glimpse of since I moved out of there when I was 6 and a half.

The reaction my fellow students had towards the Invasion of Iraq in 2003, and the clear lack of any understanding the importance of oil, and geo-economics, made me more and more conservative.

I was a Republican since I was able to vote (2004, cuz you know immigration lulz), and mostly because I came from what more and more of the Democratic and Progressive economic politics create, and I saw the harm and the backwardness of those policies.

As I grew disillusioned with the Republican party during it's failure during the Obama years, and cow-towing to the BS of Bush Jr, I've become more and more Libertarian.

I consider myself Practical Libertarian, i.e I believe that Liberty, and Libertarian values are actually correct, and are the best option for humanity as a whole. However, I also acknowledge that some of the core economic and social policies and beliefs of Libertarians require, a major revolution of how we do things. Implementing Libertarian philosophy overnight will cause many people undue harm, most likely, economic harm. Therefore I think it's more prudent to elect politicians that further push towards that agenda, combating increasing government regulation, combating for the rights and liberties of people, that, in a few decades more and more people would be far more accepting and willing to accept a very limited government.

I argue; we've had nearly 100 years of government growth in what it can and cannot do. Changing that overnight will cause a revolution, and most revolutions are very violent, and depend on violence to maintain post-revolutionary order. I vote for politicans that seek to reverse this trend, and steer American and Western values towards a far more Liberty-orientated society, with less and less dependence on government intervention, and more and more on individual endeavor and merit.

Oh another thing that has me bothered is the sudden, sharp increase of /pol/ agreement and other shit. /pol/, in my eyes, is the absolute worst part of the internet filled with racists and overall assholes.
So now my biggest fear is that soon america will be split between racist scumbags and overly offended SJWs with the middle ground taking all the heat.
Honestly, THAT thought is what terrifies me. Having to put up with either Bigoted Assholes or Offended Assholes. Who in the end are one and the same.
I mean, maybe I'm wrong, maybe /pol/ actually has some decent folk and the racism and bigotry I see is one giant meme, and it likely will never leave the internet to leak into the real world like SJWs do, but Christ… I don't see this ending well for society.

I used to be a centrist but I drifted more economically left wing. I guess the election got me interested in politics which lead to me reading up on various political ideologies.

While I'm not sure how much I've moved left or right with how mixed-up I tend to get them, I've moved upwards on the compass for sure. That is, less liberal and more authoritarian/conservative. Maybe it has something to do with being called _____ist by literally everyone around me just for pointing out the difference between legal and illegal immigration, or how the people ragging on Trump about being a "bigot" and "not accepting the results of the election" are the very same people that are currently burning down cities and trying to actually secede from the USA just because they didn't get their way. I don't want to associate with them.

While I appreciate supposedly "liberal" values like equality and freedom of expression/speech, I don't see them as political issues so much as common sense that doesn't need to be discussed. This isn't the 1940's anymore; "upholding social justice" is such a non-issue in the real world that I find it hard to take seriously.

So I guess that leaves me as an increasingly-conservative moderate. I like hearing both sides, as long as people are being sane and can debate their points using reason, logic and facts, which have unfortunately lost the trend to fearmongering and hyperbole. That combined with that absolute shitshow from mainstream media this year, has pushed me upwards and possibly a bit right.

I could write a whole thread on why I don't feel like any party system or compass could ever accurately describe where I stand, but for the sake of simplicity I'll leave my answer as-is. By the simplified, general-knowledge scale that ignores the specific nuances that would push me one way or the other, I'd likely be considered right-wing now.

I have come to the conclusion that there is no one "right answer" to politics (I struggled with this for a couple years) and political classifications like the left/right and libertarian/authoritarian dichotomies ignore the multidimensional nature of political philosophies one can take. This is why I take the political compass with a grain of salt, among other reasons.
Edit: I'd like to add that I know that the left and right are suppossed to be a spectrum as oppossed to a strict "either/or" dichotomy, but I still think it's too simplistic.

I'm a moderate liberal with slight libertarian leanings, I always have been, and I don't see myself ever being anything but. My biggest political shift was when I came to accept LGBT people back in 2011, and even than I was more or less a staunch liberal with an inexplicable hatred of gays. The only real difference in my political leanings is the fact that I've started to describe myself with the "moderate" part more than the "liberal" one recently.

Most of the moving in the political spectrum this year has been relative to me. All I see around me are formerly sane, rational people being slowly corrupted by hatred and extremism. I've come to realize SJWs and the alt-right represent the same group: extremists, the true enemy. They are the ones who are corrupting America, and they are the ones who will destroy it if we allow them.

What the fuck happened, America?

After 2012: "Well, that sucked. Maybe next time we'll get it right."
After 2016: "Fuck the world and everything in it."

I sort of "came out" to myself as a liberal/centrist. Since I was raised in a Republican household I thought that liberals had cooties and Obama was Satan, but I realized that I agreed with a lot of the altruistic sentiments of the left and disagreed with the corporatism of the right. I kind of hated myself a little for secretly agreeing with who I thought was the enemy, but recently I decided that I shouldn't fool myself into thinking I'm something I'm not. I felt good, proud even, that I was finally being true to myself and supporting my true political beliefs… aaaaaand then Clinton waltzed in, eliminated the only candidate I was truly willing to vote for, and reminded me why people hated the Democratic party in the first place. So basically I went from a near-right who hated his wing to a near-left who hated his wing. Frickin figures. But I won't let that get me down. Someday the progressives won't be as retarded as they are now, and I just have to hope that that day comes sooner than when I'm dead.

My politics haven't changed much, but I do feel sympathy for the non-radical democrats who got stuck with Hillary, and had to deal with buffoonery from their side. Hopefully a lesson is learned here.