“Got sent to Iraq”: 20 experiences that changed someone’s political views
Hundreds of honest Redditors came forward to share the events and people they witnessed that changed their political leanings. Sometimes, all it takes is a new experience or a scrap of information to shift one's perspective on life, or, more often, the ill-fates of the people we love most.
A recent Ask Reddit thread stands as proof that people can, in fact, change their minds and even admit they were wrong. We don't often see it happen on social media, but out in the real world, it does happen.
"When did your political views change because of something you saw in real life?" asked u/ConstantWhore3.
As one commenter pointed out, a large number of the responses follow a similar format. Someone was more right-wing, then something terrible happened to a loved one and they were screwed over by either government inaction or a private corporation and realized that the system is unfair, then shifted to the left.
Other times, this involved personal experiences. Multiple veterans chimed in to share their experiences of realizing that war is never worth it. Others worked with marginalized communities and realized that unhoused people aren't inherently bad people.
A couple of people did grow more right-wing or simply gained more sympathy for those who tend to be in that group, which is also good. The overarching lesson seems to be that more experiences with more people lead to a broader perspective and a more open heart.
What these 20 Redditors witnessed certainly seemed to change them for the better.
1. War
“Got sent to Iraq, and it turns out, the war was a bad idea.” —u/NecessaryViolenz
2. The death of a friend
“One of my good friends died just shy of her 25th birthday from complications due to an autoimmune disorder. The last conversation we had was about her hopelessness to ever pay off her already massively accrued medical debts. She was the sweetest, most whimsical, most generously loving person I’ve ever known, and I didn’t get to hear her laugh the last time we talked.
I’ve been a staunch supporter of universal healthcare since. I’d gladly pay higher taxes if it means no one has to go through the anguish she did in the very last of her too young days.” —u/False_Ride
3. Homelessness
“I was always more on one side than the other, but went further on that side when I saw homelessness. There was a family that my family and I helped. They were working, sober, and didn't live above their means. Their child was sick with brain cancer, and they lost everything trying to get him treatment. There was no help at all for them.
Then, as if seeing that wasn't enough, it happened to me, too. It is even worse for single people. I was literally told there were no beds in multiple homeless places. Again, working, no criminal record, never did drugs—nothing—just couldn't afford a place to live.” —u/Possible-Okra7527
4. Mourning in secret
“When my uncle died suddenly from a heart attack and I met the man who was introduced to the family as his ‘good friend,’ I realized that it's kind of imperative for me to be outspokenly supportive.
It was heartbreaking seeing this man not just have to mourn the death of his partner, but that he wasn't even able to truly mourn openly because there were parts of the family that didn't want people like him alive in the first place.” —u/JackMickus
5. More war
“I watched Nixon and Kissinger gaslight the entire country as they secretly murdered a few hundred thousand innocent Cambodian peasants, and poor kids from the US got their draft board notices. My best buddy, dirt poor, got killed by friendly fire on his first day in Nam. My neighbor came home dying of Agent Orange.” —u/Pusfilledonut
6. The outside of the bubble
“Talking to people who weren't in the echo chamber I was raised in, turns out people are people and not politically convenient stereotypes.” —u/Kshi-dragonfly
7. A female abuser
“That domestic violence against men is also a serious issue in society. When I was working at a fast-food restaurant, I had this drama queen co-worker. One day, she came in, and her hands were all bloodied and bandaged up. She proceeded to brag the entire day about how she beat up her boyfriend for cheating on her.
Even more horrifying was how she seemed comfortable in adding that he didn't even fight back. I even asked her if he had hit her in the past, and she said no.” —u/Regnes
8. The plight of pregnant women
“Abortion views flipped 180 when I started knowing women who were pregnant and learned about what can happen to them.” —u/csamsh
9. Casual racism
“People used to bug me about why my little sister was a different color, and I had to keep repeating ‘what sister—all my sisters are just my sisters’ at like 10.” —u/Aggravating-Fish-376
10. Less Fox News
“It’s more of what I no longer saw. I quit watching Fox News. It took less than a year for my views to do a complete 180.” —u/jeophys152
11. Police brutality
“I was already ACAB when my dad almost went to prison for cannabis, when he called the police to help him when his spouse had a mental health incident and was physically hurting him.
There's more to it; it was one of the worst years of my life. This was around the same time as George Floyd. Hearing the stories of people who are STILL IN PRISON for the same crime my white dad got probation for opened my eyes. That's when I made up my mind to march with them.” —u/Practical-Cook5042
12. Domestic violence
“In middle school, my parents didn't really expose me to politics. I would go over to my girlfriend's house, and her dad was a staunch conservative Republican. And he would talk to me about his religion, his beliefs, and things he felt that I should know. So on and so forth.
I went over to sleep overnight at my girlfriend's house, and he got drunk and beat the s*** out of his wife and got on his knees, the next day cried and prayed to God to make him better, and then turned the TV on to his favorite political programming and acted like it never happened.” —u/Init4damo-nay81
13. Fear in public
“At the Mizzou protests in 2016, there was a yikyak (Twitter-like social media) post that someone was going to come shoot all the black people. The next day, I was walking to class and saw a black girl holding her keys between her fingers and walking in a defensive way.
It hit me like a ton of bricks that my fear of being collateral damage was nothing compared to her fear of being a target.” —u/Midnight34
14. Health insurance denied
“I was a young, newly married husband, and the insurance company said my wife had a pre-existing condition and thus her procedure wouldn't be covered, and I haven't voted Republican since then.” —u/44035
15. Government work
“I applied for a government job. Realized that if these are the people in charge of the country, then we're absolutely f****d.” —u/Exotic_Negotiation_4
16. Actual history
"In 2001, Georgia changed its state flag design from the one I grew up with. I was a 19-year-old, and everyone I knew was mad about it. I heard so much about how it was ‘erasing history’ and how it was ‘history not hate.’
I finally decided to look up the history of the state flag. The one I grew up with was NOT the original one and was only changed in the mid-50's specifically to incorporate the stars and bars (the rebel flag racists fly) after the passage of Brown v. Board of Education as a f*ck you to black people.” —u/UnluckyInformation51
17. Donald Trump
“Former die-hard Republican here: I started to go 'why TF are people not calling out Republican leadership's hypocrisy? Why are people supporting a man like Trump? Someone who lacks ethics, morals, and any semblance of decorum or integrity.'
That made me realize they are all liars, and it's about them feeling superior to others. Then, I realized, maybe feeding kids is okay. Maybe treating people with respect and dignity is okay. Perhaps to tax people who have so much overwhelming wealth, to allow societal advancements that are for the good of the public.” —u/Watch_The_Expanse
18. How politicians treat disabled people
“Used to drive for Dial-A-Ride, a transportation service that all cities have to provide per the ADA. I told my boss that passengers were complaining about being late to their appointments and were threatening to report me to the city council.
My boss told me don't listen to them. He said the city council didn't actually care if the service accomplished its intended function. All they cared about was meeting the legal requirement of providing the service.” —u/justTookTheBestDump
19. The difference between rich and poor schools
"When I worked for the St. Louis public school system (And several others in the area, I was a contractor). This included King, Vashon, Normandy High - yes, that Normandy. Also, Kirkwood, the magnet schools, and one of the top private schools in the area."
"I was never so foolish as to think that there weren’t huge differences in the quality of education a kid could get depending on their school. But I didn’t understand the 'school to prison pipeline,' or the way some schools treated their students." —u/rres9974
20. Neurodivergent incels
"I work with kids who drop out of traditional school because they often fall on the spectrum, or suffer from ADHD, or are gifted. Lots of the boys could and often are classified as incels, and I used to have the general dismissive and judgmental view against incels, like most.
Except that these kids often mean well, struggle with social skills, and are jaded by negative experience after negative experience, and feel punished for it. The world is built for people with well-developed social skills, but like all skills, some people do not possess them, and there is very little room in modern society to develop them at a later age, especially when you're neurodivergent." —u/zeekoes
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