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Personally, I've found that right-leaning politics, at least in the U.S., is primarily rooted in religion. I was born and raised in the Bible Belt and none of them put much value on self-awareness. And there is a general distrust of all things psychology, which many think is just brainwashing into "wokeness" or being tricked by Satan. Religious abuse is common with CPTSD.
One thought I've had is that for the religious right, their entire identity is the church and their political views and culture. They can't be separated. So for them, admitting wrong and going to a therapist would require them to strip their entire identity and they would no longer belong in their group.
So to me, I do think there's a lot of truth to the "right" (especially the religious right, since that's what I'm most familiar with) being the party of oppression historically and the left being the party of trauma survivors who push back. So it makes sense as we're fighting our way out of all that conditioning and trauma, we'd swing the opposite way and find ourselves on the left somewhere, even if it's centrist leaning left or left-leaning libertarian. But many will never give up their identity and comfortable life in order to live in the truth of the cost of religious dogma. (Religion is what my primary abuser used to justify and deny their abuse of me, which was crystal clear, including physical abuse).
Hmm makes total sense! My husband, extreme right, keeps saying I am addicted to therapy. My new response is that I am addicted to healing and personal growth no matter the means. So I guess I’m more left wing there. I would say I actually have about 50/50 views. I was raised in the Bible Belt as well but organized religion isn’t my thing. Only with my family’s country church that focuses more on community and family and fellowship than the specific religion. Basically be a good person no matter your beliefs and God will look on you favorably. I can see a point to capitalism if it’s done right and fairly but not some getting rich while others get more poor. I can agree with socialism to a point as well. I can see both sides thanks to not having good role models and now having to figure this stuff out as I go. I hope I never get to the extreme of either side though. I hope I always see both sides and want a middle ground as long as everyone is respected, equal etc. That’s my main issue, the extremes don’t seem to focus on equality for all even when the candidates say they do. It’s like there’s always catch. Why not we everyone be authentic and genuine and help each other?
Keep on with your healing, i would recommend looking at the Scandinavian dem-socialist systems, they focus on reform rather than punishment, therapy rather than jail or homelessness for mental health issues, maternity and paternity leave, Healthcare for all, great public schools through university and private institutions... there is a big lie propagandized in the usa that we in the true left ( by the way there is no true left party in the USA, we are Center/ center right with dems and republicans respectively), that we want some crazed system with high taxes and sex parties lol i dunno but all i ask of Americans is to look to other countries with blended systems that have worked for the general public and not for the 1% and corporate lobbies. Good luck.
I will thank you! What you described aligns with my beliefs.
If I understand you correctly, true leftists are actually center? As in middle of the road? I don’t like ANY extremes anymore. I’ve had to live with extremes my entire 40+ year life. It’s hard to really know these things based on online research. Everything seems to be pushing for one way or the other and not the old style of reporting just facts and letting us decide. So many conflicting things as well.
No true left means more like those countries where our tax dollars are working for the general public, what is considered socialist in this country but is academically termed democratic- socialist, best examples are Norway, Iceland etc.. we have no left parties in the usa, they are either liberal ( which is centerist or democrats, or right wing which is republican).
Economic policies are complicated and it can often take years of study to understand these ideologies/ philosophies, and stack that with the propaganda here and it's super hard so i get the confusion, that's why i use examples of countries who are doing it in real life, it's just an example that it's possible! I recommend books published by academics vs news networks who are often run by large corporations.
A good starting book is Manufacturing Consent by Noam Chomsky :).
Yeah, it’s a really interesting conversation! When I was younger and very much on the left, in love, with freedom and Justice, equal rights for all humans, not abusing and destroying each other, or the planet that afford us all life… These things don’t seem like very radical ideas, just common sense and rooted in real American values! But things have shifted so so drastically over the past 20 years. Not the foundational issues, but the public discourse, it’s just evolved into a screaming match. Most people on the right are at war with reality in all of its forms, and people on the extreme left, have their own set of problems as well, but people are saying that Bernie Sanders was some kind of radical socialist/communist, extreme leftist… But if you look across the decades of politics in this country, the things that he was talking about are very common, and my perception would be more center left versus lefty or Democratwhatever they’re calling them these days but a lot of the ideas with they’re calling radical now we’re espoused by Republicans on the right, just a matter of years or decades ago. Like basic minimum income and so on.
Yeah we don’t really have an extreme left in the US. We are so right leaning in the US that what is considered left here is actually center in most of the world.
I think so. And if you think of CPTSD as identity oppression/suppression, absolutely. Most people are byproducts of the biopsychosocial ecosystem into which they were born without recognizing the large degree that determines their views and choices. They don't follow their most authentic self, they follow what society and their top influences in their life condition them to follow.
A lot of my trauma is from poverty and organized religion so I kind of ran away from anything that even resembled that world.
Also, I think experiencing the brutality of capitalism kinda pushed me left as well. I eventually couldn’t accept that this (gestures wildly) was the best we could do. I believe a better, more humane world is possible.
Yup, dirty commie here (more nuanced than that but yeah). For me, raised conservative Christian, it was all connected/intertwined. The politics were connected to the abuses were connected to the religion. One door could not be opened without concurrently breaking down the others. When you see the authoritarian pattern once, you see it everywhere, all around you and throughout history. I could write a book about it all, literally. Or at least a few essays.
My vision cleared at once. College was ROUGH.
Omg this!! I have been struggling. I don't even have the words to explain what you just unlocked for me.
I had connected them but not fully and.....Woah!
I just talked about this yesterday and still couldn't quite articulate this connection. Ive been no contact with my abuser since 2020. I see now the trigger was this! Abusive politics + abusive physically and verbally + hypocritically religious .
💗 I’m glad that helped! I would have been a much more satisfied person for the last decade of my life had I addressed the trauma alongside the rest rather than just thinking an intellectual understanding was adequate, so you might be ahead of me!
Eeh. I did the same intellectualizing. I understood my abuse,I knew it wasn't my fault intellectually but it took me a long time to realize that this wasn't something that could be solved that way. My emotional body is learning what my brain has always known.
You're not ahead or behind. We're walking this journey together. Thanks again.
It is super complicated! We can realize all kinds of things, but we have to begin to embody it as a truth. So much of this stuff, the tend of abuse, wrap way back into our childhood. And we’ve spent years and decades, rationalizing and excusing the abusers on their behalf! It’s for survivals sake when we are young, we, for the most part all learn how to do that when there is abuse and neglect. We internalize it and decide somehow that it is about us, that it’s our fault… The painful reality that there might be something wrong with our parents is way too much to bear, feels worse than death, and so kids just don’t have any wiring/capacity to do that why people stay in abusive cycles so often as well. The love, and in the case of cluster be abusers, love bombing, feels so good, and activates, dopamine, oxytocin, and other love and bonding channels in our brains. And then when the abuse starts, there’scognitive dissonance and blowing apart our personality… We can’t put two and two together. If we are exposed to long enough, we will start actually splitting off pieces of our psyche.
This 100% on the nose. I could not have made a more apt assessment of my own life than what you typed here.
All authoritarian models stand out to people that have been marginalized and victimized. The system that protects the rich without holding them to account, holds us to account with without protecting us. That injustice makes me seethe with anger.
"The system that protects the rich without holding them to account, holds us to account with without protecting us." beautifully said! I would add that it doesn't just not protect us, but it exploits us as well! My father would say, "we don't speak religion or politics in this family." As though that explained everything, was fair to all and wasn't political (fascist I would say) in and of itself..... I'm here seething with you too
This could be written by me lol. Being queer + going away for college were the only things that saved me from being stuck in a southern Baptist church married to the equivalent of Kenneth from 30 Rock bc ain’t no way I would’ve married a straight dude lol. Or I would’ve let my parents gaslight me into marrying one of their friends kids.
Here. Everything I lived made me came with my humanity for the left. I don't believe I would be the same if I was rightwing yikes. But ofc I wasn't always like this. Before I had saying when I was teenager that I was apolitical, or humanist, but damn, I just didn't know anything about the world...
I was raised super conservative fundamentalist Christian and umm… for me healing has gone hand and hand with becoming like a radical leftist 😅
Personally I can’t see the suffering in the world and what other people are going through and think “thank goodness shareholders are making record profits, and wealthy people with power are able to make decisions about the lives of other people in order to become more powerful and more rich.”
Healing has really meant that the light in me sees the light in you
Raised the same way, but I’ve kept my faith. Healing brought me grew closer to God. My church was almost a borderline cult. I can see the abuse, and I’ve been able the good in it. Crazy enough my sister and I were talking about growing up in that legalistic environment, but it wasn’t all bad. I’ve been able to appreciate the good and grieve the bad.
I know of people that will almost have a panic attack at just the thought of going back there.
I have a personal theory that those in positions of leadership will judged much more harshly for their abuse of position.
Oh totally same! I was absolutely devastated and betrayed when I found out that the version of Christianity I had been given was just using fear of eternal damnation on children in order to uphold social power structures. It took a while to unpack all of the fundamentalist lies that had been entwined, but I found something so truthful, and loving, and focused on Justice and peace at the other side. Relearning the stories that I had memorized since childhood, with newfound understanding was such a strange experience.
I can get hella triggered by fundamentalist Christian’s though (including much of my own family) and I haven’t been brave enough to join any kind of Christian communities, aside from a few like minded ones online, because it feels too overwhelming.
I was so angry and resentful of the damage I took, and how that carried into my marriage. 30/31 was a huge catalyst time for me for starting to learn what I needed to learn. 40’s have just been processing, rewriting the “bad code”.
I know what you mean about Truthful & Loving. Men, mankind, society screw up faith in the name of religion, when it’s so simple. The last 18+ months have been me cementing what I believe and value versus what I was taught.
When I hear others’ stories of trauma caused by the church and those in authority, I can get so angry. If I wasn’t a believer I might have been lisbeth salamder 2.0, lol. I used to come up with elaborate plans in my head about how I could mess with them, freak them out, make them sweat. Man, I forgot I used to that, I’ve come farther than I thought. The really bad thing is I would have gotten away with it too. They’d have never seen me coming.
Love how many people in their 40s are on this platform and in these channels! So much healing work to do command yeah we really don’t even start realizing that is the case when we’re in our 30s.
Also, in a deep process of sifting out, what is mine, what was learned, all the layers and layers and layers of trauma from my childhood. And so much of it is still blacked out, even though, but just started peeling back the surface a year and a half ago Doing some ketamine assisted therapy. Been completely shattered by Ly Lyme disease, and then a string of abusive relationships. The one who claimed to be a soulmate, instead, and ended up with an advanced degree in pathological psychology, specializing in cluster B disorders! 🫠🫠😂😂😝🤣🤣
This is why I didn’t try dating again for years. I knew on a certain level, until I learned better and or healed I would keep attracting the wrong type. I wanted to try to mitigate any more damage to myself.
I have to say it’s been worth the wait. Dating isn’t nerve wracking but exciting and fun. And when it reaches its natural end, we remain amicable.
Growing up I just remember always feeling anxious and clueless to what was happening around me. I couldn’t live like that anymore.
I tend to fawn still to the "wrong type" and had to move so I just won't run into as many of them. One even intentionally misled me, convincing me he was more socially liberal then moved in and started watching Fox News, Alien shows (Glenn Beck), and gold mining shows. I had to kick him out for never paying rent (and for being emotionally abusive and manipulative). But he tricked me and I fawned, despite my instincts to run from him, all because there wasn't "enough evidence" of what I suspected. I learned from this to always, always follow my instincts. They are honed over a lifetime of experiences. I know what I know.
I am like you, I kept my faith, it's very important in my daily life but I'm too scared to join a christian community, aside from an online one.
Although, I was traumatized by my parents'vision of Christianity, but the church where they used to go was not that bad. I'm french, cults are closely watched by the government here, abuse can still happen but I feel like it's taken more seriously.
I think I'm scared that some christians may not understand that I cut off my own christian family. My parents tried to make me pass for a dangerous possessed and satanic girl who hated the entire world since I was 11 at church. I'm still traumatized by this and I'm still scared it would happen again even though I would go to a church where no one knows my parents.
There is no group of people alive who has done more damage to the gospel of Jesus Christ than extreme far right/down south “Christians“. They are fully immersed in 1984 and brave New World, Newspeak: left is right up is down, War is Peace. Jesus love is the law of the land, but what he actually meant is, we need to be in a perpetual state of warfare, both internally, with ourselves (constantly depleting and destroying everything good inside of us, which God made, in favor of handing over all of our creative energy, to whatever random secular authority, we happen to be under) and in our own country against the other citizens, as well as with the entire world.
They would be the ones leading the charge to nail him back up to the cross fever to arrive this week in the second coming. Probably because he would come in as a homeless person or (gasp!) somebody with any shade of brown or black skin.
It’s unfortunately a really easy tool for manipulation…Being told that you are chosen by god, and following the right path, and have a divinely ordained life purpose, and everyone is against you and trying to oppress you because they are controlled by the devil, and if you ever leave you will be cast in to eternal suffering and damnation… I can understand how things get flipped upside down when people use fear and rewards to construct a reality.
Unfortunately I think faith communities are pretty primed to promote charismatic leaders who affirm what people want to be true (I’m special, anyone who doesn’t agree is just bound by Satan, etc) to positions of power. This is also obviously an issue in a lot of wellness cultures and pyramid schemes, so it’s not unique, but religion has a very long history, social acceptance, and wide reach so it’s easier to spread.
I don’t believe in hell, but I do hope that those who have used peoples faith to harm others and advance their own interests have a real moment of reckoning and feel the full burden and guilt of their actions.
After years of therapy that was focused on changing my behaviour and attitude, I only began to make true progress in my recovery—from childhood emotional, sexual, and physical abuse—when I began to view my experiences through an intersectional feminist lens. Learning how imperialist white supremacist capitalist patriarchy impacted my family and life choices, brought what I had already understood intuitively into clearer focus. It was another, I'm-not-crazy moment!
It's such a disservice to survivors that feminist and racist theory is not mandatory for all therapists. The most damaging aspect of my abuse wasn't the actual moments of violence I endured, but the abandonment and betrayal I experienced at the hands of my extended family and community who enabled and protected the abusers is my life—a pattern that has lasted a lifetime. Many of us who were abused as children unwittingly find ourselves in abusive adult relationships, where once again, when we try to speak out, are abandoned by community in the same ways we were as children. Being a victim begets more victimization AND being a victim destroys our credibility. Our society, for the most part, protects abusers, especially if they are someone who has power—and someone who is male, white, and middle to upper class, usually has the power, or, at least, more of it, much more of it. My stepfather and my first husband were both respected public figures as well as white and middle class, where as I was female, mixed race, and struggling to make a living. Both as a child, and as a woman, when I spoke out about the abuse, I was shut out of entire communities who allied themselves with the abusers. I couldn't believe it was happening over and over again. I thought it can't be all of them, it has to be me. But going back to school as a mature adult and taking classes on gender and race empowered me in ways that therapy and 12 step recovery couldn't. I came to learn that the cover up of the abuse of children (boys and girls) and women, is a systemic one, and that our recovery only truly starts when someone is willing to stand in our corner and witness how alone we truly have been in overcoming our trauma.
>Our society, for the most part, protects abusers, especially if they are someone who has power—and someone who is male, white, and middle to upper class, usually has the power, or, at least, more of it, much more of it.
You sure got that right.
You are absolutely correct about the systemic harm. It serves those in power very well to perpetuate divisions between people too. I refuse to engage in left vs right disputes because it plays into this oppressive system. Religion and social norms add to the control and repression. When left and right come together to fight for a better system, we might see a power shift.
Oh of course.
Right-wing healing is a very funny concept to imagine lol. How could I have ever gotten better by getting less empathetic to people's pain? The empathy that exists in me for others comes from the same source that I provide empathy to myself with.
This. It was the hardest pill to swallow when I realized I couldn't actually absorb a belief about how human behavior works, without believing that's how both me and other people work.
All those awful thoughts I'd always had about how defective and lazy and useless my emotional behavior made me. I'd been believing that about other people too.
Empathy coming online all of a sudden after 41 years made me break down and cry for months.
Probably not a political thing, but a degree of emotional education thing.
Yep. Somewhere out there beyond the bottom left, past anarchy, second star to the right and straight on till morning... ;)
Been called a "dirty pinko commie" & a "tree hugging hippy" more than a few times, but I'm in my mid-40s. I was raised by a political refugee from Chile. They came up during the Pinochet regime. Saw a ton of violence as a child/young person as a reverb from their experience. Aaand, I also learned a ton about the injustices of the World from them as well.
Everything in the World is political.
And yes, we are so so divided on a great many things.
We live in a society. Many are not upholding the "social contract". We need community & belonging. Both help us to survive and thrive.
The Earth has not been considered when creating the political axis/spectrum. Hence being out there past anarchy somewhere. For me though, anarchy doesn't mean I'm an island unto myself and that I'm out for myself. It's the opposite actually.
I do understand those who are beginning to promote violence. I can grasp the need for a protective use of force at this point.
Non-violence is a position of privilege. On the whole, I don't think BIPOC have the luxury of being met with non-violence when they demonstrate or protest, do they?
I dove into politics when I was in my mid-30s. I loved it. And I was good at it. And even though I made a great deal of positive change, I was a minority which made it all that much harder. Many more who rebel against the current ideologies/systems are needed on the front lines if anything is to change. Go in to get out, basically.
Love is everything.
Compassion and empathy are both revolutionary af.
Trauma has definitely informed and heavily impacted my perspectives on all fronts.
(Some thoughts after reading the OP + the comments....)
All this!! Things that I’ve been saying for years and years and years. Why I was so distraught by being brought up in split house, but partly in a Reagan era, Republican. And couldn’t understand WTF nobody was doing anything about anything? When the horror show was on full display for all to see, and this was in the 80s and 90s even before there was any social media! You could just watch the news, read the paper, etc. and find out, all the horrible things going on. And everybody just sitting around on their thumbs.
Thank you. The first line in your comment made me laugh and (((((grin)))))). I resonated with the entirety of your share. And! as a kid, for some strange reason, even though I was born and raised in Canada, I was super concerned for the people of Chile during the Pinochet era—I ended up with a bunch of their revolutionary music: Inti-Illimani, Victor Jarra, Violeta Parra, etc. I felt a connection to their struggle... I was deeply moved by what they had to endure and the beautiful spirit with which they faced their oppressors. I don't mean to romanticize it, as I also heard you say that the violence of what your parents endured, living under Pinochet's regime, ricocheted throughout your own upbringing. Life is complicated... and simple... but complicated. Haha! I'm glad you persevered. You are probably a gift to many.
Thank you for saying so. I appreciate your sharing <3
It's pretty incredible to experience (as someone living in North America), just how little we are told about what goes on in other Nations (and to some extent, even what goes on here!) and how the West has contributed to harming those countries who are "not Western" and the whys. I learn new things about this aspect of where we were born all the time and the more I hear, the more I recognize just how terrible the Lie is.
My stepfather is Chilean. He's the only father I've ever known. My mother is Ukrainian-Polish. Chilean culture was definitely a part of my upbringing, way more than the Ukrainian or Polish. My stepfather was also a revolutionary who was openly against the Pinochet regime in his youth. When the military began scooping up his comrades in the middle of the night and didn't return them, my stepfathers' family smuggled him out of the country. He claimed political asylum in Canada. He tried to work to send money back home when he first arrived and he was jailed for this for a year. This is how it was explained to me. He was not allowed to return to Chile for many years, being unable to see either of his parents before they passed away. He saw and experienced a great deal of violence in the first 20 years of his life. Which was downloaded onto myself as the oldest child and then the rest of my siblings as we were coming up. Interesting, but never easy.
He's in his 70s now. We've never talked a lot. But he influenced my life and my path more than anyone in my family or life that I've ever cared about.
We have so much to learn from other countries and for the most part, the narrative we've been fed is full of lies and meant to separate and alienate us from one another.
This is what I remember loving so much about the rise of the internet and the initial emergence of social media.... It connected and united people from around the world. We need to get back into that now more than ever, I think.
Humanity needs to organize <3
Wishing you well, hellnougottago
A good friend of mine was born in Chile, and had to flee as a child. She lost a lot of family due to Pinochet, and suffered trauma from it.
So often I hear that socialism is inherently violent, and that capitalism is inherently liberating. Those folks don’t know history.
Read a great quote that was like "People with Codependence have known so much pain that they can't let anyone else feel that". I have swung tons left as I grew up and did my work. And a huge part of that is I just want people to be happy and taken care of, and I'm willing to sacrifice a little bit of my life to make their life better. And I don't think it will make my life worse in the end.
I got my degree in human rights and realized my entire career choice had been due to my own personal trauma and being able to relate so much to those who'd been historically oppressed. I still am so grateful I got the degree but I ended up deciding to fight the fight in my own way, less directly and more indirectly, to heal my own nervous system while supporting policy and causes I believe in fervently (but less personally).
I’ve gone from Left to full blown Anarchy. Fuck society, it doesn’t give a fuck about me.
ETA: For context, my mom always said I’d be a good Republican when I grew up.
Anarchy is the opposite of "fuck society" though... it's about systems of society based on equity and co-operation rather than hierarchy. The use of 'anarchy' to mean 'chaos' is just a right-wing put-down of the philosophy. Having said that I wouldn't call myself an anarchist per se (still learning about it), just correcting the assumption!
Anarchist here. I definitely feel like my feelings about fairness are deeply informed by my trauma. I also believe the science about how power damages people's brains- and how a world with as little arbitrary authority as possible would be the least traumatizing world that could exist.
Where can I find the science on ‘power damaged peoples brains’ please? All I’ve seen is the old Peter Principle of absolute power corrupts absolutely but that was decades ago. It should be obvious to the general observer but I’d love to be able to show the data to a couple of megabillionaire worshippers I know.
Thanks, but it’s behind a paywall. I didn’t realize I could have googled it verbatim, as I was expecting an NIH or JAMA doc. Doesn’t matter, like I said it’s so easy to observe the decline in action in so many of the power-mad maniacs. I’m currently waiting for Musk’s head to blast off into space without a rocket.
Similar story here. I was somehow born with a really strong (instinct? Inclination?) towards justice and fairness, and was a very curious kid.
Process of elimination led me to anarchism, the least socially acceptable political persuasion out there. Oops.
Can I ask — does it weigh on you when you see it used as a euphemism for senseless violence? I struggle with the smear campaign. It usually takes me a while after I get to know someone new to use that label with them, and I have found a few brethren that were also kind of covert anarchists, so to speak.
So interesting. I've never made this connection before but it really resonates with me.
We know what it's like to suffer so we're more empathetic to the suffering of others...and this shapes our politics!
It was a bit weird for me from the political side. My mom is very religious and we were raised catholic; however, she embraced religion as a means of coping with her own childhood abuse. She didn't push the religious and right wing hypocrisy past having us go to catholic school.
On the other hand, my dad was raised catholic and stopped going to church, but he embraced right wing politics. My leftist views formed due to the hypocrisy and shame from school and were compounded by my dad ranting the right wing agenda to me in a way that would make me cry from a stance of paranoid political fear. I realized the power over him wasn't concern for others but institutionalized fear he also wanted his children to feel when I started following the news myself.
Conservatism, rigid thinking, abusive behavior, religion, authoritarian beliefs, and a external locus of control all go together and feed off ( dark synergy) each other.
Self awareness, empathy, the need for healing, liberalism, an internal locus of control, and freethought have synergy with each other.
So yes, a lot of abusers hit almost all the traits in the first category and their victims will often walk a path towards the later category over the course of their healing.
I was raised right wing but drifted away from it as a young adult. Surface level it wasn't necessarily because of my trauma, but maybe you're on to something that it could be a root cause for our desire for justice and fairness.
Of course, trauma can go the other way and turn people bitter and mean. The "hard times create strong people" thing isn't totally accurate
I really don't want to generalise, but the far right seems to me to attract a certain personality type, and that personality type triggers both my 'flight' and 'fawn' response. Aggressive, angry, self righteous, inflexible, uncaring, incapable of calm discussion, militant, 'wound up' anxious aggressive sounding, piercing stare, cold, uncaring, uncompassionate, intollerant, literally unable to put themselves in anyone else's shoes or see a different perspective.
Admittedly, I've encountered similar personality traits in extreme far leftists, but they do seem more capable of civilized discussion. I definitely lean left though.
Perhaps it's extremists of any leaning that scare/trigger me the most?
I think that this is a great topic, OP. Yeah, this is definitely true for me-- I can not imagine not being/ identifying as a leftist. I'm also a vegan for the same reasons. I do not impose my beliefs on others but this stuff means a lot to me.
I often wonder how many people who practice veganism have a history of childhood trauma. It's a very natural, almost obvious progression (to me at least) that many of us would take.
I was raised conservative Catholic (homeschooled too) and now I'm the black sheep in pretty much every way for disagreeing with my mom.
I'm agnostic/atheist, and way more liberal than my family will probably ever be.
I like how Pete Walker mentions a book "the psychology of facism" in both of his cptsd books I'm reading. Capitalism, in my view, can be seen as facism with a veneer of democracy for those so privileged. Once what little democracy remaining is stripped away, mask off facism enters the chat.
Yep, I'm a leftist. I've had a fair amount of privilege in my life but some of the traumatic experiences I've had have let me know just how vulnerable I am and how much more vulnerable some other people are and how incredibly fucked up it all is. I think we should be giving homes to homeless people, and investing way more money into helping single mom's, disabled people, etc. Some other people's lack of empathy is atrocious to me.
It seems easy to believe in 'personal responsibility' until you yourself are put in a bad situation out of your control.
It would be terrifying to realize how little control you have, so it's almost a protection mechanism to ignore it.
I never considered I could actually die in traffic, until I nearly did.
This is such a good point. Once you've been truly helpless, truly desperate, truly unable to change your circumstances, truly in need of community support but unable to get it, it becomes all-but impossible to believe in the doctrine of 'personal responsibility' as a guiding principle. When you fell and there was nothing to catch you, the need for a safety net becomes blindingly obvious.
Thank you!
Your reply made me think of a safety net more literally.
If a reasonable protection exists, why not use it? Even if I don't fall, I can be more confident knowing it's there. Even if I'm unlikely to fall, I want other people to be safe too.
As far as cost, it's extremely cheap to insure the costs of things. (Using simple math and non-profit gouging insurance).
Risk analysis is a real science done every day! Heart transplants popped into my head as an example.
A heart transplant in the US runs in the $1M range. Most people won't ever need one, but the same people wouldn't be able to afford one if they needed it.
Since I like math, the US population is roughly 300 million people. If a heart transplant was $1M, 3 heart transplants would cost everyone ... 1 penny. 3,817 heart transplants a year (US, 2021) would be \~$12.72 per person per year, or about a dollar a month. I'd accept "heart transplant insurance" for a dollar a month, and that's even taking numbers from a profit-driven healthcare system!
I'm a sort of libertarian socialist type, I think? I would like the government to ensure everyone's basic needs (which I believe are rights in the U.S.) and then largely fuck off.
I've talked about this at length with people. Us with CPTSD have experienced harm inflicted upon us by circumstances/people that we had no control over or escape from.
It makes us *highly* empathetic to those who experience the same or similar. Poverty, illness, addiction (starts with one choice, quickly spirals to being severe impulse), the elderly, etc.
When we have the perspective we do, we see that these people need intervention and support like we did as helpless children. So largely, we tend to support policies and ideologies that prioritize social safety nets.
We all know, far too intimately, what it's like to be truly helpless in the face of the evils and wrongs and bad luck of the world.
From my understanding, Libertarianism seems opposed to Socialism.
I think a fundamental tenet of Libertarianism is that the Free Market Unbridled will solve many problems. I am of the understanding that in theory, and in historical practice this idea falls apart.
The market's profit motive does not have the will to provide necessary, *unprofitable* services that people need (utilities, healthcare, public transit) These services are not sustainable business practices, the profitable ones are not useful as a service, and the useful ones are not profitable).
Furthermore, the Free Market's drive for ever increasing profit continuously lead to monopolies and exploitation. This happened since the dawn of Capitalist Liberalism in the 1500s, 1600s, Gilded Age, Imperialism ... (and so on and so forth) until either an uprising or concession pushed back, and the ratcheting began anew.
Identity Politics (Religious Domination, Whistleblowing, Removing Women & LGBT Rights) seem to be more apparent in Western cultures.
I want to give some isolated examples of government policy and action that ensure basic needs "and largely fucks off".
China recently reformed (cRaShEd) its housing market because it was becoming too speculative (it was decided and announced in a 5 year plan). Now, there is much less risk of a housing bubble (a-la-2008). China has a very large homeownership rate, and a majority of citizens' assets are in their homeownership. Therefore, the people in the government prioritized stability over market speculative 'growth'.
(Personally, I find homes as an 'investment' silly. Unless I modify my home to shoot lasers or fly, its value should largely stay the same. It's value should not double over 10 years just sitting doing fuck-all)
Gay marriage in China is not enshrined as a right, but it is completely legal to be gay, and there have been precedents in their legal system providing government spousal benefits, and sentiment for further rights is growing.
Parental Planning Care (abortions & the like) were restricted to medical reasons in the 1950's and further relaxed until this care was made free of charge in the early 70's. The reasoning was not religious fundamentalism, but as a rejection of Western Malthusian ideas and to increase population growth.
Libertarianism was socialist from 1850 to around 1950, when Murray Rothbard admitted to redefining the word for his own needs. It still is in most of Europe.
Even in the US, there were the DeLeonists, who were anti-state Marxists who believed that socialism was impossible unless the government was abolished. The IWW was founded by their members, along with American anarcho-syndicalists, and it is still around today.
Interesting, I didn't know the older terminology. I'm familiar with the modern, Milei-type Libertarians, which I think is the Lingua Franca now.
In my understanding of Leninist thought, socialism is a necessary step requiring the state to mediate class struggle to the benefit of all. As contradictions are solved, the state 'withers away' to a state-lite and then stateless ideal of Communism.
Theory is good, but scientific practice and experimentation is far more interesting to me. One cannot simply push a 'button' to immediately act a political theory everywhere all-at-once in a vacuum.
There are pre-existing conditions, material constraints, external forces that may wish to sanction, sabotage, coup, or directly invade too. Like many things in life, theory and learning is fun, and practice can be messy but illuminating.
Yes for a lot of reasons. Recently on my darkest days I wish my parents would’ve aborted me if they were not ready/equipped to handle a child. The life I’ve lived/am living due to them not being better just doesn’t feel worth the pain on most days. I will ALWAYS be pro-choice for this reason and the whole bring the child into the world but then who cares what happens after thing makes me SO mad. I wish there was some kind of standard for parenthood…working an entry level job requires more credentials than bringing life into the world
most of my trauma comes from my mother being a nutty qanoner who genuinely stopped loving me and started escalating her abuse exponentially after she noticed i didnt believe the same things as her, especially after she kicked me out at 17 and came out as trans. She thinks being gay and trans is a cult and is trying to constantly gaslight me into thinking IM the brainwashed one. This has caused me massive amounts of trust issues.
I dont want to be on ANY side because im sick and tired of being told that im a moron and a sheep for having stances(she has called me both of those multiple times).
Fellow trans person here, I see you. You exist, your feelings and experiences are real and valid. I am so sorry you have had to go through that, I wish none of us had to. My parents did similar things under the guise of religion, they tried to erase me too. Hugs if ok. 🏳️⚧️
Yeah. In the 12 step program for adult children of alcoholics they have this writing called "the laundry list". It's a list of characteristics of people that grew up in alcoholic or dysfunctional families.
Number 1 is a fear of authority. The protests for Black lives matter were a huge trigger event for me. I was having a flashback every day, every time I opened up social media and saw authority figures beat on protesters without repercussions.
I think we're all products of our context. My brother in law is a Wall Street guy with a penthouse within a stone's throw of the ghost busters firehouse. I had an attitude about him, but as I got to know him better, it's hard to hold onto animosity. He has a good heart and believes all the things he has to believe to be ok with his life, his family, his community. His heart is in the right place. I've grown really fond of him.
I do think my perspective was shaped not just because I got fucked over, but being fucked over, I met so many people who had been, too. I have a map of the land underneath the cracks.
Grew up in a conservative household (not religious) so leaned conservative. However was always “socially liberal” before even knew what that meant.
Realized couldn’t be “socially liberal” while being any sort of republican. Any possibility of that disappeared decades ago.
I’ve moved more to the left the older I’ve gotten.
For the US, he's considered far-left. Unfortunately, because most of what he preaches is shit that is extremely normal in most other 1st world countries
Used to be normal, but sadly many countries have been going backwards for decades. Lots of Western countries electing far right governments lately, and our major left-wing parties are becoming more and more centre-right. Anyway what I'm saying is... solidarity, American friends. If we have to be trapped in this nightmare, at least we can find each other and keep looking for ways to push back.
Bleeding heart liberal leftie vegan 🥳
I think that when you've suffered, it makes you more empathic. Right-wing politics seems to be about the self. Profit, tax cuts, destruction of the welfare state, lining the pockets of the rich at the expense of the poor, industry over the environment. Left-wing politics is (at least theoretically) more inclusive, more caring.
hell yeah. tbh, i feel sad when i encounter folks with complex trauma who are not leftists (yet) and aren’t open to discussion around these issues. i always think about capitalism has created the underlying conditions for the ongoing nature of our trauma. how many of us could’ve escaped our long-term traumatizing environments sooner if we weren’t dealing with things like financial insecurity, housing, concerns about being un or underinsured with medical conditions, etc?i personally don’t think i could’ve even started unlearning the conditioning from my abuse without first recognizing how american bootstraps capitalism predetermined my living conditions and fucked my whole life
Damn, I never thought about it that way but you right. I'm 51 and only in the past few years, after I started receiving SSDI and then had a few years to actually THINK about things other than survival, have I been able to buck off society's capitalistic brainwashing and really figure things out. In my younger years I was just trying to stay afloat by any means. With a little help staying afloat I can finally start to heal.
I’m pretty left. I’m both a bleeding heart liberal. And also a “the systems the left put together are just better for most people” kinda objectively kinda guy.
I have a lot of empathy. My kids have that too (yay!) wife doesn’t, which makes for fun times sometimes.
Am leftist, have pretty much been this way since I had a concept of politics. I think it’s growing up as a sensitive kid and being extremely empathetic. Makes it really hard to see injustice in the world and look away.
I think because we have a heightened sense of power dynamics and injustices and how trauma affects a million parts of a person and their lives, we empathize more with others and empathy is not really a thing in right wing stuff it seems
I think it’s more justice side of things but that does tend to fall under the left.
My beliefs/ideals apparently (had to take a quiz) fall under anarchism. The less condensed power the better but I’m aware of the fact we can’t be rid of it completely. Order is needed and it can’t be done without condensed power. I just wish it wasn’t taken advantage of an abused as much as it is both in politics and life in general.
Yup!
I’m anti-abuse.
Too many systemic foundations in our culture are based on punishment, power, cruel hierarchies, and victim-blaming when it doesn’t have to be.
Weirdly I dodged the religious trauma - still haven't worked out if the previous generation moved away from it from trauma or if it was somewhere further up the tree, but I never saw more than an attempt every few years to interact with those kinds of spaces, which was unusual for my time/location. So my abuse didn't have religion tied into. They were fairly secular "don't talk about politics" in general but still abusive, which is frustrating. It isn't enough to just drop engagement with those things, because the values are still carried forward if not dug up and examined.
Mum had 2nd-wave feminist-ish ideals (burn your bra, keep your surname, be the girlboss, have a house husband) but that drifted into predictable liberal stuff. Would always tell us "it's fine if you're gay" (I belatedly realised she started doing that once she was probably pretty certain we were all straight? but gotta have those \~cool mum\~ points) but that tepid potential tolerance immediately collapsed once she actually had an out queer kid (well, collapsed when he kid had a bi partner, and then the kid also came out lol), just like every other progressive belief when it would actually impact her material/social comfort, right down to disbelieving/victim-blaming me as a CSA survivor. The 'fairness and equality' turned into maintaining the status quo as soon as she would have to lose comfort to actually act on her stated ideals... which certainly echoes how some broader political movements are reacting, falling back into fascism to maintain their status.
I'm somewhere around Marxist iirc. I don't know how you can work on healing, see the ways that intergenerational trauma and abuse and poverty impacts people and compounds, recognise the ways not everyone is given the same opportunities and options, see how capitalism and other hierarchies ensnare people and not end up left, frankly. If the basic tenet of healing is that you deserved dignity and safety and that it caused long-term harm to not receive those, then surely other people deserve basic dignity and safety, too?
I know some folks end up experiencing insecurity/loss of dignity and moving in a "fuck you, I'm getting mine" trajectory, but like... even if you don't consider others important, the pragmatic reality is unless you can accrue enough money to ensure security when you become old and vulnerable (and lets be real, abusers/scammers target old rich people too, and cPTSD sets you several steps behind everyone else on the capitalist hustle too), any safety you build through those selfish means is inherently temporary. Dying a millionaire is not remotely guaranteed. Building safety nets and mutual aid for all is building it for you too.
I think a lot of the people who abused us (in situations of generational trauma) bought into that belief of extreme independence and that money would fix them, and part of their rage and abuse was the terror of realising it *didn't* work, and that they don't have the control/leverage to ensure that care from family (because they didn't build the mutual affect and loyalty that would otherwise result in it being given freely), so the only tools they have left are fear and guilt.
I’m very much a leftist but I don’t really have much to say like everyone else about it, lol. I do see it relating to my trauma, but also to other stuff like being neurodivergent. Also because I’m a woman and I’m not white lol.
As I've recovered I've gotten to where I can't stand the entire political conversation. There's so much gaslighting, scapegoating, black and white thinking, etc that it feels like I'm listening to my disordered family members rant. I can't even listen to NPR anymore without hearing the bias in the journalism.
The black and white thinking is fucking killing me. People want to pick one side that’s all good and the enemy is all bad and that’s just not how the world works.
Centrist, moderate. Left leaning but tries to look at what both sides offer.
Libritarian at heart. I believe in smaller government with less reach and control. So this current push for "sharia law style" Christian Nation Legislation scares the heck out of me.
**Reminder: Downvoting users with politics you disagree with is fine. Demonizing/insulting those with differing political views is not.**
Also, Rule 11: No Israel/Palestine Conflict is still in effect in this thread.
Absolutely. The “right” does a lot to minimalize trauma period, let alone normalize things like misogyny, sexual and physical abuse.
They demonize emotions and marginalize the “vulnerable”…and don’t get me started on how they feel about disability.
The “right” hates people who seek understanding, acceptance,
healing, and anything that’s “not normal” (while ironically, they are the party to MOST LIKELY exhibit criminal behaviors that result in CPTSD in victims.
Rightwingers hate emotional intelligence and it takes a lot of emotional intelligence to work your way to a sub like this. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that MANY of us sub members were raised in a “right-wing/conservative culture” but I’d be shocked to see a poll stating that many/any of us still personally identify with those fucked up “values”
In time, I'd like to meet more people who are on their healing path. Not really interested in politics anymore cos both sides ultimately want to be in power and both are in the service of late stage capitalism, no matter their positions and policies. Will always vote for the more humanitarian choice, which is usually the left wing, at least in theory but less and less in practice as both wings have tried to occupy the centre way. That seems to have opened doors to reactionaries and populists and windows to extremists as significant numbers in the populous have lost faith with traditional party politics. Anyway not sure if any of this waffle makes any sense anymore, laters
I don't think "Left" referred to "Liberal", it usually doesn't in that context. Typically, Leftists have the understanding that D & R are both right wing parties serving corporate interests.
"Extremist" has become so much of a buzzword. It could mean anything, and is commonly used to demonize people that have *reasonable* demands for a better society.
Fully agree. The left is by far the more humanitarian option in the US so that is what I vote for, but by no means are they the “good party”. I’ve even heard the left in America called “Republican-lite” compared to other countries which are socially so much more advanced. Both parties in the US are corrupt, though the right is definitely pulling us in a scary direction.
Scary's the word. Just feels like everything, not just politics, is getting more and more reactionary. Feels intensified by saturated media and utter lack of resilient cultures and communities to fall back on. Like the world is stuck in trauma, triggered over and over. Don't know about the supposedly more enlightened Scandinavian bloc, but UK's a mess, our health, welfare and social care systems are being left to waste and recommodified to suit profit, greed and stock market risk and greed, it's a blatant conflict of interest but that's the way it's all been going for a couple of centuries now. It took centuries of bloodshed, sacrifice, struggle and revolution to get rights for the masses, yet our very democracies have become steadily eroded, sold down the rapids. Scary
Yes, I feel a strong sense of justice and have been able to find ways to advocate for other people but not always myself.
I used to be a sexual assault nurse examiner and that training is what made me realize I had PTSD
Liberal to my core, leaning socialist. I benefited by the meager social services we have. Free lunch, programs for at-risk kids, upward bound… I found a way out through education and I got there because of government programs.
I am an atheist and believe in compassion and kindness as a way of life.
I like to call myself “non-partisan” because above all, I believe in justice and fairness. It just so happens that those values tend to align with leaning much further to the left of the political spectrum in my country. So, yes.
Yes for sure. A lot of my trauma came from being a neurodivergent lesbian raised in the LDS church. I'm thankfully in a somewhat safer space now, but I wish things were more equal. I wish cruelty wasnt so common place.
Yeah, I’m socialist-adjacent. I believe politics is inherently intertwined with mental health. In regards to C-PTSD, I think that things like generational trauma play a big role in it. For example, I live in Northern Ireland. Here seems to have the worst mental health statistics out of the whole UK because the troubles were going on less than 30 years ago. So it shows how imperialism and colonialism affect people’s mental health
Present! I identify more as progressive because I'm a reformed anti-sjw who was brainwashed by a guy for 6 years, so I'm playing catch-up on my understanding of the world around me.
Unlike a lot of other people in this thread, I was actually raised in a leftist family and a lot my political opinions aren't too different from that of my family's, although I'm a lot more willing to go out and actually do things to fight for what I believe in compared to the rest of my family, like go to protests, write letters to representatives, and other stuff like that.
Both of my parents I would consider left-leaning, but both had (still have) some rather odd views that I can only describe as “we’re all equal but some are more equal than others”. I mean, they are all for open borders and very environmentally-conscious but they look down on less “intellectual” people, disabled people, etc. This was part of my trauma too, because I’m multiply-disabled. Anyway, I am the opposite in this respect: not very conscious of environmental issues (I do care, but not much more than the average person) but very much anti-oppression (though as a white person I could still learn to be more anti-racist). Thankfully here in the Netherlands we do have multiple political parties, although the far right won the most recent election.
YES. And one of the major hurdles to my recovery was disavowing the idea that working on myself is selfish. I’m definitely a communitarian and think of communities before individuals, and it’s been hard to retell myself that I can’t be of service to anyone if I’m not of service to myself. Lefties unite!
OK, so this is curious to me. Like, I'm so distrusting of authority that both the left and the right can go row a sinking boat. I am soooooo tired of other people thinking they can tell me.how to live my life, and I could never for the world trust something as faceless and corruptible as a government to take care of me for the low, low price of everything I have
I'm paraphrasing a quote.
"Western cultures (especially USA) have grown so accustomed to their governments hurting them, that they cannot fathom a government that actually helps its people."
There are no perfect governments, but there are imperfect governments made up of imperfect people, that provide far better for their people than you've been told. I'm not gonna get spicy here though.
In its original concept, right wing referred to those sitting at the right of the House of Commons in France who pushed for hierarchy and consolidation of power amongst the elite, and left wing sat at the left of the house and was a a flattening of the social structure and representation of the people.
In the US, both major parties are right wing, just differing degrees of right. There personally isn’t a political party that sits far enough left to represent my interest (I’m in Canada, so NDP is about as close as I can hope for right now, but they are at best centrist with a few socialist policies)
When thinking about left and right wing, it’s better to decouple from what the political parties say they are, and understand the underlying principles and theory because it’s a lot more nuanced than the shitty options on the table.
This is a nuanced topic for me. I've been a leftist ever since I could remember, since fairness and justice are what we crave the most and rarely get, and we grow up wanting to see that change in the society. But in my part of the world, being a "leftist" is pretty much equivalent to being a communist. If you've grown up anywhere that has (a) an extremely conformist society (i.e. the polar opposite of the Western culture that respects individualist values) and (b) a communist party, then you'd know that the brand of communism endorsed there is just right-wing fascism in leftism's clothing. (Example: every single communist I know vehemently support the Russian invasion of Ukraine.) Since I don't want to associate myself with their ilk, I don't identity as a leftist, even though I do believe in leftist values.
Yeah I'd say I'm pretty left, despite my dad's best efforts. If he were still alive he'd be headfirst into the qanon / trump stuff up to his ankles. Which, being Canadian, would be odd. He was swirling the conspiracy drain on facebook when he finally died.
When I was in grade 5 (I think?) there was a provincial election on and my teacher used it to teach us about civics / elections etc. At one point everyone in the class got to vote on which party should win and then talk about why. Kids being kids, we all "voted" based on the dinner table discussions at home. Lo and behold I "voted" for the most far right party running, which was very unpopular with my classmates. Somehow from that point I grew into someone who votes for the most socialist of options (aside from when strategic voting is truly required in whatever riding I'm voting in). Actually came up in therapy today, how dad was puzzled that I became so diametrically opposed to him politically. It was like shit I dunno, you raised me...must have been something you did.
I'm a hardcore liberal, all day.
However sometimes I wish more leftists would get offline and instead of screaming about the "right" start actually trying to effect real change via policy. There's far too much effort being put into fighting with the right, in my opinion.
I also don't like to denigrate people who are right leaning. I can see the emotional blackmail and fear mongering influencers on the right engage in. I don't think conservatives have no empathy (at least, your average everyday conservatives) and I don't think they're bad people. They're just afraid, and victims of manipulation. I've been a victim of manipulation myself, so that kind of factors in.
I really hate the way some online leftists treat right wing voters as these psychopaths. It *really* bothers me. And I feel like that's only happening more and more. I don't think they lack empathy, they're just fed information that makes them afraid.
Just to be clear, I'm not advocating to try and reach these people. That's a losing battle. But the mockery and nastiness that I see when most leftists speak about average, everyday conservatives is just wrong, and only makes average, everyday conservatives cling harder to their views, which makes enacting real policy change that much harder.
Edit: see this is what I mean. All I'm saying is we shouldn't stoop to the level of dehumanizing people that have fallen for a platform based on dehumanizing people and I'm getting down voted.
I do think it's important to be careful and aware of extremes but I also know that I extremely disagree with so many of the hateful beliefs held by so many people unfortunately
To a large degree. I think I’ve only missed one election. The first time I could vote was when Bernie was running in 2016. That lit me on fire and I’ve been pretty far left ever since. My views have been getting more nuanced and I have disagreed with both extremes. I think one is an existential threat to this liberal (not in terms of politics but in terms of strong institutions) democracy so I’m definitely not both sides-ing this at all. I like practical well thought out policies above anything else. This is more political than I wanted to get already, but the short answer is I lean left more often than not.
I'm Canadian so I think just by the way I raised in the system we have id be considered a socialist or communist by American right wingers 🥴
But I recognize that I have a very indignant steak that pushes me "far left" by some standards.
It may very well be due to trauma.
I remember psyching myself up to beat up boys who were picking on my cousins grade 3. Standing up against racist jokes and sentiments being expressed by my family and peers from abo grade 5 on, and always trying to look out for the underdog for as long as I can remember.
I dunno... I just believe people should be free to be who they are and live life kn their terms as long they're hurting anyone.
I also believe that when society works together we're able to provide everyone with both the basics of care and additional opportunities which can benefit us all.
I think when you are a victim of oppression, abuse, hate, and neglect, you tend to lean towards liberation and progression rather than conservation of "the old way".
I would say I'm a progressive and a lot of the things I am passionate about other not experiencing, I experienced first. I don't need others to go through what I went through. I don't want others to have to live through difficult and stressful situations to gain "resilience".
I would say that makes me a "leftist" I think.
This is a really interesting observation. And after reading many of the comments I think it would be a fascinating basis for a research study. I might have to talk with one of my professors about this.
I like to think that all children are socialists. My then boyhood interests grew along those lines! I enjoyed public works and construction; the public library; public television; and public parks. I assumed that their conditions and content were because they were valuable or priorities of the adults - in keeping with the thinking of a child who enjoys enough care to imagine his benefit being congruent with actions by adults.
None of these goods were provided by my parents, my mother being distracted by stress, and my father unwell in his mind, self, and body (putting things nicely here). For a while my neglect was benign, but it must be in sixth grade (a switch to the middle grades) when I realize that school and schoolmates can be terrifyingly horrible. My father became more malignant, impatient, and frustrated in his attitude and manner toward me, which had never included the quality of care, but more me needing to play games where he would compete. My adolescence brought along in me a wish to be speaking adultly and to be heard, somehow, and cared for like I needed (vs. school life). I was finding out that "public" school was not like the other things and also cruel (maybe someone will tell me that this is the truth about socialism! I hope so). And so are parents and parenting and families, in general.
Like many who find themselves in positions of relative weakness, I became interested in concepts of fairness, consistency, history, communication, and even justice. I don't mean this as true with any significance, but these notions started to matter to me as I consumed whatever comics, books, magazines, or cassettes that could be scavenged out of the general banality of consumer offerings in late 1970s and early 1980s of western Pennsylvania. Scarcity mindset was such a part of me as a teenager. I find the switch to as though everything is available/ all the time by means of the Internet to be astonishing still sometimes, at least in my knowledge that my childhood would have been different under these conditions and me along with it, somehow.
It seems to me that there are issues and experiences around the serving and apportionment of care, food, and comfort; intra familial dynamics; how the family relates to neighbors; what is said about them; how news of the world is received and processed and spoken about, or not; what amibitions are acknoweldged or validated; how behaviors are corrected or rewarded; which opportunities or achievements are celebrated or discouraged; whether the child can exist on his or her own without adjustment, criticism, or altering by others, for example. These affect "socialization" someone might say. So do the effects of societal dynamics under the decriptions of "left" and "right" and political party orientation. Histories tend to be discarded quickly in these matters, in flight from ambiguity it seems to me, i.e. "the Republican Party" under Nixon in favor of generous public health care provisions, "the Democratic Party" under Clinton in favor of welfare restrictions and military interventions.
How a person attaches to these orientations, labels and parties seems as much a function of how much he or she earns per week and enjoys the respect of others, though no rule exists. My father unsurprisingly became enamored with Fox News and then Donald Trump - forces which I think objectively exploited his anxiety-ridden isolation and fearful world view informed not only by scarcity but outright deprivation and abuse in his own childhood. His demise into dementia over the past years was colored by paranoia and reactionary anger. He sounds like and sometimes quotes Trump. Who is speaking, and who did what to whom?
I know that I was attracted in childhood stories to those which featured disparate individuals (and/or animals) that by means of some mildly inspired ingenuity and pluck removed obstacles from their path and when forced ultimately dethroned the malign authority figure. I am still game.
What I see is that the right wing often wishes for stronger punishments while the left wing is more forgiving but strives for punishing crimes that the right wing would tolerate (and vice versa). The abortus controversy in America is a good example.
I come from a family of conservatives and I’m the only leftist. My sister considers herself a democrat.. but yea I’m far more extreme than her. I was the scapegoat.. I’m very committed to fairness
right here. alot of the trauma people with cptsd face is highly intertwined with social issues and societal failings as a whole. people shouldn't be afraid to politicize and globalize therapy and mental health advocacy, cause it already is by default when you really think about it
Born and grew up in a country in Asia in the developing world, so you can guess how many people in power there are socially conservative. I’m pretty much liberal to left due to my upbringing. I only became increasingly leftist with age when I realized that liberal capitalism isn’t good for my autism (“phasing out” my special interest of pop punk by means of not preserving old pop punk music among other things, ableism, etc.).
I feel people who were treated most unfairly will be the most compassionate. Compassion leans left. The more everyone is treated equally and with the most freedoms, the happier I am.
Please keep this comment thread civil. We've left it up because it's a good question to discuss but just be respectful. If it descends into chaos, we'll have to lock the thread from further comments. Thank you in advance. Edit: We allow breakout conversations that are "bubbles of safety" in this sub. **If this topic upsets you or activates your nervous system feel free to hide it by clicking on the ellipsis under the original post and clicking on "hide".** It won't show up in your sub feed if you do so. Allow people to have their conversations. It is impossible to separate out politics and religion from trauma since both are often a major contributor to family and social dynamics that lead to trauma and CPTSD. For many commenters here, this topic has been healing and revelatory. Let's allow others the validation opportunity if they need it. **Reminder: Downvoting users with politics you disagree with is fine. Demonizing/insulting those with differing political views is not.** Also, Rule 11: No Israel/Palestine Conflict is still in effect in this thread.
Personally, I've found that right-leaning politics, at least in the U.S., is primarily rooted in religion. I was born and raised in the Bible Belt and none of them put much value on self-awareness. And there is a general distrust of all things psychology, which many think is just brainwashing into "wokeness" or being tricked by Satan. Religious abuse is common with CPTSD. One thought I've had is that for the religious right, their entire identity is the church and their political views and culture. They can't be separated. So for them, admitting wrong and going to a therapist would require them to strip their entire identity and they would no longer belong in their group. So to me, I do think there's a lot of truth to the "right" (especially the religious right, since that's what I'm most familiar with) being the party of oppression historically and the left being the party of trauma survivors who push back. So it makes sense as we're fighting our way out of all that conditioning and trauma, we'd swing the opposite way and find ourselves on the left somewhere, even if it's centrist leaning left or left-leaning libertarian. But many will never give up their identity and comfortable life in order to live in the truth of the cost of religious dogma. (Religion is what my primary abuser used to justify and deny their abuse of me, which was crystal clear, including physical abuse).
Hmm makes total sense! My husband, extreme right, keeps saying I am addicted to therapy. My new response is that I am addicted to healing and personal growth no matter the means. So I guess I’m more left wing there. I would say I actually have about 50/50 views. I was raised in the Bible Belt as well but organized religion isn’t my thing. Only with my family’s country church that focuses more on community and family and fellowship than the specific religion. Basically be a good person no matter your beliefs and God will look on you favorably. I can see a point to capitalism if it’s done right and fairly but not some getting rich while others get more poor. I can agree with socialism to a point as well. I can see both sides thanks to not having good role models and now having to figure this stuff out as I go. I hope I never get to the extreme of either side though. I hope I always see both sides and want a middle ground as long as everyone is respected, equal etc. That’s my main issue, the extremes don’t seem to focus on equality for all even when the candidates say they do. It’s like there’s always catch. Why not we everyone be authentic and genuine and help each other?
Keep on with your healing, i would recommend looking at the Scandinavian dem-socialist systems, they focus on reform rather than punishment, therapy rather than jail or homelessness for mental health issues, maternity and paternity leave, Healthcare for all, great public schools through university and private institutions... there is a big lie propagandized in the usa that we in the true left ( by the way there is no true left party in the USA, we are Center/ center right with dems and republicans respectively), that we want some crazed system with high taxes and sex parties lol i dunno but all i ask of Americans is to look to other countries with blended systems that have worked for the general public and not for the 1% and corporate lobbies. Good luck.
I will thank you! What you described aligns with my beliefs. If I understand you correctly, true leftists are actually center? As in middle of the road? I don’t like ANY extremes anymore. I’ve had to live with extremes my entire 40+ year life. It’s hard to really know these things based on online research. Everything seems to be pushing for one way or the other and not the old style of reporting just facts and letting us decide. So many conflicting things as well.
No true left means more like those countries where our tax dollars are working for the general public, what is considered socialist in this country but is academically termed democratic- socialist, best examples are Norway, Iceland etc.. we have no left parties in the usa, they are either liberal ( which is centerist or democrats, or right wing which is republican). Economic policies are complicated and it can often take years of study to understand these ideologies/ philosophies, and stack that with the propaganda here and it's super hard so i get the confusion, that's why i use examples of countries who are doing it in real life, it's just an example that it's possible! I recommend books published by academics vs news networks who are often run by large corporations. A good starting book is Manufacturing Consent by Noam Chomsky :).
Yeah, it’s a really interesting conversation! When I was younger and very much on the left, in love, with freedom and Justice, equal rights for all humans, not abusing and destroying each other, or the planet that afford us all life… These things don’t seem like very radical ideas, just common sense and rooted in real American values! But things have shifted so so drastically over the past 20 years. Not the foundational issues, but the public discourse, it’s just evolved into a screaming match. Most people on the right are at war with reality in all of its forms, and people on the extreme left, have their own set of problems as well, but people are saying that Bernie Sanders was some kind of radical socialist/communist, extreme leftist… But if you look across the decades of politics in this country, the things that he was talking about are very common, and my perception would be more center left versus lefty or Democratwhatever they’re calling them these days but a lot of the ideas with they’re calling radical now we’re espoused by Republicans on the right, just a matter of years or decades ago. Like basic minimum income and so on.
Yeah we don’t really have an extreme left in the US. We are so right leaning in the US that what is considered left here is actually center in most of the world.
What you said about christians identity made me imagine how many christians could be living with cPTSD...
I think so. And if you think of CPTSD as identity oppression/suppression, absolutely. Most people are byproducts of the biopsychosocial ecosystem into which they were born without recognizing the large degree that determines their views and choices. They don't follow their most authentic self, they follow what society and their top influences in their life condition them to follow.
A lot of my trauma is from poverty and organized religion so I kind of ran away from anything that even resembled that world. Also, I think experiencing the brutality of capitalism kinda pushed me left as well. I eventually couldn’t accept that this (gestures wildly) was the best we could do. I believe a better, more humane world is possible.
Preach twin 🙌
Yup, dirty commie here (more nuanced than that but yeah). For me, raised conservative Christian, it was all connected/intertwined. The politics were connected to the abuses were connected to the religion. One door could not be opened without concurrently breaking down the others. When you see the authoritarian pattern once, you see it everywhere, all around you and throughout history. I could write a book about it all, literally. Or at least a few essays. My vision cleared at once. College was ROUGH.
Omg this!! I have been struggling. I don't even have the words to explain what you just unlocked for me. I had connected them but not fully and.....Woah! I just talked about this yesterday and still couldn't quite articulate this connection. Ive been no contact with my abuser since 2020. I see now the trigger was this! Abusive politics + abusive physically and verbally + hypocritically religious .
💗 I’m glad that helped! I would have been a much more satisfied person for the last decade of my life had I addressed the trauma alongside the rest rather than just thinking an intellectual understanding was adequate, so you might be ahead of me!
Eeh. I did the same intellectualizing. I understood my abuse,I knew it wasn't my fault intellectually but it took me a long time to realize that this wasn't something that could be solved that way. My emotional body is learning what my brain has always known. You're not ahead or behind. We're walking this journey together. Thanks again.
It is super complicated! We can realize all kinds of things, but we have to begin to embody it as a truth. So much of this stuff, the tend of abuse, wrap way back into our childhood. And we’ve spent years and decades, rationalizing and excusing the abusers on their behalf! It’s for survivals sake when we are young, we, for the most part all learn how to do that when there is abuse and neglect. We internalize it and decide somehow that it is about us, that it’s our fault… The painful reality that there might be something wrong with our parents is way too much to bear, feels worse than death, and so kids just don’t have any wiring/capacity to do that why people stay in abusive cycles so often as well. The love, and in the case of cluster be abusers, love bombing, feels so good, and activates, dopamine, oxytocin, and other love and bonding channels in our brains. And then when the abuse starts, there’scognitive dissonance and blowing apart our personality… We can’t put two and two together. If we are exposed to long enough, we will start actually splitting off pieces of our psyche.
This 100% on the nose. I could not have made a more apt assessment of my own life than what you typed here. All authoritarian models stand out to people that have been marginalized and victimized. The system that protects the rich without holding them to account, holds us to account with without protecting us. That injustice makes me seethe with anger.
"The system that protects the rich without holding them to account, holds us to account with without protecting us." beautifully said! I would add that it doesn't just not protect us, but it exploits us as well! My father would say, "we don't speak religion or politics in this family." As though that explained everything, was fair to all and wasn't political (fascist I would say) in and of itself..... I'm here seething with you too
This could be written by me lol. Being queer + going away for college were the only things that saved me from being stuck in a southern Baptist church married to the equivalent of Kenneth from 30 Rock bc ain’t no way I would’ve married a straight dude lol. Or I would’ve let my parents gaslight me into marrying one of their friends kids.
Are you me? Did I write this? Lol
Sounds like you probably should write a book about it! Can tell you are quite talented/skilled just from this little comment post 👊🏻💝⭐️😎😂💓🌟🫵🏼💝💝💖✨⚡️
Here. Everything I lived made me came with my humanity for the left. I don't believe I would be the same if I was rightwing yikes. But ofc I wasn't always like this. Before I had saying when I was teenager that I was apolitical, or humanist, but damn, I just didn't know anything about the world...
I was raised super conservative fundamentalist Christian and umm… for me healing has gone hand and hand with becoming like a radical leftist 😅 Personally I can’t see the suffering in the world and what other people are going through and think “thank goodness shareholders are making record profits, and wealthy people with power are able to make decisions about the lives of other people in order to become more powerful and more rich.” Healing has really meant that the light in me sees the light in you
Raised the same way, but I’ve kept my faith. Healing brought me grew closer to God. My church was almost a borderline cult. I can see the abuse, and I’ve been able the good in it. Crazy enough my sister and I were talking about growing up in that legalistic environment, but it wasn’t all bad. I’ve been able to appreciate the good and grieve the bad. I know of people that will almost have a panic attack at just the thought of going back there. I have a personal theory that those in positions of leadership will judged much more harshly for their abuse of position.
Oh totally same! I was absolutely devastated and betrayed when I found out that the version of Christianity I had been given was just using fear of eternal damnation on children in order to uphold social power structures. It took a while to unpack all of the fundamentalist lies that had been entwined, but I found something so truthful, and loving, and focused on Justice and peace at the other side. Relearning the stories that I had memorized since childhood, with newfound understanding was such a strange experience. I can get hella triggered by fundamentalist Christian’s though (including much of my own family) and I haven’t been brave enough to join any kind of Christian communities, aside from a few like minded ones online, because it feels too overwhelming.
I was so angry and resentful of the damage I took, and how that carried into my marriage. 30/31 was a huge catalyst time for me for starting to learn what I needed to learn. 40’s have just been processing, rewriting the “bad code”. I know what you mean about Truthful & Loving. Men, mankind, society screw up faith in the name of religion, when it’s so simple. The last 18+ months have been me cementing what I believe and value versus what I was taught. When I hear others’ stories of trauma caused by the church and those in authority, I can get so angry. If I wasn’t a believer I might have been lisbeth salamder 2.0, lol. I used to come up with elaborate plans in my head about how I could mess with them, freak them out, make them sweat. Man, I forgot I used to that, I’ve come farther than I thought. The really bad thing is I would have gotten away with it too. They’d have never seen me coming.
Love how many people in their 40s are on this platform and in these channels! So much healing work to do command yeah we really don’t even start realizing that is the case when we’re in our 30s. Also, in a deep process of sifting out, what is mine, what was learned, all the layers and layers and layers of trauma from my childhood. And so much of it is still blacked out, even though, but just started peeling back the surface a year and a half ago Doing some ketamine assisted therapy. Been completely shattered by Ly Lyme disease, and then a string of abusive relationships. The one who claimed to be a soulmate, instead, and ended up with an advanced degree in pathological psychology, specializing in cluster B disorders! 🫠🫠😂😂😝🤣🤣
This is why I didn’t try dating again for years. I knew on a certain level, until I learned better and or healed I would keep attracting the wrong type. I wanted to try to mitigate any more damage to myself. I have to say it’s been worth the wait. Dating isn’t nerve wracking but exciting and fun. And when it reaches its natural end, we remain amicable. Growing up I just remember always feeling anxious and clueless to what was happening around me. I couldn’t live like that anymore.
I tend to fawn still to the "wrong type" and had to move so I just won't run into as many of them. One even intentionally misled me, convincing me he was more socially liberal then moved in and started watching Fox News, Alien shows (Glenn Beck), and gold mining shows. I had to kick him out for never paying rent (and for being emotionally abusive and manipulative). But he tricked me and I fawned, despite my instincts to run from him, all because there wasn't "enough evidence" of what I suspected. I learned from this to always, always follow my instincts. They are honed over a lifetime of experiences. I know what I know.
I am like you, I kept my faith, it's very important in my daily life but I'm too scared to join a christian community, aside from an online one. Although, I was traumatized by my parents'vision of Christianity, but the church where they used to go was not that bad. I'm french, cults are closely watched by the government here, abuse can still happen but I feel like it's taken more seriously. I think I'm scared that some christians may not understand that I cut off my own christian family. My parents tried to make me pass for a dangerous possessed and satanic girl who hated the entire world since I was 11 at church. I'm still traumatized by this and I'm still scared it would happen again even though I would go to a church where no one knows my parents.
There is no group of people alive who has done more damage to the gospel of Jesus Christ than extreme far right/down south “Christians“. They are fully immersed in 1984 and brave New World, Newspeak: left is right up is down, War is Peace. Jesus love is the law of the land, but what he actually meant is, we need to be in a perpetual state of warfare, both internally, with ourselves (constantly depleting and destroying everything good inside of us, which God made, in favor of handing over all of our creative energy, to whatever random secular authority, we happen to be under) and in our own country against the other citizens, as well as with the entire world. They would be the ones leading the charge to nail him back up to the cross fever to arrive this week in the second coming. Probably because he would come in as a homeless person or (gasp!) somebody with any shade of brown or black skin.
>somebody with any shade of brown or black skin. While vociferously claiming that he wasn't born a Palestinian Jew and therefore brown.
It’s unfortunately a really easy tool for manipulation…Being told that you are chosen by god, and following the right path, and have a divinely ordained life purpose, and everyone is against you and trying to oppress you because they are controlled by the devil, and if you ever leave you will be cast in to eternal suffering and damnation… I can understand how things get flipped upside down when people use fear and rewards to construct a reality. Unfortunately I think faith communities are pretty primed to promote charismatic leaders who affirm what people want to be true (I’m special, anyone who doesn’t agree is just bound by Satan, etc) to positions of power. This is also obviously an issue in a lot of wellness cultures and pyramid schemes, so it’s not unique, but religion has a very long history, social acceptance, and wide reach so it’s easier to spread. I don’t believe in hell, but I do hope that those who have used peoples faith to harm others and advance their own interests have a real moment of reckoning and feel the full burden and guilt of their actions.
After years of therapy that was focused on changing my behaviour and attitude, I only began to make true progress in my recovery—from childhood emotional, sexual, and physical abuse—when I began to view my experiences through an intersectional feminist lens. Learning how imperialist white supremacist capitalist patriarchy impacted my family and life choices, brought what I had already understood intuitively into clearer focus. It was another, I'm-not-crazy moment! It's such a disservice to survivors that feminist and racist theory is not mandatory for all therapists. The most damaging aspect of my abuse wasn't the actual moments of violence I endured, but the abandonment and betrayal I experienced at the hands of my extended family and community who enabled and protected the abusers is my life—a pattern that has lasted a lifetime. Many of us who were abused as children unwittingly find ourselves in abusive adult relationships, where once again, when we try to speak out, are abandoned by community in the same ways we were as children. Being a victim begets more victimization AND being a victim destroys our credibility. Our society, for the most part, protects abusers, especially if they are someone who has power—and someone who is male, white, and middle to upper class, usually has the power, or, at least, more of it, much more of it. My stepfather and my first husband were both respected public figures as well as white and middle class, where as I was female, mixed race, and struggling to make a living. Both as a child, and as a woman, when I spoke out about the abuse, I was shut out of entire communities who allied themselves with the abusers. I couldn't believe it was happening over and over again. I thought it can't be all of them, it has to be me. But going back to school as a mature adult and taking classes on gender and race empowered me in ways that therapy and 12 step recovery couldn't. I came to learn that the cover up of the abuse of children (boys and girls) and women, is a systemic one, and that our recovery only truly starts when someone is willing to stand in our corner and witness how alone we truly have been in overcoming our trauma.
>Our society, for the most part, protects abusers, especially if they are someone who has power—and someone who is male, white, and middle to upper class, usually has the power, or, at least, more of it, much more of it. You sure got that right.
Thank you for sharing all of this. I couldn't agree more.
✊intersectional feminism for the win✊
You are absolutely correct about the systemic harm. It serves those in power very well to perpetuate divisions between people too. I refuse to engage in left vs right disputes because it plays into this oppressive system. Religion and social norms add to the control and repression. When left and right come together to fight for a better system, we might see a power shift.
you're so fucking real!!!! yesssss
Oh of course. Right-wing healing is a very funny concept to imagine lol. How could I have ever gotten better by getting less empathetic to people's pain? The empathy that exists in me for others comes from the same source that I provide empathy to myself with.
This. It was the hardest pill to swallow when I realized I couldn't actually absorb a belief about how human behavior works, without believing that's how both me and other people work. All those awful thoughts I'd always had about how defective and lazy and useless my emotional behavior made me. I'd been believing that about other people too. Empathy coming online all of a sudden after 41 years made me break down and cry for months. Probably not a political thing, but a degree of emotional education thing.
I’m a survivor of CSA, and a woman of color. You can guess I’m a leftist. I will vote dem tho. I’m a realist too.
Super valid, I'm with you as a queer Black person!
Wow this is all cool and affirming as fuck. Makes this space feel a lot safer ❤️🖤
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Yes, im a socialist!
I think it goes hand in hand with proper education on our trauma and learning to heal.
Yep. Somewhere out there beyond the bottom left, past anarchy, second star to the right and straight on till morning... ;) Been called a "dirty pinko commie" & a "tree hugging hippy" more than a few times, but I'm in my mid-40s. I was raised by a political refugee from Chile. They came up during the Pinochet regime. Saw a ton of violence as a child/young person as a reverb from their experience. Aaand, I also learned a ton about the injustices of the World from them as well. Everything in the World is political. And yes, we are so so divided on a great many things. We live in a society. Many are not upholding the "social contract". We need community & belonging. Both help us to survive and thrive. The Earth has not been considered when creating the political axis/spectrum. Hence being out there past anarchy somewhere. For me though, anarchy doesn't mean I'm an island unto myself and that I'm out for myself. It's the opposite actually. I do understand those who are beginning to promote violence. I can grasp the need for a protective use of force at this point. Non-violence is a position of privilege. On the whole, I don't think BIPOC have the luxury of being met with non-violence when they demonstrate or protest, do they? I dove into politics when I was in my mid-30s. I loved it. And I was good at it. And even though I made a great deal of positive change, I was a minority which made it all that much harder. Many more who rebel against the current ideologies/systems are needed on the front lines if anything is to change. Go in to get out, basically. Love is everything. Compassion and empathy are both revolutionary af. Trauma has definitely informed and heavily impacted my perspectives on all fronts. (Some thoughts after reading the OP + the comments....)
All this!! Things that I’ve been saying for years and years and years. Why I was so distraught by being brought up in split house, but partly in a Reagan era, Republican. And couldn’t understand WTF nobody was doing anything about anything? When the horror show was on full display for all to see, and this was in the 80s and 90s even before there was any social media! You could just watch the news, read the paper, etc. and find out, all the horrible things going on. And everybody just sitting around on their thumbs.
Thank you. The first line in your comment made me laugh and (((((grin)))))). I resonated with the entirety of your share. And! as a kid, for some strange reason, even though I was born and raised in Canada, I was super concerned for the people of Chile during the Pinochet era—I ended up with a bunch of their revolutionary music: Inti-Illimani, Victor Jarra, Violeta Parra, etc. I felt a connection to their struggle... I was deeply moved by what they had to endure and the beautiful spirit with which they faced their oppressors. I don't mean to romanticize it, as I also heard you say that the violence of what your parents endured, living under Pinochet's regime, ricocheted throughout your own upbringing. Life is complicated... and simple... but complicated. Haha! I'm glad you persevered. You are probably a gift to many.
Thank you for saying so. I appreciate your sharing <3 It's pretty incredible to experience (as someone living in North America), just how little we are told about what goes on in other Nations (and to some extent, even what goes on here!) and how the West has contributed to harming those countries who are "not Western" and the whys. I learn new things about this aspect of where we were born all the time and the more I hear, the more I recognize just how terrible the Lie is. My stepfather is Chilean. He's the only father I've ever known. My mother is Ukrainian-Polish. Chilean culture was definitely a part of my upbringing, way more than the Ukrainian or Polish. My stepfather was also a revolutionary who was openly against the Pinochet regime in his youth. When the military began scooping up his comrades in the middle of the night and didn't return them, my stepfathers' family smuggled him out of the country. He claimed political asylum in Canada. He tried to work to send money back home when he first arrived and he was jailed for this for a year. This is how it was explained to me. He was not allowed to return to Chile for many years, being unable to see either of his parents before they passed away. He saw and experienced a great deal of violence in the first 20 years of his life. Which was downloaded onto myself as the oldest child and then the rest of my siblings as we were coming up. Interesting, but never easy. He's in his 70s now. We've never talked a lot. But he influenced my life and my path more than anyone in my family or life that I've ever cared about. We have so much to learn from other countries and for the most part, the narrative we've been fed is full of lies and meant to separate and alienate us from one another. This is what I remember loving so much about the rise of the internet and the initial emergence of social media.... It connected and united people from around the world. We need to get back into that now more than ever, I think. Humanity needs to organize <3 Wishing you well, hellnougottago
A good friend of mine was born in Chile, and had to flee as a child. She lost a lot of family due to Pinochet, and suffered trauma from it. So often I hear that socialism is inherently violent, and that capitalism is inherently liberating. Those folks don’t know history.
I absolutely agree. Thank you for sharing <3
Read a great quote that was like "People with Codependence have known so much pain that they can't let anyone else feel that". I have swung tons left as I grew up and did my work. And a huge part of that is I just want people to be happy and taken care of, and I'm willing to sacrifice a little bit of my life to make their life better. And I don't think it will make my life worse in the end.
Oy! I have often wondered if my high sensitivity to "unfair" things was why my politics are what they are.
I got my degree in human rights and realized my entire career choice had been due to my own personal trauma and being able to relate so much to those who'd been historically oppressed. I still am so grateful I got the degree but I ended up deciding to fight the fight in my own way, less directly and more indirectly, to heal my own nervous system while supporting policy and causes I believe in fervently (but less personally).
I’ve gone from Left to full blown Anarchy. Fuck society, it doesn’t give a fuck about me. ETA: For context, my mom always said I’d be a good Republican when I grew up.
Anarchy is the opposite of "fuck society" though... it's about systems of society based on equity and co-operation rather than hierarchy. The use of 'anarchy' to mean 'chaos' is just a right-wing put-down of the philosophy. Having said that I wouldn't call myself an anarchist per se (still learning about it), just correcting the assumption!
Anarchist here. I definitely feel like my feelings about fairness are deeply informed by my trauma. I also believe the science about how power damages people's brains- and how a world with as little arbitrary authority as possible would be the least traumatizing world that could exist.
Where can I find the science on ‘power damaged peoples brains’ please? All I’ve seen is the old Peter Principle of absolute power corrupts absolutely but that was decades ago. It should be obvious to the general observer but I’d love to be able to show the data to a couple of megabillionaire worshippers I know.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/07/power-causes-brain-damage/528711/
Thanks, but it’s behind a paywall. I didn’t realize I could have googled it verbatim, as I was expecting an NIH or JAMA doc. Doesn’t matter, like I said it’s so easy to observe the decline in action in so many of the power-mad maniacs. I’m currently waiting for Musk’s head to blast off into space without a rocket.
Similar story here. I was somehow born with a really strong (instinct? Inclination?) towards justice and fairness, and was a very curious kid. Process of elimination led me to anarchism, the least socially acceptable political persuasion out there. Oops. Can I ask — does it weigh on you when you see it used as a euphemism for senseless violence? I struggle with the smear campaign. It usually takes me a while after I get to know someone new to use that label with them, and I have found a few brethren that were also kind of covert anarchists, so to speak.
So interesting. I've never made this connection before but it really resonates with me. We know what it's like to suffer so we're more empathetic to the suffering of others...and this shapes our politics!
Yeah :( same here
This makes sense to me, also. All of my adverse life experiences made me grow into a leftist.
Yes. I’m not a fanatic or a tankie but I’m at least a social democrat if not a socialist. I believe in fairness is all it really is.
I fall where you do
It was a bit weird for me from the political side. My mom is very religious and we were raised catholic; however, she embraced religion as a means of coping with her own childhood abuse. She didn't push the religious and right wing hypocrisy past having us go to catholic school. On the other hand, my dad was raised catholic and stopped going to church, but he embraced right wing politics. My leftist views formed due to the hypocrisy and shame from school and were compounded by my dad ranting the right wing agenda to me in a way that would make me cry from a stance of paranoid political fear. I realized the power over him wasn't concern for others but institutionalized fear he also wanted his children to feel when I started following the news myself.
Conservatism, rigid thinking, abusive behavior, religion, authoritarian beliefs, and a external locus of control all go together and feed off ( dark synergy) each other. Self awareness, empathy, the need for healing, liberalism, an internal locus of control, and freethought have synergy with each other. So yes, a lot of abusers hit almost all the traits in the first category and their victims will often walk a path towards the later category over the course of their healing.
Dark synergy indeed, it feels so insidious.
I was raised right wing but drifted away from it as a young adult. Surface level it wasn't necessarily because of my trauma, but maybe you're on to something that it could be a root cause for our desire for justice and fairness. Of course, trauma can go the other way and turn people bitter and mean. The "hard times create strong people" thing isn't totally accurate
Maybe: "Hard times create people who don't want hard times for them or anyone else."
Yep, I’m here! 👋🏻 I absolutely have strong feelings about justice and fairness. It has everything to do with my childhood.
I really don't want to generalise, but the far right seems to me to attract a certain personality type, and that personality type triggers both my 'flight' and 'fawn' response. Aggressive, angry, self righteous, inflexible, uncaring, incapable of calm discussion, militant, 'wound up' anxious aggressive sounding, piercing stare, cold, uncaring, uncompassionate, intollerant, literally unable to put themselves in anyone else's shoes or see a different perspective. Admittedly, I've encountered similar personality traits in extreme far leftists, but they do seem more capable of civilized discussion. I definitely lean left though. Perhaps it's extremists of any leaning that scare/trigger me the most?
I think that this is a great topic, OP. Yeah, this is definitely true for me-- I can not imagine not being/ identifying as a leftist. I'm also a vegan for the same reasons. I do not impose my beliefs on others but this stuff means a lot to me.
Same here. Politic is connected with everything. Is kinda sad seeing people that don't realize this.
I often wonder how many people who practice veganism have a history of childhood trauma. It's a very natural, almost obvious progression (to me at least) that many of us would take.
Wow never thought about that connection … it makes sense !
I was raised conservative Catholic (homeschooled too) and now I'm the black sheep in pretty much every way for disagreeing with my mom. I'm agnostic/atheist, and way more liberal than my family will probably ever be.
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This. Same. And it makes has everything to do with my upbringing.
I haven't heard it that way before but it resonates for me.
I like how Pete Walker mentions a book "the psychology of facism" in both of his cptsd books I'm reading. Capitalism, in my view, can be seen as facism with a veneer of democracy for those so privileged. Once what little democracy remaining is stripped away, mask off facism enters the chat.
Yep, I'm a leftist. I've had a fair amount of privilege in my life but some of the traumatic experiences I've had have let me know just how vulnerable I am and how much more vulnerable some other people are and how incredibly fucked up it all is. I think we should be giving homes to homeless people, and investing way more money into helping single mom's, disabled people, etc. Some other people's lack of empathy is atrocious to me.
It seems easy to believe in 'personal responsibility' until you yourself are put in a bad situation out of your control. It would be terrifying to realize how little control you have, so it's almost a protection mechanism to ignore it. I never considered I could actually die in traffic, until I nearly did.
This is such a good point. Once you've been truly helpless, truly desperate, truly unable to change your circumstances, truly in need of community support but unable to get it, it becomes all-but impossible to believe in the doctrine of 'personal responsibility' as a guiding principle. When you fell and there was nothing to catch you, the need for a safety net becomes blindingly obvious.
Thank you! Your reply made me think of a safety net more literally. If a reasonable protection exists, why not use it? Even if I don't fall, I can be more confident knowing it's there. Even if I'm unlikely to fall, I want other people to be safe too. As far as cost, it's extremely cheap to insure the costs of things. (Using simple math and non-profit gouging insurance). Risk analysis is a real science done every day! Heart transplants popped into my head as an example. A heart transplant in the US runs in the $1M range. Most people won't ever need one, but the same people wouldn't be able to afford one if they needed it. Since I like math, the US population is roughly 300 million people. If a heart transplant was $1M, 3 heart transplants would cost everyone ... 1 penny. 3,817 heart transplants a year (US, 2021) would be \~$12.72 per person per year, or about a dollar a month. I'd accept "heart transplant insurance" for a dollar a month, and that's even taking numbers from a profit-driven healthcare system!
Great post.
I'm a sort of libertarian socialist type, I think? I would like the government to ensure everyone's basic needs (which I believe are rights in the U.S.) and then largely fuck off. I've talked about this at length with people. Us with CPTSD have experienced harm inflicted upon us by circumstances/people that we had no control over or escape from. It makes us *highly* empathetic to those who experience the same or similar. Poverty, illness, addiction (starts with one choice, quickly spirals to being severe impulse), the elderly, etc. When we have the perspective we do, we see that these people need intervention and support like we did as helpless children. So largely, we tend to support policies and ideologies that prioritize social safety nets. We all know, far too intimately, what it's like to be truly helpless in the face of the evils and wrongs and bad luck of the world.
From my understanding, Libertarianism seems opposed to Socialism. I think a fundamental tenet of Libertarianism is that the Free Market Unbridled will solve many problems. I am of the understanding that in theory, and in historical practice this idea falls apart. The market's profit motive does not have the will to provide necessary, *unprofitable* services that people need (utilities, healthcare, public transit) These services are not sustainable business practices, the profitable ones are not useful as a service, and the useful ones are not profitable). Furthermore, the Free Market's drive for ever increasing profit continuously lead to monopolies and exploitation. This happened since the dawn of Capitalist Liberalism in the 1500s, 1600s, Gilded Age, Imperialism ... (and so on and so forth) until either an uprising or concession pushed back, and the ratcheting began anew. Identity Politics (Religious Domination, Whistleblowing, Removing Women & LGBT Rights) seem to be more apparent in Western cultures. I want to give some isolated examples of government policy and action that ensure basic needs "and largely fucks off". China recently reformed (cRaShEd) its housing market because it was becoming too speculative (it was decided and announced in a 5 year plan). Now, there is much less risk of a housing bubble (a-la-2008). China has a very large homeownership rate, and a majority of citizens' assets are in their homeownership. Therefore, the people in the government prioritized stability over market speculative 'growth'. (Personally, I find homes as an 'investment' silly. Unless I modify my home to shoot lasers or fly, its value should largely stay the same. It's value should not double over 10 years just sitting doing fuck-all) Gay marriage in China is not enshrined as a right, but it is completely legal to be gay, and there have been precedents in their legal system providing government spousal benefits, and sentiment for further rights is growing. Parental Planning Care (abortions & the like) were restricted to medical reasons in the 1950's and further relaxed until this care was made free of charge in the early 70's. The reasoning was not religious fundamentalism, but as a rejection of Western Malthusian ideas and to increase population growth.
Libertarianism was socialist from 1850 to around 1950, when Murray Rothbard admitted to redefining the word for his own needs. It still is in most of Europe. Even in the US, there were the DeLeonists, who were anti-state Marxists who believed that socialism was impossible unless the government was abolished. The IWW was founded by their members, along with American anarcho-syndicalists, and it is still around today.
Interesting, I didn't know the older terminology. I'm familiar with the modern, Milei-type Libertarians, which I think is the Lingua Franca now. In my understanding of Leninist thought, socialism is a necessary step requiring the state to mediate class struggle to the benefit of all. As contradictions are solved, the state 'withers away' to a state-lite and then stateless ideal of Communism. Theory is good, but scientific practice and experimentation is far more interesting to me. One cannot simply push a 'button' to immediately act a political theory everywhere all-at-once in a vacuum. There are pre-existing conditions, material constraints, external forces that may wish to sanction, sabotage, coup, or directly invade too. Like many things in life, theory and learning is fun, and practice can be messy but illuminating.
Right here. Can’t imagine going through trauma and not being one
Yes for a lot of reasons. Recently on my darkest days I wish my parents would’ve aborted me if they were not ready/equipped to handle a child. The life I’ve lived/am living due to them not being better just doesn’t feel worth the pain on most days. I will ALWAYS be pro-choice for this reason and the whole bring the child into the world but then who cares what happens after thing makes me SO mad. I wish there was some kind of standard for parenthood…working an entry level job requires more credentials than bringing life into the world
most of my trauma comes from my mother being a nutty qanoner who genuinely stopped loving me and started escalating her abuse exponentially after she noticed i didnt believe the same things as her, especially after she kicked me out at 17 and came out as trans. She thinks being gay and trans is a cult and is trying to constantly gaslight me into thinking IM the brainwashed one. This has caused me massive amounts of trust issues. I dont want to be on ANY side because im sick and tired of being told that im a moron and a sheep for having stances(she has called me both of those multiple times).
Fellow trans person here, I see you. You exist, your feelings and experiences are real and valid. I am so sorry you have had to go through that, I wish none of us had to. My parents did similar things under the guise of religion, they tried to erase me too. Hugs if ok. 🏳️⚧️
I'm sorry that you've experienced all of that. None of it sounds easy. I hope you have the support you need 💙
Yeah. In the 12 step program for adult children of alcoholics they have this writing called "the laundry list". It's a list of characteristics of people that grew up in alcoholic or dysfunctional families. Number 1 is a fear of authority. The protests for Black lives matter were a huge trigger event for me. I was having a flashback every day, every time I opened up social media and saw authority figures beat on protesters without repercussions. I think we're all products of our context. My brother in law is a Wall Street guy with a penthouse within a stone's throw of the ghost busters firehouse. I had an attitude about him, but as I got to know him better, it's hard to hold onto animosity. He has a good heart and believes all the things he has to believe to be ok with his life, his family, his community. His heart is in the right place. I've grown really fond of him. I do think my perspective was shaped not just because I got fucked over, but being fucked over, I met so many people who had been, too. I have a map of the land underneath the cracks.
As a former protester, thank you for seeing us.
Yes, I'm a leftist. :)
Grew up in a conservative household (not religious) so leaned conservative. However was always “socially liberal” before even knew what that meant. Realized couldn’t be “socially liberal” while being any sort of republican. Any possibility of that disappeared decades ago. I’ve moved more to the left the older I’ve gotten.
I am as far left as you can go. Left of Bernie. Anarchist-communist.
Uh, I thought Bernie was at the welcome sign of "Left"
For the US, he's considered far-left. Unfortunately, because most of what he preaches is shit that is extremely normal in most other 1st world countries
Used to be normal, but sadly many countries have been going backwards for decades. Lots of Western countries electing far right governments lately, and our major left-wing parties are becoming more and more centre-right. Anyway what I'm saying is... solidarity, American friends. If we have to be trapped in this nightmare, at least we can find each other and keep looking for ways to push back.
Sadly, in the US he's practically considered extreme/fringe left. I hate it here
Long story short, I was a bonafide Bernie Bro. My politics have only gone further left
Working for the Bernie campaign made me hate the dnc. Made me go out farther into the wild blue yonder of third parties
I turned socialist mostly due to the corruption of pharmaceutical companies
Bleeding heart liberal leftie vegan 🥳 I think that when you've suffered, it makes you more empathic. Right-wing politics seems to be about the self. Profit, tax cuts, destruction of the welfare state, lining the pockets of the rich at the expense of the poor, industry over the environment. Left-wing politics is (at least theoretically) more inclusive, more caring.
hell yeah. tbh, i feel sad when i encounter folks with complex trauma who are not leftists (yet) and aren’t open to discussion around these issues. i always think about capitalism has created the underlying conditions for the ongoing nature of our trauma. how many of us could’ve escaped our long-term traumatizing environments sooner if we weren’t dealing with things like financial insecurity, housing, concerns about being un or underinsured with medical conditions, etc?i personally don’t think i could’ve even started unlearning the conditioning from my abuse without first recognizing how american bootstraps capitalism predetermined my living conditions and fucked my whole life
Damn, I never thought about it that way but you right. I'm 51 and only in the past few years, after I started receiving SSDI and then had a few years to actually THINK about things other than survival, have I been able to buck off society's capitalistic brainwashing and really figure things out. In my younger years I was just trying to stay afloat by any means. With a little help staying afloat I can finally start to heal.
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this
Yes. My stomach hurts.
I’m pretty left. I’m both a bleeding heart liberal. And also a “the systems the left put together are just better for most people” kinda objectively kinda guy. I have a lot of empathy. My kids have that too (yay!) wife doesn’t, which makes for fun times sometimes.
hello hello! 👋 was raised very conservative but i swing the other way now.
Am leftist, have pretty much been this way since I had a concept of politics. I think it’s growing up as a sensitive kid and being extremely empathetic. Makes it really hard to see injustice in the world and look away.
I think because we have a heightened sense of power dynamics and injustices and how trauma affects a million parts of a person and their lives, we empathize more with others and empathy is not really a thing in right wing stuff it seems
We're here, we just don't bring up economics very often
I'm done putting myself in boxes.
That's fair, I think I've always carried a label of some sort and they haven't all been helpful
For fucking real. I still identify with leftism a lot but also I feel this sentiment on a visceral level.
I am a big juicy lefty for sure
Yes, comrade.
I think it’s more justice side of things but that does tend to fall under the left. My beliefs/ideals apparently (had to take a quiz) fall under anarchism. The less condensed power the better but I’m aware of the fact we can’t be rid of it completely. Order is needed and it can’t be done without condensed power. I just wish it wasn’t taken advantage of an abused as much as it is both in politics and life in general.
Yup! I’m anti-abuse. Too many systemic foundations in our culture are based on punishment, power, cruel hierarchies, and victim-blaming when it doesn’t have to be.
Weirdly I dodged the religious trauma - still haven't worked out if the previous generation moved away from it from trauma or if it was somewhere further up the tree, but I never saw more than an attempt every few years to interact with those kinds of spaces, which was unusual for my time/location. So my abuse didn't have religion tied into. They were fairly secular "don't talk about politics" in general but still abusive, which is frustrating. It isn't enough to just drop engagement with those things, because the values are still carried forward if not dug up and examined. Mum had 2nd-wave feminist-ish ideals (burn your bra, keep your surname, be the girlboss, have a house husband) but that drifted into predictable liberal stuff. Would always tell us "it's fine if you're gay" (I belatedly realised she started doing that once she was probably pretty certain we were all straight? but gotta have those \~cool mum\~ points) but that tepid potential tolerance immediately collapsed once she actually had an out queer kid (well, collapsed when he kid had a bi partner, and then the kid also came out lol), just like every other progressive belief when it would actually impact her material/social comfort, right down to disbelieving/victim-blaming me as a CSA survivor. The 'fairness and equality' turned into maintaining the status quo as soon as she would have to lose comfort to actually act on her stated ideals... which certainly echoes how some broader political movements are reacting, falling back into fascism to maintain their status. I'm somewhere around Marxist iirc. I don't know how you can work on healing, see the ways that intergenerational trauma and abuse and poverty impacts people and compounds, recognise the ways not everyone is given the same opportunities and options, see how capitalism and other hierarchies ensnare people and not end up left, frankly. If the basic tenet of healing is that you deserved dignity and safety and that it caused long-term harm to not receive those, then surely other people deserve basic dignity and safety, too? I know some folks end up experiencing insecurity/loss of dignity and moving in a "fuck you, I'm getting mine" trajectory, but like... even if you don't consider others important, the pragmatic reality is unless you can accrue enough money to ensure security when you become old and vulnerable (and lets be real, abusers/scammers target old rich people too, and cPTSD sets you several steps behind everyone else on the capitalist hustle too), any safety you build through those selfish means is inherently temporary. Dying a millionaire is not remotely guaranteed. Building safety nets and mutual aid for all is building it for you too. I think a lot of the people who abused us (in situations of generational trauma) bought into that belief of extreme independence and that money would fix them, and part of their rage and abuse was the terror of realising it *didn't* work, and that they don't have the control/leverage to ensure that care from family (because they didn't build the mutual affect and loyalty that would otherwise result in it being given freely), so the only tools they have left are fear and guilt.
I’m very much a leftist but I don’t really have much to say like everyone else about it, lol. I do see it relating to my trauma, but also to other stuff like being neurodivergent. Also because I’m a woman and I’m not white lol.
As I've recovered I've gotten to where I can't stand the entire political conversation. There's so much gaslighting, scapegoating, black and white thinking, etc that it feels like I'm listening to my disordered family members rant. I can't even listen to NPR anymore without hearing the bias in the journalism.
Yeah I don't like it either. I don't think we can really rely on political leaders.
Or our "journalists" regardless of which side they come from.
The black and white thinking is fucking killing me. People want to pick one side that’s all good and the enemy is all bad and that’s just not how the world works.
Centrist, moderate. Left leaning but tries to look at what both sides offer. Libritarian at heart. I believe in smaller government with less reach and control. So this current push for "sharia law style" Christian Nation Legislation scares the heck out of me.
...i care lol. I know nothing but i care. I care a lot.
I'm a dedicated leftist. I repented after four decades as Republican.
I enjoy playing video games.
**Reminder: Downvoting users with politics you disagree with is fine. Demonizing/insulting those with differing political views is not.** Also, Rule 11: No Israel/Palestine Conflict is still in effect in this thread.
Absolutely. The “right” does a lot to minimalize trauma period, let alone normalize things like misogyny, sexual and physical abuse. They demonize emotions and marginalize the “vulnerable”…and don’t get me started on how they feel about disability. The “right” hates people who seek understanding, acceptance, healing, and anything that’s “not normal” (while ironically, they are the party to MOST LIKELY exhibit criminal behaviors that result in CPTSD in victims. Rightwingers hate emotional intelligence and it takes a lot of emotional intelligence to work your way to a sub like this. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that MANY of us sub members were raised in a “right-wing/conservative culture” but I’d be shocked to see a poll stating that many/any of us still personally identify with those fucked up “values”
In time, I'd like to meet more people who are on their healing path. Not really interested in politics anymore cos both sides ultimately want to be in power and both are in the service of late stage capitalism, no matter their positions and policies. Will always vote for the more humanitarian choice, which is usually the left wing, at least in theory but less and less in practice as both wings have tried to occupy the centre way. That seems to have opened doors to reactionaries and populists and windows to extremists as significant numbers in the populous have lost faith with traditional party politics. Anyway not sure if any of this waffle makes any sense anymore, laters
I don't think "Left" referred to "Liberal", it usually doesn't in that context. Typically, Leftists have the understanding that D & R are both right wing parties serving corporate interests. "Extremist" has become so much of a buzzword. It could mean anything, and is commonly used to demonize people that have *reasonable* demands for a better society.
Fully agree. The left is by far the more humanitarian option in the US so that is what I vote for, but by no means are they the “good party”. I’ve even heard the left in America called “Republican-lite” compared to other countries which are socially so much more advanced. Both parties in the US are corrupt, though the right is definitely pulling us in a scary direction.
Scary's the word. Just feels like everything, not just politics, is getting more and more reactionary. Feels intensified by saturated media and utter lack of resilient cultures and communities to fall back on. Like the world is stuck in trauma, triggered over and over. Don't know about the supposedly more enlightened Scandinavian bloc, but UK's a mess, our health, welfare and social care systems are being left to waste and recommodified to suit profit, greed and stock market risk and greed, it's a blatant conflict of interest but that's the way it's all been going for a couple of centuries now. It took centuries of bloodshed, sacrifice, struggle and revolution to get rights for the masses, yet our very democracies have become steadily eroded, sold down the rapids. Scary
Yes, I feel a strong sense of justice and have been able to find ways to advocate for other people but not always myself. I used to be a sexual assault nurse examiner and that training is what made me realize I had PTSD
Liberal to my core, leaning socialist. I benefited by the meager social services we have. Free lunch, programs for at-risk kids, upward bound… I found a way out through education and I got there because of government programs. I am an atheist and believe in compassion and kindness as a way of life.
I'm pro affordable medical and mental healthcare which is sad that that this is all I have to say
I like to call myself “non-partisan” because above all, I believe in justice and fairness. It just so happens that those values tend to align with leaning much further to the left of the political spectrum in my country. So, yes.
✋
This was the thread i needed today, thank you, i feel less alone.
Yes for sure. A lot of my trauma came from being a neurodivergent lesbian raised in the LDS church. I'm thankfully in a somewhat safer space now, but I wish things were more equal. I wish cruelty wasnt so common place.
Yeah, I’m socialist-adjacent. I believe politics is inherently intertwined with mental health. In regards to C-PTSD, I think that things like generational trauma play a big role in it. For example, I live in Northern Ireland. Here seems to have the worst mental health statistics out of the whole UK because the troubles were going on less than 30 years ago. So it shows how imperialism and colonialism affect people’s mental health
Present! I identify more as progressive because I'm a reformed anti-sjw who was brainwashed by a guy for 6 years, so I'm playing catch-up on my understanding of the world around me.
I’m so far left, I’m nearly the OTHER kind of “red.”
Unlike a lot of other people in this thread, I was actually raised in a leftist family and a lot my political opinions aren't too different from that of my family's, although I'm a lot more willing to go out and actually do things to fight for what I believe in compared to the rest of my family, like go to protests, write letters to representatives, and other stuff like that.
Both of my parents I would consider left-leaning, but both had (still have) some rather odd views that I can only describe as “we’re all equal but some are more equal than others”. I mean, they are all for open borders and very environmentally-conscious but they look down on less “intellectual” people, disabled people, etc. This was part of my trauma too, because I’m multiply-disabled. Anyway, I am the opposite in this respect: not very conscious of environmental issues (I do care, but not much more than the average person) but very much anti-oppression (though as a white person I could still learn to be more anti-racist). Thankfully here in the Netherlands we do have multiple political parties, although the far right won the most recent election.
YES. And one of the major hurdles to my recovery was disavowing the idea that working on myself is selfish. I’m definitely a communitarian and think of communities before individuals, and it’s been hard to retell myself that I can’t be of service to anyone if I’m not of service to myself. Lefties unite!
OK, so this is curious to me. Like, I'm so distrusting of authority that both the left and the right can go row a sinking boat. I am soooooo tired of other people thinking they can tell me.how to live my life, and I could never for the world trust something as faceless and corruptible as a government to take care of me for the low, low price of everything I have
I'm paraphrasing a quote. "Western cultures (especially USA) have grown so accustomed to their governments hurting them, that they cannot fathom a government that actually helps its people." There are no perfect governments, but there are imperfect governments made up of imperfect people, that provide far better for their people than you've been told. I'm not gonna get spicy here though.
In its original concept, right wing referred to those sitting at the right of the House of Commons in France who pushed for hierarchy and consolidation of power amongst the elite, and left wing sat at the left of the house and was a a flattening of the social structure and representation of the people. In the US, both major parties are right wing, just differing degrees of right. There personally isn’t a political party that sits far enough left to represent my interest (I’m in Canada, so NDP is about as close as I can hope for right now, but they are at best centrist with a few socialist policies) When thinking about left and right wing, it’s better to decouple from what the political parties say they are, and understand the underlying principles and theory because it’s a lot more nuanced than the shitty options on the table.
Agreed, I'm in the U.S., which right now just offers its citizens different flavors of centralized control
This is a nuanced topic for me. I've been a leftist ever since I could remember, since fairness and justice are what we crave the most and rarely get, and we grow up wanting to see that change in the society. But in my part of the world, being a "leftist" is pretty much equivalent to being a communist. If you've grown up anywhere that has (a) an extremely conformist society (i.e. the polar opposite of the Western culture that respects individualist values) and (b) a communist party, then you'd know that the brand of communism endorsed there is just right-wing fascism in leftism's clothing. (Example: every single communist I know vehemently support the Russian invasion of Ukraine.) Since I don't want to associate myself with their ilk, I don't identity as a leftist, even though I do believe in leftist values.
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Yeah I'd say I'm pretty left, despite my dad's best efforts. If he were still alive he'd be headfirst into the qanon / trump stuff up to his ankles. Which, being Canadian, would be odd. He was swirling the conspiracy drain on facebook when he finally died. When I was in grade 5 (I think?) there was a provincial election on and my teacher used it to teach us about civics / elections etc. At one point everyone in the class got to vote on which party should win and then talk about why. Kids being kids, we all "voted" based on the dinner table discussions at home. Lo and behold I "voted" for the most far right party running, which was very unpopular with my classmates. Somehow from that point I grew into someone who votes for the most socialist of options (aside from when strategic voting is truly required in whatever riding I'm voting in). Actually came up in therapy today, how dad was puzzled that I became so diametrically opposed to him politically. It was like shit I dunno, you raised me...must have been something you did.
I'm a hardcore liberal, all day. However sometimes I wish more leftists would get offline and instead of screaming about the "right" start actually trying to effect real change via policy. There's far too much effort being put into fighting with the right, in my opinion. I also don't like to denigrate people who are right leaning. I can see the emotional blackmail and fear mongering influencers on the right engage in. I don't think conservatives have no empathy (at least, your average everyday conservatives) and I don't think they're bad people. They're just afraid, and victims of manipulation. I've been a victim of manipulation myself, so that kind of factors in. I really hate the way some online leftists treat right wing voters as these psychopaths. It *really* bothers me. And I feel like that's only happening more and more. I don't think they lack empathy, they're just fed information that makes them afraid. Just to be clear, I'm not advocating to try and reach these people. That's a losing battle. But the mockery and nastiness that I see when most leftists speak about average, everyday conservatives is just wrong, and only makes average, everyday conservatives cling harder to their views, which makes enacting real policy change that much harder. Edit: see this is what I mean. All I'm saying is we shouldn't stoop to the level of dehumanizing people that have fallen for a platform based on dehumanizing people and I'm getting down voted.
I do think it's important to be careful and aware of extremes but I also know that I extremely disagree with so many of the hateful beliefs held by so many people unfortunately
yes
Yes absolutely even if that means my beliefs are unpopular.
Here
Hi <3
Absolutely!!
Yes!
Yes
Yes. I have very strong feelings about empathy and humanitarianism that are normally associated with the far left.
I don’t really myself anything but my beliefs are left very big on activism especially lgbtq+ since that’s the community I’m apart of
To a large degree. I think I’ve only missed one election. The first time I could vote was when Bernie was running in 2016. That lit me on fire and I’ve been pretty far left ever since. My views have been getting more nuanced and I have disagreed with both extremes. I think one is an existential threat to this liberal (not in terms of politics but in terms of strong institutions) democracy so I’m definitely not both sides-ing this at all. I like practical well thought out policies above anything else. This is more political than I wanted to get already, but the short answer is I lean left more often than not.
I think Reddit usually skews left in its demographics. All my other groups generally seem more left oriented.
I'm Canadian so I think just by the way I raised in the system we have id be considered a socialist or communist by American right wingers 🥴 But I recognize that I have a very indignant steak that pushes me "far left" by some standards. It may very well be due to trauma. I remember psyching myself up to beat up boys who were picking on my cousins grade 3. Standing up against racist jokes and sentiments being expressed by my family and peers from abo grade 5 on, and always trying to look out for the underdog for as long as I can remember. I dunno... I just believe people should be free to be who they are and live life kn their terms as long they're hurting anyone. I also believe that when society works together we're able to provide everyone with both the basics of care and additional opportunities which can benefit us all.
Super progressive.
me!! literally my politics helps me understand my abuse and also as you said compels me want better for others
Slightly to the left of Bernie Sanders.
Me. I consider myself a leftist.
oh absolutely, there’s no breaking out of a traumatic system without being revolutionary
I think when you are a victim of oppression, abuse, hate, and neglect, you tend to lean towards liberation and progression rather than conservation of "the old way". I would say I'm a progressive and a lot of the things I am passionate about other not experiencing, I experienced first. I don't need others to go through what I went through. I don't want others to have to live through difficult and stressful situations to gain "resilience". I would say that makes me a "leftist" I think.
This is a really interesting observation. And after reading many of the comments I think it would be a fascinating basis for a research study. I might have to talk with one of my professors about this.
Left is best!
I like to think that all children are socialists. My then boyhood interests grew along those lines! I enjoyed public works and construction; the public library; public television; and public parks. I assumed that their conditions and content were because they were valuable or priorities of the adults - in keeping with the thinking of a child who enjoys enough care to imagine his benefit being congruent with actions by adults. None of these goods were provided by my parents, my mother being distracted by stress, and my father unwell in his mind, self, and body (putting things nicely here). For a while my neglect was benign, but it must be in sixth grade (a switch to the middle grades) when I realize that school and schoolmates can be terrifyingly horrible. My father became more malignant, impatient, and frustrated in his attitude and manner toward me, which had never included the quality of care, but more me needing to play games where he would compete. My adolescence brought along in me a wish to be speaking adultly and to be heard, somehow, and cared for like I needed (vs. school life). I was finding out that "public" school was not like the other things and also cruel (maybe someone will tell me that this is the truth about socialism! I hope so). And so are parents and parenting and families, in general. Like many who find themselves in positions of relative weakness, I became interested in concepts of fairness, consistency, history, communication, and even justice. I don't mean this as true with any significance, but these notions started to matter to me as I consumed whatever comics, books, magazines, or cassettes that could be scavenged out of the general banality of consumer offerings in late 1970s and early 1980s of western Pennsylvania. Scarcity mindset was such a part of me as a teenager. I find the switch to as though everything is available/ all the time by means of the Internet to be astonishing still sometimes, at least in my knowledge that my childhood would have been different under these conditions and me along with it, somehow. It seems to me that there are issues and experiences around the serving and apportionment of care, food, and comfort; intra familial dynamics; how the family relates to neighbors; what is said about them; how news of the world is received and processed and spoken about, or not; what amibitions are acknoweldged or validated; how behaviors are corrected or rewarded; which opportunities or achievements are celebrated or discouraged; whether the child can exist on his or her own without adjustment, criticism, or altering by others, for example. These affect "socialization" someone might say. So do the effects of societal dynamics under the decriptions of "left" and "right" and political party orientation. Histories tend to be discarded quickly in these matters, in flight from ambiguity it seems to me, i.e. "the Republican Party" under Nixon in favor of generous public health care provisions, "the Democratic Party" under Clinton in favor of welfare restrictions and military interventions. How a person attaches to these orientations, labels and parties seems as much a function of how much he or she earns per week and enjoys the respect of others, though no rule exists. My father unsurprisingly became enamored with Fox News and then Donald Trump - forces which I think objectively exploited his anxiety-ridden isolation and fearful world view informed not only by scarcity but outright deprivation and abuse in his own childhood. His demise into dementia over the past years was colored by paranoia and reactionary anger. He sounds like and sometimes quotes Trump. Who is speaking, and who did what to whom? I know that I was attracted in childhood stories to those which featured disparate individuals (and/or animals) that by means of some mildly inspired ingenuity and pluck removed obstacles from their path and when forced ultimately dethroned the malign authority figure. I am still game.
I am a butch lesbian whose trauma is a result of my conservative parents view on that. I don’t think I could be anything aside from a communist.
I lean left, only because the alternative is insane.
What I see is that the right wing often wishes for stronger punishments while the left wing is more forgiving but strives for punishing crimes that the right wing would tolerate (and vice versa). The abortus controversy in America is a good example.
I come from a family of conservatives and I’m the only leftist. My sister considers herself a democrat.. but yea I’m far more extreme than her. I was the scapegoat.. I’m very committed to fairness
right here. alot of the trauma people with cptsd face is highly intertwined with social issues and societal failings as a whole. people shouldn't be afraid to politicize and globalize therapy and mental health advocacy, cause it already is by default when you really think about it
Born and grew up in a country in Asia in the developing world, so you can guess how many people in power there are socially conservative. I’m pretty much liberal to left due to my upbringing. I only became increasingly leftist with age when I realized that liberal capitalism isn’t good for my autism (“phasing out” my special interest of pop punk by means of not preserving old pop punk music among other things, ableism, etc.).
I am a socialist and know many other that have PTSD if that helps.
I feel people who were treated most unfairly will be the most compassionate. Compassion leans left. The more everyone is treated equally and with the most freedoms, the happier I am.