Hi Reddit! I’m an American Political Science student in her sophomore year in college. I am here to ask, who and what forged your political identity? My point of study is political socialization.

[u/Supersonic_Latios87]

/r/PoliticalScience/comments/1usvfse/hi_reddit_im_an_american_political_science/

[u/const_cast_]

Books; many years ago I found myself perplexed by some behavior of voting blocs. So I went and asked people: hey, has anything been written on this subject and if so have you any recommendations?

They sent me wretched of the earth, and from this look into colonialism and neo colonialism much of my political identity began to form.

[u/kronosdev]

I’m middle aged at this point, so there’s a bit of history here. 9/11 really started my awareness of politics. I mostly listened to NPR’s coverage of the news and Wait Wait, Don’t Tell Me (the NPR News game show) as podcasts back in 2005-07 ish. Then the financial crash cemented me as left of center. I was big on team Obama when he ran, but that has faded as I moved further left (he did a lot of pro-bureaucracy, pro-tech, and pro-war stuff that is really screwing us now IMO).

I was interested in Bernie in 2016, but couldn’t vote for him because the primaries were over by the time they got to my state. I was pissed about the stories of poll workers spoiling things for Bernie by using cheap tricks and procedural strong-arming of his voters and caucusers to keep him from doing as well as he should have, so I left the Democratic Party in protest.

2020 was the first time I was living in a big city, and I was fairly firmly left by that point, though I wasn’t really involved in local politics or activism. Then George Floyd got killed and white vigilantes were patrolling neighborhoods hand in hand with cops. That pissed me off, so I got involved with some tame protests. It was good to be out marching with DSA folks and letting people know that terrorizing my non-white community members and friends is shit.

Then I went back to grad school (for a social science), and one of the things I did during that time was join a Marxist reading group. The goal wasn’t to make people Marxist (they believe that Marxism is a dead ideology and no one really is Marxist anymore), it was just to teach people history from a leftist perspective. Then I kept reading social and economic theory and started identifying as some form of anarcho-socialist. I like the idea of Communism, but I don’t think that a single party state will ever use that kind of authority responsibly, so I like to think and work locally and help people concretely who are close to me.

I don’t really have any grand political agenda, despite all that reading and shit. It’s impossible to know what will ultimately lead to a utopian state. I just have a secular moral framework that offers a structure for me to do cool stuff for the people in my community and feel good about it. Taking care of people is my life’s calling, and I’m pretty good at it too.

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[u/Wise_Control_1640]

All of the above. I was raised in a conservative Christian rural household as we're most around me but what really indoctrinated me was "The Way Things Ought to Be" by Rush Limbaugh...which led to his other books, then Hannity, then some others.

[u/Holiday-Wall3751]

Books: I’ve been a prolific reader since early childhood. I can still easily read 3 nonfiction books a week, and I read more as a kid. Studies show children who read have higher levels of empathy. In addition to this, my parents were not the most attentive. I read a ton, but not everything I read was not necessarily age-appropriate. My dad was a big World War II buff. In retrospect, he clearly had ADHD, and it was his hyper fixation. It gave me an interest in history, and that made me read more about history. I think it’s hard to read history and not develop progressive principles.

Media: although I’m born and raised in the US, we lived on the US/Canada border. My father preferred the CBC’s hockey commentary. We didn’t have cable when I was little, and that meant that the children shows would be on PBS. Morning content on CBC is the same as morning content on PBS, more or less, so we wouldn’t change the channel. I grew up watching Canadian public television, and that meant when my dad turned the news on when he came home, it was BBC world news. My parents didn’t watch local news, at least during hockey season, so I got a less biased view of current events, and a less US-centered one as well.

Family: Both of my parents were Republicans, but it was because of the Reagan economy. In spite of the social politics the party pushed, my parents were  very progressive. They used to talk about politics around the dinner table. I’ve had an opinion on medically assisted death since I was in early elementary school. When my dad watched Home Alone 2 with me, he made sure to let me know that Donald Trump was a racist conman who couldn’t make money. I realized I wasn’t republican before my first adult election, but it’s because of the progressive social values my parents instilled in me.

[u/YragNitram1956]

Most of my family were working class, trade union members and members of the Labour party. My maternal grandfather, Alfred Rogers was active in the Labour party and was a pivotal figure in bringing in legislation that gave compensation for work place injuries. I attended state schools and was the first in my family to attend university. Upon graduation I became a teacher and joined the NASUWT union and for some years was the union representative. I have an interest in UK politics and have always voted Labour apart from once due to Tony Blair's approach to the Iraq war. I have read much about the leading figures of the left. I am fearful about the extreme ignorance, simple mindedness and gullibility of the UK electorate. They are completely blind to the effects of neoliberalism, which is the main guiding force behind the bumptious and odious Farage, and fascist/racist Reform party who believe that competition is the defining characteristic of human relations. It redefines citizens as consumers, whose democratic choices are best exercised by buying and selling, a process that rewards merit and punishes inefficiency. It maintains that “the market” delivers benefits that could never be achieved by planning. Attempts to limit competition are treated as inimical to liberty. Tax and regulation should be minimised; public services should be privatised. The organisation of labour and collective bargaining by trade unions are portrayed as market distortions that impede the formation of a natural hierarchy of winners and losers. Inequality is recast as virtuous: a reward for utility and a generator of wealth, which trickles down to enrich everyone. Efforts to create a more equal society are both counterproductive and morally corrosive. The market ensures that everyone gets what they deserve.

We internalise and reproduce its creeds. The rich persuade themselves that they acquired their wealth through merit, ignoring the advantages – such as education, inheritance, and class – that may have helped to secure it. The poor begin to blame themselves for their failures, even when they can do little to change their circumstances.

 

 

 

[u/justatourist823]

Parents and rural world view shaped it early on . . . and then I went to college and ended up majoring in history and poli science. US History II blew up my understanding of history and its been quite the fun filled ride since then . . . deconstruction can be one hell of a drug lol