Do you believe people are born conservative or liberal?

wtf?

I do not believe people are born with preprogrammed political affiliations. I have anecdotal evidence of this in my real life. My father was a life-long liberal from whom I got my incredibly liberal views on politics. About a year ago the old man booted me as a Facebook friend because he was tired of being subjected to all the liberal propaganda I post on my page. Turns out that for my father age brought conservatism.

I think it is a combination of nature, nurture, and life circumstances that create attitudes toward religion and politics. I also believe these beliefs can be fluid and change throughout life.

We are born as blank slates. Everything else (political leanings, love of cookies) comes after.

You know how you don’t have the ideals of a 12th century Scandinavian? That’s because specific views are environmentally created. However, those views do get coded into your brain, just like your preference for a particular scent in candles and which foods you consider comforting because your mother used to make it for you when you were a kid. So, if you are an adult, and something happens to your brain, it can effect that environmentally created coding and change it. But everyone is a product of their environment, you don’t just come out of the womb being a Goldwater Republican.

Nurture – no one is born with a philosophy or a predilection.

Primarily the fault lies with the caregivers (usually parents) for the political and religious philosophies.

It IS true that certain temperament and personality styles lend themselves to a certain orientation, perception.

It has been speculated that left brained types are more likely to be conservatives while right brained types are more likely to be liberal. Right brain orientation lends itself to a big picture mentality. Supposedly this is true for certain religious affiliation too, right brainers are more likely to embrace the big picture eastern philosophies opposed to more rigid, fundamentalist thinking.

Temperament, personality and programming, in other words, the usual, nature/nurture combo plate.

Well, there is some anecdotal research that suggests conservatives have a larger fear part of the brain, or at least use it more, but this might also be environmental as well.

Setting literal “political” considerations aside, and using euphemisms, I’d say babies are born conservative. They just want want want and don’t worry about anyone else.
As they get older they become more liberal, learn to share and stuff.

I think we can be born with traits that predispose us to one view or another (great empathy, for example, might be a trait that liberals tend to have), but we’re definitely not born with political opinions. xD

I don’t know that you’re born with those traits but, one does learn from their parents when they’re younger right from wrong, etc. and if you admire your parents you might follow in their footsteps. But, if you don’t or you’re rebellious…..........And then again, as you get older you think and judge for yourselves according to how you perceive things and…........Gosh! You always ask such thought provoking questions.

@Dutchess_III, your post made me smile…and think. When I thought about what you said, I thought you may be mistaken. Babies are not very independent and look for someone to take care of their every need and they can’t do anything without assistance from someone. They start out sucking on another’s tit. Babies are liberal. ; )

My gut feeling is that our political leanings are based on our social environment and not of genetic roots.

My Mom was neither liberal or conservative. She would talk trash about anyone who was in power Democrat or Republican. Perhaps this is why I’m so skeptical of all political information (liberal or conservative) that is constantly being fed to us. When I was young I was liberal but then I suddenly changed to conservative when I hit 30 and bought my first house.

I think that my Republican support can be changed if being a Republican becomes too painful. For instance if I’m taxed so much that I become poor, then I will support the Democrats and adapt to their liberal ways. I’m not proud and I’ll do what I have to to survive (up to a point of course).

@bkcunningham I like your style!! : )

I do believe she is correct @comity! : )

Aww, shucks, @Dutchess_III and @comity. Happy New Year. Thank you both. I love you guys. Two of my favorite posters.

I believe that people develop ideas based on their surroundings and the ideas of those surrounding them.

I don’t know about anyone else but I was born buck naked.

Babies are not born conservative or liberal, but they are conditioned from birth by their immediate environment. Most conservatives are involved in religious activities most of their lives & generally are subjected to Horatio Alger stories (hard work equals success) – so they are conditioned to believe that businesses & capitalism is the only way to go. Most liberals grow up in less advantageous situations & learn early on that government does not always do what is best for the average American. This does not mean that a child will be a conservative or a liberal depending upon the circumstances of their birth, but it does shine a light on possible motivations. Sometimes people become liberals when they see just how badly conservatives have run the government into the ground.

@Mariah That’s what I think too.

No, but I think that enviroment along with personality traits eventually help to decide. Young children do not have fully developed egos yet to make such a distinction in philosophy.