Political Views

[garrethdsouza]

Did anyone's political views change post going atheist/vegan?
And is this test accurate?:
https://www.politicalcompass.org/

[Volenta]

Well, it's hard to tell if it's causation or just correlation, but I did change my political views when going to the process of becoming an atheist (and later vegan). I like to think it all hangs together with the development of a critical and rational outlook. Although it might take some time to explain my exact political views, let's just say I've generally become much more progressive, liberal, and more interested in the bigger picture of things (not short-term economical benefit for example).

Matt Dillahunty once argued that every discussion on what issue is bigger or more in need of focus, is wasted time that you could have spend on the issue itself. I strongly disagree (but admit that it's a great piece of rhetoric). I think it's highly valuable to figure out the most important issue(s) that we have to deal with so you can put action in the most important places. It's central to a consequentialist to always first rationally consider things before acting. The cost of time-consuming rational thinking is most probably worth the cost. I consider the effective altruism-approach not only relevant to just ethics, but also for politics and how budgets should be spend. (just to point out I'm not creating a straw Matt: maybe he would actually agree with this, I don't know)

I mostly try to incorporate ethics within my political views. You can convince me on issues by showing the consequences are better than the alternatives. But I do struggle with politics sometimes, in places where ethics might fall short. Politics is mostly ideology-driven, and to dogmatically put yourself into one of those ideologies is problematic, while I also feel that without a broader point of view of where you want to be heading—by just sticking with very specific issues—might also be the wrong approach.

I know that brimstoneSalad has even bigger problems with politics than I do, trying to avoid the subject altogether when possible.

About the test: I think it's one of the better tests out there. It asks politically relevant questions.

[linux_vegan]

My political views changed after becoming an ethical vegan, but the change was largely unrelated. I read one particularly influential book that I may have been attracted to in small part because of veganism, but I can't quite remember. I didn't have a whole lot of political views before ethical veganism, so the larger change was becoming more political at all.

Atheism didn't change my political views much because I was a typically politically oblivious youngster when I consciously decided that I was not a theist.