@davidtheeviloverlord @jik as I understand it there are several things happening that add up to old people being on average more right wing than young people, that get misinterpreted as people getting more right wing as they age.
One is the thing you mention - straight cis white male able bodied people tend to be more right wing, and also to live longer because wealth and privilege, so they are over represented among old people.
@davidtheeviloverlord @jik another is that society gets more left wing faster then individual do. Someone who in their youth in the 70s was left of centre, and has gotten a little more progressive over the next 50 years, is right of centre in the 2020s.
Aug 8, 2026, 12:41 AM@dragonfrog @davidtheeviloverlord Hmm, can you elaborate on that? Society is made up of individuals, so what exactly does it mean to say that society gets more left wing faster than individuals do?
@jik @davidtheeviloverlord young people start off very progressive compared to the society of crusty conservative old people around them. Tweny years later they've absorbed a few progressive ideas from their kids' generation - they've moved left, and they're stodgy centrists now. Twenty more years and they've absorbed a few progressive ideas from their grandkids' generation, moved a bit further left (but more slowly than in the previous twenty) and they're crusty old conservatives now.