When I was a teenager, I was full on opposed to homosexuality. It happens a lot when you grow up in a hard-R farm town disconnected from everything in the armpit of SW Oklahoma. When I got to college, I met a few gay people. I didn’t even realize they were gay until I had known them for several months. The image of a standard issue homosexual that I had in my mind was pride gays…so I had this mindset that, “I wouldn’t mind the gays if only they didn’t shove it down my throat.” Young Christian me would not think critically about that statement or its reflection upon me for a long time. When I realized that gay people were just, like, normal people, I started to move away from the right.

But, hey, I was beginning my deconversion from Christianity (I remember saying around 2013 that I can see why it is just as hard not to believe as it is to believe), and that was causing me to rethink how I felt about abortion. Mostly how it pertains to the size of the government. And hey, I can’t be pro-small gubmint while also wanting it to be involved in healthcare decisions. I was also rethinking how I felt about weed. In 2014, I told my then-girlfriend something along the lines of, “If doctors say there can be a real medicinal use for it, then I don’t see why we shouldn’t study it.” So now, I’m for abortions and weed, and I’m against the left for coming for my guns. Guns I don’t own. Btw, I’ve never owned a firearm. So by 2015, I was a registered Libertarian.

And then Donald Trump was elected. I had mixed emotions in 2016. I actually really liked Bernie a lot. But I also watched a lot of Sargon of Akkad (as much as that pains me to admit). So I was kind of all over the place. I had a job and was paying for my own health insurance. I stopped taking my ADHD meds around this time because they were $70 a month at a time when that kind of money made or broke my month. The promise of socialized healthcare was incredibly appealing to me. And then the Wasserman-Schultz emails got leaked, and it became obvious the DNC stabbed him in the back because they wanted to run Clinton that bad. But I thought even back then that Trump was a bastard. But as I hadn’t acquired much in the way of strong critical thinking skills, I hadn’t realized just how bad he’d be. Still, thinking both candidates were very weak, I voted for Johnson. Trump won here by like 30 points so it didn’t really matter who I voted for. One of the values I like that I’ve always held on to is that I exercise my right to vote however I want, no matter which way my state goes. Change doesn’t happen if everyone who wants it sits at home and lets everyone else decide for them.

It took two years of Trump to make me a registered Democrat. Still, I was a 2A Dem. And at this point, the Oregon community college and Sandy Hook had already been shot up. Then Pulse and Parkland and Las Vegas happened. And I really started changing my feelings on guns. I read more about Columbine and VA Tech. And I began to think that maybe not everyone should be allowed one.

Then Uvalde happened. And you know what? What is a ragtag group of dad bods with AR-15s going to do against the military might of the United States government? Nothing. If people are using 2A to mount an overthrow of the regime, the regime is probably considering nuking its own cities to quell the rebellion. The Second applied at a time when a musket had a low chance of hitting a target from 20 yards. So fuck the Second Amendment. The Founding Fathers had lots of great ideas that hold up today. The idea that anyone who wants a gun should have one so that the people can keep a tyrannical government in check is NOT one of them. The states do maintain militias. We call them the National Guard.

So let’s recap. In 2012, my views were:

Yay:

• Guns
• God
• Beer, I guess? I was told to like it.
• Whatever my parents told me to believe, really.

Boo:

• Abortions
• Trucks
• Gay people
• The homeless, they deserve it
• Whatever my parents told me to hate, really.

Now, my views are:

Yay:

• Gay and trans people (didn’t know about trans people in 2012)
• Trains
• $25/hr minimum wage because $15 ain’t enough anymore
• Single payer healthcare
• Housing subsidies, and I say that as a homeowner
• Immigrants
• Reproductive freedom
• Police reform
• Weed. Fully legalized.
• And just about everything else my parents told me to hate

Boo:

• God. He kinda sucks, but if religion makes your life better, go for it.

Fuck:

• Ronald Reagan
• No really, Nixon and Reagan ruined everything
• Those giant lifted trucks
• The Second Amendment. It should be repealed
• The DNC, especially after '16 and ‘24. We should be finishing up President Sanders’ second term right now.
• The police
• Beer. If it’s an “acquired taste,” then it fucking sucks. Give me my whiskey neat instead.
• The Anti-Choice movement
• Cars, and I say that as a car enthusiast.