-of the few conservatives I stayed friends with after 2016, it seems I chose well as they became more genuinely horrified at the direction their usual political party went in. they actually reached across the aisle to support compromise more by voting for Biden or Jorgenson. some became Trumpers & we’re no longer friends, but I observed that fewer of them became Trumpers than…

-libertarians. what in the fresh hell. more libertarians turned to full on fascism since 2016 than conservatives I knew. I knew more people voting for Trump this time around who identified as libertarian or independent than in 2016, which is why I am not surprised this election is so close. that people I’d known for years to speak out against government abuses became full on bootlicking cowards did not shock me, though. reactionaryism was entirely polluting the brains of people who should have been counted on to be anti-authoritarian a long time ago. I left “libertarian” spaces after being called a fascist a bunch by people threatening to throw me out of helicopters. it’s a bummer that the shitty ones outnumbered & silenced the good ones (the remaining of whom voted for Biden w/some going to Jorgenson). resisting reactionary entryists should have been prioritized but it wasn’t because let’s be real: there’s not a demographic interest in protecting minorities. there likely won’t ever be because hyper individualism works best for the already privileged & is amplified far above mutual aid or other historically libertarian social justice-based concepts in the US. sad!

-liberals: I noticed a bit of a split between some moving further left & embracing concepts like defunding the police and a move towards centrist, respectability politics. more moved to the left, though, and became more discouraged with the entire system. liberals resisting compromise to the right in favor of listening more to their leftist flanks will have the best long term prospects for civil liberties. the best strides in anti-carceral, anti-drug war, & anti-corruption propositions this election cycle have come from leftist initiatives. the “threat” of authoritarian leftism is always more overstated than based in reality especially considering the rise of far right wing geopolitics. unfortunately, many have drank the Koolaid about scary leftists as hard as centrists & the right. brunch liberals hating on the poor & working class bear some responsibility for this reactionary turn, even if they don’t want to hear it.

-centrists: have the fewest truly centrist friends on here, so it’s hard to gauge how much they’ve moved left or right. first impression is that slightly more sided with Biden, but I could be totally off.

-leftists: the algorithms have suppressed much of the content coming from my leftist friends & that is intentional. the biggest victims of social media censorship have been leftists & activists specifically in the realm of s*x w*rk (asterisks added to avoid suppression), not the far right as some assume. feeds encourage division by prioritizing viewing of political opposites to stoke tensions to increase engagement. for all the shitting on leftists from liberals & centrists wrt Bernie Sanders, the majority begrudgingly voted for Biden.

none of this is supported by a statistically relevant sample size, but I’m curious what other people noticed in their social media circles & personal circles wrt shifting political positions since 2016?