I was initially in favor of a ban. Now I think we would do well to reduce our use of single-use plastics but I no longer support a ban on plastic straws specifically

wait a second

Indie Rock

I used to believe the gender wage gap was solely due to sexism.

Was it the first time you had to use a paper straw in a movie theater?

The straw banning thing was disturbing primarily because of how fast it spread. Banning single use grocery bags seemed to go through the normal deliberative channels in most localities. The straw thing seemed to get fast tracked

As I understand it, it took one viral picture of a turtle with a straw up its nose to spark this. Emotions really have a way of turning things that are hardly a problem into a perceived crisis.

I wish the Anti-Disposable Plastic Brigade would turn their attention to bottled water, as that has the added scourge of being a ripoff.

It was when I read first-hand accounts by disabled people

Somehow I don't remember this case, but I'm digging through it right now.

I was at UMass when she went missing.

is this... is this a confession?

I can't find the post but I remember thinking that Tavon Austin was going to be the next Warrick Dunn.

I thought there was going to be high inflation because of quantitative easing and that there was going to be a double dip recession post 2009. I didn't think that housing was going to recover like it has. I didn't think Trump had any chance of winning the nomination, let alone the presidency. I thought that the stock market was going to be extremely volatile throughout the Trump administration in spite of his tax and regulatory policies because I felt that the market valued predictability and stability, but it seems that the market has mostly tuned out his rhetoric and tweetstorms. (While there has been increased volatility in the last year, this still counts as a giant L for me--I thought that the extended bull market run was going to end when he won the election and that we would routinely see huge swings whenever he tweeted some asinine economic policy. Thankfully I didn't act upon this mistaken thinking, though.)

We've gone in completely opposite directions. I used to be very much in favor of open borders, but now appreciate the arguments for nationalism generally and border security specifically and think arguments for excessively permissive immigration border on the utopian. I also couldn't be more skeptical about "social construct" explanations for things like gender and race. I've never found those arguments persuasive; to the extent my opinions have changed on those topics, they've become much more militantly biological.

I'm shocked that the Obama era libertarian turned into a Trump era nationalist. Shocked I tell you.

The idea of extending the principles of federalism to nation states makes sense to me. I've always viewed decentralization as producing on the whole more good than bad, and this is no different.

I can’t help but be disappointed by this. I realize how condescending that sounds; sorry for failing to express myself in a more constructive way, but what do you think has cause this shift in your opinion?

I'm more curious than disappointed, but I would too like to know what caused this shift.

I used to think we shouldn't pay college football players.

On a side note, it would be interesting to see how people's opinions change based on life circumstance. Having children, for example, often seems to make people more conservative, and understandably so.

The Iraq war. Probably both of them.

I missed the Trump thing, but I guess that's an easy one.

Both taught me the valuable lesson that the media as it exists is not my friend.

I never put much stock in the importance of culture or language until recently.

I've flip flopped on many hot button issues over the years (gun rights, abortion, borders). I'll probably change my mind again in a few more.

I'll have to try to hunt down some of those threads, because I recall that it felt like myself, punkdavid and thodoks were out on our own island on that one.