Common Non-Political Comments That Give Away Your Politics Every Time
In a perfect world, we'd all like to think people think independently about every issue. However, the reality is that your opinion on one political issue accurately predicts your views on most others. Curious about how this applies to non-political opinions, someone took to an online forum to get others' inquiries on which statements immediately give away someone's position on the political compass. These are the 12 biggest non-political comments that give away your politics.
1. People Don't Want To Work Anymore
Whether true or not, a specific demographic of people says this. It's usually a conservative from an older generation, but it's also frequently touted by younger conservatives, libertarians, and even some centrists. This statement tells me more than anything that there's a 99% chance you don't self-identify as liberal.
2. Are They Always a Liberal?
This, of course, doesn't mean that all liberals are lazy and all conservatives are selfish, but it does reflect an important difference in worldviews. Liberals are more likely to attribute a reduction in employment to factors beyond someone's control, such as economic devastation or a lack of resources. There's an entire forum called Antiwork with 2.5 million members. The forum is overwhelmingly left-leaning, though it can be more accurately described as leftist rather than liberal.
3. You Can't Say Anything Anymore
They may represent a fringe end of the left-wing political spectrum, but there's no denying the most politically correct individuals occupy liberal rather than conservative spaces. They tend to value protecting feelings more than conservatives, as evidenced by the popular catchphrase “facts don't care about your feelings” used in viral compilations where conservatives supposedly “own” liberals with facts and logic.
4. Is Everyone Really That Careful About What They Say?
Some prominent liberals advocate for freedom of expression and the right to offend, but this archetypal liberal is a dying breed. Millennial and Zoomer liberals are becoming increasingly concerned with insensitive terminology that could alienate people viewed as disadvantaged. Conservatives tend to be less concerned with being regarded as offensive if they believe a statement is true.
5. Men Who Say They Aren't Political on Dating Apps
Come on, man — we all know what that means. Women tend to have a more liberal disposition, especially when they're young. Men, especially conservative men, have caught onto this fact, especially as our polarizing political environment has made people less inclined to date people with opposing political views.
As one user points out, it's often uttered by men who have realized expressing their actual views right away doesn't do them any favors. While genuinely apolitical people exist, liberals tend to identify more with the statement “the personal is political.”
6. Reddit Is a Good Website
If you're on Reddit at all, you're more than likely liberal. That's because Reddit usage skews more to the left than other social sites. This also skews the responses to lean more to the left. Scrolling through a thread, most of the answers indicate a significant left-wing selection bias, garnering responses that mostly call out right-wingers.
7. The World Doesn't Owe You Anything
It's no secret that right-wing folks are more likely to have a self-accountability worldview rather than a sympathetic one. The phrase “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” has become a conservative caricature over the years.
8. Pull Yourself up by Your Bootstraps!
Some liberals in the thread responded that they share this sentiment, but the exception doesn't disprove the rule: conservatives believe in equality of opportunity but not equality of outcome.
9. Anything Related to Disgust
Did you know the greatest predictor of someone's political views is their disgust response? A disgust response is a psychological concept that measures a person's aversion toward the sight, smell, or touch of something they view as revolting. It can also apply to people and behaviors one deems as morally repugnant.
According to psychological studies, the most consistent marker of a conservative temperament is to have a strong disgust response. Liberals show less sensitivity to disgust. This can explain extreme differences in social attitudes. The type of questions someone would be asked to measure their disgust response includes how they would feel about seeing a rat dart across a park.
10. How Accurate Is This Test?
If you show “disgusting” pictures to liberals and conservatives, the conservatives show a stronger visceral disgust response, according to brain scans. Based on these scans, they could predict whether someone was liberal or conservative with 95% accuracy.
11. I'm Vegan
Vegans tend to lean left, as one person in the thread points out. This is no secret. As a vegan myself, I can tell you most fellow vegans I meet are overwhelmingly left-wing. However, I also know some right-wing vegans, believe it or not.
12. Why Are Conservatives Less Likely To Be Vegan?
That being said, since conservativism as an ideology primarily values tradition, it's no wonder that most conservatives believe an omnivorous diet of the sort that humans have been eating since the dawn of time is preferable to an herbivorous one.
13. Using The Phrases “BIPOC” or “Cishet White Male” To Identify Someone
Most people outside of considerably left-wing online spaces are not even familiar with these terms. BIPOC is an acronym for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color. To be a cishet white male means you are cisgender (your gender identity corresponds to your gender at birth) and heterosexual.
14. Do Conservatives Use Identifiers?
Conservatives rarely ever get caught up in these identifiers unless they are making a joke about it.
15. Anyone I Don't Like Is a Fascist
Technically, this is a political statement, but it's often uttered by liberals in non-political contexts. Accusing the other side of being a fascist is an uncharitable way to engage in discourse with them.
16. Is This Overused Today?
It immediately writes them off as someone not worth engaging with because you have a bad-faith interpretation of their views. Few people are genuinely sympathetic to fascism.
17. Anyone I Don't Like Is a Communist
On the flip side, conservatives caricature many liberals who utter some socially liberal views on gender or race as being communists. This usually happens in the context of a conversation about social issues like gender or race.
18. How Popular Are Socialist Movements?
While democratic socialism has garnered more popularity over the years, it's still a fringe position to be a communist.
19. Athletes Should Keep Their Opinions to Themselves
We know what that means; athletes should stop bothering me with their liberal views while I'm trying to blow off steam with some apolitical entertainment.
20. Do Conservative Athletes Exist?
How many athletes who use their platform to make a political statement do so to make conservative commentary on an issue? More than you think, especially following the trend in the NFL for players to kneel during the anthem.
21. Pronouns in Bio
Again, this isn't something that inherently makes you liberal. However, if you list your pronouns in your social media bio, email signature, and screen name or introduce yourself along with your self-identified pronouns, we know there is about a 1 in a million chance you're conservative.
22. Is It Virtue Signaling?
Conservatives and even right-wing trans people tend to view putting pronouns out into the open like that as unnecessary virtue signaling.
Source: Reddit.
Jaimee Marshall is a culture writer, avid movie buff, and political junkie. She spends the bulk of her time watching and critiquing films, writing political op-eds, and dabbling in philosophy. She has a Communication Studies degree from West Chester University of Pennsylvania, where she flirted with several different majors before deciding to pursue writing. As a result, she has a diverse educational background, having studied economics, political science, psychology, business admin, rhetoric, and debate.
At Wealth of Geeks, Jaimee places an emphasis on film and television analysis, ranking the best [and worst] in media so you can find more diamonds in the rough and waste less time on box-office duds. You can find her articles on politics and culture in Evie Magazine, Katie Couric Media, Lotus Eaters, and Her Campus. You can also find her find her episode of Popcorned Planet, where she analyzes the Johnny Depp & Amber Heard trial. She has written extensively about due process, free speech, and pop culture.