The brain is not fully developed until around age 25. Apparently those who are still leftists after age 25 have brains that never fully developed. That is something that could probably be easily identified and tests.
This is why I’m not particularly hard on young leftists that I spar with on the internet. But the older ones have no excuse. With age comes wisdom, but sometimes age comes alone.
Interesting Tagline.
There is a lot of evidence to refute that hypothesis, starting in our present white house and working down.
I have always felt there was truth to the maxim:
"Any man under 30 who is not a liberal has no heart, and any man over thirty who is not a conservative has no brains."
I feel the same way you do: I try not be be as harsh as I feel that I often should be, and am, on young people who are Liberal/Leftist. I truly believe that many of them can (and do) transition out of that poisonous mindset as they gain life experience, and I want to give them the room to do that.
Part of the problem we face, though, is that many of them can do great damage to our country and our society in that time interval it takes them to gain life experience, and Leftists understand this fully and completely. They seek to intentionally exploit it even by extending that vulnerable interval by lowering the age of sufferage.
So we, as Conservatives, are sometimes caught on the horns of a dilemma-we need to give young people time to reach that understanding of the realities of life on their own, but are in a running battle against Leftists who wish to exploit their inexperience in that time.
For my part, I was never a "liberal", even from the age of 10 when I had very decided views on Humphrey versus Nixon, and my views on hippies and the anti-war movement.
But that doesn't mean I didn't hold liberal views on things. I am sure I must have held some, though I don't recall them. (Probably things like "Why can't the government just give poor people money, then they won't be poor?" or stupid things like that)
But as one gets life experience, you realize that there are truths in life, such everyone is not equal in all respects, poverty is, and has always been a reality, not everyone is hard working or conscientious, some people simply aren't intelligent, some people are just mean and evil, people are often selfish, people can be untrustworthy, and so on.
Those things aren't evident to a young person, but you have to learn them to be self-sufficient and survive outside the cocoon of your parents, otherwise...you simply become prey to others in the real world.
That, and learning about the value of money. You learn, as you get life experience, that if something seems to good to be true, it usually isn't true. There is no free lunch. All debts get paid by someone.
You learn that toilet paper is not free when you have to buy it. You learn that cars take money to maintain when you have to pay repair bills. You realize that car insurance not paid for by your parents has to be paid for by someone, and that someone is you. You discover that food you need to have to live on costs real money. And rent you have to pay for when not living for free under your parent's roof is probably the most expensive thing you will shell out money for.
And then you begin to look closely at those things. You see rent is expensive or unavailable because of building codes, and government intrusion such as rent control. You see that gasoline for your car is expensive because of state and federal taxes, and because of government intrusion into the exploration and distribution. You find that electricity bills are high because of needless environmental restrictions and government intrusion.
Many people go through this metamorphosis as they exit the chrysalis of their parent's existence and move out into the real world.
But as we see, it doesn't happen at the same speed or degree of development for everyone.
Some people never grow up, and I find the vast majority of these are "Liberals", people who are intellectually lazy, to busy to think things through, or defiantly resistant to reality.
They hold to infantile notions, such as "There are no inherently bad or evil people, society made them bad or evil" or "Violence never solves anything" or "Giving poor people money will keep them from being poor" or the many views on Communism such as "It isn't a bad idea, nobody has done it the right way yet". And so on.
It is true-some of these people never grow up. They live their whole lives in a "cocoon" of some type, at first in the one one created by their parents, then they move into one created in a college environment, and finally, into a "cocoon" they think is created and provided by the government. And there they stay for the rest of their lives, thinking a government provided "cocoon" is the answer to everything.
They fail to understand that a government provided "cocoon" is not the nurturing cocoon provided by their parents.
It is a PRISON.
And some of these "Liberals" who never grow up, morph into "Leftists". (Note that I make the distinction between "Liberals" and "Leftists"). These people view that government "Cocoon" (prison) as their right and responsibility to create and provide, whether people want it or not, because they don't think people are smart enough to decide for themselves and provide their own "cocoon", even though they feel that THEY are "smart" enough to make those choices for others.
In other words, they rationalize tyranny.
But, there are people who live in that "cocoon" first created by their parents, then provided by a college environment, who come out of that cocoon with their eyes open, and realize the fact that they have to create their own cocoon, and that they are the ones best positioned and equipped to decide how that cocoon is to be built for themselves and those they are responsible for, and those people become Conservatives. The conservatives, in fact, have allowed (and been fortunate enough via environment or inherent characteristics) to be protected in a "Chrysalis" instead of a "Cocoon".
You might notice that I use the word "Cocoon" quite often, but not "Chrysalis". There is a difference in the biological world which translates well.
In biology, a cocoon is a protective covering, and protective measures are more prevalent in cocoons than in chrysalides. So we all start out in highly protective cocoons. As we should be.
The difference is, that at some point, for Conservatives, that Cocoon becomes a Chrysalis, and in biology, the Chrysalis enables the entity inside to harden and widen its wings and become a real Butterfly, but a protective Cocoon does not do the same thing.
Liberals believe in that protective Cocoon created by government, and are content to live inside that cocoon and think everyone else should. As time passes, many realize that cocoon is a prison, and realize they need a Chrysalis. Leftists believe they are the ones who should build and provide that cocoon and fiercely combat anyone who disagrees.
Conservatives may live in a Cocoon as they begin their life journey, but at some point, it becomes instead of a Cocoon, a Chrysalis, allowing us to harden, develop our wings, leave that protective structure as a butterfly and fly away to set our own path.
This is very true!
I was drifting thru life until I turned 27 and then realized I needed to make a change.
Went into engineering and never turned back.
My only regret is I didn’t realize it at 20.