It seems to me throughout the years the forum has been pretty dynamic in where people lean.
There’s been all sorts of people on all spectrums that have come and go. And I’ve seen active posters change their pov on issues including myself. And I think interacting with people on issues has opened up my own pov and change my own opinions.
Many if not most of Forumosans, was the claim
So progressive democrat. Noted.
This thread essentially is the same as
and
as well as
All of them had people ending up posting their 8values results.
Since no one started posting their results for this election cycle, I guess I’ll start.
2023 result.
My result from 2018. That was done in October as well.
2020 result
So Apparently I went from Social Libertarianism > Libertarian Socialism > Social Democracy
There’s also the your morals test.
The average person thinks they’re anything but average.
Seems there are expat trump supporters here.
Of course there are. Should there not be?
I think for some it’s hard to comprehend normal people they meet voted and supported Trump. I tend to avoid politics with people I don’t know like that but I’ve had so many experiences of people saying things about Trump and Trump supporters to me without considering I might have voted for him.
For me Trump’s a destroyer. He destroys things, businesses, people who get drawn into his orbit. However, he was a comfortable winner in the election and I respect democracy. I think he will continue to destroy, but I will be more than happy to be proven wrong in four years time.
For me, I think it’s more that it looks strange that people that support Trump or Republican policies end up moving to places that look and act more aligned with Democratic Party values.
For example, Taiwan has high levels of public transit coverage and usage, high levels of gun control, universal healthcare…etc…
But Taiwan also has things like very strict immigration laws and enforcement for example. Other similar values such as a smaller welfare state and less government interference.
I think you’re cherry picking some aspects and not considering others.
I’m old enough to remember the good old days when being left-wing meant, above all, fighting for workers’ rights. This meant that the heroes of the left like Tony Benn and his disciple, a young Jeremy Corbyn, fought tooth and nail against mass immigration and the EU, understanding that they drove down the wages of local British workers. Being left-wing also meant being deeply suspicious of the mainstream media and big corporations, particularly big pharma, and being anti-war.
My left-wing principles haven’t changed in the slightest, but when I vocalise these views these days I’m accused of being right-wing, especially by the younger generation. I’m still trying to understand when this switchover happened and the populist right became the champions of these traditionally left-wing causes. I thought it might have been during the pandemic, but I’m starting to realise that the signs were there a long time before that; e.g. when the left-wing radicals forced Jeremy Corbyn to back a second Brexit referendum and labelled anybody who disagreed with them racist, or when then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown referred to a working-class Labour voter asking a reasonable question about immigration a “bigot”.
It’s very weird and isolating being an old-school George Orwell socialist in 2025. We still have remnants of the traditional left here in the UK, but you guys in America have completely lost the plot. Even Bernie Sanders has gone completely insane, although I suspect it’s more because he’s going the way the wind is blowing rather than because he actually believes most contemporary American “left-wing” nonsense.
The cheap electricity and nationalized health care are worth mentioning
I noticed it in 2014, but must have been decades in the making
Eric Blair turned a bit right wing towards the end of his life. Arguably Blairite.
I know you don’t have a problem with it, being Taiwanese American and all, but that seems like an aspect of Taiwan most expats have a difficult time with, and often cites as one of the reasons Taiwan lacks competitiveness.
Taiwan has been duplicating European social welfare system for 2 decades now.
Taiwan’s free speech laws - specifically anti-defamation - are ridiculous and a big minus as far as civil liberties are concerned. Where that falls on left/right axis these days - well, horseshoe theory explains where.
Welfare is something like 7% of GDP last time I checked. I’m sure it’s gone up but it’s set up to be less dependent, unemployment is much smaller for example.
Some European countries have 20-30% of their gdp as welfare systems.
Is Taiwan adopting more welfare? Sure. But it’s clearly not like it. Unless you think being a conservative means 0 welfare, which is not the case.
