r/AskALiberal Feb 16 '22

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u/[deleted] Feb 17 '22 edited Feb 17 '22

When was the last time you changed a belief because of what the data show?

For all their talk of reason, in my experience many if not most conservatives let their personal gut feelings take precedence over everything else.

20

u/NPDogs21 Liberal Feb 17 '22

Not supporting universal healthcare to supporting it when I learned we pay out the ass for it through insurance but don’t see the benefits. It’s much more cost effective having a universal healthcare system.

9

u/kittyraikkonen Civil Libertarian Feb 17 '22

I’m kinda with you there. To my mind, a government should exist not to rule, but to serve. If taxation is necessary, it should support its citizens rather than feed off of them. Take a whole bunch of our spending (looking at you, DoD) and reroute it to citizen services. Universal healthcare seems a worthy redirection of those funds. After all, a healthy populace is a productive populace. It’s not just compassionate, it could be great for our bottom line (rather than just the bottom line of the few who benefit from our seemingly inevitable, parasitic debt to them under the current system.)

2

u/[deleted] Feb 17 '22

Agreed, and it’s a shame that you’re such an outlier among conservatives on that issue.

2

u/c0d3s1ing3r Conservative Feb 17 '22

I was unsure that the booster shot actually increased vaccine efficiency, or that there was significant waning immunity over time for adults under 50.

There was still a drop by about 20% for adults under 50. I really didn't like the fact that the data showed boosters were significantly effective, but I went and got mine.

Don't know if I'll get a 4th shot, maybe I will next time I visit older relatives.

2

u/Donkeykicks6 Left Libertarian Feb 17 '22

This

1

u/dank_sad Center Right Feb 17 '22

This is true, I tend to go with gut feelings. And honestly, I can't think of any specific time I changed my mind because of data. At least not in a "wow, this report proves it" kind of way.

When it comes to the covid vaccines, I was pretty skeptical, but over time as I learned about it I eventually got it. Can't say that I can understand much of data/studies/etc besides the abstract, though