When Was The Last Time You Changed Your Mind?

When was the last time you changed your mind on a big issue? Have you ever? I’m talking about BIG issues like abortion, marriage, LGBTQIA issues, racism, religion, God, disability, education, immigration.

Of course so many of these big issues fall under the umbrella of politics, but politics is life–these are life issues. I’ve changed my stance on many of these issues over the years, and while they weren’t necessarily sudden changes, as I became more aware, read articles and listened to first hand accounts my views changed. Here are a couple of major issues I’ve changed my mind about through out the course of my life.

I’m going to give a couple example of major issues that I’ve changed my mind about, but I’m not focusing so much on the issue but on the hows and whys my mind was changed.

Abortion.
As a practicing member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, I was a born and raised pro-lifer. For many people in my religion this remains a big enough issue that it makes them single issue voters. I definitely felt this way in high school and college. While I still consider myself personally pro-life–meaning there are not a lot of circumstances where I could see myself ever encouraging someone to get an abortion, I am politically pro-choice.

One of the main reasons I am politically pro-choice is that studies show that abortion rates actually fall when abortion is legal! Additionally, I do think of abortion as a much more nuanced and complicated situation than I did in my 20’s. And surprisingly The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is actually one of the most flexible Christian religions when it comes to abortion. Also, I will always love Gabby Blair’s viral twitter thread on abortion. She just happens to be a “Mormon mother of 6.”

Gun Reform.
This is another issue I have changed my mind on significantly. I grew up in my grandparents house where my grandpa, an avid hunter, had a large stock of guns kept in a separate room in our basement. I was read the riot act on more than one occasion about NEVER going into that room, never touching a gun, etc. There was even an NRA sticker on the front door of our house warning any would-be intruders that we were gun owners. Ha! And I still remember when my grandpa sat me down to have “the talk.” No it wasn’t a birds and the bees kind of talk, it was about our rights under the 2nd amendment.

I used to believe the argument that “people kill people” and not guns. But unlike the more gradual nature of when I changed my mind about abortion, I feel like I can pinpoint when my mind flipped on this one. I was making some sort of “it’s the state of the world, people kill people” statement about another mass shooting on FB, when someone suggested I look at the data that showed the US’s gun fatalities were off the charts compared to other developed countries where guns were illegal. Huh, I thought. Why is that? Now I think it is incomprehensible how we continue to pretend that gun laws won’t curb gun violence when so many other cases around the world suggest it does. There is a lot more evidence and research I could post to support my claim, but again this isn’t really about supporting my views, it’s about how, when and why I changed my mind.

Storytelling
As for LGBTQIA issues, disability and race I have come to believe differently because of listening to other people’s stories. The power of storytelling and hearing another person’s truth, makes it harder to cling to your perspective–often riddled with prejudice and a false narrative–as an outsider.

The reason I’m wondering all of this is that right now, late August of 2020, 6 months into a worldwide pandemic that has been particularly brutal for America, and in the middle of easily the most contentious presidential election of my lifetime (many lifetimes?) I am curious if there are people who are still open changing their minds.

The conversation I had with a friend on gun reform happened on Facebook. Facebook! These days I see people say things to the effect, “I know I’m not going to change anyone’s mind on here…” before charging forward with their teflon coated opinions anyway (guilty). But it feels like there was a time when conversations did happen on that platform that weren’t simply a battle of wits, facts and “facts.” On Facebook I rarely see a trace of flexibility or openness these days. Though I don’t remember being particularly “open” to the idea of gun reform at the time, I do think I was much less rigid and sure about many of my stances. I also believe there was much less polarization in the political climate which currently makes many of these issues more than political and social issues, but rather a battle between good and evil, each side more sure than ever that they represent the good guys.

Another factor I see playing into all of these things–and you must excuse the Catch-22 here as what I’m about to say is completely based in my never Trump bias, which also happens to be true (can’t win)–is that we have become so impervious to lies these past 4 years, that nothing is a fact anymore. All sides are coming to the table with articles, videos, data or “data” and studies or “studies” to prove their claims that we’re in a complete mental and ideological gridlock. And I do believe this has come straight from Trump himself who started his tenure off with trying to claim his inauguration size was bigger than Obama’s, and the lies have been rolling in faster than the stock market ticker tape ever since.

For the record, I feel more set in my beliefs as well. I know where I stand on certain issues and I don’t see myself budging at this point. However, I feel like I will always consider the individual circumstances of any given situation and therefore not everything will fit nicely into my belief system or will even go against it at times.

So tell me, when was the last time you changed your mind in a big way? Or have you? Do you think you’re more open to other people’s points of view these days, or do you think you’re pretty set in what you believe? Do you think that everyone is more rigid these days than ever, or is it just me? Why?