Assuming that the only thing that changes is that the Internet doesn’t exist; yeah. I would still have the same ideals. I didn’t learn history from the internet, I learned it from books. I didn’t learn empathy from the internet; it’s inherent to being human. I didn’t learn how to share or be kind from the internet; I learned that by being around people, having empathy, and from wholesome media like Sesame Street.

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I think my beliefs would be similar but far less mainstream

In middle school, before my family has access to the internet, I was taught about how other nations agreed to use the American dollar as a standard and the benefits of leaving the good standard for a fiat currency. I asked if they wasn’t a bad idea because it means if that one country had economic problems everyone would and was promptly told that that’s a dumb question because America can’t have economic problems.

I was raised agnostic and abused through school for not being Christian by people who worship a man that condemned that exact action.

I think I was always destined to feel the way I do.

If the internet didn’t exist we wouldn’t be in the same political situation we find ourselves. So it’s hard to say.

That being said, I’m old enough that the internet wasn’t quite a household, in-your-face thing until I was already legally an adult, and I was already leaning left by then thanks to people like Rush Limbaugh who made me realize how selfish, racist, and uneducated conservatives are and I didn’t want anything to do with that. Life’s too short to waste time being a self-serving piece of ignorant shit.

As far as religion I knew that was all bullshit well before I reached adulthood. Internet wouldn’t have affected that at all for me.

if internet didn’t exist, I’d probably be a religious person, who wouldn’t read any religious books but would have followed the customs. But with internet, and by interacting with different people, I became atheist.

If the internet didn’t exist I very likely wouldn’t be alive today, so I guess not

Definitely. I only got easy internet in my pocket after school. Before that, I was raised by Sonic the Hedgehog and Captain Planet in my childhood years, and punk rock in my teenage years. And it was never a phase, mom.

I’m ashamed to admit it, but even though I was a very empathetic kid, I would probably be a terrible person as an adult were it not for the internet. I lucked out by having a best friend who wasn’t scared to have a blunt, honest conversation with me about some of my shitty views, but it was like planting a…not even a seed bc it was such a drastic slap in the face, but like a tree. And it was the internet that helped me learn more and explore ideas and metaphorically care for and nurture and protect that tree and keep it growing. Without the internet, the tree would have died. I had people actively trying to cut the tree down and poison the roots at every turn.

Today, it’s a good tree. I’ve done a lot of growing as a person for the better, and the internet had a big hand in that.

Probably not. The internet and interacting with overseas individuals helped me rethink my opinions. But at this point it seems American tech oligarchs are dead set on making little bubbles of content algorithms where that benefit may disappear.

No, because I think being exposed to the plight of others increased my sense of empathy. In my late teens and early 20’s, I was convinced that anybody could “pull themselves up by their bootstraps” if they really wanted to. It was only when I realized that I come from privilege (insulated middle class white male) that I realized most people have serious headwinds or blockers in their lives, and that government propaganda is all bullshit.

I’m not sure. I feel like I’d have stuck with my parents’ political leanings if I didn’t have a catalyst to know any better. I really don’t know though. Maybe I’m selling myself short.

My biggest awakening stems from meeting my wife years before we got together. She grew up in a more religious family than I did and experienced a lot of issues with that. She was hip to the atheism and science scene and opened my eyes to it. I can credit her almost exclusively for being that catalyst to show me that the ability to use reason and logic is a foundational skill that all humans should value and that you shouldn’t hold values that you haven’t reasoned yourself into. She’s amazing.

I think it’s impossible to fully know, though if we’re talking direct influence, no, I don’t think so. My ideology mostly comes from education, and my education mostly comes from my family influence- that is, I ended up getting a PhD and as they say “reality has a liberal bias” (although studying critical theory certainly helps).

That said, I’ve played MMOs since I was 15 and even met my partner of 13 years on one, so like… who the fuck knows where I’d be if there was no Internet, lol. Probably a lot more productive, though.

Probably not. I build my philosophy bit by bit, by being exposed to a lot of different often contradictory ideas though the internet.

I would have never had patience for reading all the classic philosophers (they wrote a lot). Even less with modern ones (they are very niche these days). But having a summary of anything at my fingertips made me able to cross connect ideas and form something coherent on my own.

Without the internet I probably wouldn’t have lived in the same places I did, nor met the same people I did. So I guess it would’ve taken me longer to reach the political views I have today, but I think I would’ve them, eventually.

I remember that even before having access to the internet I was already seeing some hypocrisy in the arguments that I parroted from everyone around me, and I would sometimes argue back against some of them even without proper knowledge of the subject.