Because I thought I was like minded to most liberals but every time I tried to discuss anything they immediately insulted my intelligence, or called me a racist nazi etc. plus #metoo and #believewomen ran a false accusation truck over my family and I. Just your statement says it all. I’ve never been on any extreme. I was a moderate liberal. Believed in health care for all, pro choice, etc. but liberals attacked me so hard that I started looking at the other side and they seemed to make a lot more sense to me. And we’re much kinder and rational when I disagreed with them. I still believe in health care (although as a mentally and physically fit young person who makes healthy life choices, I’m starting to wonder if it’s fair for me to have to shoulder an equal percentage of the obesity crisis as someone who drinks 3 cokes a day and smokes cigs). I still believe that women should have a choice (but, within reason, and not necessarily fully paid for by taxpayers). I’d just vote conservative now for sure as every time I try to have a rational discussion, liberals almost immediately go to an extreme and call me a racist/sexist moron. I also started watching full clips of people like tucker Carlson (instead of just the 10 seconds Trevor Noah shows). The left always shows a 10 second clip of conservatives and manipulates viewers to believe that person is some kind of homophobic, racist monster. When I started watching the whole clip I realized the left was actually the one manipulating me and that a lot of the conservatives they were targeting actually seemed quite reasonable/rational/polite/etc.
So it doesn't sound like you changed your opinions much, just decided that you agreed more with the conservatives you talked to more than the liberals you talked to, and like Tucker Carlson more than Trevor Noah. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you aren't a racist/sexist moron, but the remaining options are (1) you are talking to an idiot, you picked the wrong liberal to talk to, or (2) you have such fundamentally different assumptions that rationality doesn't matter. In response to (1) - if the first person to engage is an idiot, don't judge everyone else as an idiot too. Try not talking politics on platforms that encourage idiocy. Also, if you aren't talking to a troll, 99 times out of a hundred the conversation belongs in category (2). About (2) - We can rationally talk about euclidean geometry if we agree to start by assuming that straight lines are straight and flat planes are flat. But if we don't agree on assumptions and try to have a rational argument anyway, we will end up calling each other morons and idiots because one of us might be brilliantly explaining Euclid's proofs while the other proves them all nonsense with the assumptions of hyperbolic geometry. Politics isn't about rational discussion. It is about assumptions. Assumptions about who is important, and when, and why. Assumptions about who yields when there are conflicting rights.every time I try to have a rational discussion, liberals almost immediately go to an extreme and call me a racist/sexist moron.