One of the most noticeable trends of aging is becoming more conservative. Obviously, this is a spectrum. One man's conservative is another man's middle-left. While some people continue to drift more radically to the left as they age — namely, white upper-middle to upper-class women — the truth is that no matter where you are on the spectrum, most people's ideological perspectives tend to drift rightward the older you get.
Australian model and actress Holly Valance, who has become more outspoken about her changing politics, noticed that in herself and spoke briefly about it during an interview.
"Everyone starts off as a lefty, and then wakes up at some point after you start either making money, working, trying to run a business, trying to buy a home, and then realize what crap ideas they all are, and then you go right."
Everyone starts off as a lefty, and then wakes up at some point after you start either making money, working, trying to run a business, trying to buy a home, and then realize what crap ideas they all are, and then you go right
— X Freeze (@XFreeze) February 15, 2026
- Holly Valance (Australian model and actress) pic.twitter.com/5JbCqlgsAs
Valance highlights a strong, measurable reason why people start to travel to the right as they age. Many of these shifts stem from confronting economic realities they didn't have to understand when they were younger. When the world starts to get bigger, and the ignorance of youth starts to dissolve under the weight of the nature of the world, you start to realize that the game you're playing is a bit more complex than you formerly thought.
When you're young, you tend to experience something like socialism quite a bit in the confines of your own family. You don't have to work to receive, a lot of it is given to you according to your need, or even your desire. Many kids don't understand what it means to even take part in the upkeep of the system until they're into their teenage years, when they're required to begin doing chores around the house like washing dishes, taking out the trash, and mowing the lawn.
It's a massive imposition for many of them because for all of their life, they didn't have to work. It was just given to them. Suddenly, they're thrust into the idea of "earning," and this feels borderline hurtful, because, in a way, they suddenly found out their worth isn't just based on existence, and that can be a hit to the ego. It's an adjustment period for some, but it's very healthy. Some children aren't put through this at all, and you can tell. They have an entitlement mentality that lasts far past its shelf life and can result in radicalism as the person attempts to hold onto this state of deserving by existence.
Inevitably, the real world comes crashing in, and the rightward drift begins. Unless you have something to gain financially from being radically leftist, the rightward drift is almost guaranteed.
Again, economic situations making you change is a factor, but I'd say it goes deeper than even that. We're not wired for socialism or communism as a species.
In small tribal situations, socialism can and does benefit the group. Familial situations are often socialistic in nature, especially between parent and child, husband and wife. This can even happen around extended family, where resources and labor are shared with no expectation of payment beyond a six-pack of beer or a dinner invitation.
When we were hunter/gatherers, this was a massive benefit. We all worked to gather resources, we all ate what was procured, and we all survived and multiplied. Socialism, or at least the form it took in these small-band situations, was absolutely beneficial.
The issue is that once this starts to get more macro, the tribal mentality dissipates. We can't focus on everyone's benefit. Our real concern remains with our "tribe," which today looks more like our familial units. We're now competing with other tribes for resources, and in less civilized times, this meant raids, wars, and a lot of killing.
Then we invented capitalism.
Capitalism allows for self-interest to work alongside the self-interest of others toward a common goal, resulting in more resources being generated and acquired. Especially as you have children, partaking in the system to garner more resources becomes more important.
Age and experience teach you what does and doesn't work, and in this stage of our societal evolution, we have found that capitalism is the system that keeps our tribes the most fed, healthy, and comfortable. It keeps our children safe and growing.
To be sure, capitalism has its issues. It's an imperfect system created by imperfect people, and I don't doubt that one day someone will come up with a better one, but until that time, this is the system that works, and it's a system that situates itself comfortably into right-leaning thinking. Thus, our very human wiring causes us to drift rightward.
I want to end on this, because you were probably picking this up as you read this article.
Socialism is a sort of primitive ideal. It's something a child can utilize and understand because they live it daily. The idea of "sharing" is introduced very early on in order to break the selfishness that comes stock with youth. The thing is, we grew out of it. We evolved socially. It became obsolete as our civilization advanced in the same way the horse and carriage became obsolete in the face of the internal-combustion engine.
I think it's kind of funny that we look at radical leftists and see them throwing temper tantrums, screaming like children, and lashing out when they don't get their way. These are the same people who tell us that socialism is the best system for our civilization.
We say these people need to "grow up," and we don't know how right we are.
