Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by CityOfThrowaway 234 days ago
As the saying goes, "If you're not a liberal when you're 2.5, you have no heart, and if you're not a conservative by the time you're 4.5, you have no brain"
1 comments
consumer451 234 days ago
As another saying goes: anyone can make up a saying.
link
benterix 234 days ago
I think this one is popular in various forms, Goodreads ascribes it to G.B. Shaw: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/11546984-if-at-age-20-you-a... - but I believe it's fake, also it's not on his wikiquotes page. "If at age 20 you are not a Communist" gives many results but it's really hard to track back the source.

But after a bit of digging I got to this: https://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/02/24/heart-head/

Conclusion: many forms, many misattributions, many transformations by various authors, but the saying is definitely not made up.

link
consumer451 233 days ago
Sorry, didn't mean to come off critical at all. I know, but I've been hearing that stereotype for at least three decades, and I've actually seen the opposite.

Folks I know who were middle of the road, would now never consider voting for a GOP candidate in national elections. It wasn't the individuals I have in mind who changed.

I think that saying was already obsolete in the beginning of this century, at least in my experience.

link