I’m not sure if I ever was a CHUD proper, I was raised in fundamentalist Christian settings and deradicalized in (private Christian) college. I participated in debate which exposed me to a bunch of perspectives that I would not have encountered otherwise which certainly helped.

I think the bigger factors for me were my own questioning of narratives I was being given (Obama is bad, but not for reasons conservatives usually go on about, and I picked up on how bad faith their reasons for disliking this relatively ‘harmless’ liberal were) and being confronted with disgust for CHUD things I would say around people I liked. I realized I had to pick between chuddery, which I was already pretty much over, and people in my life, and I made the right call.

Then I just kept going, and found that leftwing criticisms of liberalism made more sense than reaction or liberal idealism trying to defend it.

My own experience with CHUDs in my life is mixed. Usually they understand and instinctively agree with a class conscious view of US politics, the economic pressure and antagonism towards useless bosses are pretty universal and alienating experiences. But I have a hard time getting past idealist hangups, culture war grievances and liberal capitalist realism. I’ve had mixed success trying to make it clear that the people they are mad at are usually in a similar class position. Seems like a lot of the time it sinks in during a conversation but doesn’t change their instinctive outlook in the future.