Why I Sometimes Agree with Conservatives (and Why You Should Too)
Where unexpected overlap reveals common ground.
Corporate Capture of Public Health: A Bridge Between Left and Right
“When government and corporations are entwined, both conservative fears of tyranny and progressive fears of exploitation are justified.”
I don’t often find myself agreeing with conservatives. My life and activism have been grounded in progressive movements for peace, equality, justice, and the liberation of animals and humans alike. But recently, I’ve been reflecting on a few issues where - despite very different language and values - we end up landing in similar territory.
It isn’t because I’ve suddenly turned “conservative.” It’s because the questions raised cut across political divides. They touch something deeper: the right of individuals to live free from exploitation, whether it comes from government mandates or corporate profiteering.
Here are three areas where I’ve surprised myself by nodding in agreement with conservatives, and why I believe all of us - left, right, or somewhere in between - should be paying attention.
1. Vaccines: Safety, Efficacy, and Mandates
Conservative stance: Vaccines are unsafe or ineffective, and - more importantly - should never be mandated.
Progressive stance: Whether or not one believes in vaccine efficacy, the mandates primarily serve pharmaceutical corporations who profit while being shielded from liability. Meanwhile, public health measures like nutrition, clean environments, and community care are sidelined.
Shared concern: Health should never be reduced to “comply or else.” Informed consent and genuine care should replace government-enforced compliance tied to profit.
“Mandates turn health into compliance; real care begins with informed consent.”
2. Antidepressants, Withdrawal, and Youth Violence
Conservative stance: The moral decline of society, combined with widespread psychiatric drug use, contributes to instability and mass shootings.
Progressive stance: These drugs are heavily marketed to young people, especially those living in poverty or experiencing trauma. Real community supports are missing, so despair is medicated for profit. Withdrawal risks and side-effects remain largely invisible because they threaten pharmaceutical sales.
Shared concern: Our young people are in pain. Masking despair with pills instead of investing in mental health care, community belonging, and social equity is a recipe for harm.
“Our youth are in pain - and instead of healing despair, society is medicating it for profit.”
3. Gender Medicalization: Identity, Care, and Profit
Conservative stance: Rejects medical transition as unhealthy and ideologically driven.
Progressive stance (nuanced): Affirms trans people’s dignity and right to self-expression, but questions the corporate interests shaping medical transition. Puberty blockers, hormones, and surgeries are extremely profitable and often promoted as the only path, while supportive, non-medical approaches remain underfunded.
Shared concern: Vulnerable youth deserve genuine care, not corporate dependency. Identities should never be reduced to life-long revenue streams.
“Identities should never be reduced to lifelong revenue streams.”
Why Conservatives and Progressives Overlap
Conservatives tend to fear government overreach.
Progressives tend to fear corporate exploitation.
But when government and corporations are intertwined - when industries lobby for policies that are then enforced by the state - both concerns are justified. The rhetoric differs, but the critique is the same: ordinary people lose their autonomy, and corporations win.
Where We Go From Here
“This is not about moving Right or Left. It’s about looking up - at the corporate–state alliance profiting from our division.”
I don’t expect us all to agree on every detail. Conservatives and progressives will continue to disagree, sometimes fiercely, on culture, identity, and values. But beneath the surface, there is common ground worth exploring:
Who profits when our health is turned into a commodity?
Why are we medicating despair instead of healing it?
How do we reclaim science, medicine, and care from corporate capture?
This isn’t about moving Right or Left. It’s about looking up - at the corporate - state alliance profiting from our division and suffering.
If we can resist the culture-war framing long enough to ask the deeper questions, we might find unlikely allies. And maybe, just maybe, we can build a future where health is about people, not profit.
“Health should be about people, not profit. That’s the ground where solidarity can begin.”
✨ For me, this is not about betraying my progressive roots - it’s about deepening them. Justice means nothing if we can’t see where systems of power harm us all. When conservatives and progressives find themselves worrying about the same forces, we should listen. It might be the very place where solidarity can be born and real justice achieved..
very interesting