[–] basil_s0up 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
I think most of my political opinions were always skewed towards it (I thank my mom for this), but I started using the term for myself after a massive wikipedia spiral brought be to the subject.
[–] lovedumplingx 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago (edited ago)
I read "Stranger in a Strange Land" (Robert A. Heinlein) and "A Quest For Cosmic Justice" (Thomas Sowell) in the same summer when I was about 17. Totally set me on the path.
[–] Jimbonez_Jonez 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
I was raised by Republican parents, so that's what I was was growing up. When I was 14 or something (around the second bush election), my piano teacher got to talking politics somehow and mentioned he was a libertarian. He explained what it was and I thought it sounded like what the founders of this could try would have wanted: you do you, man. By 08, I was a Ron Paul guy. Haven't looked back and looking fo ward always points libertarian it seems.
[–] saintPirelli 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago (edited ago)
European here. There are no relevant Libertarian movements at all here. I feel like in Europe there are a lot of social axioms that a vast majority believe in (or at least pretend to believe in). Nuclear power plants are bad. Everything right-wing is evil. The Catholic church is retrogressive at best and all priests are child molesters. Global warming. Immigration per se is a good thing. Guns are bad. A tightly knitted social net is important because poverty can hit anybody at any time through no fault of their own. You get the idea. When so many people are convinced by the same thing, even though there are very obviously valid counter arguments, that rings my alarm bells and sometimes, not always, I find myself on the other side of what is "socially acceptable".
Poverty is the result of the capitalist society we live in is another one of those axioms that I - in the heat of puberty - had kind of forgotten to critically question. I can remember finding the Facebook-Page "Capitalism" and was shocked by how many people were "Liking" it. I have never met a single person who defended capitalism so I assumed it was either some kind of dark humour or the same way I can't explain why some people are satanist and willingly choose to follow evil. Then I realised that I had no idea what capitalism actually means, read up on it and here I am.
Now I work for the government and see how inefficient it is and how it disrupts those willing to produce first hand every day.
[–] oddjob 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
Local government made me more Libertarian than anything else. How much shit the city gave my family when our house caught fire and was under-insured really made me sick at govt. Shit like condemning our house immediately or telling us 8 days before trash day that we couldn't pile up trash on the curb for bulk pick-up until a week before trash day and that we had to move the pile or having to bring the 90 year old house up to current code compliance.
[–] BlackSheepBrouhaha 0 points 2 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago
I just want to be left alone.
And I understand economics.
[–] acheron2012 0 points 3 points 3 points (+3|-0) ago (edited ago)
In high school when we were studying The ISMs it was blatantly obvious to me that the ONLY differences between Fascism, Communism, Monarchy, Socialism and plain old Tribalism was:
How many people are in the ruling class
How one gets into that class.
They are all the exact same monolithic dictatorship where not only the means of production but also the most basic human choices are restricted by arbitrary edict of the ruling elite and administered through the simple expedient of unlimited violence against the citizenry. [Yes yes please don't bother with the tripe argument about only in communism does the state OWN the business -- just try to open an unlicensed shop cutting people's hair and see how quickly men with rifles show up to close you down.]
Democracy is an equal non-starter. This is just organized mob rule and probably the most vicious form of government ever devised in all human history. The instant poll and 24x7 news cycle has largely, and tragically, transformed the US from a Republic to a defacto democracy.
I Never had any use at all for Philosophy. My brief exposure in school was to the most outlandish sociopaths history has to offer e.g. Karl Marx. As a field of study it seemed to be where people too manically insane to get steady work as bank robbers went to score cash from witless fools.
Then a friend mentioned Ayn Rand. Unsurprisingly I had managed to make it all the way through college without ever even hearing her name. Because as George Orwell so astutely observed - if you don't ever mention an idea then it doesn't really exist. I devoured her philosophy! Everything about it rings of WELL DUH!
So that makes me a proud Objectivist.
I observe that most "Libertarians" have at least a moral inconsistencies wherein they just can't quite let go of state sponsored violence - most notably the anti-abortion crowd. That is a shame. Because if you can use a government gun to prevent that woman from having an abortion then I can use a government gun to make you pay for my healthcare; and we are right back where we started.
Libertarian is the least evil of the political parties. I just wish it was more morally consistent. But then it does seem the "average man" doesn't really want to live in a world where he cannot turn to government violence to change things he dislikes in others. So until and unless Libertarians become morally consistent they are no more fit than any other political group to run the world. They'd just screw it up in new and different ways.
[–] 8Ball ago
When I realized that personal freedoms can only be truly secured if there is also economic freedom, and vice versa. That hierarchy is inevitable, but that meritocracy and free market capitalism can bring about social mobility. That big government is the reason monopolies exist in the first place, since big corporations lobby and buy it out. That taxation is theft. That liberty is always preferable to equality.