Canuck here, there's not as much of an appetite for libertarianism up north as there is in the states.
I grew up in a conservative area, but became quite a leftist in high school. However, when I moved to a leftist environment (university) I quickly grew tired of the left's antics -- especially the constant political correctness bullshit.
It was in this time I fell in love with the US. Like many Canadians, I had been raised in a very anti-American household. My family and friends would constantly look down their noses at Americans with an unmerited sense of superiority.
I was friends with some politcal science majors who convinced me to watch the Republican primaries with them "for fun". I had always (foolishly) assumed that the Republicans were a monolithic party of backwards hillbillies. I was surprised not only at the variety of opinions, but also how sensible a lot of these policies sounded. Coming from a society that scoffs at Americans love of "freedumbs", I started being interested in and embracing the idea of liberty re: social issues.
I was still somewhat of a big government conservative (the jewy neocon type) until one summer when I worked for the federal government. I was amazed at the amount of middle managers who were paid close to six figures to walk around the production for pretending to look busy. I had three different managers I reported to, all with different titles, but all seemingly had the same duties.
Government projects are incredibly wasteful and unproductive and left an awful taste in my mouth. It was a real shock realizing these retarded busywork projects were costing the taxpayer millions and millions of dollars every year. It was a very small step to libertarianism from there.
What's your story?
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[–] 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.