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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[–] BlackSheepBrouhaha 0 points 2 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago
I just want to be left alone.
And I understand economics.