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?
view the rest of the comments →
[–] 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.