Alex Jones.
First, he helped me realize that we can’t trust the current government by bringing me to the realization that 9/11 was an inside job.
Secondly, he helped me realize that it wasnt just 9/11. Almost all events and laws are designed with the elites in mind.
Third, although not an an-cap, he helped me realize that it was government itself and not just the current one which was responsible.
He has his flaws, but I (and many others) owe a tremendous intellectual debt to him.
Albert Jay Nock’s Our Enemy, The State. HIt me like a punch in the face. Or a pie.
Mmmmmm..pie.
I had a Leninist/Stalinist persusation. You can’t entirely grasp the formal communist ideas without having a contempt for everyone else in the world. Reading some Lew Rockwell articles I came to see the petty cynicism of the attitude that everyone should have a manufactured life according to one ideal.
as previously mentioned; libertarians are a mixed bag of what society calls left and right.
I think we consider ourselves more 'rightish" because we are anti- state and that is considered right - wing now adays in the US. Also laisse- faire is consider right-wing in US.
But anti-war is considered left - etc. etc. etc… I feel more comfortable labeling myself on the right if I have too label myself.
I started as many young people, a radical socialist revolutionary. Pat Buchanan was my first introduction into another point of view. Years later in the GOP and Limbaug,(uugg). Stumbled onto this web- site about 5 years ago and had my mind blown listening to “for a new liberty” about a dozen times. Since then I read and listened to everything on this site. Down the rabbit hole, never to return..
I don’t feel comfortable with either right or left labels. I feel comfortable with the labels: individualist, liberal, classical liberal and libertarian. That’s it. We aren’t trying to conserve anything, and our basic values clash with both right and left wings, if anything we are anti authoritarian or pro liberty.
Not to go off topic, but I also don’t really like the right/left labels either. Those terms are too charged and already have a specific meaning for most people, at least in the US. Even “liberal” or “liberalism”, which is still technically correct, is a severely damaged term. So I tend to say the real spectrum of thought is “liberty vs authoritarianism” to avoid setting off people’s internal content filters. (Classical liberal works I suppose but the “liberal” can set off so-called conservative types, I worry.)
I thought this was a nice brief answer which addresses what I’d guess is the motive in asking this question: How do you plant the seed in other “leftist” minds to help bring them over from the dark side?
I’ve tried the tactic a little on some stupid debate forums and they did seem to have trouble, not to mention they had to defend their grand plans against market realities. [:D] But I didn’t really press on with it too hard. Perhaps this is worth playing around with some more.
It only works with people who are naturally inquisitive. Most socialists won’t ever try to figure out how a socialist system would operate. They simply take the propaganda at face value and assume everything will take care of itself “when we cross that bridge.” If you even try to imply that Fascism and Socialism are similar, they ridicule you. “Don’t you know that Fascism and Socialism are polar opposite ideologies? Everyone knows that!” If you dig a bit deeper though, and ask them to describe the functional differences between the two, they might start to panic. If you clarify these things for them, that panic will soon turn to dread, and you will have a person with a crisis of faith on their hands. I highly recommend this tactic, especially for communists, but it must be presented to the person carefully.
Kakugo - the envy and hatred was shocking for me, too.