After reading End the Fed by Ron Paul I became very interested in Austrian Economics. I was just wondering how many of you came here for the same reason.
I was a big dailyshow, bill maher, and crooksandliars.org follower for years. In the presidental campaign of 2008 Ron Paul was the only one I heard of who advocated ending the US’s insane foreign policy which I first heard during the debates where Rudolph Giulani berated Paul for saying that 9/11 may have happened for a reason other than the US having more freedom than some obscure place most Americans never heard of in the mideast. Then I saw him come on either the Daily show or Colbert report(I forget), and he also advocated ending a lot of Government departments. At the time I was dissapointed because my brain operated this way-> “Cutting dept of education = you don’t like education”.
But I thought “why not read into his views?” His foreign policy views were so sensible that there has to be good reasoning for his domestic policy views. This led me to a completely new understanding of the role of government and eventually led me to Mises.org.
Ron Paul lead me to LvMI.
Ron Paul → Cato Institute → Youtube Austrians → Mises.
I found out about Ron Paul when reading a thread in the left leaning scienceforum I used to attend on the US presidential election back in 2007, finding a reference to him by one of the many left liberals there making a compliment of some sort about his sincerity. That led me to the Austrian School mises.org, and getting the solitary copy of Human Action out of my university library. The rest as they say, is history.
I am also one of these people.
Same here. Ron Paul → End the Fed → Table of Contents → Mises
EDIT: He’s coming to my school again in 15 days. So excited.
I was an ignorant neocon until I saw the first Republican presidential debate. I was totally blown away when Ron Paul so nonchalantly declared that he would get rid of the income tax and the “inflation tax.” It was like a breathe of fresh air, because I always felt that getting rid of the income tax and stopping inflation were “ultraconservative.” I was, however, puzzled at his position on foreign policy.
It took some head scratching, research, and kicking and screaming before I began to accept his position and realized that it was totally consistent with the other positions. I realized that the Republican party had lost its way and used to be largely non-interventionist.
I saw the video “Money, Banking, and the Federal Reserve” by the LvMI on YouTube through a search about Ron Paul. I watched it, and the rest was history.
Since we seem to be doing a leading flow style of description, I’ll post mine too:
Erik von Kuehnelt Leddihn → Mises Media → Mises
Francois Tremblay → Stefan Molyneux → Mises.org
Ron Paul → LVMI
→ Decided I wanted to learn about philosophy and the world. I really wanted to know the truth. And be certain of it. That required intellectual honesty and genuine enquiry and consideration of all ideas. Looked for an “intellectual”, found the most famous one. Started down the road of Chomsky thanks to his anti-US empire views. It was obvious.
→ Was watching a video of his on youtube and someone had spammed “Ron Paul, America’s Last Hope”
→ I youtubed Ron Paul, saw him in a debate with Republicans and blew me away. Spend a few days trying to find this guys floor, can’t find it. New hero.
→ Ron Paul forums, were I came to support his economic policies - just because if a dude is that principled, he has to have good reasons. Stall about 6 months, until I realised that I knew his conclusions, but had no idea how he got there… and that I couldn’t properly defend it.
→ Heard Ron pimp Austrian Economics, so I googled and found this place.
→ Spent next ? going through and listening to the entire mises.org media. Not all of it stuck, but a lot sunk in.
And it continues..
Alex Jones → Ron Paul → AE
Perhaps I’m in a minority, but for me Libertarianism came from tributary streams flowing together from my personal views on Libertarianism.
For me, it went something like this:
Atheism + Capitalism => Objectivism
Objectivism + Ron Paul => Libertarianism
Libertarianism eventually led me to LvMI.
Now I have Philosophy and Economics all rolled into one package (Rand + Mises + Rothbard + Hayek + Friedman).
I think I would have reached Libertarianism without Paul, but he was there when I was looking for political realization where Rand’s Objectivism provided none. Why is that exactly? Her philosphy isn’t completely anarchistic. But regardless, I have the whole set now, so I feel more or less complete.
I was a Rush 24/7 member neocon who loved Ann Coulter. I would take bullets for the Republicans. I remember wanting to learn more about why the Founder’s liked capitalism and private property and I found How Capitalism Saved America by Thomas DiLorenzo. I loved Tom’s “no holding back” writing style so much that I got The Real Lincoln. It astonished me. I looked him up on-line and found LewRockwell.com and LvMI. The election was going on at this time and I was still a war-pig so I cringed at some of the things that Ron Paul said. But I knew it was all emotional because I admitted that I had no logical response to any of it. Man, changing that part of me over felt so demoralizing. Here I had thought that I was a patriot of freedom.
“But I knew it was all emotional because I admitted that I had no logical response to any of it. Man, changing that part of me over felt so demoralizing. Here I had thought that I was a patriot of freedom.”
Would you say that you still have that emotional side / passion, but it is now guided in a different direction?
Ron Paul > Peter Schiff > LVMI
Guilty here.
Rawls => Liberalism => in need of learning economics => thought the mainstream mathematical approach was utter bs => gene callahan => mises.org
Somewhat guilty
I started when someone reccomended to read Wayne Allen Root “millionaire Republican”.
=>That helped me understand a mentality difference. I switched from emotional socialistic liberal to a neocon and began studying some more.
=>Then I heard Ron Paul on economics but did not go any further than listening to him talk on occasion.
=>Then Someone posted a full Rothbard piece on “sodahead” about depressions, their cause and cure.
=>After reading it, I was inspired to learn more because it made so much sense.
=>Went to a C4L conference and listened to Tom Woods, bought his book and was told by a new friend to look up Peter Schiff.
=>Then I found mises.org and figured out that Ron Paul uses Austrian economics.
=>Then i have gone from neocon to libertarian.
=>And I have been reading and studying ever since. Sucking it up through my evolving philosophy has been what I call Progress!