When it comes to dealing with the same uneducated arguments I used to make; I can be as insufferable as a former smoker around people having a puff. When I post something highlighting some evil being done in a state-run school, and someone comments, “just end government schooling,” I experience the cringe I have for my former self and immediately want to lash out at that person, And I often do. Why? Mostly because I see that response as no different than someone falling out of a plane without a parachute and somebody screaming to “just end gravity!” Will there be a time when state schools don’t exist? Possibly. Will that be soon. Highly improbable. So, we have to deal with what’s in front of our noses. And yes, homeschool. But as I’m getting tired of repeating, the 95% that aren’t being homeschooled are going to enslave the 5% down the road. Especially if you’re teaching your homeschooled child that, for example, power is immoral.
Same. I can’t help but be angry at the libertarian for being the person I was 5 seconds ago… but it’s different, somehow, than the contempt I felt for the statist when I was a libertarian. I don’t know that I would be capable of seeing the world as I do now if I’d not taxationisthefted my way through the last decade, but I’m weirdly contemptuous of the journey despite the wisdoms it made possible. I also think of the others who made the trip before me whom I scorned and ridiculed. I don’t feel guilty, because my words came from a place of ignorance, but I do feel something. I hope those trailblazers found solace in their solitude. I hope I will find the same.
I get angrier at conservative or conservatarian arguments. Both bc they have much more opportunity for power and bc deep down I was more conservative than ancap libertarian even when i was a member of the LP.
I feel like libertarians are built for debate and can only really find their own way out of it. Luckily, they all seem to love reading, so hopefully its a matter of time before they actually read the right shit.
The conservative base is more reachable imo. Most of them are only conservative bc they think that's the only way to not be a lib. Convincing them that there are better ways to not be a lib seems like a productive usage of one's time, whereas libertarians just want to be above left/right and be seen as reasonable to whomever their audience is
Same. I can’t help but be angry at the libertarian for being the person I was 5 seconds ago… but it’s different, somehow, than the contempt I felt for the statist when I was a libertarian. I don’t know that I would be capable of seeing the world as I do now if I’d not taxationisthefted my way through the last decade, but I’m weirdly contemptuous of the journey despite the wisdoms it made possible. I also think of the others who made the trip before me whom I scorned and ridiculed. I don’t feel guilty, because my words came from a place of ignorance, but I do feel something. I hope those trailblazers found solace in their solitude. I hope I will find the same.
I get angrier at conservative or conservatarian arguments. Both bc they have much more opportunity for power and bc deep down I was more conservative than ancap libertarian even when i was a member of the LP.
I feel like libertarians are built for debate and can only really find their own way out of it. Luckily, they all seem to love reading, so hopefully its a matter of time before they actually read the right shit.
The conservative base is more reachable imo. Most of them are only conservative bc they think that's the only way to not be a lib. Convincing them that there are better ways to not be a lib seems like a productive usage of one's time, whereas libertarians just want to be above left/right and be seen as reasonable to whomever their audience is