My name is Brick-in-the-Wall and I was a Neo-Con

[leglock]

Or being against gays yet loving Elton John and Queen

Hahaha...

Did you get the opportunity to catch Roger Waters doing Dark Side or the Wall?

 

[Brick-in-the-Wall]

Hahaha...

Did you get the opportunity to catch Roger Waters doing Dark Side or the Wall?

I have tickets to see Roger Waters this May in Tulsa.

I've always known he's a Socialist but that never stopped me. I think The Wall is a work of art. I guess the thing for me is it's so open to interpretation that you can look at it and get any idea you really want.

I've even thought of doing a Ron Paul's The Wall and linking his politics to the music.

 

[Cyberbrain]

Thank you for your insight and perspective Brick, I love these kinds of testimonials. Also don't forget there's some of us on the Liberal side that aren't progressives and thus arn't for big government aka: civil libertarians, true liberals in the older sense of the word. =)

So I liked Ron Paul a lot in 2008 and hoped he would get the nomination, but after he lost I fell in love with Obama. As a constitutional law professor and an advocate for civil liberties and human rights on the campaign trail I thought he was going to be the perfect package after the slightly authoritarian reign of President Bush Jr.....

Now 2012 comes and I can't be more embarrassed... I was a Paul supporter in 2008 but I can't believe I didn't pick him over Obama from the start. I hope a lot of people on the left who are true liberals don't allow this guy to lose again. I also hope progressives vote for him at least based on the anti-war issue. He's not a left or right candidate based on the stupid two way spectrum that's forced onto us, Ron Paul really is a candidate for all Americans.

 

[limequat]

My god we have more converts than libertarians? Wow!

 

[Brick-in-the-Wall]

Thank you for your insight and perspective Brick, I love these kinds of testimonials. Also don't forget there's some of us on the Liberal side that aren't progressives and thus arn't for big government aka: civil libertarians, true liberals in the older sense of the word. =)

So I liked Ron Paul a lot in 2008 and hoped he would get the nomination, but after he lost I fell in love with Obama. As a constitutional law professor and an advocate for civil liberties and human rights on the campaign trail I thought he was going to be the perfect package after the slightly authoritarian reign of President Bush Jr.....

Now 2012 comes and I can't be more embarrassed... I was a Paul supporter in 2008 but I can't believe I didn't pick him over Obama from the start. I hope a lot of people on the left who are true liberals don't allow this guy to lose again. I also hope progressives vote for him at least based on the anti-war issue. He's not a left or right candidate based on the stupid two way spectrum that's forced onto us, Ron Paul really is a candidate for all Americans.

There are so many terms I find it almost impossible to label somebody or group of people.

I didn't want to say "Liberal" because I've heard some say that "Classic Liberals" became "Libertarians." I've just linked "Progressives" to the "New Left" because that was the best fit I could think of.

With that said I used "Liberal" in my story because, as mentioned, you get into the Rush Limbaugh mindset and you think "Liberals" are anybody who's against your views. The thing is he has talked about John Locke who is father of *gasp* "Liberalism."

I hate to jump to a hasty generalization but I didn't want to use 57 terms to describe one person. I used broad terms to try to get the point across for the most part.

 

[SlowSki]

Great thread! I was a neo-con, except for my views on gay marriage and drug legalization. I listened to Rush, Hannity, and Beck almost every day back in 2008. I thought Muslims just hated us. I went to a college with a very large libertarian movement and one of our econ professors is famous in Mises circles. I saw Ron speak at the school and I agreed with everything he said I liked him a lot, but still voted for McCain because I didn't want to "waste my vote". I think the day I really stopped listening to fox news and all the other typical far-right people was when they were protesting that mosque being built near ground zero.

 

[Anti Federalist]

It's a long journey, and you have taken the first steps.

Welcome aboard.

Remember, that which has been learned, that which has been seen, can never be un-learned or un-seen.

 

[unknown]

TBH I never gave it much thought but after Bush went into Iraq, I was like this is total BS.

Couple that with FOIA disclosures, stuff like the Gulf of Tonkin lie, the Nurse Nayirah lie, WMDs... Like this sh*t has to stop.

 

[LawnWake]

I've always been "libertarian" about everything except politics. I never really.. made the link between NAG, personal sovereinty and politics and just accepted democracy and statism as the norm that you have to accept. I never really thought about politics either, I suppose. So I guess that's why I never made the link. Even though I'd been saying very libertarian things ever since I can remember. Hell, when we were taught liberalism in elementary school (this is the Netherlands btw, so it's more the old school definition of it) I could totally get into that and proclaimed myself a 'liberal'.

What I liked about Paul is the fact that he said things I would say while being a politician. It made me look at politics in another way and I started reading about Rothbard and all that crap. The rest is history I suppose.

 

[deadfish]

Great read Brick, thanks. You sound like one smart dude from the original post and replies.

What authors/books/blogs/etc are you reading now?

 

[EuRa]

I've always been this way. I dismissed politics because they are all liars and cheaters. No way would I ever find anyone that I believed, even if I liked what I heard.

Then Ron Paul came along. Sounded fishy. I inspected his voting record, and he was legit. No lying. Not only that, but his positions makes you think. I even changed a few of my positions based on what he said. He's entirely right. He's my prophet. :o

 

[John F Kennedy III]

Yes, before I became this awesome Ron Paul supporting Libertarian, I was a boring Neo-Con. The reason I'm writing this is because I can. I doubt anybody will read it but I want to document, somewhat, my change. I would've been against Ron Paul years ago thinking he was "a wolf in sheep's clothing Liberal" and now I'm a massive supporter. If I can change and walk the walk, others can as well.



Anyway, it started for me at a young age, being a Rush Baby. I was put into a "class" and told this is the "right" class to be in.

My father was a Vietnam Vet and when he came home, was spit on, and called a "baby killer." He was a very hard worker, went from low class, to when he retired being in the upper crust. He despises the welfare class because why can't people work hard the way he did and they'll have money?

He would tell me growing up that "Liberals/Democrats" are happy when troops die, hate Christians, see the Constitution as wasteful, and want a government seen in 1984. I was told these people wanted to steal from you when you worked hard to give it to a lazy person. They were Communist that wanted this country to be Amerika.

"Republicans/Conservatives" on the other hand were the good guys. They supported the troops, obeyed the Constitution, wanted to shrink government, and supported hard workers. Our country is great but if they could just get their way it'd be so much better, because the "bad guy Liberals" who hate America and are trying to destroy it, do whatever they can to stop them. They were the good guy Capitalist fighting those evil Democrat Communist.

As I was exposed to Rush Limbaugh at a young age, this idea grew on steroids. When I was in Jr. High I would rush (no pun) home to catch the last part of his show. Here was a guy sticking it to the Big Government, Troop Hating, Money Stealing, Family Splitting, Pot Pushing Liberals. If you didn't agree with him, you were "one of them America haters."

It all made sense! These Democrats wanted to be modern day kings but lucky for us we had Republicans to stop these jackbooted thugs. These guys would lie, cheat, and steal to get power because they weren't real Christians because real Christians were Republicans and they loved all.

This came thru with gay marriage. These Democrats just want to destroy America more by pushing these "freaks" onto us. I saw gays as people into beastality or incest and treated as not normal. They were a small portion of society that weren't normal and shouldn't be given any rights or heard. People aren't born gay, they choose to be gay. So being ridiculed and treated different is their choice so they shouldn't complain. It was all their fault. Why do they want to get married!? Why don't these gays just marry their dog while they're at it!?

Pot smokers were all Democrats as well. The Republicans were right here because pot will cause you to be stupid and causes people to do bad things. It was right to arrest these people and do everything possible to stop them from smoking because if we didn't stop them, more people would smoke, move on to harder drugs, go crazy, and put severe danger onto our families and communities.

Then 9/11 happened when I was a Freshman in High School. Lets go kick ass! These ragheads hate us because we're free! These are the types of people Democrats like and they were probably happy this happened. Thank God we have a Republican in office!

Then the Republicans took control of both houses. Awesome, now we can get invade Iraq and really take it to those terrorist! We're America! What we do is right, we're the beacon of freedom and liberty, and it's our right to go and right all the wrongs in the world!

This line of thought kept on going close to my senior year of high school and into college.

Why and how did I change? To tell you the truth, I really don't know what THE moment was but it was a slow buildup.

In college I saw honors students, Deans List students, and normal people smoking pot. What!? These people are stupid idiots, why are they smoking!? There must be something I'm missing. So I started to dig and research and I mean really dig and research. You mean, pot isn't all that bad? I was lied to? This can't be.

I had class with a gay kid and got a job with a lesbian. These people aren't freaks at all. They were normal people just trying to live their lives. They weren't evil, weren't hostile to me, and wanted to be the best people they could be, like me. Why am I against what they do again? Why was I so angry at their lifestyle? This doesn't affect me at all and from what I've seen they're very good, loving, kind people. Was I lied to on this as well?

The big moment that really turned my world upside down was Loose Change. I now think they're full of shit partisan hacks for the most part (who edits their theories four different times? missile pods?) but at the time I was blindsided by a truck. The government is all on one team and against me? This can't be right. I found Alex Jones thru this and reexamined Waco.
Not to sidetrack but I don't believe 9/11 was an inside job. Are things covered up? Yes. Were explosives rigged in the WTC? I very highly doubt it but I'm open to the idea, if evidence is brought forth. Loose Change will censor you on their forums and not allow challenges to their arguments. They're like those on Mark Levin's forum just the opposite side.

Anyway, I was still struggling. Waco was caused by Democrats. Republicans were in charge during 9/11. Only Democrats would do that, not Republicans.

I ignored the 2007-2008 election so I didn't know Ron Paul. He was the cooky one right? Wait he was the guy on Die Hard? Or was he the Mormon? That was all I knew.

What changed was before the election, I had several friends going off to Iraq. I didn't want my friends to die but I didn't want them to die for something that I honestly couldn't answer for anymore. When we started in '03 I knew we had to get the terrorist. Why are my friends going over there five years later? Shouldn't we be done? Why haven't we caught these big name terrorist in Iraq?

So my world views had been turned upside down on gays, drugs, and war. I asked myself one day, "Have I been wrong? Is what I believe right?" I started to slowly swallow my pride, open up my mind, and take a look at the other side of the coin.

In late 2008 I got a job at a TV station. What I did was sit at a computer, make sure we stayed on air, and had 10-12 hour days by myself at the computer. It was also a shitty college job if you wanted to party because by the time I got off everybody was passed out when I got there. Anyway, I started to watch YouTube, a whole lot of YouTube. I had also been doing reading on things that had challenged my views. I was watching a George Carlin, or Bill Hicks, clip as I love them both, and in the related videos I saw a Ron Paul video. Again, all I knew of Ron Paul was what I saw on Bruno. I figured what the hell I'll listen, I'm stuck at work for a while so why not watch a video of him.

To tell you the truth, I have no idea what Ron Paul video it was. I think it was a debate, him on Fox News, or something but all it took was one. This changed me. This guy seemed to be against some of the things I was brought up to be against but he supports the Constitution? I mean I had read the Constitution and never thought about rights to gays or drug dealers. I always thought it was the "right thing to do." I thought wiretapping to get the terrorist was "the right thing to do" to be safe.

Can he be right? Is he really honest and truthful about the Constitution? I did more digging.

I was against the bailouts in '08 and so was Ron Paul!? How come I didn't hear about this!? Why was I just now learning about this amazing man!? He had many of the same views I did! The views I, use to, would've disagreed with him in, he articulately crafted an argument that's hard to dismiss.

He wants to protect my friends going over to Iraq? I can get behind that. He wants to leave me alone? I love that. He's for not arresting my friends who smoke pot because they're harmless? I love that too. He's for those who work hard get rewarded and a capitalist? Right on!

To me, Ron Paul is the Apple of politics. Apple just works. (to non-Apple fans, just go with it for now because I like the analogy) Ron Paul just makes sense with no BS. You think there's more to it, but there isn't. I did more research, studied, and I felt like I had a curtain lifted up over my eyes.

The thing for me is I've always, and I mean always, have wanted people to leave me alone. I thought "I'm not a terrorist so they won't come after me" or "I don't do drugs so they won't bang down my door." It takes about 30 seconds to find a story where somebody thought like me and was screwed over by the Government, both parties.

I just want the Government to stay the hell out of my life, let me work and make money, enjoy my money, and do what I feel like doing that isn't hurting anybody else. I like to think I'm a good person, don't treat me like a peon criminal.

Going into 2009 I was a Neo-Con Christian struggling with myself and my religion. Coming out of 2009 I was an Atheist Libertarian Ron Paul supporter.

TL;DR - I was a Right-Wing Neo-Con and became a borderline Anarchist Classic-Liberal Libertarian Ron Paul nut.
George Carlin and Bill Hicks helped guide me to Ron Paul.

Amazing post and welcome to the forums

I also love George Carlin and Bill Hicks

 

[EuRa]

The original post on this thread was awesome. I can almost entire relate being raised on a very Republican household. Right from being told that Rush was "the show" to listen to, all the way to the thing about gay people and the thing about drugs, right to my college experiences. All literally the same, except it was from my mom, not dad, that did all the pushing. We differ because I never really believed what she said anyway. I never followed her beliefs or ideas, I just listened and formed my own opinion, even when I was 10. She hated that, literally disowned me at times because I disagreed with her, about gay people especially.

Your read was a great read. I don't normally read long posts like that because they pertain to an individuals life experiences, and I really don't care. But yours captured my attention, and I thank you for sharing it. +rep btw.

 

[affa]

George Carlin is absolutely the man and dropped truth bombs just like Ron Paul does. wish he was still here.

 

[WIRP]

I was politically apathetic.

 

[Brick-in-the-Wall]

Great read Brick, thanks. You sound like one smart dude from the original post and replies.

What authors/books/blogs/etc are you reading now?

I really don't follow too many blogs. There's a guy on Facebook I follow that writes "Classical Liberal = Libertarian Conservative." He's a Ron Paul supporter and writes some pretty good articles.

I mean there's a couple of blogs I stop by and read here and there but there's none I follow religiously. The only one I did follow was back in high school and that was Maddox. He wasn't political but he did have several political issues. David Thorne is another writer I enjoy reading.

I just got done reading Penn Jillette's book not too long ago. I've always loved Bullshit and was sad to hear it wasn't coming back. Wasn't a bad read and I enjoyed his views on Atheism but I really wish he would've done more on his Libertarianism. I hope he does another one focused more on his political views.

Christopher Hitchens was a guy I didn't agree with on many issues but he was such a amazing writer that I have several of his books. I was really sad to hear he died this past week.

I would say my first book I read just for the politics was Robert A. Heinlein's Starship Troopers when I was 15. At the time I thought it was great but looking at it now he was advocating a Fascist Police State. However what he said about Western Democracies failing when the people learn to vote themselves money and entitlements was spot on I thought.

George Carlin is absolutely the man and dropped truth bombs just like Ron Paul does. wish he was still here.

This video right here Carlin did was just spot on. I know some old timer Carlin fans who didn't like his later stuff because he got too "preachy and bitter" but I thought that right before he died was some of his greatest work.

LANGUAGE NSFW


It's amazing how a comedian was predicting the bailouts yet many "professionals" were caught flat footed.

 

[jcarcinogen]

I've been a libertarian since 1999 but Ron Paul changed my opinion on abortion explaining that individualism must support life. His delivering 4000 babies and his stories of murdered babies in trash bins moved me I think because he doesn't get extreme and I know he is genuinely a good hearted man.

 

[JohnGalt1225]

While I voted former progressive, I have actually been both. Throughout high school I was a dedicated neocon. I bought Hannity books, watched Fox religiously, volunteered to get W. reelected (*vomits*), etc. Then shortly after I graduated I became disillusioned with the two party system and moved further to the left in my views. I loved (and still do to an extent) Ralph Nader and voted for him in 2008. I mostly considered myself "progressive" because I was anti-war, for a peaceful foreign policy, I didn't support the two party system, I saw how the unholy alliance between state and corporation was destroying the country, and I didn't see anyone other than progressives discussing these issues.

Then I discovered Ron Paul. I found a man who didn't sign off on the MIC and the crony capitalist system but also espoused economic views that I felt more naturally inclined towards.

 

[KingRobbStark]

I supported Ron Paul the moment I heard him on youtube. As soon as I discovered him I became an avid Paul activist. Everyone in my old high school know who Ron Paul is, and everyone in college will as well.

 

[Brick-in-the-Wall]

Oh yeah...

Amount: $250.00
Transaction ID: 326753546
Transaction date/time: 2011-12-18 14:48:28

Before Ron Paul I've never given money to any sort of political campaign or politician. With this money bomb I've given over $500 since the start of his campaign.