What Made You A Conservative?

[CurtisLemay]

A lot of things led me down the journey of being where I am today, politically. But I want to say why I am where I am.

1. You could say I grew up in one of the best times to be a kid. The 1980s. We had Reagan in the White House, Alex P. Keaton was on TV and the popular entertainment wasn't vicerally angry at conservatives at it is now. Sure, it was biased as hell, but as I said, Reagan could outmessage them all. It was awesome to be a kid then.

2. It all changed for me in the 1990s. As I went through High School? (Montgomery County, MD) I began to realize something: First, most of the teachers and staff were hoplessly liberal and saw me be horribly tormented by my peers...and they did nothing. What got me through? Reading stories about survivors of the Hanoi Hilton and the Bataan Death March. Sure, what I went through was easy compared to them. But one said something that stuck with me today.

(I paraphrase)

"So you broke today. Get up..resist tomorrow!"

And so I did.

The few teachers that did anything? Conservatives or libertarians to a man and woman with one exception, and she was just a decent person. By the time I graduated, I despised public schools, and didn't think much of those educating our kids. I love education reform and anything that breaks the back of this liberal lobby.

3. I finished college (dear lord the indoctrination I went through) and got married. My first wife was mentally ill and I worked my ass off on what meager salaries I could get with a bachelor's and no real experience. Meanwhile..those agencies from DC where we were living at the time? Predatory as all hell. They overmedicated her, then did everything they could to prevent me from learning just what her medication history had been even when I had power of attorney.

Worse, they got her a day job stocking breakrooms at a local contrator. She did that job, but lost it due to cutbacks. She did what anyone in that situation would do. She filed for unemployment. They sued her for said unemployment because hidden in the fine print of the agreement she had signed when she got the job was her signing away her unemployment benefits. Yes, I learned. Liberals and their supposed love for the downtrodden is little more than keep them poor as a voting bloc. And they are predatory bastards about it.

4. Our marriage imploded and I lost my job and my grandfather in the same year. I moved in with my parents in Northern VA and soon was working for Gunowners of America. I worked there when Sandy Hook happened. Wanna know who the worst callers were? Liberals. I literally got death threats.

So, lets fast forward to now. Everything I have learned politically is that liberals will lie, cheat, steal, and act like jerks because...they can. Most conservatives and libertarians I know, even when we disagree, we can find polite disagreement and common ground. Liberals have called me a traitor (I'm Jewish), a Nazi, and heaps of other things.

By the end of it. It's only made me more secure in my beliefs. But I want to know, what made you who you were?

 

[KilroywasNOTHere]

Because ultimatly I think letting go is for the weak. If something wasn't important enough in your life to keep it wasn't important to exist in the first place.

Marxism removes people's humanity and gives them the attention span of a goldfish they trends and fashions change by the month, they can't even remember what happened last week let alone what happened years ago. The republic the constitution pop culture the ability to die on your feet rather than live on your knees, these things are important to me and these are things I will never let go of.

Communist can talk about "We" all they want but even a superorganism will eventually evolve and realize "I think therefore I am" so if the individuals don't become aware of their own existence, then the head will simply absorb it into it's body to any of those servants this board do you really think a brain views hands and feet as anything more than a mere tool to serve it's agenda. Do you not think it would not simply chop the hand off if it pleased it? God maybe benevolent but man is not.

I am conservative because in the end it's either conserve yourself and live to the fullest, or simply fade into oblivion (and i'm not talking about just death)

 

[LordsFire]

Observable reality and truth.

People who blame other people for their problems and refuse to do something themselves, generally end up miserable and making other people miserable.

People who take responsibility for improving the situation make things better for both themselves, and others.

This is true even when their problems were genuinely caused by someone else. If you really were kept down by a racist? You can do some things to get past that, around that, ahead of that. If your boss is a jerk and screwed you out of a raise or a promotion, you can still push yourself to do well because the job should still be done right, and try to find a job somewhere else, etc, etc.


The attitude of the left, and the attitude of the right, show what you need to know. And not the attitude that each says the other has, but what is professed within the groups themselves.

Grace and humility matter. They're rapidly going extinct on the left, and while the right struggles to have them in appropriate quantities, they do accept that they are virtues.

 

[CarlManvers2019]

I kinda became sort of Libertarian as a result of finding out what Sharia Law was first from a dude who refuted the whole "Moderate Islam" thing by talking to me about it along with what SJWs were

Sure, guy was on the whole "Religion as a whole=Bad" but I was really thrown off about what I found out to be common in numerous muslim majority nations and areas, starting with Saudi Arabia and Aceh

Couldn't believe that was occurring

I was sort of a Proto-SJW myself, heard and thought of "Social Justice" real positively, thing was I was more consistent about it and eventually found out how asshole-ish those who espouse it were and had some sights and encounters on our sister sites.

One encounter on SV involved a Mod suddenly rushing in and psychologically gaslighting me and saying "What's so bad about social justice, it's about justice" and such and when I tried speaking back I kept on feeling the pressure

Then I noticed CalBear's continued douchey presence on Alternatehistory, ready to suddenly make an issue of stuff with barely a warning

Then whenever I said some stuff or saw some stuff said by others that went against the SJW narrative I was kinda ganged up and gaslit or saw others doing similar and being smug and douchey AF

Kept on encountering guys who kept going on and on about Nazi's being everywhere and one guy on SB going on about Nazi Bikers being around and that there's no way that College Universities are full of crazies and how SJWs don't exist and those responsible for things like censorship and ugly art are "Conservatives" in California of all places

I went to college, met my fair share of SJW type teachers trying to indoctrinate the class, even a Filipino class that suddenly became about Feminism and how liking boobs somehow equaled breast cancer and we should be ashamed because boobs are only for babies and stuff. Even my Western history teacher tried spreading propaganda about how great it would be to let Muslims in en masse by comparing it to the barbarians who took down Rome.

I may be VERY pro-ethical-hedonism and can never be a Social Conservative, but I can't stand for this sort of douchey "moral" grandstanding either, especially when I came to sorta know those whom they constantly slandered online and saw they weren't the monsters they accused otherwise they'd have hit back HARD a long time ago

 

[Cherico]

I grew up in cali, I'm not conservative but I learned the hard way that the government does not care about you at a very young age and watched as my state was mismanaged into disaster.

 

[Zachowon]

So, I grew up in a Christian conservative family and I have always felt the same. In some areas I lean left and further away from my family, in other areas I lean further right.

I have always been pro police. Pro military, things the left seem to hate recently. At least the pro police part. I was in highschool when Trump was elected and having my family always talk bad about Hillary and my Ex talking bad about Trump o was torn. Though I eventually noticed what Trump was doing and I went full MAGA.

I worked in a jail, got fired because they don't know how to train well (i fucked up and they did not train me well in that regard) and I had before then worked at Walmart.

I am from a very red county just north of Atlanta. If you look at the CNN election map. You will see my county being the last red on to the north.

So I fit in well with the people I talked with and the like. And my friends who arnt political we never talked about it. I think they are all Bernie bros but I honestly doubt they even voted.

I basically was the only real conservative friend I knew. At least that I hung out with.

When I joined the army I met people from all locks of life. In AIT I hung out with two lesbians and a black guy. The Black guy who I am still friends with was wanting to become a state trooper and is pro trump. He is also from Kentucky.
The lesbians were...well we never talked politics but one if them definitely was the feminist type a in-between of radical and traditional. She was also a...bi lesbian. In an open marriage to a degree.

She was wierd. She also was a compulsive liar, but I hung out with her and her roommate because her roommate had a car.

It was interesting. I...stayed in my own area for that part, never argued and played good listener. She passed me off, both if them did but me and my buddy just shrugged and went on acting like we cared.

All of this helped me stand firm in my beliefs.

I am also MAD into guns and I do not want them taken.

 

[CarlManvers2019]

Never knew you were younger than me @Zachowon

Just so you know, outside of maybe my brothers, I’m the closest thing to a Conservative in my family

Rest keep on watching CNN and reading Times Magazine

Eldest Sister tends to put on loudspeaker stuff that sounds straight from Greta Thunberg when me and her are alone and kept on gaslighting me when it came to Trump and anyone else remotely Conservative from the West

I only managed to somewhat redpill my Eldest Brother by pointing out how much of the Western Left is actually the result of constant collusion with big business and while skeptical, I told him of the power of Big Tech, specifically the “unpersonning” part and who controls what you’re likely to find

Guy introduced me to Jordan Peterson with a vid of him destroying a Feminist

 

[Zachowon]

Never knew you were younger than me @Zachowon

Just so you know, outside of maybe my brothers, I’m the closest thing to a Conservative in my family

Rest keep on watching CNN and reading Times Magazine

Eldest Sister tends to put on loudspeaker stuff that sounds straight from Greta Thunberg when me and her are alone and kept on gaslighting me when it came to Trump and anyone else remotely Conservative from the West

I only managed to somewhat redpill my Eldest Brother by pointing out how much of the Western Left is actually the result of constant collusion with big business and while skeptical, I told him of the power of Big Tech, specifically the “unpersonning” part and who controls what you’re likely to find

Guy introduced me to Jordan Peterson with a vid of him destroying a Feminist

I am 21. I was a senior in 2016 and graduated in 2017

 

[CarlManvers2019]

I am 21. I was a senior in 2016 and graduated in 2017

I’m 24, I was in college when Trump won and when Duterte also won and there was a brief spiel of Duterte-Derangement-Syndrome on my campus and they even left their classes because some student used the public service announcement to get people out to protest

 

[Zachowon]

I’m 24, I was in college when Trump won and when Duterte also won and there was a brief spiel of Duterte-Derangement-Syndrome on my campus and they even left their classes because some student used the public service announcement to get people out to protest

I went to a community college for a semester or two, and my gov prof, This actually goes with a story as to why I am a conservative, who was a classic Liberal and is now libertyarian because of Hillary and the Dems being corrupt. The man grew up in racist GA, had seen KKK rallies when he was young because they were doing their first amendment right, and it was legal. He was a die hard Dem until around Obama.
He was a veteran of the Army. Dude was a classic Liberal who hated the way the Dems were and was teaching his students (He only taught Gov during the summer) what the constitution is and how everything works, and not favoring either side and was just showing evidence of how Dems were the racists for A LONG TIME then trying to paint there was a switch

 

[Bigking321]

Observable reality conflicting with leftist talking points.

If anyone takes the time to do even basic research into just about anything the left talks about it turns out most of it is a lie or a gross misrepresentation of the data.

I'll take conservatism and hard reality over living in a dream world that's gonna fail the second you have adversity.

 

[Rocinante]

I'm not a conservative.

More of a libertarian.

The democrats are what pushed me here.

Also getting a bit older and getting my life together and getting off alcohol and drugs, pushed me right a bit. I took personal responsibility over my life and built a good life. The result of all that work: I changed my mind on some things.

Though I remain mostly socially liberal. Just...not nearly as far as those lunatic leftists push it. They push their social liberty so far that it twisted a d became authoritarian. Which lands me under the conservative tent.

If it neither picks my pocket or breaks my leg, what concern is it to me? Love and live how you'd like. That's my social philosophy.

I've become more right wing, fiscally. I used to be a big tax/big spending democrat. Here, though, I don't go nearly as far as TEA party republicans or Big L libertarians.

So the ultimate, big one for me: the democrats are evil, corporatist, corrupt cheaters with no spines who will sell our country out to the highest bidder (china) while getting us into countless foreign wars, while limiting our speech, taking our guns, corrupting our children and punishing us for having opposing opinions.

 

[Aldarion]

I always was a conservative, except for a short period some years ago when I was a leftist. Ironically, however, I had become the leftist precisely for the reason which eventually confirmed me as a solid conservative, and eventually pushed me toward reaction: my wariness of and distaste for concentration of power in supranational institutions and multinational corporations. So in fact I had remained a cultural traditionalist, but I was for some time economic socialist (communist, even), and there was even a time when I had trusted supranational organizations (NATO, EU).

So...

The reasons why I became a conservative are mostly rooted in my family. My grandfather was always a conservative, and had trouble because of it during the old regime. He also transmitted to me his interest in / obsession with history. As a result, I always kept studying history, and in the process reached many conclusions rather different from the mainstream narrative. This confirmed to me that leftist ideologies are nothing but castles in the clouds.

However, I ultimately abandoned conservativism. Reason is simple, and one I have already written about: conservativism is insufficient. It basically means defending a position for as long as you can, then be forced to take a step back towards the abyss, and then stick to defending the new position - until the next step back. But abyss is still approaching. As a result, I concluded that conservativism is an inherently idiotic ideology. I abandoned conservativism and embraced reactionarism.

 

[Rocinante]

I always was a conservative, except for a short period some years ago when I was a leftist. Ironically, however, I had become the leftist precisely for the reason which eventually confirmed me as a solid conservative, and eventually pushed me toward reaction: my wariness of and distaste for concentration of power in supranational institutions and multinational corporations. So in fact I had remained a cultural traditionalist, but I was for some time economic socialist (communist, even), and there was even a time when I had trusted supranational organizations (NATO, EU).

So...

The reasons why I became a conservative are mostly rooted in my family. My grandfather was always a conservative, and had trouble because of it during the old regime. He also transmitted to me his interest in / obsession with history. As a result, I always kept studying history, and in the process reached many conclusions rather different from the mainstream narrative. This confirmed to me that leftist ideologies are nothing but castles in the clouds.

However, I ultimately abandoned conservativism. Reason is simple, and one I have already written about: conservativism is insufficient. It basically means defending a position for as long as you can, then be forced to take a step back towards the abyss, and then stick to defending the new position - until the next step back. But abyss is still approaching. As a result, I concluded that conservativism is an inherently idiotic ideology. I abandoned conservativism and embraced reactionarism.

If you're going to resign to the idea that the change is going to happen regardless, you could argue that the value in conservativism is that it will slow that change down and help ensure it's done in a pragmatic and less society shattering way.

I mean, if stability is your goal, and a shift left is inevitable, you'd want it done more incrementally rather than sweeping changes that may collapse society.

 

[CarlManvers2019]

If you're going to resign to the idea that the change is going to happen regardless, you could argue that the value in conservativism is that it will slow that change down and help ensure it's done in a pragmatic and less society shattering way.

I mean, if stability is your goal, and a shift left is inevitable, you'd want it done more incrementally rather than sweeping changes that may collapse society.

One thing I think I’ve noticed many guys online forget is that

Many LGBT, women, people who aren’t even white, are of a different culture or religion all support Trump

Those people whom the Far Left would try to use as their instruments have wills of their own and just want to live and let live, avoid seeing their spaces and hobbies be ruined, avoid having to deal with a messed up over centralized economy or the abuses of tech giants and even avoid having to deal with the creation of absurd laws to limit speech and expression of thought or have to deal with the CCP and members of a much more fanatical and way more “conservative” religion gradually taking over

And they don’t like being used as bludgeons by those crazies who don’t actually care about their welfare to begin with, hell they even probably look at what counts for “representation” in media and are insulted by the ironically bigoted shit produced

I mean I think there are even Buddhist Priests participating in Trump Rallies these days. They may not be Christian, but their lines of thinking and/or goals intersect just enough.

 

[Deleted member]

I was home-schooled when I was young, and instead of a conventional education I mostly relied on my father letting me read the Great Books--I was going through Suetonius and Gibbon by the age of eleven. I remember vividly the crisis of the freighter from the newly independent Ukraine which was trapped in Puget Sound without fuel when the rapacious new holding company that had used nepotistic connections to buy out a huge section of the Soviet merchant marine had collapsed--my family through the Russian-American community in the area was involved in supporting them by legal efforts and taking food out to them in small boats. I learned from that both the dangers of big government in the communist sense and in our own sense--illegals flooding across the border by the million, but these hardworking and honest men betrayed by their country were literally trapped in a freighter with no food and fuel for months and couldn't get permission to temporarily land in the US because of inflexible government bureaucrats.

I never got along well with other children--so I had the younger brother of the priest take me aside and, while teaching me how to make the rope handles for water-skiing, which was his business, tell me the stories of the executions and the exactions the communists had wrought in Russia. Later on my father told me these stories as well as his funny stories of almost thirty years of serving a free Army--that of our United States to which I grew up very much owing my loyalty, as a refuge that had been given to my father's family.

I never stopped being conservative. I only experimented with different flavours from then. Admittedly, my father and family tended much more toward being neocons than anyone here would like. I think you've used that as much more of a pejorative than it should be. We needed the fight the murderous ideology of communism, and we fought it and won. They were the leading intellectuals who mustered the cross-party support necessary for the decisive economic and political blows under Reagan.

But regardless, it's just been a matter of course that I should be on the right. Nothing I've seen since has shaken that conviction.

Note that I am not making any kind of difference between right ideologies here and am just cheerfully lumping them all together as "conservative".

 

[LifeisTiresome]

If you're going to resign to the idea that the change is going to happen regardless, you could argue that the value in conservativism is that it will slow that change down and help ensure it's done in a pragmatic and less society shattering way.

I mean, if stability is your goal, and a shift left is inevitable, you'd want it done more incrementally rather than sweeping changes that may collapse society.

Conservatism is the enemy in your post. Consider this change, pedo acceptance. Conservatism will make the change incremental aka more successfully accepted then if the change was sudden, it could be violently rejected.

more fanatical and way more “conservative” religion gradually taking over

Carl, our enemies are in no way "conservative" or traditional at all. What the hell does conservatism even mean in your head?

 

[Nikkolas]

It be hard to categorize what type of conservative I am. I don't actually vote conservative because America is a wasteland and I loathe every single politician in the GOP.

It's cultural. I value history and tradition. Everything in the past made us who we are and we owe respect and even veneration to those individuals and cultures. We can learn all the criticisms of Capitalism and Liberalism we need from Plato or early Christians or Confucianism.

The Left's obsession with class undermines it and dooms it to failure. People care more about their Nation than their economic status. This is not a values judgment like my first position, it's just a statement of fact. If the Left could get over this huge hurdle, they might stand a chance. The Left and Neoliberal Conservatives are two sides of the same materialistic coin. Capitalism or Communism, money is not what makes us.

But generally, I'd much rather talk to Lefties, even if they infuriate me. We hate the same people for the most part. And I respect too many of them to give up. I'll keep trying to show them the error of their ways so they can drop the bad and keep the good.

 

[LifeisTiresome]

It be hard to categorize what type of conservative I am. I don't actually vote conservative because America is a wasteland and I loathe every single politician in the GOP.

It's cultural. I value history and tradition. Everything in the past made us who we are and we owe respect and even veneration to those individuals and cultures. We can learn all the criticisms of Capitalism and Liberalism we need from Plato or early Christians or Confucianism.

The Left's obsession with class undermines it and dooms it to failure. People care more about their Nation than their economic status. This is not a values judgment like my first position, it's just a statement of fact. If the Left could get over this huge hurdle, they might stand a chance. The Left and Neoliberal Conservatives are two sides of the same materialistic coin. Capitalism or Communism, money is not what makes us.

But generally, I'd much rather talk to Lefties, even if they infuriate me. We hate the same people for the most part. And I respect too many of them to give up. I'll keep trying to show them the error of their ways so they can drop the bad and keep the good.

The Left are in bed with the corporates, NGOs, academia, media, etc. I could go on.

They speak a big game about resisting all of the above but they are in bed with all of them. And the majority of the Left care more about race then class nowadays.

 

[Deleted member]

I don’t feel this thread in any way needs to devolve into arguments of conservatism versus traditionalism. Most conservatives do not simply want change to happen slowly, and generally speaking the term conservative serves in English to conveniently mark the entire Right.