Remember when you woke up?

[The One]

For me it was gradual, and I dozed back off several times and sort of faded back and forth for a while before fully awakening. Think about that as you see the confusing behavior of some others (i.e. media personalities) as they are slowly awakening. It's a mind-fucker to come to terms with the fact that you've been wrong about damn near everything you ever thought you knew. It's also a mind-fucker trying to allow yourself to accept that things are really as bad as "all the crazies" have been saying they are.

[Xenophage]

I was raised in a libertarian family. I had an argument with my 5th grade teacher about why the government had to run the roads. I refused to say the pledge of allegiance.

I was a little bastard.

[dannno]

Michael Ruppert lecture, March 2001.

He said before end of the year, the most impacting even since the birth of Jesus Christ was going to occur, and it would change everything.

He also told us about Operation Northwoods right before that.. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm..

[The One]

I was raised in a libertarian family. I had an argument with my 5th grade teacher about why the government had to run the roads. I refused to say the pledge of allegiance.

I was a little bastard.

I was a hard-core neocon. Many around here would probably think that I'm now "cointelpro" if they had known me three years ago.

[Invalid]

November 5th for me....because that's when I realized the movement had teeth.

[mediahasyou]

For all you glenn beck haters out there:

I was a glenn beck follower a while back. I even bought his book. I was mostly riled up against all the global warming propaganda put out by Al Gore.

Then I saw Ron Paul on Glenn Beck's show. I liked the guy for his economic stances but at the time I was neocon and pro occupation. After watching the debates, I liked Ron Paul even more. After watching a few youtubes, I was a supporter.

[Xenophage]

Perhaps I'm delusional, but I think it would be easy to spot an infiltrator if they were an active poster. The reason: I think that the freedom philosophy is so strong and so logical, and so defensible from so many angles, that the only sort of person who would be able to convince me that they were a libertarian is someone who actually agreed with libertarians... e.g., not an infiltrator.

Maybe I'm wrong, but its what I've always thought.

[Truth Warrior]

Something about, "We're all Keynesians now. ;)< chuckle >" -- Tricky Dick. And I had voted for the weaselly SOB.


:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

[dannno]

Perhaps I'm delusional, but I think it would be easy to spot an infiltrator if they were an active poster. The reason: I think that the freedom philosophy is so strong and so logical, and so defensible from so many angles, that the only sort of person who would be able to convince me that they were a libertarian is someone who actually agreed with libertarians... e.g., not an infiltrator.

Maybe I'm wrong, but its what I've always thought.

I was a libertarian in high school (back in the 90s), but was not "awake" by any stretch of the imagination.

[Kludge]

I was already leaning libertarian-conservative by the time I started caring (~2006 at the age of 15).

Then I read "Atlas Shrugged". Then I started looking into Ron Paul. After a couple months of researching Dr. Paul, I firmly decided to forget about him since he didn't seem to have any support outside of the Internet and Ron Paul was already being smeared as a racist. Then some fool misled me about statistics regarding Ron Paul's chances in a PM on Youtube telling me that Ron Paul had won multiple victories in conservative straw polls around the nation. I took his word for it and didn't realize until a couple weeks later that they were high school straw polls..... I was already here, though, and I was addicted. Then I watched the Philosophy of Liberty. Then I accepted Anarchism. Then I rejected the concept of objective morality. Then I rejected the concept of natural rights. Now I lean toward being a social libertarian, though I don't mind arguing in favor of a Constitutional Republic (or anarchy when I get caught up in philosophy).

[Original_Intent]

I decided to find out what the John Birch Society was all about in the early 90s. I looked up their website and got a local number. I went to a local chapter meeting and it was not at all what I expected. I really came to respect the chapter leader and we had a lot of long discussions after meetings. He also lent me a lot of videos on the CFR, IRS, gun rights, etc.

Then I started digging on my own and read a ton of books and also online research. The book that probably really opened my eyes was "An enemy Hath Done This" by Ezra Taft Benson. I also read the Blue Book of the JBS. It made me sick to my stomach and also made me feel completely overwhelmed and helpless.

I heard about Ron Paul thru the JBS long ago and subscribed to his Freedom Report. It made me feel good that there was at least one honest person left in Washington DC. I still felt extremely alone, feeling like probably less than one in 10,000 people had a clue, and I had bad experiences trying to recruit or wake people up. I got involved with the Independent American Party. I met and spoke with the founder of the US Taxpayers Party, Howard Phillips (?) which has evolved into the Constitution Party.

Still felt pretty powerless and like we were completely screwed until I heard about this campaign to elect Ron Paul back in spring of 2007. I actually think we have a very good chance of saving our country. It has been very nice to realize how many of us there are.

[Catatonic]

Yep, an investing forum I frequented linked Russo's tax documentary. All down hill from there.

[WayBehind]

I was late to the party, July '08 for me. I read something interesting about the 7/7/05 bombings in London: a private company was hired to run a drill for the exact scenario, in the exact locations, at the same time the bombings took place. That reminded me of the drills on 9/11 for the exact scenario, at the same time.......

So I started to seriously look at the 9/11 evidence for the first time (seeing Zeitgeist earlier that year wasn't enough to open my eyes) and that quickly led me to Ron Paul, the Fed, the NWO, chemtrails, the Mayan calendar, and all sorts of seemingly unrelated stuff.

[QueenB4Liberty]

I was raised in a Libertarian family as well. But I went off to college, became a Democrat. lol I voted for Obama in the primaries (and caucused for him). I didn't really know who Ron Paul was, but I remember the whole "Ron Paul is a racist" and all of that so I was turned off. Then I started my new job in June and one of my co-workers sent me to infowars.com (lol don't hate me) and I actually don't know how I first got into Ron Paul..but I bought his book and loved it and a week later met him for the first time at a book signing!

[pcosmar]

I drifted in and out for years, Independent libertarian/conservative and was fooled by the Neo-cons.
I did not get my first computer till 2003 (yes a cave dweller). It took a personal experience to send me searching for my lost rights. It was 2nd amendment related but I learned (relearned)so much more on the way. It was in this search that I ran across Ron Paul.
Been here ever since.

[TigerPrwn]

One of my dear friends was a passenger of flight 93 on 9/11. I haven't ever been the same since, even though it took me years of investigation in to what the hell happened that day to reach my "awakening". My process was a slow one, I didn't want to believe that our Gov't could have let that happen. Years later, after much research, I was convinced that they "let" that happen.
There is no going back now, I know too much.

[JK/SEA]

Yep...just a couple weeks before the 11/5 money bomb. I was a lurker in here for that summer, reading posts, google searches, etc. My son told me about Ron and the fact he was speaking on declaring wars via the Constitution. At the time, i was pretty jizzed about Obama and hoping he would end the war, which was/is still a BIG issue for me. Ron has never disappointed me, and i'm not looking back.

[ourlongroad]

I think there are at least 6 levels of being awake.

We're run by secret societies & business networks using very sophisticated occult techniques.

[TigerPrwn]

I think there are at least 6 levels of being awake.

We're run by secret societies & business networks using very sophisticated occult techniques.

Yes.
I would Consider the 7th "The Inferno" aka- hell's gate.

[Smoke the Liberty Tree]

I was raised in a libertarian family. I had an argument with my 5th grade teacher about why the government had to run the roads. I refused to say the pledge of allegiance.

I was a little bastard.

Hopefully your parents let you form your own points of view on things rather than institutionalize you into the libertarian ideas ?!

I will NEVER express my political beliefs or religious in front of my children. I think it is important for them to do the research themselves and form there own opinions. Then if they stray far from the path that i walk, i can debate there ideas and if the decide to change there minds then it is there choice. This is why we have the problems with religion that we do today.:cool:

[dirknb@hotmail.com]

I was a flag waving Republican neo-con with a Rush Room in my restaurant I had at the time in the early 90's. In the Fall of '94 I was talking politics with the guy who repaired my ovens, stoves, walk-ins, etc. and he started telling me about the Fed. and the NWO. Read Jack McLamb's Vampire Killer 2000 and found the John Birch Society's bookstore here in San Antonio, American Opinion.

Tried for a few years to educate people but it was extremely difficult back then with no internet and no DVD's. VHS tapes were available but there weren't many titles and there weren't any that were very good. Dropped out in frustration after awhile and hardly ever even watched the news for about 10 years. Didn't get interested in politics again until July of '07 when I heard Ron Paul was actually getting some exposure and momentum because of the internet.

[constituent]

Depends on what you mean by "woke up."

I always knew that cops were ftl. I always knew that the public propaganda mills ("school" and television, mags, newspapers, et. al.) were ftl. I was raised that way.

Was raised to believe that taxes were ftl, though i rebelled against that idea briefly in my youth.... I was about 20 when i realized that my folks/family weren't as "full of shit" as i thought in this regard.

Funny thing though, as time goes forward, I kinda have to just laugh about taxes. Hell, I don't pay them (not on "income") anyway, and the chicken shit petty bourgeoisie that does (only to bitch later) has it coming anyway (if it weren't the government stealing their "hard earned money" it'd probably be their neighbor... by their reckoning anyway... "anarchy only works until the next biggest bully comes along" ...suckers, just getting what they ask for's all). Crying over their loss is like crying for the soldier who suddenly realizes he killed some americans and goes all apeshit over it, f* 'em.

So yea, I was born awake and I just keep waking up. As soon as I realize I've been sleeping all along, I wake up once more.

It's making me apathetic.

[constituent]

Tried for a few years to educate people but it was extremely difficult back then with no internet and no DVD's.

And you were in S.A., nothing if not a military town.

[diggronpaul]

Maybe it's time to start a thread called "How awake are you?"

For example, who knows that most cults are run by the same people that run our intel agencies? OTO is run for a former US Army General.

[Conza88]

I was never really in a coma. I've always been searching for the truth... if anything I was a sleep walker.

Thing is, I'd never been shown the truth, never heard Liberty or free markets.

But as soon as I saw Ron Paul, it all happened.

I was initially grabbed by his trust, and consistency. That is a big factor. His foriegn policy views matched those of my attempted indoctrination (first bit of uni, Chomsky etc)

[ClayTrainor]

I'll admit, i used to lean left. It's hard not to in Canada when even our so-called 'Conservative' leaders are big spenders. It wasn't until i discovered Ron Paul back in mid-2007 that i started moving into a conservative approach. I now consider myself a staunch conservative and rarely find an issue in which i think the government needs to 'do more'.

I used to buy into all of it. Michael Moore convinced me that Guns were a huge issue in america and were responsible for shootings like Columbine, etc. It's easy to become liberal when you just take all the information thrown at you by the media, at surface value.

I woke up in 2007, and will fight for liberty til death. I will move to America if we actually have a real impact and restore the Constitution before they just get rid of it.

[Anti Federalist]

Waco.

That was the turning point.

That was when I realized it truly was "us" vs. "them".

[AggieforPaul]

I was a full on neo-con from 7th grade onward because all my parents and teachers were. By late high school I was against the Iraq war and tired of Republican hypocrisy, but I was still mostly in favor of the concept of spreading democracy at gun point and killing those evil dictators, I just thought Bush was doing a poor job at executing it.

Then I heard Ron Paul debate Giuliani in 2007. At first I thought Ron Paul was crazy, but after researching it, I realized he was dead on. I still was resistant to the gold standards and privatizing everything for awhile, but I eventually came around.

[raiha]

I was trying to figure out the American psyche. It both infuriated and fascinated me. Then i read something by Shelby Foote. He said if you really want to understand the American psyche, you have to understand the American Civil War or the WBTS as i learnt to call it. Then i learnt about that horrendous fratricidal unnecessary war and how Lincoln was a fraud. Tom DiLorenzo led me to Lew Rockwell..stumbled on Ron Paul, had a tea party in Auckland Harbour and have been on this forum ever since!

For better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health to death us do part.

Still haven't figured out the American psyche.

I've gone nostalgic. Here's our tea party:

http://www.youtube.com:80/watch?v=TzdeO9pQ0p4


http://nz.youtube.com:80/watch?v=4f997-10oNo

[hotbrownsauce]

I was always a friend to freedom and civil liberties. I was a big fan of Thomas Jefferson and the constitution partially because of my family history. I hated how corrupt government is and I really wanted to get involved. That is about the time I was introduced to Paul and the rest of you people. I can say it would have taken me a longer time to get where I am today if it weren't for all of you courageous people.

[Truth Warrior]

I was always a friend to freedom and civil liberties. I was a big fan of Thomas Jefferson and the constitution partially because of my family history. I hated how corrupt government is and I really wanted to get involved. That is about the time I was introduced to Paul and the rest of you people. I can say it would have taken me a longer time to get where I am today if it weren't for all of you courageous people. Sorry, "big fan of Thomas Jefferson and the constitution" just doesn't really compute for me. :(

Revolution of 1800
Politics and Public Service

Some observers have regarded Jefferson (http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h664.html)'s election in 1800 (http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h448.html) as revolutionary. This may be true in a restrained sense of the word, since the change from Federalist (http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h377.html) leadership to Republican (http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h446.html) was entirely legal and bloodless. Nevertheless, the changes were profound. The Federalists lost control of both the presidency and the Congress.

By 1800, the American people were ready for a change. Under Washington (http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h658.html) and Adams (http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h460.html), the Federalists had established a strong government. They sometimes failed, however, to honor the principle that the American government must be responsive to the will of the people. They had followed policies that alienated large groups. For example, in 1798 they enacted a tax on houses, land and slaves, affecting every property owner in the country.

Jefferson had steadily gathered behind him a great mass of small farmers, shopkeepers and other workers; they asserted themselves in the election of 1800. Jefferson enjoyed extraordinary favor because of his appeal to American idealism. In his inaugural address, the first such speech in the new capital of Washington, D.C. (http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1932.html), he promised "a wise and frugal government" to preserve order among the inhabitants, but would "leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry, and improvement." Jefferson's mere presence in The White House (http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h461.html) encouraged democratic behavior. White House guests were encouraged to shake hands with the president, rather than bowing as had been the Federalist practice. Guests at state dinners were seated at round tables, which emphasized a sense of equality. He taught his subordinates to regard themselves merely as trustees of the people. He encouraged agriculture and westward expansion. Believing America to be a haven for the oppressed, he urged a liberal naturalization law.

Federalists feared the worst. Some worried that Jefferson, the great admirer of the French, would set up a guillotine on Capitol Hill.

http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h470.html (http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h470.html)

"The Constitution would be a major improvement over what we have today. But we need to realize that the Constitution itself represented a major increase in government power over the Articles of Confederation, which would have served us quite well had it not been overthrown. I'm not impressed by the bunch that foisted the Constitution on us. They were really up to no good. We've all but forgotten that most everyone opposed it at the time. It only squeaked through once the Bill of Rights was tacked on. The Bill of Rights isn't perfect, but it at least had the advantage of spelling out what the government could not do. In a rather ingenious twist, even that has been perverted: it is now seen as a mandate for the federal government to tell lower orders of government what they cannot do, meaning that it ends up being a force for centralization. This is such a tragedy. If Patrick Henry could see what became of it, I'm sure he never would have tolerated it. The same might be true of Hamilton, for that matter. So long as we are talking about founding documents, the one that really deserves more attention is the Declaration of Independence. Now here is an inspiring document that shows us where we should go in the future!" -- Lew Rockwell

[Xenophage]

Hopefully your parents let you form your own points of view on things rather than institutionalize you into the libertarian ideas ?!

I will NEVER express my political beliefs or religious in front of my children. I think it is important for them to do the research themselves and form there own opinions. Then if they stray far from the path that i walk, i can debate there ideas and if the decide to change there minds then it is there choice. This is why we have the problems with religion that we do today.:cool:

My parents plugged me into the "libertarianize-o-matic" brainwashing device when I was a baby. Libertarianism is all about control, you know.

[JosephTheLibertarian]

For me it was gradual, and I dozed back off several times and sort of faded back and forth for a while before fully awakening. Think about that as you see the confusing behavior of some others (i.e. media personalities) as they are slowly awakening. It's a mind-fucker to come to terms with the fact that you've been wrong about damn near everything you ever thought you knew. It's also a mind-fucker trying to allow yourself to accept that things are really as bad as "all the crazies" have been saying they are.

yep. I stumbled upon the wikipedia entry of "libertarianism." It grabbed me.

[acptulsa]

I remember (barely) not being able to watch cartoons because my older sister wanted very much to watch the Watergate hearings. My dad was quite upset. He wanted very much to have faith in Republicans, and didn't appreciate Agnew, Nixon et al bursting his bubble all to hell. Can't say that woke me up. It would be more accurate to say that kind of immunized me, like a vaccination...

[ladyjade3]

After living in a 3rd world country (Haiti) for three years seeing poverty all around me and thinking about welfare, entitlements and safety nets in economies that have no resources.

Then reading some Ayn Rand... and a lot of thought.

[StudentForPaul08]

I was pretty liberal. I thought Republicans were just backwards people not wanting progress. I was pretty bad lol. I wanted Bush in '00 when in Elementary school but while in middle school I was all for Kerry in '04. I got so liberal it was scary. I always knew things were corrupt but thought "If we just got the right people in there". In 2007 I discovered Ron Paul. I agree(d) with him on social issues (Except abortion, I am still up in the air) and war, but I never thought there was such common sense in the Republican Party. I kept reading, and coming to sites like this. Before I knew it I was a hardcore freedom advocate, and supporter of the Constitution and Ron Paul. Boy have i changed. And thankfully I did!

[Original_Intent]

After living in a 3rd world country (Haiti) for three years seeing poverty all around me and thinking about welfare, entitlements and safety nets in economies that have no resources.

Then reading some Ayn Rand... and a lot of thought.

I also remember the first time I saw Rachel online :D

You were sporting a Ron Paul t-shirt on youtube and the (male) crowd was going wild.... ;)

[ProBlue33]

2006 onward, and even more during Ron Paul's early primary run.

The points he made during the GOP debates were uniquely fresh and new to me.

Research on The FED, 9/11, Bilderberg, CFR, PNAC, TLC were real eye openers.
I knew about other stuff before that, but the economic variables with the controlers at the top was tototally unknown to me.

It's scary to wake up to these truths, makes you sick, that there is so much evil greed in this world. And only a very few good good men like Ron Paul are trying to stop it.

[Truth Warrior]

"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make ye free" .... but first it shall really tick ye off. ;)

[Todd]

I was a hard-core neocon. Many around here would probably think that I'm now "cointelpro" if they had known me three years ago.

Ditto. It was around the time that I started corresponding with a socialist who was against the Iraq war and was supporting Ron Paul in 2007 that I started to see that my Neocon ways weren't exactly true to conservatism.
I canceled my National Review that year after a decade, and don't venture much on those old so called "conservative" websites much these days.

[Rocket80]

I was pretty liberal (my parents are both democrats) with some libertarian leanings. I did vote for Al Gore and John Kerry, but mostly as votes against Bush. Also I used to stay up late In middle school and HS watching Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher and found myself agreeing with him a lot, then one night he mentioned he leaned libertarian and I looked it up and liked it (I realize now he isn't very libertarian, and is pretty much a hard left-winger, I still like him though). It was still only a casual interest though. But my real transformation happened right after that second republican primary debate when Ron Paul owned Giuliani about why the terrorists hate us and I realized I had to look into this guy more. That is what hooked me, and pretty much made me obsessed with this stuff ever since.

[rancher89]

I grew up very socialist, my father was asked to work for Robert Kennedy's campaign, but turned them down. The whole socialist thing made sense, big business will hurt the workers if we don't have strong unions, we must have socialized medicine or people will die.......(It took my husband 7 yrs of arguing at the Thanksgiving table to get my father to admit he's a communist--he read out of the com manifesto certain lines and my father agreed, 'bout stroked when my husband showed him what he was really agreeing to...) I turned apathetic to politics after the 70's, I had joined the Army as a medic and took care of guys coming back from Nam, it was a difficult time, lost many friends. Voted for Donald Duck and Mickie many times, but always voted, never for Dems, never for Repubs and really didn't think 3rd parties made much sense. Moved in with now husband around 2000 and started reading back issues of Reason. When we heard RP was going to run, I started to keep up with stuff, Oct of 2007 we both jumped in with both feet. Now third parties make sense to me, I still believe in the 2 party system, they just have to be two different parties.....

[hotbrownsauce]

Sorry, "big fan of Thomas Jefferson and the constitution" just doesn't really compute for me. :(


Allow me to elaborate. I mean to say that from the readings I had of Thomas Jefferson I felt the same as he on government subjects. I was also impressed by Jeffersons knowledge. As for the constitution I learned and understood the meaning behind it and felt strongly in preserving it instead of unconstitutionally ripping it apart as the Federal Government does today. I always tell people if there is something you don't agree with it is simple, vote to change the constitution.

[Feenix566]

For me it happened when I read "Give Me a Break" by John Stossel.

[Truth Warrior]

Allow me to elaborate. I mean to say that from the readings I had of Thomas Jefferson I felt the same as he on government subjects. I was also impressed by Jeffersons knowledge. As for the constitution I learned and understood the meaning behind it and felt strongly in preserving it instead of unconstitutionally ripping it apart as the Federal Government does today. I always tell people if there is something you don't agree with it is simple, vote to change the constitution.

Sorry, voting is not an option for me either. Thanks for the clarification. ;) :)

"The system is corrupt, beyond redemption, and is not worthy of my support!"

[Kludge]

For me it happened when I read "Give Me a Break" by John Stossel.

Really? Stossel in the Classroom was shown to me by my Economics teacher... Made me question a lot of my faith in government.

[RCA]

I've always been interested in discovering truth (loved the Nova JFK documentary as a kid, then liked the movie Super Size Me and the book Fast Food Nation a few years ago). However, the time that I really began to find truth was summer of 2005 when a friend of mine showed me the "In Plane Sight" 9/11 documentary. After that I went home and researched 9/11 more. A few months later I found Rense.com and began reading about The Fed and the international banksters. In January 2007 I saw an article posted on Rense.com about a Congressman named Ron Paul who was one of us. The article was linking to an Alex Jones article. After that I became a true revolutionary politico.

[futureleft]

I got into an argument with people who called themselves libertarians....not about government but I wanted to shame their libertarianism. I read a book by David Boaz and another by Charles Murray...both libertarian "primers". I found that I agreed with both books.

Then I found Ron Paul during the presidential election, which led me to Austrian economics, mostly mises.org and lewrockwell.com. Hooked ever since. I think Peter Schiff did the most to illuminate economics for me.

[MsDoodahs]

Then i read something by Shelby Foote.

:D

I am going to have to find my copy of September, September now.

[Bman]

Mid October 2007.
Strangley enough I was located at this exact location.
(http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&q=map+munich+airport&um=1&ie=UTF-8&split=0&gl=us&ei=YD_MSb_HCuHelQe-9OTmCQ&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&resnum=1&ct=image)

If you want to call waking up when you say holy shit what the f**k is going on.

[Truth Warrior]

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i304/Truth_Warrior/red-pill-or-blue-pill.jpg

[Knightskye]

It was about 1:50 p.m., and I had a couple pop tarts.

Oh... right... different kind of wake up. :D

[canadian4ronpaul]

I like what conza said about sleepwalking, I think that defines how I was perfectly. I used to be a socialist/communist, as I saw in our society the only way to be free to do as you please is to be rich, which I saw as unfair. Last year some important things happened. One of them was taking a course about communism, which totally turned me off from the idea. I learned about the totalitarian nature of the communist government in Russia, and how the political party dominated literally every aspect of life. there were no private clubs or anything. Any form of social life somehow involved party officials and it really made me open my eyes.

I also watched zeitgeist. The first 2 sections (jesus and 9/11) I didnt really care for, but it was always the part about central banking which really caught my interest, even though I barely understood it from the movie.

With these things on my mind I then was on youtube, looking up barack obama to try and learn more about him as the media had hyped him up so much, and of course the comments were full of ron paul people and lots of links to ron paul videos. After watching the debates and seeing his anti-war position, that drew me to him initially, and then when I saw that he was talking about the central banks and opposing government tyranny I found the one politician who was talking about the things that had recently become important to me. I watched endless amounts of videos and came here and I guess the rest is history!

I should note however that I am still skeptical on a few issues, namely gun control and certain welfare programs among others

edit-Forgot to mention JOHN STOSSEL. this guy totally changed my mind on basically every issue he presented. Stossel is prime material for conversions.

[zach]

I was quite apathetic until I started to watch the Republican debates. I noticed an old man saying stuff about the Constitution while everyone else was laughing at him. Naturally, I was curious as to why, so I started looking at the videos on Youtube, then I eventually watched Zeitgeist.

I realized the trouble we are in, and that's why I began to support him.

[werdd]

I was raised in a libertarian family. I had an argument with my 5th grade teacher about why the government had to run the roads. I refused to say the pledge of allegiance.

I was a little bastard.

http://rexcurry.net/nazi%20salute%206.jpg

[diggronpaul]

I was quite apathetic until I started to watch the Republican debates. I noticed an old man saying stuff about the Constitution while everyone else was laughing at him. Naturally, I was curious as to why, so I started looking at the videos on Youtube, then I eventually watched Zeitgeist.

I realized the trouble we are in, and that's why I began to support him.
Just so you know, the laughs were faked. Either is was computer generated or they had shills in the audience with microphones. It's a media trick.

[zach]

Just so you know, the laughs were faked. Either is was computer generated or they had shills in the audience with microphones. It's a media trick.

Hm.. interesting. Didn't know that!

[Bern]

*IMG*red pill/blue pill*/IMG*

I prefer this one:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_jPd36b-Ykx0/SOl1xL1rZ5I/AAAAAAAAAHE/XEEJIys4FKM/s400/theylive.jpg

[InterestedParticipant]

A few years after Indonesia invaded East Timor I learned that Ford (along with Kissinger) secretly sold the Indonesians the weapons to slaughter the defenseless East Timorese (Ford having visited Jakarta the day before the invasion started in Dec 1975). If my memory serves me correctly, a US oil company wanted access to offshore East Timorese oil, but the little village people stood in their way.

Of course, the story was totally blacked-out in the USA. Americans still don't know anything about it. I only found out because I traveled extensively in that part of the world and it was widely covered by the media across Australasia.

Some background here:
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB62/

P.S. While I'm no fan of Chomsky, he was the only American I was aware of that was discussing the issue in America..... so I give him props for that.

[Truth Warrior]

I prefer this one:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_jPd36b-Ykx0/SOl1xL1rZ5I/AAAAAAAAAHE/XEEJIys4FKM/s400/theylive.jpg
That works too. ;)

[Romantarchist]

(My background)

I'm 19 years old. I was raised in a strictly Republican and conservative family. My mom voted for Perot, Dole, Bush twice. She also voted for McCain, but doesn't like him at all and only did it because Chuck Baldwin wasn't on the ballot in our state. My dad voted for Clinton the first time and said it's the thing he regrets most in his life. He gets alot of libertarian news from Rense. My mom has read "The Creature From Jekyll Island" (best book about the Federal Reserve ever written) I'd say my mom is currently a cross between conservative and libertarian, and my dad's an "unclassifiable libertarian".

Throughout junior high and high school, I was a devoted Bush fan. I thought that the Patriot Act, increased airport security, the Department Of Homeland Security, the Iraq War, etc. were all necessary to fight the threat of Islamic Terrorism. At the same time, there were cracks in what I believed in. I remember in May, 2002 when I was 13, sitting in my bedroom and thinking "if terrorists attacked us because of our freedoms and because of Islam, why haven't they been attacking America like that for years?" but I shrugged it off, thinking I knew so little about the situation that there had to be a simple answer. When I tried to defend the Iraq War, I couldn't really find much of a reason to defend it. But I did anyways because I didn't know better.

When I was 16, something happened to me that forever shook my view of authority in general. Let's just say it robbed me of a group of friends that I loved alot, and now I can never see them again. I went through a strange psychological period where I was filled with a ton of anger and all my beliefs began to change. I stumbled around through a highly leftist brand of pseudo-anarchy, and then arrived at being a Jeffersonian/Austrian libertarian after using the power of the internet and Ron Paul's campaign to educate myself.

[The One]

bump

[sunghoko]

Started with Stossel on 20/20 when i was young. Always wondered why this guy was making so much sense. Then in '04, started to watch the 3rd party debates with Cobb, Peroutka, Badnarik because I absolutely was not impressed with either Bush or Kerry. Watching Cobb/Badnarik unite and fight to get in on the debates was inspiring. A few years pased. Then I saw RP on emergencycheese youtube page and that changed everything.

[Original_Intent]

Sometime around 1992. I read a book called "An Enemy Hath Done This". Felt physically ill for about 6 months and wanted nothing more than to crawl under my bed and assume the fetal position. Heard about congressman Ron Paul shortly afterwards and started to feel there was a glimmer or two of hope out there.