"Conservative" teen wunderkind no longer a "conservative"...shocker. /sarcasm

[Cowlesy]

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/teenager-who-once-wowed-conservatives-with-cpac-speech-admits-no-longer-conservative/


So he's not really a social conservative anymore, but he doesn't want to call himself a liberal.

Well Jonathan, welcome to neo-conservatism. We always knew you'd arrive there sooner or later.

[Lucille]

LOL Exactly. He's a neo-con now. It's a big club, and now he can easily fit into "either" party.

[dannno]

lol, John Krohn was the name of my weed dealer in college.

I'll bet this kid becomes a weed dealer at NYU.

[muzzled dogg]

Hilarious

Honestly I don't remember this kid at all tho

[CaseyJones]

well at least the little nazi knows who he is now

[jdmyprez_deo_vindice]

I am shocked I tell ya.... Shocked. Though it will work well for his future career when he goes on national television as a moral crusader and talks about his time "slumming it" as a drug using, alcohol addicted liberal and uses that to somehow work into why he is crying about 9/11 every two minutes. Glenn Beck will have nothing on you kid.

[Austrian Econ Disciple]

Can anyone name any real conservative intellectuals? It's no shocker it's a dying breed; incoherent, contradictory, and very violent. Who was the last intellectual they had? Kirk? Been dead for almost twenty years now.

We're finally coming back to the central issue and competing philosophies - Libertarianism or Progressivism (Tyranny). It's always been this battle. This kid should read Chodorov, Bastiat, Dunoyer, Quesnay, Overton, John Taylor of Caroline, Anti-Federalist Papers, etc.

How can you say your position is correct if you stick to Nietzche and Wittgenstein type of folks, and on the other hand are people like Coulter..LOL. Read Hegel, Read Marx, Read Hobson, Read Proudhon, Read Burke and Kirk, and early Buckley, and then read Rothbard, Mises, Bastiat, Paine, and Bright/Cobden, and Molinari, Herbert Spencer, and Nock, and John T. Flynn, and then maybe you can discern where your values lay and where the truth lay.

[BuddyRey]

I never got why conservatives were buzzing so much on this kid. But then again, I'm the only guy I know who wasn't bowled over by Obama's keynote speech at the 2004 DNC too.

[KingNothing]

Can anyone name any real conservative intellectuals? It's no shocker it's a dying breed; incoherent, contradictory, and very violent. Who was the last intellectual they had? Kirk? Been dead for almost twenty years now.

We're finally coming back to the central issue and competing philosophies - Libertarianism or Progressivism (Tyranny). It's always been this battle. This kid should read Chodorov, Bastiat, Dunoyer, Quesnay, Overton, John Taylor of Caroline, Anti-Federalist Papers, etc.

How can you say your position is correct if you stick to Nietzche and Wittgenstein type of folks, and on the other hand are people like Coulter..LOL. Read Hegel, Read Marx, Read Hobson, Read Proudhon, Read Burke and Kirk, and early Buckley, and then read Rothbard, Mises, Bastiat, Paine, and Bright/Cobden, and Molinari, Herbert Spencer, and Nock, and John T. Flynn, and then maybe you can discern where your values lay and where the truth lay.

The non-Paul wing of conservatism is, generally, filled with hate, bigotry, authoritarianism and the infantile disease of nationalism. Listening to every presidential candidate not named Ron Paul was extremely difficult this time around.

[KingNothing]

I never got why conservatives were buzzing so much on this kid. But then again, I'm the only guy I know who wasn't bowled over by Obama's keynote speech at the 2004 DNC too.

People are generally very, very stupid.

[Southron]

He says he got into German philosophy so I'm not surprised.

[devil21]

He was just a little kid at 13 that didn't know anything, but now that he's a wise old man at age 17 he knows who he is. Yeah right kid.

I admire his candor at least but he'll go through so many phases and changes over the years that he'll forget who he thinks he is at 17.

What's the old saying? If you're not liberal in your 20's then you have no heart. If you're not conservative in your 40's then you have no brain.

[tfurrh]

He says he got into German philosophy so I'm not surprised.|

http://mattwords.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/german-cain1.jpg

Sorry.

[AuH20]

Where is this kid going to school???? Obamacare??? He likes obamacare???? He is that intellectually lazy to be snookered on a monstrousity like Obamacare?? Or is he overly EMO???? I think it's the latter.

[TheGrinch]

He was just a little kid at 13 that didn't know anything, but now that he's a wise old man at age 17 he knows who he is. Yeah right kid.

I admire his candor at least but he'll go through so many phases and changes over the years that he'll forget who he thinks he is at 17.

What's the old saying? If you're not liberal in your 20's then you have no heart. If you're not conservative in your 40's then you have no brain.
So true. I also grew up traditionally conservative, and then almost became liberal once educated about all of the problems of globalism and crony capitalism. However, it was a recognition that their solutions only made the problems worse that I quickly settled on libertarianism/fiscal conservatism (which is the true conservatism, not the special interests that it's been hijacked with just the same as the democrats).

[BuddyRey]

He was just a little kid at 13 that didn't know anything, but now that he's a wise old man at age 17 he knows who he is. Yeah right kid.

I admire his candor at least but he'll go through so many phases and changes over the years that he'll forget who he thinks he is at 17.

What's the old saying? If you're not liberal in your 20's then you have no heart. If you're not conservative in your 40's then you have no brain.

Good point. He may think he is already fully-formed ideologically, but he seems clever enough and inquisitive enough to stumble onto libertarianism eventually.

When I was 17, I was a theocratic neocon. At 22 I was hardcore left progressive. Now at 28, I'm a libertarian anarchist. 10 years can change everything. ;)

[tfurrh]

The roots of your raising run deep. You'll come back for the strength that you need - Merle Haggard

[KingNothing]

He was just a little kid at 13 that didn't know anything, but now that he's a wise old man at age 17 he knows who he is. Yeah right kid.

I admire his candor at least but he'll go through so many phases and changes over the years that he'll forget who he thinks he is at 17.



Yep. And he'll eventually hate the philosophies he clings to now.

...man. I'm happy no one was recording the things I so confidently spouted when I was 13. And 17. I was so much older than. I'm younger than that now.

[heavenlyboy34]

At least he recognizes the failure of conservatism. Now he needs to recognize the failure of other brands of statism-including the one he's embraced. It may take a while for this character, though.

[Austrian Econ Disciple]

He says he got into German philosophy so I'm not surprised.

Pretty much. The French is where it is at.

[Cowlesy]

I never got why conservatives were buzzing so much on this kid. But then again, I'm the only guy I know who wasn't bowled over by Obama's keynote speech at the 2004 DNC too.

Because mainstream, retail "conservatism" is nothing more than a program to sell books and advertising on the radio. There aren't any principles to it. Just think of Hannity trying to say the founding fathers were conservatives -- they weren't, they were more often than not liberals (but in the classical sense, not the vapid egalitarian sense of today). They saw the french push for libertie/egalitie/fraternitie and wanted no part in any of that. Probably why I see so many modern liberals profess to be fans of the French revolution.

Even then, what is really all about, beyond semantics? Someone in the 12th century would scoff at my rough scribble of ideologies, no doubt. People who personally adhere to a strict metaphysics and philosophy are quite rare, and really have no place in politics. Kind of like hardcore, absolutist puritan libertarians. It's easy to shout someone down when you adhere to an absolutist view where there can't be an exception.

At least the kid is realizing that reading books by Neil Boortz does not make one an expert on "conservatism." I recall that being one of the books on his bookshelf, displayed prominently as if "you can't argue with me, I've read Boortz!!!"

[jmdrake]

I never got why conservatives were buzzing so much on this kid. But then again, I'm the only guy I know who wasn't bowled over by Obama's keynote speech at the 2004 DNC too.

I was bowled over by the fact that they were letting some unknown state senator have a primetime speaking spot and I thought then "they're grooming this dude to run for president". As for the kid, just finding a 13 year old boy that knows something more about the world then sports, girls and video games is enough to impress some people. Speaking of girls, I bet that's why he dropped his conservative ideals.

[AuH20]

I was bowled over by the fact that they were letting some unknown state senator have a primetime speaking spot and I thought then "they're grooming this dude to run for president". As for the kid, just finding a 13 year old boy that knows something more about the world then sports, girls and video games is enough to impress some people. Speaking of girls, I bet that's why he dropped his conservative ideals.

Correct. EMO based peer pressure which was what I suspected.

There are numerous scenarios where he would be simply outmaneuvered based on that prevalent biases that manifest themselves at that age group:

- You really want to let poor people suffer without life saving healthcare? You are a monster!!! <slaps face as she leaves for her class>

- So you are against my reproductive rights??? Don't touch me Jesus freak!!!

- Sound money??!!!?? How do you expect me to pay my college loans when your policies would dramatically increase my rates??

[CaseyJones]

just to be clear this kid was never for sound money afaik

[NoOneButPaul]

"Sure to be a leader of his generation's return to conservatism." - Newt Gingrich




Yeaaa... riggggghttt....

I'll bet anything he flips back in about 10 years so we can all remember him for a few seconds again.

[Austrian Econ Disciple]

Because mainstream, retail "conservatism" is nothing more than a program to sell books and advertising on the radio. There aren't any principles to it. Just think of Hannity trying to say the founding fathers were conservatives -- they weren't, they were more often than not liberals (but in the classical sense, not the vapid egalitarian sense of today). They saw the french push for libertie/egalitie/fraternitie and wanted no part in any of that. Probably why I see so many modern liberals profess to be fans of the French revolution.

Even then, what is really all about, beyond semantics? Someone in the 12th century would scoff at my rough scribble of ideologies, no doubt. People who personally adhere to a strict metaphysics and philosophy are quite rare, and really have no place in politics. Kind of like hardcore, absolutist puritan libertarians. It's easy to shout someone down when you adhere to an absolutist view where there can't be an exception.

At least the kid is realizing that reading books by Neil Boortz does not make one an expert on "conservatism." I recall that being one of the books on his bookshelf, displayed prominently as if "you can't argue with me, I've read Boortz!!!"

So, there is no room for people in politics who proclaim that thievery is always morally unjust? Or that all murder is unjust? That you can not hold any non-contradictory principles? Why, yes, I agree! Thanks for making my point for me. So, how are you going to make any 'change' in such a system that completely shuts out justice and morality? Their entire de jure is based on whims and fancies.

[nobody's_hero]

The GOP was so excited about him, too.

"Yay, we have (a) youth in our party. Look everyone! Obama has his youth movement, now we have ours!"

lol

[Sola_Fide]

"I started getting into philosophy — Nietzsche, Wittgenstein, Kant and lots of other German philosophers."

Ah..... nothing like a little dialecticism to turn your "principles" to mush.

[Agorism]

Amen to this thread.

I remember noticing that kid up there at CPAC, and thinking how dumb it was to have a 13 year old as a speaker to begin with.

[angelatc]

I was bowled over by the fact that they were letting some unknown state senator have a primetime speaking spot and I thought then "they're grooming this dude to run for president". As for the kid, just finding a 13 year old boy that knows something more about the world then sports, girls and video games is enough to impress some people. Speaking of girls, I bet that's why he dropped his conservative ideals.

Because he's sexually repulsed by them? Could be.

[Badger Paul]

Why am I not surprised...because some CPAC flunkie thought it wonderful to hear the view of a nine-year old?

[Agorism]

There was a link on huffingtonpost where he is on Hardball talking about politics this week. I was about to make a thread about it, but then I didn't think he was worth listening to for 30 seconds.

[Valli6]

Amen to this thread.

I remember noticing that kid up there at CPAC, and thinking how dumb it was to have a 13 year old as a speaker to begin with.
CPAC put him on to gauge the gullibility of the "conservative" crowd. TPTB wanted to make sure there were still enough ignoramuses amongst them to go ahead with plans to make Mitt Romney the Republican candidate in the next presidential election. How much do you wanna bet that every "conservative" that was taken in by this child actor's performance - also believes that Mitt Romney is acceptably conservative, with policies that are very different from Obama's?

(For those of you that are unaware - this kid was/is a child actor, and his mother is an acting teacher at a junior high school. This revelation of his is just another performance.:rolleyes:)

[DerailingDaTrain]

Kid grew up in a neo-con home so he ended up a liberal.

[farreri]

I was kinda in the same boat as this kid. I grew up being influenced by "conservative" family members, being forced to go to boring conservative Catholic church and schools, and when I started coming into my own in the later part of High School, I started to realize how uptight and hypocritical "conservatives" were, especially in the area of civil liberties, so the only option I knew to switch to was to be a liberal. No one told me about libertarianism back then. I wonder if it's the same with this kid?

[emazur]

He says he got into German philosophy so I'm not surprised.

The article specifically mentioned Kant (Ayn Rand's mortal enemy) as one of the influences, so yeah.


As for the kid, just finding a 13 year old boy that knows something more about the world then sports, girls and video games is enough to impress some people. Speaking of girls, I bet that's why he dropped his conservative ideals.

I was a teen through the late 90s and pretty much no one my age, including me, talked about politics. Things probably haven't changed that much since but I guess it depends on how his beliefs affected the way he interacted with people. I doubt too many girls would care if he said taxes should be lowered, the budget balanced, and welfare reduced. But if he went around saying premarital sex was a sin, abortion doctors deserve to die, gays should have their nuts cut off, and that marijuana smokers deserve to be thrown in "pound me in the ass" federal prison, that would be an instant turn off to many people, teenage girls included.

I'll give him credit though for exploring things beyond the typical teen interests. He was wrong at 13 and he's wrong for different reasons at 17, but if you never go about searching for ideological positions you will never cast off the old ones in favor of a better fit. He's on the wrong trail now, but his gives him some potential:

Krohn won’t go so far as to say he’s liberal, in part because his move away from conservatism was a move away from ideological boxes in general.

“I want to be Jonathan Krohn,” he said, “and I’m tired of being an ideology, and it’s not fun and it gets boring and it’s not who we are as individuals.”

Chris Rock's excellent take on this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIA4__0DIXE

[DerailingDaTrain]

The article specifically mentioned Kant (Ayn Rand's mortal enemy) as one of the influences, so yeah.



I was a teen through the late 90s and pretty much no one my age, including me, talked about politics. Things probably haven't changed that much since but I guess it depends on how his beliefs affected the way he interacted with people. I doubt too many girls would care if he said taxes should be lowered, the budget balanced, and welfare reduced. But if he went around saying premarital sex was a sin, abortion doctors deserve to die, gays should have their nuts cut off, and that marijuana smokers deserve to be thrown in "pound me in the ass" federal prison, that would be an instant turn off to many people, teenage girls included.

I'll give him credit though for exploring things beyond the typical teen interests. He was wrong at 13 and he's wrong for different reasons at 17, but if you never go about searching for ideological positions you will never cast off the old ones in favor of a better fit. He's on the wrong trail now, but his gives him some potential:


Chris Rock's excellent take on this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIA4__0DIXE

Why would Chris Rock say that and then endorse Obama?

[emazur]

Why would Chris Rock say that and then endorse Obama?

Dollars to donuts is b/c he's black. Here's what Samuel L. Jackson said:
http://www.tmz.com/2012/02/11/barack-obama-samuel-l-jackson/?adid=hero2#.TzkDvyOghZk

"I voted for Barack because he was black. 'Cuz that's why other folks vote for other people — because they look like them ... That's American politics, pure and simple. [Obama's] message didn't mean [bleep] to me."


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtw1bMc4vdc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sbvXvS3LhA

[wgadget]

Eat your heart out, Sean Hannity.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/A-Child-Grows-Up-by-Bob-Regl-120705-687.html

[James Madison]

Why is this good news? You can at least converse with most conservatives. But libs are 10x worse. They pretend to support freedom when they do not.

[Drex]

I'm extremely conservative on economic issues but for social issues I'm liberal, not on the abortion issue though.

[Feeding the Abscess]

Why is this good news? You can at least converse with most conservatives. But libs are 10x worse. They pretend to support freedom when they do not.

Every political ideology couches itself in terms of liberty and freedom.

[Sullivan*]

I never got why conservatives were buzzing so much on this kid. But then again, I'm the only guy I know who wasn't bowled over by Obama's keynote speech at the 2004 DNC too.

Mostly because he was young and "saying all the right things". As simple as that; old people liked what he was saying so they praise him hoping that other little ones would accept the BS. I was exactly the same way before 2008, simply because Fox was the dominant political program in the home. My grandma doesn't like talking with me about politics anymore. :D

[wgadget]

From my understanding he has only gone SOCIALLY LIBERAL. Next stop, libertarianism. Get the kid some Mises books.

[Feeding the Abscess]

From my understanding he has only gone SOCIALLY LIBERAL. Next stop, libertarianism. Get the kid some Mises books.

He supports Obamacare, or so I read.

Still, that he's not a dittohead anymore is progress, and shows he's looking for answers instead of getting them from on high.

[GeorgiaAvenger]

From my understanding he has only gone SOCIALLY LIBERAL. Next stop, libertarianism. Get the kid some Mises books.supports Obamacare

[Sullivan*]

He supports Obamacare, or so I read.

Still, that he's not a Republican dittohead anymore is progress, and shows he's looking for answers instead of getting them from on high.

FTFY

[Feeding the Abscess]

FTFY

A dittohead is specifically someone who is a Rush Limbaugh follower, no fixing needed.

[Lucille]

CPAC embarrassed itself, and so did all of this kid's "conservative" fans like Hannity (samo samo there though).

Updated: Looking To Children To Lead (http://barelyablog.com/?p=5384)


Speaking of spooky children, the hallmark of a progressive or left-liberal is a philosophical adulation of The Child. The Child is said to possess uncanny prescience; a primordial, pristine, un-spoilt wisdom. The same awe is accorded to the Nobel Savage, and to the natural world.

This explains why Republicans often have a “wunderkind” in the wings to parade and look up to. These days, it’s the barely-out-of short pants CPAC star, Jonathan Krohn, who’s precocious and off-putting. Krohn is an author no less. The treatise is “Define Conservatism.” From the mouth of the babe himself, the book sounds childish and simplistic in tone and in metaphor. Just what Boobus loves.
[...]
Seeking sagacity in a child’s words is perverted, unconservative.

[devil21]

The kid could have milked his "conservative cred" for all it was worth and ended up getting bigwigs to pay for his college and paying speaking gigs and whatnot. He let a big cash cow go with his statement and even if I don't agree with his positions (for the moment...he'll change again later), he has integrity by being honest about it and that's a good start.

[EBounding]

Ha ha I remember this kid. Even in my neo-con days, I couldn't understand why people were swooning over this kid.

He also reminds me of Daxflame (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyXPczvLOsk&feature=plcp) for some reason.

[economics102]

This kid was a dork back then and he's still a dork now.

If I could have a conversation with this kid it would go like this:


dismissing his former views as childish parroting of views he grew up hearing. You’re really defeating yourself if you think you have all of your ideas in your head when you were 12 or 13. It’s impossible. You haven’t done enough.

I agree.


He goes on to attribute his conversion to “maturity overall”: “People don’t realize I was 14 when I wrote that book. I’m 17 now.

I agree. Andthree years from now, you'll realize that 17 is not old enough to have figured everything out yet either.

[Weston White]

1. So he would vote for “Obama”.
2. While his favorite shows are “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report”.

Thus, that kid is clearly an idiot.



“People don’t realize I was 14 when I wrote that book. I’m 17 now. In terms of my life, three years is a long time in a 17-year-old’s life.”

And for his next trick (three-years from today), he’ll be gushing about all of the Alvin Toffler books he has been reading. Three-years is a breeze in the wind, neo-bot-tot.

[Sola_Fide]

I was such a strange kid. When I was 17, I was reading John Calvin and Francis Schaffer.

[pochy1776]

When I was 13 i dissed ron paul and wanted Mike Gravel to win. Now i fucking support him and i am 15. I read Conscience of A Conservative, The Great Gatsby, Old Man and the Sea, Dismantling america and some of Revolutionary Road.