Essay:How I Stopped Being a Conservative
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When I was in high school I had the reputation of being the 3rd, later second most conservative member of my graduating class(One guy left to go to a Christian school with special textbooks). I regularly derided the poor girl next to me as a "latte sipping liberal". The only liberal issues I was for was OSS, and a fear of peak oil.
Well I graduated from high school on election year, but was too young to vote on election day. I had supported Paul, and was not to thrilled with McCain, who I thought was forced upon us by Democrats voting in Republican primaries. However, I was thrilled by his vp choice. I was upset, but not surprised when Obama won the election, as everyone knew he had rigged it. I started reading the campaign for liberty website.
When I went to college however, the first cracks started to appear after the election. I had discovered slashdot, and tvtropes and Campaign for Liberty was starting to get weird. International Jewish Conspiracy WTF? I also noticed that the featured articles were by the same group of people, everytime.
Then, my sophomore year I discovered this site. At first, I was skeptical, but then I actually went to Conservapedia and saw the madness for myself. A friend of mine found RW and we began to read it together. We were fascinated by the "extreme wingnuttery" section. We could not believe what we were reading. But, being science majors, we fact-checked. We were stunned. We, both registered republicans, had never heard of these intolerant hate-mongers. When we first read your article on Bob Jones University, we thought it was satire. Then we went to their own website. I stopped reading the drudge report, and started checking multiple news sources. What each said, and what each did not say was startling. I asked my dad, who has a TV, to watch Fox and MSNBC, at the same time and report the difference. He was startled, and announced that his new method of watching the news was to average what they said together.
A short time after I created my account here, one of my grandmothers called me a communist, after I told her that drilling in the gulf was not the solution to all our energy problems. A staunch pro-exxon supporter who views George W Bush as the GREATEST PRESIDENT IN AMERICAN HISTORY, she refused to accept any facts and would not speak to me for about an hour. I slowly weaned my other grandmother off Ann Coulter and Mike Huckabee, she no longer approves of them.
Now my mother is calling me a communist after I criticized SUVs and Walmart. The "hippies down the street" don't seem so stupid anymore. My best friend and I have lifted our previous rule about not talking about politics now that we agree on most things. My dad launched into a 45 minute rant about how it was TV shows like "Leave it to Beaver" that ruined America. I agree with him now. I once thought the 1950s were the greatest decade in American History. Not anymore.
Thank You RationalWiki, for opening my eyes, and giving me something to do with my spare time. Tyrannis (talk) 14:21, 2 March 2010 (UTC)