Why did you choose your political beliefs?

[Fradonia]

Lets see I live in a bigoted neo-con town that hates gay people, hates blacks, hates Latinos.

Vladivostok?

First, can I just say I am still laughing uncontrollably at your response to Giana? Because I am. Still. After an Hour. Second, I second Calvin Coolidge as President 2012.

[Old Tyrannia]

It's a very long story.

I suppose I've been a conservative of the traditionalist variety more or less my whole life, even if I didn't consider myself as such until my research of different political ideologies brought me to the conclusion that I was very much a Right-winger. I think this stems from a detailed knowledge of history and a deep fascination with the past, a inherent dislike of 'messiness' and thus a need for a well-ordered society, and a preference for older culture and classicism over modern western 'pop' culture. Give me opera, baroque and formal dress over rap, modernism and jeans and t-shirts any day. I often thought, when I was younger and fascinated by the history of Italy, Egypt, China and other exotic places, that I lived in rather a dull and boring country; yet as I grew older I became better versed in the history of my own nation and people and realised that I come from a place with a unique culture and great heritage that deserves protecting.

Considering that my interest in politics arose just as the recession began, it's not surprising that I have developed a strong distrust of big business. I see individualist, liberal capitalism, unrestricted, as just as damaging to local culture and community as revolutionary socialism; and I think that my mother's Left-wing background probably influenced me more than I realised in the past in installing a keen awareness of the plight of the poor and a strong conviction that the weaker members of society need protecting, that the lower classes deserve better treatment and that the Government has a responsibility to provide social security and the means of living to the less fortunate members of society, hence my unusual mixture of Leftie and old-fashioned High Tory views.

Then there's environmentalism. I've always treasured the beauty I find in nature, and love animals. I get on better with animals than I do fellow humans, so wanting to protect the environment and nature, and thus preserve the Earth's biodiversity, seems a worthy aim to me. The monarchy embodies everything I admire- national unity, order, tradition, cultural uniqueness and a respect for the past- so I am a born monarchist. And I'm half-Scottish, half-English and possess a strong pride in both aspects of my ancestry and cultural background and a loyalty to both countries, so the continued unity of Great Britain suits me fine. Hence why I'm a unionist.

EDIT: Oh, and I picked 'reactionary' on the poll. I think it's the label that fits me best.

[Living Freedom Land]

I picked minarchist, but I'm really not that extreme of a libertarian, but I've gotta represent!

I first become interested in politics at a rather young age, elementary school in fact. I basically believed what my parents told me at that point, but in middle school (I'm about to graduate high school now) I found libertarianism on the internet. I read some of Rothbard's For A New Liberty, and became an anarcho-capitalist. However, overtime my views have become more moderate, and now I consider myself more of a Hayekian-Friedman type libertarian than a Rothbardian.

I don't really know why I chose libertarianism, other than it "just made sense" to me like so many others have posted. I was definitely looking for my own ideas, my own niche, and the thing I stumbled upon happened to be libertarianism. I've definitely changed my ideas some over time, but I definitely have maintained basic principles.

[Zwitterjiund]

I have my fair share if Liberal/Conservative views, for instance I believe in Communism (my own brand) yet I am madly in love with the monarchy.

No idea why I chose them, I hate people.

[Greed and Death]

I choose my beliefs for revenge.

[Cruciland]

Aye- well, I can certainly tell you that not every form of bigotry is poisonous. It'd be easier if you opposed both the wicked and the KKK, than go crazy and oppose the holy and the KKK...

Define holy for me.

A pale shadow of who you are. (and maybe were)

[Nightkill the Emperor]

Define holy for me.

A pale shadow of who you are. (and maybe were)

That tells me nothing.

[Seleucas]

Market anarchist. Used to be a neo-con (God have mercy on my soul), but though I could recognize the flaws of the political left I came to realize that the right was just as bad, with its military industrial complex, belligerent foreign policy, ugly nationalism, and attempts to coercively dictate the behavior of the population... and how a lot of it was not very different from the people who were ostensibly at the other end of the spectrum. So, since the evidence seemed not to point in favor to the coercion of the mainstream, I decided that people are better off left in peace than having to endure what amounts to a glorified racket.

[Hungary and Italy]

I have been all over the political spectrum i have followed politics half my life for nearly four years i was a communist. Then i learned about the soviet union and Reagan etc. Soon after i became a fascist conservative and over time i've become a right wing libretarian who believes in low middle class taxation moderate to high taxation for the top 10% low business taxes and social policy that actually respects the bill of rights.

[Tlaceceyaya]

A pale shadow of who you are. (and maybe were)

That tells me nothing.

It tells you that Holiness is when there is a light strongest on one side of you and weak on the other 360˚, forming a pale shadow on one side of you.

[ANARCHYISBEST]

I believe in anarchism because people are restricted to maintain social order and not allowed freedom to do what they want as long as they don't harm others..(Harm meaning physical harm like hitting or beating, etc.) I used to be liberal before I found out that a good chunk of liberals I met on ExperienceProject seem to be against a cause I hold very dear to myself, they do because of morals and ethics..Although they seem to have no problem with a comparable lifestyle that is equally fundamentally immoral or unethical....So and I did believe somewhat in the conservative ideals of small government, but even that is restricting, so I think 0 government settles it for me! When I say government, I mean national government, not state government...

[AppsHeroia]

Why did you choose your political beliefs?

I didn't, they just happened.

[Belucia (Ancient)]

Libertarian/individualist/voluntarist

I was born in a conservative family... so i kinda was born a conservative. During freshman year, when Obama was put into office, I became more politically aware. I was totally against Obama, still am today, but in the conservative way, not the libertarian way. Listened to Hannity, Rush, Beck, etc, for a long time. I started noticing our govt screwing us, with both economics and taking away our liberties. I did more and more research on our govt and what liberty truly means.....

A year or two later I had realized true liberty is being able to decide for yourself, and that you own yourself and not a govt or corporation. More recently I realized that government is indeed a monopoly of force.....

I now listen to Adam Kokesh....

[The Reasonable]

To quote Obama, my beliefs have been "evolving" over time as I went through different experiences.

At first I was a big government person when I was little because I was used to big government coming from China. I was considered liberal back then because I thought the big government I supported should be used for infrastructure and domestic social programs like in China and not on a useless war- I wasn't against big military spending but was against wasteful and fruitless war in Iraq. I did support a few conservative issues though like capital punishment and the 2nd amendment, both of which I still support to a limited extent.

As I grew into my teens, I met more sanctimonious, overly idealistic, peacenik/hippie type liberals in my middle school I turned conservative (and cynical, due to family turbulence at home), but not overly so- religion's never really been a part of my life so it was more of the minarchist, libertarian-type conservative as I "realized" how capitalism and business was the driving force of the economy and deregulation led to more investment, and that income inequality is actually well-deserved because of the different levels of effort each person puts into their studies and work (why should lazy people deserve anything other than poor living conditions?). But then, the right-wing popular-group holier-than-thou religious conservatives that I was close to went too far with their parochial idiocy in plain defiance of modern scientific knowledge and so I became libertarian. Of course, this is a bit weird considering that my family is at best lower middle class, but I felt that the rich deserved their wealth and that my family and I should keep working hard so that we moved upwards on the socioeconomic ladder. I felt extreme antipathy towards those well-off classmates of mine who, in my opinion, were being bleeding-heart liberals to feel good about themselves and their own consciences or being Tea Party douchebags because they couldn't think for themselves and were fed their politics by their parents.

Then came high school. My political views were thrown for a loop last year, when I had for my AP US History class reading assignments on A People's History of the United States. Though I still don't completely agree with Howard Zinn, I came to understand, more than when I was little, the liberal/socialist perspective and briefly became a democratic socialist myself. I even made friends with the very same liberals that I spurned in middle school- I realized that I was going against my own, working class interests with the libertarian thing of mine, and that a good portion of the poor were families like mine- hardworking but fell on unfortunate circumstances, and that welfare and benefits shouldn't be denied to all poor people just because some abuse it. The democratic socialist phase dissipated quickly, as my cynical self came back and reminded me that it's unfeasible. Now, I guess I'm generally center-left (in US terms, so center to center-right in Europe perhaps); I want equal rights but hate extremists that want to denigrate whites, males, and straight people as a group for "oppressing" minorities, females, and gays, which the vast majority haven't, and on economic issues I support capitalism as a fair system that rewards hard work and enterprise and support incentives on starting private enterprises but also support somewhat strict regulation on that capitalism and tax cuts/benefits mainly for the working poor and middle class because it's those groups that spend/consume the largest percentage of their income and they need to be rewarded for it, not anyone who hoards their wealth in some offshore account. It doesn't help either that the Republican party is moving so far to the right that people like Palin and Bachmann are "mainstream" and they want to impose social Darwinism, an idea I once supported but thought better of it when I was reminded by my own economic situation that the lower classes need a chance to survive to better themselves.

[Turan Federasyonu]

well, first influence by my family and at older age I thought and thought that these ideologies are the rightest

[David Williams]

Right leaning libertarian is me. Not too free market capitalist, I support control of inflation and interest, and prevention of monopolies as well as ownership of assets by government. Socially, i call myself libertarian, as i support equality for gays and women etc. although others disagree as I am against Abortion and rape and marry laws. I still say so because
Abortion: in a libertarian state murder is illegal.
Rape and marry laws: People think that being able to rape people and then force them to marry you is a freedom, in a libertarian state people are given as much freedoms as possible without freedoms that contradict each other. Rape and marry is a contradiction of other freedoms.
The main political influence from my childhood was my dad, an upper class Business manager earning 200'000 NZ dollars a year (150'000 to 180'000 US dollar i think), Diehard socially conservative Latin rite catholic, and an economic distributivist/free market supporter.
Although he is now on welfare as he is seriously sick and separated from my mum (dad has custody btw), he is still now and ever since i was born teaching me pro conservative concepts. Although he says that libertarianism is evil (associated with Satan he says because drugs, prostitution, abortion, as well as the greed of capitalism) I became a lot more libertarian anyway when i learned about (separate of what my dad says) Nazi Germany, Communist Russia and China, the giant problems caused by interpretations of shariah law in Islamic countries, the American/European debt crisis, economic problems caused by extreme socialism, and global scale authoritarianism, I just thought that government has no Moral/ethic basis to be taking such control of the people's lives.

[Helghan Nationalsocialist Party]

National Socialism. Of cource. It "contains" the love for the people and the love for the Motherland. The best.

But of cource all depends from the man who's in charge. Hitler was that man. But Hitler had a good beginning, and a not so good finish.

So it mostly depends of the people (Socialism) and their duty to the best interests of their nation (National).

[Ende]

Moderates are the only people who actually make sense.

Conservative fiscal policies are good (less spending), conservative social policies are idiotic.

Liberal fiscal policies are bad (overspending), liberal social policies are good.

Take conservative fiscal policies and combine them with liberal social policies, and...there, moderate.

[Meryuma]

I want equal rights but hate extremists that want to denigrate whites, males, and straight people as a group for "oppressing" minorities, females, and gays, which the vast majority haven't

Don't tell me you're one of those people who thinks it's somehow an insult or accusation to say a group is privileged.

Moderates are the only people who actually make sense.

Conservative fiscal policies are good (less spending), conservative social policies are idiotic.

Liberal fiscal policies are bad (overspending), liberal social policies are good.

Take conservative fiscal policies and combine them with liberal social policies, and...there, moderate.

That's not exactly moderate. Sounds more reformist/"Beltway" libertarian to me.

[Pesda]

They make sense, they can work.