Ha, leave it up to me and jump the gun by starting with a "Here's my vlog" post and no background as to who I am.
I'm Matt, I live in New Jersey (US), and I'm a huge proponent of #Liberty, #Freedom, and #Decentralization. I wasn't always that way, however. I was raised in a very conservative, baptist, police household. My father and grandfather were both police officers. We were regulars at the baptist church on Sundays and Wednesdays. My folks ALWAYS voted Republican and couldn't stand Democrats. My worldview was very much framed from this upbringing.
All of the following could've been used to describe me back then:
Anti-Drugs
Anti-Alcohol
Anti-Rock music
Pro 'Preemptive' war
Pro-Gun
Pro-Life
A typical religious conservative growing up in America. But I was a very inquisitive kid. I always asked 'why'. I didn't just want to know the end result of a logical process or decision, I wanted to know how it was arrived at. In addition, I wanted to understand what the effects of those conclusions were. It wasn't enough for me to know that Baptists/Conservatives/Americans believe X and 'that's just the way it is'.
I also had an affinity for math and science as a kid and young adult. It pushed me to attend college in New Orleans and study Biomedical Engineering. Funny now that I work in the Insurance & Risk Management field but to those that ask how this could happen, I simply say, "Well the math is easy." 😀
My time in New Orleans, a few relationships, and a few liberal professors saw me spend some time on the more liberal side of the aisle. I was exposed to how poor and homeless were mistreated, entertainment of certain varieties aren't "the devil", and the world was SO MUCH BIGGER than I had ever thought it was.
It was at this time that 9/11 occurred. I remember giving my Fluid Dynamics classmates real-time news updates from text alerts I was getting on my flip phone. Early that morning, the university shut down all classes and sent us back to our dorms. I knew my parents and immediate family didn't work in the trade towers but still tried furiously to get in touch with them. Cell towers were jammed and it took me 3 hours to finally get through. My mother filmed the second tower fall from an elevated park in NJ with a clear view of the NY skyline (still has the footage). I was lucky in that all of my immediate family were unharmed. But I felt a rage inside of me because of how close to home this hit. The young Neocon in me was awakened and I swore to walk through the center of any anti-war marches that were planned on campus. I can also remember taking for granted that the Bush/Cheney administration knew who the bad people were and how to go get them. In hindsight, everything I knew to be true at that time was completely wrong. And in fact, a total lie. A recent reading of a book entitled Enough Already by Scott Horton set that straight for me.
My political/world viewpoint shifted again. It now sounded more like a left of center voter who thinks we need Government for Law & Order and to keep us safe from the terrorists that hate our freedom while we also need all of the social safety nets and equality programs that money could buy because they were the right thing to do.
I married my high school sweetheart straight out of college, spent time in graduate school (but I tired of that quickly), moved back to New Jersey, and got divorced once it became obvious to my first wife and I that I didn't know who I was yet. Professionally, politically, religiously, and spiritually I had no clue. She was on a more definite path and my journey was getting in the way of that. I wouldn't say it was a mutual split at the time because I didn't have the clarity to see it that way and she didn't have the courage to tell me that was the reason. It also turns out that someone else was a more attractive option and that's what the immediate rationalization was for splitting up. Years later and a lot of introspection has proven out that the other person was a symptom and not the disease itself.
I look at our divorce as THE turning point in my life. I took time to try and understand the 'why'...after a lot of drunken nights mourning the loss of a relationship I thought I still wanted/needed. I found out that I was avoiding conflict, not challenging myself, and not opening my mind to how I truly felt (still at war with my upbringing and whether it made any sense to me).
It was shortly after beginning that journey when I met my current wife (and last because I'm not going for the hat trick). She was totally different. A spriritual, creative, tarot card reading, smoking, drinking, dancing, hippie. The same type of hippie my parents would look down their noses at for a multitude of reasons. I knew I loved her the moment I saw her. Ironically, she was also a business hippie because we met each other through the Chamber of Commerce in the town she lived and I worked. Our networking coffee appointment focused on 5% business and 95% everything else. She was and, to this day, is amazing! A smile and laugh that lights up a room. Creativity that I can't even hold a candle to. I had NEVER wanted kids before I met her. And once I did, it would've been a disservice to the world to not have a bit of who we are together carry on. She challenged my views in the most amazing, frustrating, crazy ways.
Spirituality vs. Reason
Art vs. Science & Math
Creativity vs. Repeating the same old same old
We still don't see eye to eye on many things but she awakened something in me that made me receptive to a lot of ideas and stimuli that I had blocked out. She also made me realize that labels aren't nearly as important as the thoughts and the actions of the individual. Those speak volumes more than how they choose to or even improperly label themselves (or how we label them). The 1 thing we completely agree with is Freedom!
Ironically, it was this creative, fun-loving hippie that always voted Democrat her entire life that brought Ron Paul onto my radar. The rockstar of Freedom and Liberty that took the 2008 and 2012 Republican primaries by storm. A man so courageous that he went on Morton Downey Jr.'s show in the 1980's and rebuked a hostile crowd for wanting illegal war and to keep drugs criminalized even though there was no victim in the voluntary use of a substance by an individual. Ironically, Morton Downey Jr. was smoking a cigarette and probably went backstage during the breaks to do a line of cocaine to get up for the next segment.
She liked his message so much she put a rEVOLution bumper sticker on her car. The man is a titan in the Liberty movement even to this day and at his advanced age. An entire generation of pro-Liberty folks were birthed by way of his bravery and consistency. She has since wavered back and forth in the political turbulence of this world. Protecting our 3 kids is primary on her mind and I can't fault her for a second for worrying about fighting for Liberty when it seems like 50-60% of the world would have you hanged for doing so. But Ron Paul's influence lit a flame within me that I double will ever go out because it grows hotter every day.
I am presently a member of the Libertarian party but I would classify myself as an Anarcho-Capitalist. If you asked me 12-18 months ago, I probably would've told you I was a minarchist that stands for limited government. The #COVID pandemic has shown me that even a little bit of government becomes totalitarian if given enough leeway. Fear of Liberty and Freedom are the biggest culprits but Governments around the world have taken advantage and shown their true colors. They don't stand for the rights of the individual. They protect the collective at all costs with little thought as to the rights of the individual.
It's for this reason that I run a channel named WhyLibertarian. The main goal being the dissemination of knowledge and culture that surrounds true Freedom and Liberty outside of tyrannical governmental and centralized control. I call out the infringement of natural rights, profile/interview liberty candidates, present ways for folks to #decentralize their lives, participate in a live book club (read Anatomy of the State by Murray Rothbard, it will change your life), and highlight efforts to expand liberty (or claw it back from tyrants depending on your perspective).
Recently I profiled a buddy of mine running for NJ State Assembly. His name is Nick and you can follow him on HIVE @magner4freedom. Here is the interview:
I also did a live cast of an initial #HIVE account setup on YouTube but I have since uploaded it to 3Speak so you can share it with anyone who is unclear on how to get started. It's not the most professional walkthrough but it's me as a real person and first-time user navigating the process.
I'm looking forward to getting active with the community here on HIVE and becoming a huge advocate to save folks from the death trap that is Web 2.0. If you would like to follow me on here, that is fantastic. You can also follow me on the non-hive channels out there via my linktree here: https://linktr.ee/whylibertarian
So happy to be here. Cheers!
