Hello there!

[Mithra]

Hello All! Pleased to make your acquaintances. Hopefully we can become friends, as my philosophical friend counter has been set on zero for far too long.

 

My name is William Kelley, and I'm a High School Senior in Vacaville, California, a small town in between Sacramento and San Francisco. I'm a pretty average dude, or at least what you'd expect of somebody in my situation. I like to run, play guitar, hike/backpack, read, screw around with computers, listen to music, hang out with friends, etc. I also know a bit about some things, such as Philosophy and History, the latter of which I indulge a little too often. I think I'm pretty interesting, and I love meeting interesting people, so don't hesitate to ask me anything, anything at all really.

 

My journey to this forum probably started around 4 years ago, when I stumbled upon a Youtube series called Spirit Science. Though it's all bunk, it was my personal route out of Christianity. My family is Roman Catholic, and sent me to a Catholic Elementary School, so I had a very strong tie to the religion. When I watched Spirit Science, it showed me alternatives to Christianity, even though it led me to the New Age movement, which I no longer associate with in any way, shape or form, save for an incredible enjoyment of Lucid Dreaming, meditation, and some questions about the afterlife, which are based on Near-Death Experience studies and the reincarnation research of Ian Stevenson and others. (Side Note: I only entertain these aspects due to empirical research and scientific investigations of them. If you'd like me to refer you to such work, I can PM them to you.) After reading the delusional works of a Mr. Drunvalo Melchizedek, I turned away from the New Age movement, and have since been a staunch Atheist.

 

After becoming an Atheist, I also became a liberal. From around 4 years ago to 1.5 years ago, I was 'blue-pilled', looking at hot-ticket issues of gay marriage and abortion, and considering opposition to liberalism as Christian intolerance.

 

After this, I followed suit with the average Anarcho-Capitalist. I watched Ron Paul speak, and watched the Penn and Teller series, Bullshit!. American Libertarianism seemed to be the answer, and I encouraged my parents, as well as others, to vote for Gary Johnson. I read Atlas Shrugged, and thoroughly enjoyed it. In this time, I found reddit, and the Libertarian subreddit. From there I found the Anarcho-Capitalist subreddit, and watched an illustrated video of David Friedman's book, the Machinery of Freedom. That video showed me how private business really could handle the police and courts, and national defense. From then on, I considered myself an Anarcho-Capitalist.

 

In the past couple months, whilst browsing the Anarcho-Capitalist subreddit, I found a lot of videos from Stefan. After watching them, I began to watch more and more, until today, when I decided to join the forum, and see what you fantastic people had to say!

 

So, hi everybody!

[Kevin Beal]

Hi William!

 

Sorry about the catholic school

 

Welcome to the boards!

 

Which of the FDR videos or podcasts lured you in?

[Mithra]

It's alright. Probably better than public school, anyway. Luckily I had no strict teachers, the infamous 'nuns' were gone long before I went there.

 

I watched the video, 'The Ghosts of War', which was very powerful. It spoke to something inside me, made me want to talk to people who talk about/listen to interesting subjects like what Stefan talks about. Most of Stefan's videos and podcasts are very intriguing, though.

[Megatron]

I didn't read your long intro, but your cloud avatar looks like a woman spreading it..   IT IS VERY NICE MEETING YOU !!