john cena Posted June 21, 2015 Posted June 21, 2015 Hello all! I am new to the board here, but I have been lurking (watching) for a few years now. I can say that Stefan was the key person that changed me from a white knighting, statist, and generally confused person to the voluntarism that I am today. I can not thank you and this community enough for the knowledge it has passed on. Onto the issue, the title pretty much sums it up. How do I find like minded people? Not even like minded people for that matter but, voluntary people at least. I live in the American southeast (Alabama) in a city that was recently ranked #4 in the nation for poverty. (You can look it up if you want) The city was once poised to be one of the greatest in the state, (you can look at our interstate system for a clue, 10x bigger than it needs to be. This area really doesn't even need one) but it has been ruined by politics. The majority of my city is made up of drug addicts (mainly methamphetimine) and welfare kings and queens. The rest of the people seem normal but turn out to all be bigots, sociopaths, or just generally unlikable people. I have met two individuals who I thought were liberty minded but I have had to cut ties with both due to the above circumstances. I'm not trying to sound helpless, but I really want people to understand the situation here is pretty terrible. That all being said, what can I do to send out a beacon to others? I've tried meeting people IRL, as well as online and it seems that I cant find anyone that either thinks my anarchist ideas are crazy, or they are crazy themselves. (But I repeat myself) I am slowly becoming more and more of a recluse, because I find that even trying to meet people shatters my hopes because it always turns out so bad, leaving me wanting to just be alone. I have thought about moving and honestly I would like to leave the united states. Not really that I was to, but I almost find it a necessity at this point. But for now my parents and grandparents are aging and I wish to stay with them at least for now. But how can I deal with being completely socially alone outside of my family? I have just tried putting my ideals aside and having "normal" shallower friendships with people but they really don't seem to go anywhere. I have TONS of friends, yet I want people who have ambition, motivation, and courage to stand up and not only do what's right for themselves but for others too. One of the hardest obstacles I encounter when trying to make friends is my intelligence. People see me providing insight as rude or "talking down to them" when I am really just honestly trying to share my intellect with them. But in a town like this, I've never met someone as smart or smarter than me and it scares me greatly. I was tested when I was 8 years old by a psychiatrist for all kinda of disorders because my parents couldn't deal with me using their traditional parenting methods. Once the psychiatrist informed them of my 138 IQ they then understood why they were having such issues. I really believe I am writing this not to get help from you, as I don't know if it' even possible. But rather a message to others in my position, you are not alone, and you are not the one that's the problem for not fitting into a society like we have today. But I do hope aswell maybe someone in my area is a member here and will see this or that someone may have advice for this situation. 2
surfingthoughts Posted June 21, 2015 Posted June 21, 2015 Are there any FDR meet ups near you if not maybe think of making one. There are plenty of online meet up opera unities to be had with this community aswell. Maybe you don't have to leave the states just the area why would you want to stay if the area is so full of drug addicts and poverty I mean it would hardly attract other intelligent and rational people to come I bet quite allot have already left. Perhaps think what would attract you to an area and try finding such places. Not sure how accurate it is but a quick google search says you are more intelligent than 99.4% of people, I am sure you are more intelligent than me but I'm confident we could have some interesting conversations and common ground. Intelligence is important but clear logical reasonable thinking I value much more.
john cena Posted June 21, 2015 Author Posted June 21, 2015 Are there any FDR meet ups near you if not maybe think of making one. There are plenty of online meet up opera unities to be had with this community aswell. Maybe you don't have to leave the states just the area why would you want to stay if the area is so full of drug addicts and poverty I mean it would hardly attract other intelligent and rational people to come I bet quite allot have already left. Perhaps think what would attract you to an area and try finding such places. Not sure how accurate it is but a quick google search says you are more intelligent than 99.4% of people, I am sure you are more intelligent than me but I'm confident we could have some interesting conversations and common ground. Intelligence is important but clear logical reasonable thinking I value much more. Hey there, thanks for chiming in. I did do a search for meetups in my general area and the only post I found was from 2010 and was in SC. I am open to having "meetups" but honestly i would probably just try and be close friends with people such as this until I actually got to know enough to have something like that. I do have a lot of sentimental feelings about the states, though I'm not really sure how much of that is me not wanting to completely abandon my former belief in american ideals, even though they vanished long before I was born. So I don't eccentrically want to leave america. I should mention I've spent the last two years in a bigger college town further south and it just seems to be a BIGGER shit hole not necessarily better. The only problem there was that the larger amount of people was pretty much cancelled out by the liberal mindedness of the general college student. On top of that I really don't like cities for various reasons, however I did meet some.. interesting and nice people there. But not exactly the qualities I'm looking for overall. It seems like to me like there would be some city or at least a village freedom minded people to go live in. Are we really that rare? I knew it was rare for people to have such high IQ but I've never actually looked at the numbers. If the average is 99.4%.. think of what it is around here! Also I agree with you completely. I don't really put IQ high at all in my priorities in people and I'm sure you're much smarter in some areas than I am. IQ is mainly a visual spatial recognition test in my opinion. (Even though it can be a great indicator about other areas of the brain) The only reason I mentioned it is, I guess sometimes I point things out to people that are obvious to me yet hard for them to grasp. I'm used to people reacting.. badly to this to say the least.
john cena Posted June 21, 2015 Author Posted June 21, 2015 Also I should add that I'm only 20 years old aswell.
shnugwa Posted June 21, 2015 Posted June 21, 2015 Colby, I commend you for reaching out and making yourself present in this online community. My sympathies go to you in your predicament, as I can only imagine the difficulty one such as yourself faces in trying to ascend into a meaningful and productive adulthood whilst surrounded by a poverty-stricken community riddled with drugs and irrationality. You're going at it alone for now, and that adds a dimension of helplessness; the hopeful thought lingers: "Surely somebody in this town can disseminate truth from falsehood, fiction from reality, intellect from mindless gab.." The echoes of your plea reach further into space with each passing day as time after time the mob replies, "ur wrong. stfu wierdo". That all being said, what can I do to send out a beacon to others? You've done it in a tangible way by creating this thread. Were you aware that this thread existed? https://board.freedomainradio.com/topic/43977-any-younger-people/ There's a Skype group of open, honest, intelligent, well-meaning friends who've met from FDR, all of whom fall into the age range of 17-24. The closest members are more than a stone's throw away from you physically - there're two residing in Virginia. However, it could be beneficial to make connections with young people who share your values online as you work towards your goal of making physical friendships. It'd be a pleasure to speak with you man, even if you don't want to join the group that formed as a result of that past beacon made by user "JakeN". Send me a PM if you're interested!
john cena Posted June 22, 2015 Author Posted June 22, 2015 Colby, I commend you for reaching out and making yourself present in this online community. My sympathies go to you in your predicament, as I can only imagine the difficulty one such as yourself faces in trying to ascend into a meaningful and productive adulthood whilst surrounded by a poverty-stricken community riddled with drugs and irrationality. You're going at it alone for now, and that adds a dimension of helplessness; the hopeful thought lingers: "Surely somebody in this town can disseminate truth from falsehood, fiction from reality, intellect from mindless gab.." The echoes of your plea reach further into space with each passing day as time after time the mob replies, "ur wrong. stfu wierdo". You've done it in a tangible way by creating this thread. Were you aware that this thread existed? https://board.freedomainradio.com/topic/43977-any-younger-people/ There's a Skype group of open, honest, intelligent, well-meaning friends who've met from FDR, all of whom fall into the age range of 17-24. The closest members are more than a stone's throw away from you physically - there're two residing in Virginia. However, it could be beneficial to make connections with young people who share your values online as you work towards your goal of making physical friendships. It'd be a pleasure to speak with you man, even if you don't want to join the group that formed as a result of that past beacon made by user "JakeN". Send me a PM if you're interested! Thanks for your reply. If you're familiar with bible metaphors, it feels as if I'm an Abraham, just coming into my teen years only to realize the town I'm living in.. the one I used to take pride in, is actually a kind of "Sodom and Gomorrah", devoid of actual rational thought and worthy of nothing but destruction. But no I had not seen that thread yet, however I am certainly interested in joining the Skype group, or simply talking with you. Unfortunately due to the spam restrictions on my account it will be another day before I can send a PM. I can imagine ways in putting my contact info on a public anarchist forum, so I will wait and contact you when I'm allowed to PM haha.
shnugwa Posted June 25, 2015 Posted June 25, 2015 Unfortunately due to the spam restrictions on my account it will be another day before I can send a PM. I can imagine ways in putting my contact info on a public anarchist forum, so I will wait and contact you when I'm allowed to PM haha. https://board.freedomainradio.com/topic/43977-any-younger-people/ I posted my contact information in that thread, if for whatever reason you can't PM me on this site, feel free to read my post and add me from there. I'll look forward to chatting with you!
Naer Posted July 19, 2015 Posted July 19, 2015 I've always been in the realm of the digital world. I've learned to embrace technology for the most part
GregMerwe Posted July 19, 2015 Posted July 19, 2015 Look at meetup.com. I have been to the atheist meetup on there in London UK. We had Aron Ra as a speaker the last time i went. It is great to speak to people offline about the ideas that we discuss online all the time. I never went to university so i missed out on a lot of debating. It is one thing to be able to type out a comment on a forum and it is completely different when you have to articulate yourself in front of a group. I also joined a libertarin meetup and i am going next week tuesday. The topic was about rothbard and property rights so i thought ill go after work and see what they are discussing. It is largely older people who used to be marxists. A lot of them have not heard anarcho capitalist ideas and are more minarchist than an cap. It still be interesting, the atheist one is better though, larger and more younger people. Next atheist meetup a bunch of Christians are showing up for an argument, haha, http://www.meetup.com/London-Atheist-Activist-Group-friendly-community/events/220384814/
adamNJ Posted July 29, 2015 Posted July 29, 2015 So Colby, you are 20, you live in one of the 4 poorest cities in the US (ouch) and you are smart. You may have mentioned this already, but what are you planning to do with your life? I ask this because that's where you will meet people. If you go to study astro physics, you will meet brilliant people. If you become a tattoo artist, I have no idea what kind of people you'll meet.
Recommended Posts