That's I think why I like libertarianism so much. It is a nice happy medium between liberal and conservative. You have all the civil rights that the liberals stress, but there isn't that socialist nanny state that goes along with it. And it also covers gun control and a lot of other things in a pretty reasonable manner. And personal responsibility, I think that is a huge one. Instead of living off a welfare state and having people take advantage of that.
I agree, I like libertarianism and generally take a very libertarian point of view on everything, even at times straying into slight conservatism, though there's that joke that we libertarians are really closet conservatives (which is untrue) :bored:. People should take responsibility; you can do mostly anything you want in life yourself. I'm also really into as much freedom as possible for people to make their own choices, as that proves one's intelligence. I actually get kind of extreme with the "as much freedom as possible" and "anti-government" stuff, that I might turn into an anarchist one day and say to privatize everything. In AP Gov't and Politics in my junior year, we had to chart where we were on the political spectrum (the four-square chart), and I was the most extreme libertarian. Felt proud :crazy:. I also might come off as cold, but libertarianism is definitely the politically philosophy for me :happy:.
I used to be very liberal when I was younger (12-15) and strongly rooted for John Kerry to win during the 2004 election; was crushed when he lost and my dad was an ass to me about it :crazy:. This changed as I matured. I would actually debate my parents about things just for fun, or just to play devil's advocate, but meh. I didn't actually believe in what I argued for, it was just to argue.
Extremism in the left to right spectrum, though, is bad. My parents are both pretty extreme conservatives and refuse to debate me whenever I offer or challenge them just to have a debate. Instead, they say it's pointless and go on without trying to change my opinion or justifying their opinions. They are somewhat moronic as they don't think for themselves in that respect, only go along with Fox News, the Tea Partiers, etc. just because they are on their side, even when the argument is ridiculous or irrelevant and reaches outside of the actual issue, like they try to detract from Obama because he was born in Kenya supposedly, not because of his policies. Who cares. I don't like the guy, but I said I'd give him a chance when he was just elected. They just jumped on him for things that were irrelevant. They can't think for themselves at all. It's pretty disheartening.