I am quite new here. I have decided to join the Mises Community because I have become fascinated with the Austrian School and I have taken a strong liking to the works of Von Mises, Rothbard, Hazlitt, and others. I am currently enrolled in a course called Classical Economics in the Academy. I am a former progressive and a former socialist. I recently decided to rejoin the Libertarian Party and, after spending several years in the progressive community, I abandoned left-wing thought for classical liberalism. I am 34 years old and I live in California. I am interested in becoming an investor and possibly going back to school in the future. I have decided to join the Community and start posting here because I want to broaden my education, especially in economics.
Holy crap, welcome to the forum. Great intro! Absolute pleasure meet you. That's great that you're taking advantage of the Mises Academy. Sounds like you're off to a great start.
Be sure to check out The Ultimate Beginner meta-thread to get the lay of the land, and answers to some common questions. Feel free to open a thread if you have any questions (but definitely check in at that link to see if any threads have already been started on your topic.) Also, definitely take advantage of the search function (although it seems to only be returning results from posts in the last few days lately...that is, it doesn't seem to be searching the whole forum, just posts within the last few days.) So don't get discouraged if you aren't getting many hits. If you don't find what you're looking for, feel free to PM me (or anyone else, I guess). We might be able to remember if (and where) a topic is. But I'm pretty sure most of the common ones are covered in that meta-thread.
Also don't worry about bumping an old one if you want to re-open a subject. It's usually better to do that, unless you have a very specific question and the older thread is really long. (They can get that way sometimes.)
Anyway, again, welcome to the forum!
I abandoned left-wing thought for classical liberalism
I would love to hear more about why. In particular, why do you feel that left-wing ideas had such an appeal to you before your transition? Has the change had an impact on your life (practical changes, friends deriding you, etc.)?
Clayton -
...Could I suggest, Matthew, that you post your answer in one of the threads in the "Sharing your journey" section at the meta-thread? Perhaps The road to Austrian school or Post your "political past"?
Welcome Matthew. Good luck on what may be one of the most profound journeys of your life.
Thanks z1235 and everyone else who responded. I plan to make more posts about my political journey. I will be happy to explain what it is that attracted me to progressive thinking and why I eventually gave it up and left that progressive community. My decision to renounce progressive politics occurred last year. I still wrestle with questions like "did I do the right thing?" and "what do I do next?". I also have a lot of reeducation to do. I have spent some time going through the Institute's bookstore and I realize that there is a lot of catch-up reading to do. Anyways, thanks for the kind welcome everyone.
Matthew