Let me start with this the purpose of this blog isn’t to disparage anyone personally due to their personally held beliefs. I don’t believe if you hold different values and beliefs than me that doesn't automatically make you an immoral person. While I’m a staunch Christian and conservative and I’m not ashamed of my convictions not matter what people will say to me or about me, I will not demonize people who hold different beliefs than me. That being said there are several reasons why I don’t belong to the left anymore.
One of the reasons why I find myself becoming more conservative in my beliefs over the years is that I began hanging around with conservatives in my late teens I was a center-left democrat who was sympathetic to socialism at the time. Through my conversations with my conservative friends I learned that socialism and big government programs wasn't the most effective way to run the country. Just a tidbit a good number of my conservative friends are Vietnamese, Cambodian, Mexican, and Chinese. I learned from them the horrors of both socialism and communism and how these systems plague the societies from which they are from. Many of my friends shared their family stories how the government seized control of their private property, free speech rights, and their entire social lives.
Before I continue let me just say that liberals are not the same thing as leftists. Liberals while they believe that government should have a bigger role in government than a conservative like me. They still believe in private property rights and they are capitalist. To be more specific liberals are more Keynesian capitalist meaning they believe in a free market but they believe they should be more regulation and safety measures to keep innocent people safe. While I still agree that their should be some regulation like say protect the environment and enforcing contracts as well as making sure that products are safe for public consumption want the least amount of government regulation possible. However Cultural Marxists aka modern day leftists by in large hate free speech. Saying they don’t like free speech isn't an attack more like an observation and from personal experience while I was attending college which leads me to my first reason. Reason number one I’m no longer today on the left is because today the left despise the first amendment and indeed want to enforce hate speech laws. As Steven Crowder likes to say hate speech is free speech, just because your feelings were hurt by someone’s comments and beliefs doesn't give you the right to suppress with their God-given right to free expression. If I talked to a liberal aka a center-left person they would say to me I may not like what you say but I will fight for your right to say it which is why it’s easier to have civil discussion with them. Reason number 2 why I shifted to the right they despise private property and their messiah is big government. They believe in a communist utopia where everyone is equal but in reality when Marxist governments take over a country everyone one is equal except for those in power. Reason number 3 why I’m not a leftist is because I don’t believe I’m entitled to anything or anyone’s wealth. The second commandment in the bible is thou shalt not steal and socialism is government subsidized theft. So as an Orthodox Christian as well as a freedom loving patriot I must categorically reject Marxism in all it’s ugly forms. That is because Marxism is a system that feeds on envy and discontentment which does not produce healthy societies. Socialism and communism does not lift anyone up they keep people down unlike capitalism which has known to lift entire populations out of poverty. Someone will say what about European nations aren't they socialist. I would say no Nordic nations still have free markets they are just heavily regulated and they have huge wealth-fare system but their systems are becoming more unsustainable due to a number of factors. Lastly the reason why I’m not a Leftist is because I don’t have much faith in the government. I believe the more localized and decentralized the government is the more potential for freedom and prosperity as Milton Friedman and Friedrich Hayek taught.