I've only been into politics for a short time. I've also not always voted. I've been a ballot spoiler and a non voter for many years, after all, who would want to be part of a system the elects the people we consistently complain about? I'm reminded of a George Carlin quote:
'If you don't vote, you have no right to complain', but where's the logic in that? If you vote and you elect dishonest, incompetent people into office who screw everything up, you are responsible for what they have done. You caused the problem; you voted them in; you have no right to complain. I, on the other hand, who did not vote, who in fact did not even leave the house on election day, am in no way responsible for what these people have done and have every right to complain about the mess you created that I had nothing to do with."Today it's a little different. I don't agree anymore. Despite my disdain for government I do vote and it started around the time of the Scottish Independence Referendum. Finally here was an opportunity to put my vote to good use. Unfortunately we never achieved our goal of independence but it brought me head strong into the somewhat complicated affair of politics. But since then there's been a dramatic change in my political views.
Operation: Independence.
My disinterest in politics up until the point of the Scottish IndyRef was palpable. Due to Scotland's unique situation within the UK it's no surprise. It's a miscarriage of Democracy. From my perspective politics was a bunch elitist relics who don't represent or understand me making decisions about my life. What's worse, is those representatives by in large have very different political views from the majority of Scotland. Scotland, for as long as I've been into politics and even before, has been a Left wing majority. We've generally been consistent with our Leftist, socialist and grassroots Labour views. Which is what separates us from a heavily Conservative England. We were in a situation where even if the entirety of Scotland voted Left, we'd still have a Conservative majority. Scotland has voted anti conservative for many, many years and we've still ended up with a government we didn't want. Upon learning this, I made independence my top priority, but I did so within an Echo Chamber of confirmation bias. I did so in a Leftist country.
Despite having my concerns about the SNP I took to Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon who convinced me that Scotland could make it as an independent nation, but still couldn't agree with them on policy. So I joined the Green party. Being a humanitarian and somewhat of an environmentalist this seemed like an appropriate party for me to back and they supported independence. Win win.
On the run up to the independence referendum I made dozens of new Leftist friends who supported my arguments vehemently. I was championing the removal of trident, anti austerity, peace, freedom and most importantly: Democracy. Real democracy. Real fairness. Not having our taxes get sent down to England and only a portion of it coming back. Not having to accept conservative politicians we didn't want or ask for, and not paying for relics of the cold war that we had to keep in our back yard. The Facebook friends requests came in fast and furious and it was a brilliant time.
Then we lost. Our common goal was taken down and it was then the bigotry and intolerance of the Left started rearing it's ugly head.
The initial signs of regression.
Once we had all calmed down, and we recovered from our disheartening loss. I found myself starting to disagree with may of my new found peers. The conversation evolved and the discrepancy between our views started to reveal themselves. I started to talk about everything, from Feminism to Socialism, Abortion, the Death Penalty and so much more, most importantly: Free Speech. The more I talked the more Leftist friends seemed to reject or ignore me, even actively block me. The beginnings of the regressive Left started to reveal themselves to me. For months I was consumed in an environment that considered anything that came from the Right (or more specifically, not the mainstream Left) was wrong, and the intolerance displayed towards those with opposing views was very concerning indeed. Here I was from a political climate that was supposed to be promoting freedom and tolerance and it started showing the signs of being more bigoted than even the most hardcore, far Right groups the Left often condemns.
Then I started to notice something: many on the Left, at least in the circles I had created during the indyref, were utterly intolerant of dissent. I stared realising very quickly that this isn't what I signed up for. I started noticing that the Government was becoming a scapegoat for Leftist problems. I started noticing that people were willing to completely dismantle core freedoms in order for some "greater good" that benefited only certain, victimised classes. And then came the vitriol. I started to feel like an outcast in my own country and among my own circle of new peers. I started to feel like the only one in the country that disagreed with certain very concerning policies and ideas. Ideas such as curtailing free speech in order to protect people's feelings, arresting people for making jokes or singing the wrong song, and all sense of morality or compassion for human beings going out the window as soon as it concerned someone who'd killed a lion or abused a child. All of these freedom killing ideas stemmed from deep rooted Leftist ideologies, and even good causes both sides of the spectrum respected were used as weapons against our freedoms. Suddenly the veneer of tolerance was washed away and I noticed that the Left wasn't the saving grace of politics after all. The echo chamber went silent along with the blocks and unfollows I received and it paved the way for new opinions.
This was rather telling. That in order to learn to accept views that didn't align with the Left I had to literally rip myself free from the echo chamber. I had to subject myself to the vitriol that seems to be a common Leftist tactic: "You don't agree with me, so there must be something wrong with you." Critical of Islam? Racist. Critical of Feminism? Sexist. Critical of Scottish Government? Tory. They seem to fight through character assassination as opposed to well reasoned, logical arguments.
My political puzzle.
To my astonishment I found that I wasn't alone, and these allies came from an unusual place. "The enemy" according to the Left: The Right. I had a sudden realisation that I wasn't as objective as I could have been. I was looking at the Right through the lens of the Left, and it was an awful place. Pro Life, Pro Gun. Pro Death Penalty. But as a member of the Left who was comfortable with dissent, I started listening despite having certain polarising political views. I had after all supported a party through the Independence referendum despite not agreeing with them on every issue. So I started reading Right wing articles, watching interviews with Republicans and Conservatives, Liberals and Socialists and once the lenses started coming off I started to find myself agreeing on certain principles. All of these principles had something in common: Personal Freedom.
Then I read this article. It was a real eye opener and it filled a missing puzzle piece in my mind as to why I couldn't find comfortable footing on either side of the political spectrum. The article included lots of people with polarising political views and placed them into one common category that I could relate to: Cultural Libertarianism. People from the Left and the Right and all of their compartments were brought together for one purpose. Libertarianism. Or at least one version of it. People like Katie Hopkins, Brendan O'Neil and some of my favourite YouTube commentators like Sargon Of Akkad, people from all walks of politics sharing one common goal: Freedom of Speech.
This form of Libertarianism opened my eyes to the avenues to which I could gain political consistency. I had been hovering over the political spectrum, never really landing, hopping from one issue to the next with never really finding firm ground. And I landed. I discovered the Scottish Libertarian Party. A whole party, with people from all walks of politics, coming together to preserve Personal Freedom. I started reading their core principles and found myself nodding in agreement as I read. It was quite enlightening, reading the words from an official political party that I was spouting on Facebook just months beforehand. They believed in personal freedom, true personal freedom. They believed in freedom of speech, freedom of religion and individual freedom. They were pro independence, anti Trident. And soon I found them ticking far more boxes than the Green Party, who embarrassingly made headlines due to their "No More Page 3" T-Shirt stunt which I vehemently stood against, and the SNP for their authoritarian anti singing, anti smoking laws and "big government" approach. This party cared about true freedom. So I joined.
This was met by the expected criticism from the circles that still had me visible on Facebook and the groups I was still a part of since the IndyRef, but I didn't really care. I wasn't interested in the popular or mainstream ideas. Ideas that I fundamentally disagreed with but put up with, and once I took off the lenses of the Left it put things into focused perspective: I had been a bigot. Intolerant of opposing ideas. Once I listened, some of those ideas weren't so bad after all. They made sense, and I found myself learning more and more as each argument passed. As expected. I was branded a Tory, people called me an anarchist, a racist. "TURNCOAT!" they cried! And that's great! I'd much rather they engage than block me. By engaging one exposes his own bias,as I did when I engaged those "enemies" from the Right. I started to see the holes in folkloric arguments that were buried deep in the foundations of Leftist ideals and I started to pick at those holes. This could not be tolerated.
But it's not all bad. I still find myself having these arguments, but there's a loyal circle of friends that are able to see past these polarising ideas and find some common ground, and that's what politics should be about. Discussion, changing ideas, reinforcing others and most importantly: Vote! Many of those who kept following, kept debating have proved invaluable to my journey in politics. Many of them have become close friends and many existing close friends have remained so. Vitally these arguments convinced me that a vote isn't a waste, regardless of what party you throw it at. It's better than a spoiled ballot or not voting at all. Even if you're not voting for a government that will ever get elected, you're subscribing to an ideology and communicating your views. A spoiled ballot simply says "no I don't agree" by subscribing to a party you do agree with gives politicians something to work with.
Square peg in a square hole.
I don't think all of the Left is insane, but before I looked at the problem through a Libertarian lens, I sensed a civil war between the Left. The far Left was and still is gaining more ground, they're successfully shutting down the discussion through character assassination and using methods meant to protect people as a weapon against them. We've seen the rise of safe spaces, rape allegations ruining lives due to authoritarian sexual consent laws. We've seen people banned from the country for making the wrong jokes and having the wrong ideas. We've seen a surge in campus censorship and no platforming. We've seen feminists gaining platforms at the UN to police speech on the Internet. We've seen those who don't endorse gay marriage chastised and punished for their ideas. The list goes on and on, and I've only been into politics for a short time. This has been pushing many Liberal and other Leftists away but there remains a significant minority that uphold their Liberal principles, that unfortunately comes with the burden of dissent and opposition to some freedom killing ideas the far Left are proposing.
The Right is no spring chicken, but from my experience of politics thus far, the true authoritarians don't reside there. They're on the Left, hijacking long protected, seemingly positive ideals and using them for a personal, authoritarian purpose. Like how Feminism is now used to push an authoritarian agenda, censoring porn mags, removing page 3, calling to censor the Internet and trying to get innocent men charged of rape through draconian, bedroom invading laws. Gay Marriage has been used to bully, coerce and provoke people of faith and in some cases attempted to get people fired from their job, jailed or fined. #BlackLivesMatter used as a scapegoat to riot. The personal has become the political and Identity Politics and Political Correctness are the topics of the day.
So I found a place where I could be consistent with my ideals and share these with others without being castigated or branded. And with it the square peg in a round hole feeling dissipated; a symptom of being surrounded in deep rooted ideals that were difficult for some people to see criticised. Of course I'm still left with a small feeling of dissatisfaction. No party will ever be perfect, but that's partially what motivated me to rip of the Leftist bandage and join a different party. I wanted to be the change I wanted to see, and the SLP are the ones that tick the most boxes. Before that it was the Green party, a party with no hope of ever becoming a government, but stood for an ideology that I believed in at the time. When you vote for a small party that perhaps doesn't stand a chance of making it to government, your vote still provides valuable insight to the ideologies you agree with and why you didn't vote for another party.
This article was never meant to be a love letter to the SLP, and it's not. I wish not to preach to anyone about joining the SLP, leaving the Left or the Right or joining another party. I merely hope that my little story might help people to consider wearing different lenses for a moment, practice the tolerance that the Left often preaches and be open minded to radical changes to fundamental ideas. As I did. For me this process ended up changing my mind on a few ideas, it may not do the same for anyone else, but at the very least I hope it encourages people to practice friendly and open minded politics and be respectful of the rights that allow us to do so. Your best and most valuable peers are the ones you can respectfully disagree with, but character assassinations, no platforming and censorship is not playing fair and is indicative of deeply troubling authoritarian ideals. These ideals must be ridiculed, lambasted and criticised regardless of whatever seemingly important or progressive agenda they claim to be in aid of.
The most interesting part of this, is that this newfound Libertarianism was a mirror of the Independence Referendum. The fact that our differences in opinions didn't reveal themselves until our common goal was removed exemplifies the ability we have to look past those differences and tolerate each other. If only for a temporary common goal. There's an attitude that the Independence Referendum divided us, that it caused a rift in political Scottish attitudes, and I don't agree. It brought us together and even resulted in the most unlikely of alliances: The Tories and Labour, both of whom fought to stay in the United Kingdom. Most importantly, it helped Scotland gain political significance, and we achieved that through tolerance of ideas. But tolerance of ideas isn't silencing criticism of those ideas and isn't discrediting or attempting to demean one's argument through character assassination.
Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Expression are some of the most important, inherent rights we have and what gives life to politics for everyone. Not just those who have the "correct" subjective opinions. Nobody should get to decide what's "correct" for anyone other than themselves, and they should be confident enough within those ideals to allow their opponents opportunities to argue them.
I. Am a Libertarian.
What are you?
