I don't know if /r/Conservative accepts this kind of submission, but if not, that's fine if it gets removed. I guess I feel frustrated and want to get this off my chest.

From the time I had political ideologies (say, 12 years old), I was liberal. Through my teenage years, through college, through graduate school, and well into the working word, I was a steadfast Harpers and Huffington Post liberal. I campaigned for Obama in 2008 and 2012. The last two years, I have been increasingly equivocating politically. The coverage in my normal media sources of the most recent Israel conflict has pushed me over the edge. I cannot even go on the Huffington Post without reading a professor compare Israelis to the Nazis, or Redditors embrace Hamas terrorists as freedom fighters. I have become a conservative, and I wanted to outline what pushed me, a life-long liberal, to the right:

(1) Contrarianism for the sake of contrarianism. Liberals hate the police and hate the military. Liberals cherry-pick the worst incidences that happen and make them out to be representative, because liberals hate whomever is the current power-bearer. It doesn’t matter if police and military are necessary—we hate whoever has power. The default orientation of liberals is always to root for the underdog and to glorify the rebels. Every conflict is a real world Les Miserables, where those seeking to dramatically overthrow society are, of course!, the good guys. Liberals do not value social cohesion and social order. They are too quick to want to overthrow institutions and establishments, and trusting that something better will rise up out of the dust. In the real world, in my experience, working within the existing framework is virtually always more effective in bringing about change than burning the farm to the ground and rebuilding. Social cohesion should be the default presumption that needs to be overcome before we start building figurative barricades in the streets, not overthrowing the system and smashing the status quo.

(2) Liberals are equally ignorant as their conservative counterparts. Liberals always dismiss conservatives as ignorant. However, I have been the target of liberal scapegoating and ignorance, as I work in the finance sector. Forgive me for being conceited for a moment, if I may say that I have expertise that is in high demand, am well educated, work very hard, and build value for others. The characterization you get from Harpers, the New Yorker, Huffington Post, MSNBC, etc., is that my industry is a bunch of vampires, sucking at the neck of the country. It is spoken out of ignorance: people don’t understand what I do, why it is necessary, and how it builds value: they have a knee-jerk reaction to the term “Wall Street” and believe every businessman is just like the CEO of Enron. This is just one example of liberal ignorance.

(3) Liberals are too comfortable with silencing dissent. I believe in free speech, including really uncomfortable free speech. I will never, so long as I live, read a liberal op-ed and say “this author should be fired! They can’t publish this, this is outrageous!” But whenever a conservative is fired for espousing a conservative view, liberals all rush to justify silencing conservatism by saying “The first amendment only applies to actions by the government!” (which is true, but not the point of the concept of free speech). When conservatives are mobbed for their good-faith conservative opinions, liberals always justify them being chased after and silenced because “free speech shouldn’t protect you from the consequences of your speech,” etc. The double standard in who can espouse their view publicly is palpable. Liberals won’t admit to how cozy they are to the idea of keeping the media outlets clean and clear or “offensive” conservative viewpoints.

(4) Lastly, liberals are always attacking strawmen. Liberals are perpetually misrepresenting conservative views to make them the subject of mockery and ridicule. Liberals modus operandi is always to de-legitimize and dismiss conservative views, never engaging with them seriously. Liberals always assume if someone has a conservative view it is because they are ignorant, uneducated, prejudiced, etc. A recent Gallup poll suggests the more educated someone is and the more closely they follow events, the more likely they are to think Israel’s actions are justified. Educational attainment and knowledge about the issues is positively correlated with having a conservative view on this issue, and it’s not the only one. Liberals won’t engage in a serious discussion with conservative concerns without twisting and distorting them, until the conservative throws up their hands and gives up. It’s disingenuous.

And there you go. I’d love to know your thoughts.