I decided to write for Medium so that I could share my thoughts and experiences without having to worry about getting approval from some editorial board. It has been a long time coming but is finally happening. My goal is not to post articles with “final” stances on myriad issues but rather to capture my thinking (and whatever else) over time. To the degree that it also serves others and sparks useful dialogue, I will be further pleased.

My Journey

I grew up in a Conservative Republican Christian household in Sugar Land, Texas. My mom was strongly Roman Catholic and my dad was loosely Lutheran, which basically meant I would be raised Catholic. I was raised attending church weekly and going through all of the expected religious developmental stages (baptism, confession, first communion, confirmation, etc.). I largely enjoyed being Catholic for most of the time that I was too (with the exception of guitar masses and children/young adult religious groups). In fact, the Basilian (no, not Brazilian) priests that made up a significant presence in our local Catholic community played a big role in me developing a skepticism of U.S. foreign policy and a great dislike for the Israeli government and how they have historically oppressed the Palestinians. No matter what political identity I have had, those are positions that I have maintained.

Going alongside my religious development, I very much mirrored my parents politically. Being more of a homebody, I spent a lot of time listening to right-wing talk radio (Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Michael Savage, etc.) and Fox News. I soaked up a lot of the talking points like a sponge and considered myself “informed”. I mean, at 10 years old I was ripping on “The Day After Tomorrow” (2004) for being liberal propaganda on global warming. Sadly, I didn’t start to shift in a significant way until my junior year of high school when I began moving more right-libertarian. I even had a brief quasi-atheist phase due to watching a lot of Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, and Richard Dawkins. However, that got squashed for good by losing my grandmother and going to my religion (including getting confirmed) for comfort.

By the end of my senior year in high school, I had some ideological mixture of right-libertarianism, leftover Catholic Republican conservatism, and progressivism. I had a deep concern for the environment while also being concerned about “big government”. The progressive end intensified in my first semester of college (Fall 2013), with the help of my college roommate, when I defended “single payer healthcare” in my public speaking course. But no year would compare to 2014. Though I don’t recall what led to the push, I started ordering free-market libertarian books at the end of December 2013, which set the stage for 2014.

In January 2014, I was reading Ludwig von Mises, Murray Rothbard, and Henry Hazlitt. I joined the Young Americans for Liberty (YAL) group (filled with Anarcho-Capitalists) that had recently started on my campus, while also attending a Hispanic Republican Party event hosting various candidates. All of this was pushing me in a more right-libertarian direction. Yet, the brakes got put on in February 2014 when I was blown away by an article called “A Libertarian Socialist Critique of the ‘Libertarian’ Party & Ron Paul” while in the basement of my dorm finishing up homework. My first reaction was: “Isn’t that a contradiction?” But as I read it, the critique began resonating with me. Particularly examining how Capitalism actually erodes individual liberty. This led me to looking more into Mutualism and Distributism, while also watching a lot of Noam Chomsky and other typical Leftist content.

Nonetheless, my left bend in February was very short lived. During spring break in March 2014, I was back around my parents again with Fox News on, and I decided to read some fee.org article on how Capitalism liberated women with the washing machine and other household appliances or something like that. Something about feeling close to my parents triggered a move away from where I was going in February. I ended up reading more right-libertarian literature after that and eventually became an Anarcho-Capitalist/Voluntaryist.

Anarcho-Capitalism, essentially, is the position that you abolish government and then have everything decided (including law and protection) by free-market, voluntary interaction. People obtain land through No-Proviso Lockean accumulation (unchecked homesteading) with no societal mechanism for deciding. I was drawn into it so quickly because of how simplistic and consistent it appeared. I then got caught up in an echo chamber of others who also accepted those views and became hostile to those who disagreed. Unfortunately, it even caused a rift between me and my then Democratic Socialist college roommate (sorry, Dan). This all lasted for about 5 months. Eventually, a mixture of being disgusted by the way the ideology was affecting me, feeling uncomfortable with various positions the ideology promoted, taking a summer U.S. History course, and dialoguing with others who disagreed pushed me to abandoning it. By August 2014, I was considering myself more on the Left (Social Market Economy supporter/Social Democratic/Democratic Socialist).

As a brief aside, I think it’s important to point out that throughout all of these points what was lacking was an actual well-thought-out assortment of principles with evidenced-based support for various positions and policy-proposals. That is what made it so easy to move between various positions, even rapidly. By simply having broad, vague goals of “freedom” and “environmental protection”, it was easy to jump on to anything proclaiming to achieve those goals, regardless of how solid a given perspective was. The ones that seemed the most bold and consistent would have an easier time winning out.

All of that said, between August 2014 and August 2015, I put a lot more time into trying to figure out what my principles were and what frameworks would best promote them. This involved a constant battle between an inner anarchist tendency and an inner anarchist-skeptic tendency. I spent a lot of time reading at c4ss.org (and other Left-Market Anarchist content) and other outlets that were opposed. From that point on, I began developing my mixture of pro-market, libertarian socialist, and social democratic tendencies. I’ve largely been there ever since, even if much more developed since then.

Not to forget nonpolitical personal and religious development too much, I also had a coming out process in late 2014 where I came out gay. This sparked the stage of leaving the Roman Catholic Church (honestly, for more reasons than just their awful teachings on homosexuality) and moving toward the Ecumenical Catholic Communion (an Independent Catholic church) and U.S. Episcopal Church. I had noticed that I paid much more attention to certain men in terms of attraction than women throughout my life but didn’t put too much conscious focus on it. I suspect deep down I knew that it was “wrong” according to my religion and much of society, so I tried to block it out. However, moving away from home and being able to have more freedom to figure things out and explore, I was able to more easily embrace it. Eventually, I returned to my high school days of exploring atheism, especially through Matt Dillahunty, in 2016, and I finally gave up my belief in a god and the afterlife. This led to a marked decrease in me attending church.

In 2018, I went through a particularly difficult time due to a sort of quarter-life crisis around school and career matters (with previous trauma piled on top), and I increased my attendance at the Episcopal Church again. I had a strong desire to go to church. This made me question whether I believed in a god. I reached out to Dr. Rupert Sheldrake, the office of the U.S. Episcopal Church’s presiding bishop, Michael Curry, Yale professor Dr. Dale Martin, and an ex-friend of mine who was a Lutheran pastor to dialogue on their views on the existence of a god. I maintained that I was not convinced by the various theistic arguments (cosmological arguments, contingency arguments, argument from morality, teleological arguments, arguments appealing to the unexplained, or arguments appealing to beauty, etc.) but that C. S. Lewis’s argument from desire was appealing to me. Over time, I realized it wasn’t a god that I was desiring but rather “ritual”. This is something I have been exploring ever since.

Where I’m at Now

Now that you’ve gotten a grasp of where I’ve been, I will now take some time to discuss where I’m at now. Though I’m not one for labels, I often refer to myself as a “Dialectical Left-Libertarian” (You can find a more in-depth examination of that by me here). That essentially means that I highly value the “art of context keeping” (my friend Chris Matthew Sciabarra’s conception of what dialectics is), while holding concerns around infringements on individual freedom, the dangers of centralized political power, and concerns around social & economic inequality. While many Progressive Liberals, Social Democrats and Democratic Socialists tend to highly value the centralized nation state (often, in my opinion, showing little concern around how much control it has), I have great skepticism toward it and see it as one of the greatest weapons of abuse and destruction that we’ve seen.

In contrast, while many American libertarians tend to have a very unidimensional focus on opposing all government regulation and taxation and instead defending an idealized conception of free markets to solve every problem, I have a lot of skepticism toward a “markets for everything” approach (which increased during the pandemic in 2020) and am convinced that some government taxation and regulations are a net positive while the state exists. Unlike your typical nonanarchist liberal or leftist, I just have enough dislike for/issues with the modern nation state to want to find a way of functioning without it. Therefore, I’m very pragmatic in addressing policies under the current system, while supporting discovering and implementing ways to supplant the state.

So, you will find me defending a mixture of land value taxation (Geolibertarianism), freeing up markets, pro-environment policies (including carbon tax and promotion of prescribed burning, among many other things), maximally lessening intellectual property laws and occupational licensing laws (which goes with freeing up markets), negative income tax or some form of basic income, some form of public option or public health care system, maximally open borders/free immigration, libertarian municipalist development, massive increase in workers co-op development, and much more. I often say that I come across as a mixture of libertarian and social democrat, but I’m definitely in the libertarian socialist sphere. I see these policies as all promoting individual freedom, in contrast to the simplistic right-libertarian conception of freedom that just examines how much government or community intervention is involved. Growing out of that, I support the IWW framework of developing the new society within the shell of the old. I think a market-positive form of libertarian municipalism is a framework for developing a better society within our currently existing one.

Religiously, I do not believe in the existence of a god or the afterlife. This often gets me labeled as an atheist. However, I am ultimately agnostic on these questions in broad form and don’t maintain high levels of certainty. That said, I am more convinced that certain versions of god don’t exist, such as vengeful gods that eternally torment people who disobey them. I personally find those laughable, which isn’t really an argument. It’s just safe to say that if such a ridiculous god did exist, I would not seek to be on its side. I do, however, enjoy myriad religious rituals, perspectives, and practices, and am still a member of the U.S. Episcopal Church, attending on occasion (that may increase soon). From a psychological perspective, I am agreeing more and more with Depth Psychiatrist Dr. Lionel Corbett’s understanding of Jungian thought that there’s a religious function of the psyche. I also think the evidence is pointing to there being a lot of benefits for overall health (especially mental health) for taking part in religious rituals. I guess you could say that I am not entirely hostile to religion while being highly critical.

Coming back to sexuality, I think it’s important to point out that my struggles with discovering my sexuality played a significant role in the development of “human flourishing” being at the core of my political and moral perspectives. However, my own personal development did not stop at coming out gay in 2014. I had also noticed fairly quickly that there were women who I could have some physical attraction to (especially mediated through fantasy stuff). I initially was very bothered by this. It had taken enough effort to come out and try to get my parents to accept me, and the idea that I was going to have to change my and everyone else’s understanding again sounded awful. Especially considering that religious conservatives would tell me that any indication of bisexuality would mean that I am obligated to be with a woman.

Much like eventually gaining a nuanced understanding of my religious views in 2018, I eventually developed such a view with my sexuality. Though I can find certain women attractive (and wouldn’t necessarily turn down sex if they offered), I don’t have a romantic pull toward them. So, I am homoromantic and at least somewhat bisexual. It was hard getting to this place because even a lot of gay people are not very kind on these matters (don’t get me started on the crap I get for saying I’m into masculine men!). I even developed somatic symptoms like headaches when I tried resisting acknowledging my physical attraction to some women. Now I feel totally comfortable with myself and don’t really care what anyone has to say about it, gay or straight. No more suppressive headaches!

None of what I have said here on politics, religion, or sexuality are exhaustive or my final say on anything, but I do think it provides a good overall sketch of where I’m at now on these myriad issues and how I arrived. Moving forward, I hope to write more in-depth articles on these issues, sub-issues, and much more!

A Guide for Moving Forward

It would be easy for some people to wonder why they should trust my thinking after having admitted that I have changed and evolved so much. I’d first respond by saying that I’d be skeptical of the thinking of anyone who hasn’t changed or evolved. No human has a synoptic or total view of everything, so we are all going to get plenty wrong and must engage in a life-long learning process. I also think that most people just go about their lives unreflectively and take whatever they think as “the truth”, which takes little effort. So when they see someone who has changed a lot and expelled a lot of effort, they look down on it and pity the person. Well, much like Socrates, I think the unexamined life is not worth living.

As I briefly mentioned earlier, moving forward I hope to get better in touch with my principles and provide even greater evidence-based arguments in defense of them. I also hope to keep an open mind to conflicting information, which is why I watch content and engage with others that I don’t agree with. It’s unhealthy to stay in an echo chamber where you only hear arguments and commentary in favor of your positions. That’s a sure way to grow callous toward those opposed to your views and to remain quite ignorant. That goes for strict Fox News watchers and MSNBC watchers alike, just as two examples.

A good framework for moving forward would be to get in touch with your own perspectives and arguments. Know why you hold them and what their strengths and weaknesses are. There are no risk-free or negative-free options, as pretty much everything comes with a tradeoff of some kind or another. Know what tradeoffs you’re willing to put up with and why (as one example, do you think that high economic inequality is worth putting up with in the pursuit of some rigid free-market perspective? Why?). Be open to hearing arguments opposed to your position and seek to buttress your position by taking into account criticism/feedback. Be charitable to those who respectfully disagree with you and seek their best, most steel-manned argument to deal with rather than some weak strawman argument. Doing all of that is what I strive to do, even if I still fall short. I think it’s the best way forward if we are to progress in any meaningful sense, personally and as a global community. So, let’s get to it then!