I wonder how many of my differences with other leftists come down to the fact that so many of you have _never_ been a conservative in your life and have never even had a single conservative friend.

I came from the other side.

I had a lot of help, since my mom was pretty much a hippie, but ideologically speaking she raised me very laissez-faire and when I become a pseudo-fundie at 11 all she really had in the way of resistance was a rather sororal "No... seriously?! You believe this shit?" over coffee in our kitchen at 3 am.

But I got myself into conservative beliefs for some very well-meaning reasons, and I can still model that world. I'm also _agonizingly_ aware of what a tremendous intellectual house of cards it is, which is paradoxically why I'm so harsh about holding leftists to high standards of intellectual integrity.

It's because I basically have nowhere left to go politically, and I'll be damned if I'll see the same memetic-zombie scenario I saw on their side happen on ours. No, being the Good Guys isn't enough to protect you. You're a human being. It's in your fucking neurological code, and if you don't fight it constantly, it happens. Look at all the things I'VE fucked up, and I sweat this stuff every moment of my life. >__<