IME, most right-wingers don't seem like very happy people. They may

[raccoon]

have happy moments, but they seem generally pissed off at a lot of people, like nearly everyone that isn't a close relative/friend of theirs---and even some of them....well, I think you get my point.

Or maybe it's just that the vocal ones are like that. :shrug:

[YOY]

1. I never was happier and better balanced until I let go of my hatred towards groups of people

Although rednecks tend to piss me off sometimes...that is ignorant white people and not all folks who consider themselves rednecks.

Thats just hatred of ignorance.

Hate consumes a person.

[Warpy]

2. It's like a drug, gives you a rush of self righteousness

Alas, it's like other destructive drugs out there like crank, it eventually eats you up from the inside out.

A lot of people found hate to be the antidote to fear.

It works very well for a while, then it starts to play hell with your circulatory and GI systems, not to mention your social system.

[raccoon]

3. Was there a certain event that led you to change? or was it a process?

PM me if you prefer.

"Hate consumes a person." No question about it.

[YOY]

4. No need to PM.

Travel. Talking to people. That's what did it. It changed an 18-year-old American idiot into a concerned global citizen. Seeing that my ass really wasn't that special at all just by being born in a place.

Languages, travel, genrerally not being a dick, and overriding the programming we are given from birth on here.

That's about it.

I love my country more by trying to make it a better place for those within and without.

[mulsh]

5. a "libertarian" acquaintance recently told me of his epiphany

re: racism. he told me that he figured it disappears on an individual level and is only really in force when dealing with groups. this can be considered a major break through for this guy. he told me this while we were at the SF Pride Parade. He also told me that he prefers anti war rallies to events like the Pride parades because the anti war rallies have "more anger behind them".

I've had my own epiphany, people who peg their lives on anger and fear suck. no really. I think that's why so many right wingers seem so happy.

right wing fear is based on having no answer, fear for fears sake. the only positive thing I've noticed about left wing fear is that it tends to be searching for solutions.

oh, and just about all of the right wing people I know seem to be very unhappy.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

6. I think they are mostly people who did everything that Middle American

culture tells you to do and are still unhappy. Since they think that THEY did everything right, their unhappiness must be someone else's fault.

[ProfessorGAC]

7. Consistent With Phil Gramm's Comment

The whole "nation of whinters" neatly defines the conservative movement in this country. The whole "let's find something more to complain about" is what has been the core political attribute of the rise of the Republicans since Watergate.
The Professor