I wasn't born an Anarchist

Especially in the modern era of hyper partisan ship, that is support or attack of a particular policy, philosophy, or person simply because of what else they are associated with, ideology is a terrible way of looking at the world. 

Ideology boils down your entire thought process, personal evolution, and often times personal decisions to one word that usually ends in -ism. For people who have nuanced opinions, it can at first be very frustrating to deal with. 

For example I am an Anarchist but when somebody asks me if lowering taxes is a good thing, I say yes. This immediately pigeonholes me as a Republican, Conservative, Libertarian or something like that. Obviously I'm not, and this misconception could be frustrating, and it used to be to me. But you learn to laugh and let it go. It's not worth it to go around trying to correct everybody all the time.

This reductionist way of thinking about ideology is not only frustrating to individuals, but it produces a static image of all ideology that discredits certain ideas and justifies others. Right now in the American mainstream, Anarchism is crazy and it's spread by crazy people who say crazy things. It becomes easy to simply wash your hands of any discussion with these people because they're crazy. But this is a static way of looking at ideology. Nobody believes the same things from when they're young as when they're old, or year to year or even month to month. 

In other words, I wasn't born an Anarchist. I was originally just somebody who didn't have political opinions, but then I saw Ron Paul in the Republican debates and thought he was making a lot of sense, or at least was interesting enough to look into. I evolved from there, and my opinions changed based on a lot of reading, podcasts, conversations with other people, and thinking. 

It might seem obvious that people's opinions change over time, but it directly contrasts the static "you are what you are right now" idea I mentioned in the beginning. The people I know who are also anarchists or Communists or anything else, once had very basic, mild opinions. So instead of thinking there's no way to bridge the gap between an anarchist and a Republican or a Democrat, keep in mind that I wasn't born an Anarchist either. If it happened to me, why can't it happen to you?