“I was told my entire life that you have to work for everything that you want. You have to put in time and energy into anything you want in this world. You are not entitled to it. You’re entitled to nothing.”
“My family is not deeply invested in politics. But those are the principles that many libertarians like myself espouse that my family does embody: self-reliance, hard work, greater personal responsibility.”
“I got into liberty through Ron Paul when I was younger. His example inspired me a lot. I didn’t have an understanding of politics and political theory back then, but I had an intuition. From there, I went to a seminar where I met Students for Liberty’s CEO, Wolf [von Laer]. At the end of our conversation he points at me and says, ‘You, I think you’re good.’ That’s when he told me about SFL.”
“After that I established a Students For Liberty club on the Mercer University campus. The Student Government Association fought against it but, once we got approved, we began doing a lot of good things. We began hosting speakers – Lawrence Reed, the president emeritus at the Foundation for Economic Education, we hosted Ed Lopez, Bryan Caplan – all kinds of people. Our events packed our highest-capacity rooms on campus.”
“After that, I decided to pursue my career of being a political commentator. My videos and podcasting have been the vehicle that have taken me toward more ‘progressive’ shows like Rashad Richey and The Young Turks, and to more podcasters and YouTubers who wanted to hear my story.”
“When I get invited to go on those progressive kinds of shows, I think a few things. Number one, they’re trying to use me for clips, which is fine because, more often than not, they’re going to get more than they bargained for. I’m not the smartest guy on planet Earth, but I know how to defend myself in an argument and did three years of debate.”
“I think my approach is so radically different than what they’re used to. I talk about philosophy. And [many progressive shows] are not comfortable with that, they don’t know how to respond to the philosophical arguments.”
“The fact that a leftist show like The Young Turks wants to talk to someone like me, a radical free speech advocate who’s not really concerned about being politically correct but is concerned about more righteousness and truth simply means that they realize discourse is still important. So long as that flame stays alive, even if it is used for self-serving purposes, for clicks, I think the liberty message has the ability to penetrate even more minds who may not have been sympathetic to it beforehand.”
“I don’t assume viewers are stupid.”
“Journalists will say the American public reads at a fifth-grade reading level, so keep it stupid for them. If that is the case, then you working within that framework is going to keep them reading at that level. It’s all about transcending your current position, becoming better and better. Things that do not grow are dead. I want to push people to learn more, to challenge themselves. That’s why I like people who are way smarter than me.”
“We need a future where we’re free from the chains of mediocre thinking that estimates us not as individuals, but as parts of a group. Mediocre thinking defines me by my race or from any other characteristic that I had really no control over, it tries to assume that I will vote a certain way, because I’m a certain age or whatever. It does not try to approach the human being and the human condition.”
“A freer future looks to me like a future where we’re focused on the individual. Maybe that’s a pipe dream. But it’s a pipe dream that I’m going to chase until my dying breath.”
“SFL gave me the mentorship, the confidence, the connections to be where I am right now chasing that dream. Wolf has connected me with other organizations by sharing my videos with the people who run them. It’s the same with all of these people who have just been profound influences in my career progression.”
“That is the story; that’s Christian Watson’s liberty origin story.”
Christian Watson
Macon, GA
This piece solely expresses the opinion of the author and not necessarily the organization as a whole. Students For Liberty is committed to facilitating a broad dialogue for liberty, representing a variety of opinions.
