This is part of our continuing series of accounts by readers of how they shed the illusions of liberalism and became race realists.

In college, I was a typical libertarian. My peer group was overwhelmingly leftist, especially when it came to “social issues.” I was always to the right of them, particularly on economics and feminism, but mouthed generic platitudes about race: “Of course, race is a social construct,” etc. I repeated that sort of slogan in full confidence that I would receive appreciative nods and positive reinforcement from those around me. I had my doubts about whether or not race was simply a fiction, but with no one to hold me to account, and all incentives pointing the other way, there wasn’t any reason to investigate the matter further. This “know nothing” attitude about race is reinforced with social rewards and punishments, and takes your intellectual and moral vanity hostage. I felt like a good and intelligent person for reciting orthodoxy — and was confident that those who believed otherwise were evil and stupid.

As for my awakening, it came via a seemingly unrelated matter — Brendan Eich’s firing from Mozilla for opposing gay marriage. Unlike race, the acceptance of fashionable “truths” regarding homosexuality happened in my lifetime. I saw firsthand the conversation on the topic change dramatically in a very short span of time. I saw those around me completely “forget” their previous comments on the topic and turn on a dime. I remember how many times, when discussing the topic of gay marriage, people would say, “How could it possibly matter? Just let gays get married, it has nothing to do with you.” With my libertarian sensibilities I had always found this quite reasonable. Yet even in 2014, before gay marriage had even been “discovered” in the constitution, people were losing their jobs for not backing it. Bakers and florists were to follow, and those who had assured conservatives, “It won’t change your life” were now gleefully destroying the reputations of those same people and delighting in their misery.

In my search for answers as to how all this had come to pass, I read “The Dark Enlightenment” by Nick Land and Mencius Moldbug; and then American Renaissance and Counter-Currents. Suddenly everything clicked: this process of radical social change and the enormous library of lies that came with it was a feature of leftism, not a bug, from the French Revolution onwards. The pliability of human minds, the ability to dramatically narrow horizons was all too reminiscent of 1984. “Doublethink,” “crimestop,” and the “memory hole” are all present in our own society — not just George Orwell’s imagination. I used to say that the two most important works of fiction ever written were 1984 and The Emperor’s New Clothes. It is a testament to their prescience that I felt no irony in saying as much while I was mindlessly repeating nonsense about race being a “social construct.”

It amazes me how I knew that blacks commit enormous amounts of crime, but never linked that to the obvious conclusion that providing them with equal — or even superior — moral status in our society was a recipe for disaster. Ditto with the importation of Muslims into my European homeland, making periodic Islamist atrocities a hallmark of my life since young adulthood. One can only look away from all this and deny the obvious for so long. The fundamental operating principle of our society is the hatred of whites. It is a hatred founded in resentment of white success, white virtue, white beauty, and white aptitude. Were we a pitiful lot, we would be heralded by society as well. It is a pathological value system — and it cannot go on forever.

If you have a story about how you became racially aware, we’d like to hear it. If it is well written and compelling, we will publish it. Use a pen name, stay under 1,200 words, and send it to us here.