You know, what irks me the most about all this, is him lambasting multiculturalism. I mean, hello??? He was an expatriate in Japan for crying out loud, and married a Russian wife!!! If that's not multiculturalism, then what is???

Okay, he means those non Western third world country types. But seriously, both Japan and Russia only nominally qualify as Western countries. True, they have incorporated elements of Western culture, but they are still culturally very different.

I don't mind people changing their political views. It's not like I have any choice in the matter anyway. But when you see someone bounce from one extreme to another, there is usually something serious going on underneath. I also forgot to mention that this guy CHANGED his last name. Now I'm beginning to realize that he underwent a major transformation after college, when he went to live in Eastern Europe. He is also fixated on the history of Russia and Soviet communism and now thinks he is on some mission to stop the spread of socialism. Then he came back with a Russian wife and got a PhD, and now he's a neoconservative. I guess he fits the stereotype, as he is Jewish. But my God, what a radical transformation. And now it makes sense why he was so tight lipped when we exchanged emails a few years ago. No mention of his political transformation. He could have said that he now espouses a radically different world view, but I guess he'd rather just stay incognito. He did come up with a new identity anyway. When I suggested we have coffee the next time I visit DC, he ignored it. Now I know why. He probably guesses that his new identity won't mesh too well with most of the people he knew from the past. After all, I am now the "enemy." I am the very thing he is railing against. Nonconformist, long haired, multiculturalist. And by the way, so was he (and still is underneath the veneer, in my opinion). By the way, I did hear rumors about his sister being molested and now that I think back, I did sense some dysfunctionality and even dissociation. Like, both he and his sister denied some past events even just a few years after they happened. And coming from a family of abuse myself where my mom was friends with his mom, I would be willing to bet he comes from a majorly screwed up family as well. And he apparently linked his oppressor(s) with socialism and liberalism. There is a part of me that sort of gets this, as I remember some of my libertarian views in my twenties. It's first many years later after I've studied psychology and been through therapy that I've realized how much your world view is affected by your family life, which of course includes politics. I think one day he got up and decided the way to save himself is to be "strict" on himself and become a Republican. We've all heard this story like a million times, right? But shit, to live your whole life like this, being both master and slave and whipping yourself, and embracing an extremist philosophy in order to "save" yourself, holding yourself together... There was just no way I was going to do something like that. Besides, I was always searching for Truth, and if I came across something and tried it and it didn't help out, I would move on. I never stopped looking. Luckily, I eventually stumbled on psychology. But I guess he never did. His sister I heard moved to Israel and became a devout Jew, so you can see a pattern here. I think it's so sad when peoples lives are defined by what others did to them. That's one of the reasons why I never stayed with anything radical for too long. At some point you just realize it's not worth fighting this "enemy" out there which is just a projection of your fears from the past.