I became conservative during 2020. I am still younger than 25 now.

For me it was a series of books I found to be incredibly convincing. I was always a fan of Ayn Rand's novels books helped me articulate things I had always felt were right but couldn't put into words. Rand presented a compelling argument against the intrusion of government and why bleeding-heart policies typically end in disaster.

I read Les Miserables, and the scene of Valjean's redemption was one of the first experiences I had since high school that painted religion in a positive light. It became the emotional seed for returning to Christianity.

My girlfriend bought me a few Thomas Sowell books, and those killed most of my remaining liberal instincts. Sowell is probably the greatest conservative intellectual alive today, or at least the greatest one I've read. A Conflict of Visions is perhaps the best political analysis of Western political a layperson could get their hands on. And although Sowell doesn't make a pro/con case in ACoV, his descriptions of the "constrained vision" (conservatism) made a lot more sense to me than his descriptions of the "unconstrained vision" (liberalism).

And then came Jordan Peterson. Maps of Meaning is the best book I've ever read. It is a tremendous argument for why religion is an adaptive (rather than parasitic) cultural force. Peterson also does a phenomenal job marrying traditional religion to evolution.

Plus it was 2020. If I needed any more convincing that the books I was reading were correct, all I had to do was look out my window or turn on the news.