Hey, I was one of those sixties hippies... Ultra left wing, against the war, rtc. Within a little more than 10 years I’d become a Republican and started to become the conservative I am today. Occasionally I run into friends from that era, almost all of whom are still stuck in that mindset, and my changes disturb them.
What I realize, and what I tell them is that I was actually a small “L” libertarian all along. I didn’t want anyone to tread on me in those days, and I still don’t.
They don’t see it. To them, I am nothing more than an apostate, and in the reactionary left, that can be abided.
I like that phrase, “the reactionary Left.”