While none of us were precisely born as liberals, the vast majority of us were raised as such.
If you could reach back in time to the past version of you that remained under the illusions of liberalism, what would you say?
“Isnt it weird how Finland has apparentely never done anything wrong? Remember that one punk looking dude in school who was talking about finnish concentration camps? Yeah look into that a bit. Oh also look into this transgender stuff a bit too, trust me.”
“Why is it we live in a democracy but our schools and jobs are dictatorships?”
The vast majority of families also function as dictatorships. This is a great point which I think would really make a lot of people stop and think.
US hegemony was never about exporting democracy, it has always been about clearing the way for western capitalists to exploit other countries.
The Supreme Court is not an effective check and balance on the power of Congress, it’s a bulwark against progress.
The Democratic party is also captured by corporate interests.
I thought Jon Stewart pointing out right wing hypocrisy would surely change minds, if only I could show it to them. So I’d tell 2004 jimmy that shit doesn’t matter, at all. Enjoy the laughs but it’s not doing anything
My dad was your typical “centrist” republican and I was raised not to have opinions on things. The idealized man in my home was basically Eco’s ur-fascist. All of my communications with friends were monitored. One time I got in trouble for being gay because I wasn’t homophobic enough in turning down my friend’s advances. That sort of home.
The one thing I’d hammer into my young head is that nobody else knows what the fuck they’re talking about, either, and that goes double for anyone who claims otherwise. Just trust yourself to do what’s right and it’ll be fine. You might make mistakes, you might do the wrong thing sometimes, you might make people upset on occasion, but whatever, at least you’re making an effort. The desire to help others regardless of their “worth” doesn’t make you weak.
Happy you found a better place to be in MerryChrsitmas :)
imo there is nothing I could say to my old self to speed up the process. My whole move away from liberalism and into communism was gradual, but also punctuated by several real life moments that can’t be instilled in a person through words.
“What if I told you that liberals aren’t leftists and that there are actual leftists out there, and they’re pretty cool?”
“You’re not the only one who feels this way.”
“It’s okay to be angry.”
“get the fuck off of 4chan, it’s giving you brain damage and making you unlikable”
“read these articles and books by trans people. you might see yourself in them”
“read more feminist/queer/anti-racist literature so that you can stop being a shithead to the people around you”
i was already on the path towards leftism in high school i dont really think that i needed an extra push towards communism. but i was an edgy, stupidpol-esque asshole and i wish i wasnt. also my life would be a lot easier rn if i’d realized i was trans in high school instead of in my mid 20’s
Same for me. I really wish i could delete the neurons that hold any memory of 4chan it gave be permanent brain damage.
Listen, I know it’s tough right now, first Bernie drops out and now this dumb bitch can’t even win, but I promise you, I promise you.
This is one of the funniest things that happens in your life :feast:
“You’re a girl idiot!”
That the bad things that keep getting done by people in power aren’t accidents, failures, ignorance, etc. this is how they want things to be. And they will make things as bad as they need to if the price is right and we let them
Also, protesting that is not peaceful is not bad or “hurting their cause”
People on the right are not working in good faith. There is no series of words you could say to any Republican politician, or most “regular conservatives,” that would make them understand the error of their ways and move to the left. They believe that the way that society is ordered, or was ordered in some imagined past, is the way it must be ordered. And while there may be people in power above them that they are subservient to, they are not at the bottom of the social order either, and they must protect their place in the existing structures of power. The suffering and pain that they inflict on others is not out of a misguided attempt to make the world a better place. The suffering and pain is the point; to keep those that they believe ought to be below them in line, to put those who have gotten out of line back in their place, or to eradicate those who might upset the social order they seek to protect.
And liberals will join those on the right if something threatens their comfort.
Read Zinn. Read Parenti. Read Fanon.
Probably would have told them to be trans mostly, since I was already on my way to reading theory and becoming a communist
Nothing political. I became a leftist aged 14 because of the Great recession hitting my family hard. Material conditions are the easiest way to get radicalized.
I suppose I could tell young Gos about asexuality. That’d spare me some pointless stuff a few years ago. And to not get hooked on sugar, but I doubt I’d listen.
However, I am a believer that the steps made that led me to become the person I am today shouldn’t really be changed if magically given the chance to. Despite my bad mental health, I’m not actually unhappy with how I am as a person. Beyond my physical health that is.
