I ticked all the boxes in high school. Ironic-but-not-really fascist, incel, anti-LGBT, anti-abortion, pick a reaction, really. Now I’m happily married, father, Kinsey-1, reading theory, with growing class consciousness and looking to build solidarity with those people that a worse version of myself once dismissed as lesser or ungodly. It took leaving home, developing positive and loving male-male friendships, and being told that I was good enough and worth love irrespective of my accomplishments for me to start to develop the capacity to love others in the same way. Those who have traveled a similar path, what did it take for you?

  • ami [they/them,he/him]
    ·
    4 years ago

    Grew up poor as fuck. Young, single mother working as a waitress. No healthcare. Spent my developmental years raised by television and the internet. Moved around a lot because my mom latched on to different boyfriends hoping they would pull us out of poverty and as a result never had any real friends. Ended up dropping out of school and spent ages 16-18 as an agoraphobic hermit.

    Got my first job through a kind of friend who was really just this person I smoked weed with. Mom dated this guy that moved us to another city and spent another year or so as a shut-in. Got another job. Didn't care for it but I liked my co-workers. Saw that they were all way older than me and still making less than $10hr even though most of them had worked there for 10+ years.

    Started to get really angry and radicalized by the work conditions, the management, and general anger at the system and society that never allowed these people to advance. Put a lot of effort into electoralism. Saw that it went nowhere. Ended up getting in a really terrible relationship and turned into a mega chud.

    Finally worked up the courage to get out of the relationship after hitting rock bottom. The next year was hell. Met someone else and slowly came out of my chud shell and we started to radicalized together, especially after 2016. Lots of other workplace and political/socioeconomic conditions led to further radicalization and here I am today.