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?
9/11 and the War in Iraq made me distrustful of government, power, and imperialism.
The crash of 2008 and bailouts made me critical of capitalism.
The Bernie campaign of 2016 opened my eyes that many others were feeling the same way.
Are you me?