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?
"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.
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.
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.
"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.
"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."
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:
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
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"
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.
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.
which past version though, honestly i'd be tempted to tell him to buy bitcoin or something i dunno. i trust my teenage self, he's a good kid, he just needs to get off 4chan and talk to girls i think. maybe he should beg his parents for a treadmill.
I'm not entirely sure but maybe I'd show some things said from people like Stalin or Lenin and others. While showing they're not as bad as people or institutions say they were. Since I saw someone quoting Stalin once and it made me go "Huh Stalin said that? That was pretty good, what do I even know about Stalin anyways?" But seeing something like this helped.
But we did not build this society in order to restrict personal liberty but in order that the human individual may feel really free. We built it for the sake of real personal liberty, liberty without quotation marks. It is difficult for me to imagine what "personal liberty" is enjoyed by an unemployed person, who goes about hungry, and cannot find employment.
Real liberty can exist only where exploitation has been abolished, where there is no oppression of some by others, where there is no unemployment and poverty, where a man is not haunted by the fear of being tomorrow deprived of work, of home and of bread. Only in such a society is real, and not paper, personal and every other liberty possible.
