I don't have any specific examples, but the zero-tolerance thing in schools where self-defense could get you expelled. Just some cold, banality of evil shit
Probably when I was abused and the social workers did nothing because I was gay. Fun times.
In Reception (pre-school for you yanks) when I was about four I had a really awful teacher who seemed to hate kids and was basically a bully. We'd done paintings and I was proud of mine and wanted to show my Mum so asked to take it home.
She said I couldn't.
I asked why.
She said because she said so and they weren't for taking home.
I asked if they were going to be hung up in the classroom then.
She said no.
I told her I was taking mine home then and took it off the desk.
She snatched it out if my hand and ripped it.
I threw the still half full pots of paints at her, turning her into a living Jackson Pollock painting.
When my Mum showed up to collect me the teacher kept us behind to give us a big lecture about how she'd never known such a rude child as to dare ask questions and that my outburst might be proof of some mental imbalance. My Mum was silent and I was sure I was in big trouble.
We got in the car to go home and my Mum burst into hysterical laughter and said that she deserved it.
That was the first time I was outraged by injustice and the first time I found out my Mum was based.
That's fucking awesome kid you did nothing wrong your mom sounds cool as fuck.
She's a comrade for sure.
Obviously I remember seeing worse, more unjust stuff throughout my childhood, but that's the standout earliest memory.
Not first, but I remember watching early youtube of police arresting skaters, kneeling on their backs, and mocking the person filming by saying something along the lines of "yeah, your tax dollars pay my salary ha ha"
I have hated the pigs ever since the cops in Tony Hawk Underground fuck with you in the game
Learning that my mother was punched in the stomach by a police officer when pregnant with my brother was probably the first I remember. My family were anarchist though so it was pretty ingrained in me from an early age.
Mostly normal we didn't live on a commune or anything. I went to school, watched pokemon, played video games all that jazz. We'd go to road protests (they were a big thing in the UK in early 90s, train gang since birth) and other demonstrations regularly but would always leave before the police came charging in on horseback. Mostly it was just great to have the world around me explained accurately from the begining. I've always seen politics for the sham it is. I've always know the wealth of the western world is built on exploitation. I've always known capitalist exploit their workers. I've always know kindness and compassion is how you try and approach other people at first not just seeing them for what they can offer you. Basically I'm the only one on this site who isn't a lib.
It did not make school easy though. I had a huge anti-authoritarian streak and it caused me to get into trouble. I was the weird kid who would say God didn't exists and that gay people aren't sickos. Caused me to be bullied a lot and gave me terrible anxiety. But at the end of the day it means my parents can be my heroes. My mother was at Greenham common in the 80s protesting american imperialism how fucking cool is that. My dad was a genius historian and marxists who I was in constant awe of . The breadth and depth of knowledge but also compassion and kindness was staggering. They are both dead now but I try to live up to them every day by living and emodying their ideals.
The 4th grade teacher talking about how some people will never be more than cleaning staff, while eyeing my friend from Bosnia
I was like 14 seeing all the news coverage about Trayvon Martin, dealing with all the cognitive dissonance about what I was being taught in school and just how fucking god awful the reaction to his death was, along with the fact that Zimmerman is still out there. I didn't become a communist but that was definitely a seed.
I was in the military and I was driving around this Navy town with my black homie who was also in the military. He had a nice car and said the cops were always harassing him. I didn't believe it. Sure as shit, 2 minutes later we were lit up with red and blue. Of course we were literally doing nothing so they let us go.
I never cared for cops but that was the first time I realized all cops, besides being huge dicks, are probably also racist pieces of shit.
probably getting whipped with the belt by my dad as early as like 7-8 years old... my parents were hardcore fundie catholics. spare the rod hate the child they say... more specifically when my mom found my sketchbook in middle school and saw that i had been drawing "immodest" women and "satanic" drawings when i was just drawing goth sonic OCs with cleavage and sicced my dad on me... thats when i started getting called satanist, atheist, and evil on a regular basis. for art. jokes on you mom it's all true now :^)
what was a mean teacher you had
I went to a Catholic high school and my ethics teacher was the worst. She gave us this assignment, and I thought it was clear that Sinbad was clearly and unambigiously the worst person in the scenario because he coerced Abagail into sex, but then my teacher gave us some shit about how "He was just offering a service, it was voluntary(tm)" and was even arguing that he was better than Ivan who just noped out of the situation and I was just like what the actual fuck are you talking about.
There was also the time when I missed class, couldn't find her in her office the next day, and then showed up the day after without the handout she gave out on the day I missed, so she had me move my chair out to the hallway, then, with the door open so I could hear everything, proceeded to give the whole class a lecture on irresponsibility. It's been like a decade and I have not stopped being pissed about that, lol.
That class was from a more secular-ish perspective and tbh I preferred the straight up theology classes taught by priests/deacons who actually had some level of chill.
