This is one of those things that I really feel people have to acknowledge that on individual level, political consciousness and radicalization is very chaotic. I was kind of in a weird place because I was kind of an incoherent Soc-Dem growing up. I guess the best way of saying it is that I hadn't really read theory but was really open to left thought.
The reasons I would give are, that I am in a weird place that my grandparents are/were drastically more left than my parents (New Deal Liberals/Farmer-Labor types). And even though my father is quite reactionary he traveled to Europe a lot for work, and he was willing to acknowledge that their healthcare and education systems were better because (at least at the time) they were less privatized/neoliberalised. So, I was kind of a weird crank even in middle school/high school that wouldn't accept the bullshit talking points about how universal healthcare couldn't work in the US or would be worse than what we have, even before the ACA. The other thing is that I was extremely young, but the first movie I saw in theaters was Star Trek: First Contact. I don't remember what age I was or much of the movie (it was well before I started Kindergarten), but the only scene I remembered from the movie that stuck with me, was Picard talking about how in the future they don't have money and everyone works to better themselves. So that always left me in this weird state of, due to all the liberals that surrounded me, not really questioning official narratives (outside of being told certain things aren't possible in the abstract) but liking the ideals expressed in Communism as I understood them. It was kind of the situation of "Well I guess Stalin did kill 90 gorrillian people and the USSR was bad, but this ending private property and everyone sharing in the common prosperity of all sounds cool", or "I haven't looked into it, so I guess I will trust the official narrative on the Vietnam War".
So my radicalization, as dopey as it sounds, just required coming across Chomsky's Manufacturing Consent and reading FAIR. But it is one of those things, where I think my path to the left would be longer or not happen if a handful of formative experiences hadn't occurred or I had had different family members.
I was a full on idiotic lib at one point, but the thing that irks me the most is the the libs that will confidently say things that are easily fact checked, or just say things based on vibes, or just make shit up.
I feel like the difference between many of us, or at least myself is when I do not know something I will try my best to figure it out even if that means challenging my existing disposition. This is what lead me here.
So in one respect yes I was like them I was an ignorant lib, but never ever ever would I just say some wild bullshit then plug my ears and start yelling.
Back in the day when I was severely depressed, which was like 3-4 months a year, I spent an enormous amount of time just reading wikipedia and the news and trying to claw together explanations for shit that was happening from as many disparate sources as I could find. Does make it rather frustrating when people are totally indifferent too and uninterested in easily checkable facts.
Ofc we are all raised on the same propaganda but I can't think of a single time I ever put this much energy into being like this. I cared more about whatever vidya was coming out and when I met my first real communist IRL it didn't really illicit any emotion in me other than "sounds cool"
While agree with where you are coming from, I'm not sure how we'll crack that shell currently. If the admins>mods>users are all in lockstep on having terrible worldviews, it's not gonna be easy to make much difference. This is the instance that pre-defederated remember.
Probably, but it was a long, long, long time ago. I think 2011 with Libya or 2012 with the al-Awlaki assassination was when it finally clicked that everything I'd been raised to believe was a lie.
Serious question. Were you guys never like them? Unaware of politics and takes outside of the mainstream propaganda.
I came out of the womb w a complex sociohistoricoeconopolitical understanding of the IMMORTAL SCIENCE
That's why I didn't want this to be a dunk. I was them, I want to help them into the light: (
This is one of those things that I really feel people have to acknowledge that on individual level, political consciousness and radicalization is very chaotic. I was kind of in a weird place because I was kind of an incoherent Soc-Dem growing up. I guess the best way of saying it is that I hadn't really read theory but was really open to left thought.
The reasons I would give are, that I am in a weird place that my grandparents are/were drastically more left than my parents (New Deal Liberals/Farmer-Labor types). And even though my father is quite reactionary he traveled to Europe a lot for work, and he was willing to acknowledge that their healthcare and education systems were better because (at least at the time) they were less privatized/neoliberalised. So, I was kind of a weird crank even in middle school/high school that wouldn't accept the bullshit talking points about how universal healthcare couldn't work in the US or would be worse than what we have, even before the ACA. The other thing is that I was extremely young, but the first movie I saw in theaters was Star Trek: First Contact. I don't remember what age I was or much of the movie (it was well before I started Kindergarten), but the only scene I remembered from the movie that stuck with me, was Picard talking about how in the future they don't have money and everyone works to better themselves. So that always left me in this weird state of, due to all the liberals that surrounded me, not really questioning official narratives (outside of being told certain things aren't possible in the abstract) but liking the ideals expressed in Communism as I understood them. It was kind of the situation of "Well I guess Stalin did kill 90 gorrillian people and the USSR was bad, but this ending private property and everyone sharing in the common prosperity of all sounds cool", or "I haven't looked into it, so I guess I will trust the official narrative on the Vietnam War".
So my radicalization, as dopey as it sounds, just required coming across Chomsky's Manufacturing Consent and reading FAIR. But it is one of those things, where I think my path to the left would be longer or not happen if a handful of formative experiences hadn't occurred or I had had different family members.
i grew up poor to leftist parents, so no
I was a full on idiotic lib at one point, but the thing that irks me the most is the the libs that will confidently say things that are easily fact checked, or just say things based on vibes, or just make shit up.
I feel like the difference between many of us, or at least myself is when I do not know something I will try my best to figure it out even if that means challenging my existing disposition. This is what lead me here.
So in one respect yes I was like them I was an ignorant lib, but never ever ever would I just say some wild bullshit then plug my ears and start yelling.
Back in the day when I was severely depressed, which was like 3-4 months a year, I spent an enormous amount of time just reading wikipedia and the news and trying to claw together explanations for shit that was happening from as many disparate sources as I could find. Does make it rather frustrating when people are totally indifferent too and uninterested in easily checkable facts.
Ofc we are all raised on the same propaganda but I can't think of a single time I ever put this much energy into being like this. I cared more about whatever vidya was coming out and when I met my first real communist IRL it didn't really illicit any emotion in me other than "sounds cool"
While agree with where you are coming from, I'm not sure how we'll crack that shell currently. If the admins>mods>users are all in lockstep on having terrible worldviews, it's not gonna be easy to make much difference. This is the instance that pre-defederated remember.
Probably, but it was a long, long, long time ago. I think 2011 with Libya or 2012 with the al-Awlaki assassination was when it finally clicked that everything I'd been raised to believe was a lie.