Personally, I grew up on a single parent home, where I saw my mom get destroyed by her office work. The lack of unions, no external help and general misoginy, made her get super depressed, and became an alcoholic. In my teenage years I was almost lured by the manosphere communities, but got helped by a group of close friends that were left leaning. Most of them were anarchist, so I started with that. Slowly but surely, I started to understand how sick this system is, and it made me furious, but I never found a way to show my ideas. No political party represented my ideas, and I fell deeper in the anarchist rabbit hole. Yes, I was a hardcore anarkiddie, but I bite me back. When I needed them the most, they turned their backs on me, and fell into deep depression. And in seeking psychological help, my counselor recommended me going back to my roots. So I went back to videogames, japanese culture and most importantly, read again after years The Communist Manifesto. I still don't know how to position myself in the left, but I know that I'm a Marxist, and that I want change. Stay safe, comrades.
Bernie losing the 2016 primaries. I saw a candidate who wanted the policies that the people wanted. He had a record that showed historical commitment and zero corporate donors (bribes). It was clearly shown at the time that the more that voters knew about bernie the more likely that they were to vote for him. But then I saw him lose because of a media apparatus that denied him serious coverage and a party with no interest in actually making the world a better place.
When I saw that I lost all faith in the american system and became an anarchist. I'm more of a big tent leftist now that I've learned more about AES. I went from patriotic lib to American hating lefty in a moment. Grieving my nationalism was actually a pretty painful experience.
before after