Around 2015 I was a recovering AnCap who fell back into vague South Park Liberalism / Libertarianism. Seeing the open bloodthirst of Trump's election campaign (and the base of /r/the_donald specifically) kinda jump-started the empathy center of my brain. It was the first time in a long time I remembered "Oh, other people exist and don't seem to be having the same experiences as me... I should look into that...". Basically the vitriol and garishness of the Right under Trump helped me check my privilege for the first time.
Then, Trump getting elected single-handedly convinced me American Exceptionalism couldn't be more of a sham and Capitalism couldn't be less of a meritocracy. I suddenly saw the rot, I could see the direction every part of this country and planet was hurtling toward and it looked like Children of Men at best... So I was radicalized and disillusioned then and there. The US wasn't "an ambitious egalitarian experiment with some forgivable mistakes", it was just a mass-slaughtering machine sucking the life out of everything around us. There was no Master Plan, there were no Great Men, there wasn't even an Illuminati, the problems weren't clandestine they were right in front of us, banal and broad as daylight. For the first time, I realized institutions weren't coming to save us, institutions I had assumed were fucking magic and full of Aaron Sorkin type specialists with their hands on the rudder. NOPE. That priviledged as I am, I had more common with sweatshop workers in Indonesia than I did with my employers. I realized nobody was coming to save us. (And with Bernie out of the picture, now it's safe to say nobody is coming to save us. I've lost any hope he could have anyway.)
Was ready to be radicalized, and luckily, took an American History from Black Perspective course shortly after. Went from "We need to restore America to when it was good, to stop the Make America Great Again people!" to "America has literally never been good. There is no political party demanding Leftward change except that one they outlawed. It's all a sham, and everything I have to my name was earned by dice rolls on top of a mountain of skeletons..."
Suddenly, it was like I could see the Matrix code. Every thing I was politically confused about was explainable with "Does this help the property-owning class make more money? That's why it do." Every shitty thing at work, every shitty thing outside, every shitty thing happening from top to bottom. "It's for the property-owning class. It's all being done for them."
Having the most soul-crushing job on Earth at the time helped a lot. I was already thinking "Why is some trust fund baby in a suit the owner of everything a thousand engineers and technicians work on? How does this guy own this building if he's never even set foot in it? Why is he in charge of anything at all?" well before I read Marx.
A harry potter themed explanation on the shortcomings of Liberalism helped a lot.
That Socialism for Dummies video by Richard Wolff helped a lot too.
A freaking civic option's flavortext in a Stellaris mod helped too. "Socialist Economy: The means of production are owned by the workers who use them. If you don't use it, you can't profit from it." That was my first "Oh, that's what Socialism is? That sounds ... great. Wait..." moment.
Just seeing the differences between Liberals and any kind of Red in Kaiserreich helped too. "Sexual, Racial, and Economic Equality, Worker Co-Ops, and abolishing Landlordism ... versus ... minor banking reforms and feel-good campaigns."
A picture of world leaders all sitting on toilets pooping helped shatter that weird Great Man idea I was raised on. Seeing a queen with her granny panties down as she stares listlessly at the toilet paper roll is ... well it helped remind me they're just human beings in fancy suits. They aren't geniuses from a crop of superhuman elites, they're just people doing what makes the most sense at that point in time for them.
Took about a month from learning the correct definition of Socialism for the first time in my life to realizing I was a goddamn Red.
Around 2015 I was a recovering AnCap who fell back into vague South Park Liberalism / Libertarianism. Seeing the open bloodthirst of Trump's election campaign (and the base of /r/the_donald specifically) kinda jump-started the empathy center of my brain. It was the first time in a long time I remembered "Oh, other people exist and don't seem to be having the same experiences as me... I should look into that...". Basically the vitriol and garishness of the Right under Trump helped me check my privilege for the first time.
Then, Trump getting elected single-handedly convinced me American Exceptionalism couldn't be more of a sham and Capitalism couldn't be less of a meritocracy. I suddenly saw the rot, I could see the direction every part of this country and planet was hurtling toward and it looked like Children of Men at best... So I was radicalized and disillusioned then and there. The US wasn't "an ambitious egalitarian experiment with some forgivable mistakes", it was just a mass-slaughtering machine sucking the life out of everything around us. There was no Master Plan, there were no Great Men, there wasn't even an Illuminati, the problems weren't clandestine they were right in front of us, banal and broad as daylight. For the first time, I realized institutions weren't coming to save us, institutions I had assumed were fucking magic and full of Aaron Sorkin type specialists with their hands on the rudder. NOPE. That priviledged as I am, I had more common with sweatshop workers in Indonesia than I did with my employers. I realized nobody was coming to save us. (And with Bernie out of the picture, now it's safe to say nobody is coming to save us. I've lost any hope he could have anyway.)
Was ready to be radicalized, and luckily, took an American History from Black Perspective course shortly after. Went from "We need to restore America to when it was good, to stop the Make America Great Again people!" to "America has literally never been good. There is no political party demanding Leftward change except that one they outlawed. It's all a sham, and everything I have to my name was earned by dice rolls on top of a mountain of skeletons..."
Suddenly, it was like I could see the Matrix code. Every thing I was politically confused about was explainable with "Does this help the property-owning class make more money? That's why it do." Every shitty thing at work, every shitty thing outside, every shitty thing happening from top to bottom. "It's for the property-owning class. It's all being done for them."
Having the most soul-crushing job on Earth at the time helped a lot. I was already thinking "Why is some trust fund baby in a suit the owner of everything a thousand engineers and technicians work on? How does this guy own this building if he's never even set foot in it? Why is he in charge of anything at all?" well before I read Marx.
A harry potter themed explanation on the shortcomings of Liberalism helped a lot.
That Socialism for Dummies video by Richard Wolff helped a lot too.
A freaking civic option's flavortext in a Stellaris mod helped too. "Socialist Economy: The means of production are owned by the workers who use them. If you don't use it, you can't profit from it." That was my first "Oh, that's what Socialism is? That sounds ... great. Wait..." moment.
Just seeing the differences between Liberals and any kind of Red in Kaiserreich helped too. "Sexual, Racial, and Economic Equality, Worker Co-Ops, and abolishing Landlordism ... versus ... minor banking reforms and feel-good campaigns."
A picture of world leaders all sitting on toilets pooping helped shatter that weird Great Man idea I was raised on. Seeing a queen with her granny panties down as she stares listlessly at the toilet paper roll is ... well it helped remind me they're just human beings in fancy suits. They aren't geniuses from a crop of superhuman elites, they're just people doing what makes the most sense at that point in time for them.
Took about a month from learning the correct definition of Socialism for the first time in my life to realizing I was a goddamn Red.
___
This could be really good for using with libs. Got a link?