this post was submitted on 12 Sep 2023
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Can confirm. Fight the power, fuck the system and all that jazz. I was told it was my "maximalism of the youth", a phase that would pass, but I only become more and more radical in my views as I mature, so that was a fucking lie.
Yup, I’m 41 and I haven’t gotten less radical, just more detail-oriented in how we make it a reality.
You poor? Usually people get more conservative the more wealth they accumulate. I've got barely anything to my name which might be why I slowly getting more and more radicalized on the left. That and you know reality.
I grew up poor (rural Arizona, living in a trailer we couldn’t afford to heat in the winter, mom worked at Walmart, dad was a mechanic, just to paint a picture of what I mean). Both my parents are more progressive, we moved from the Bay Area of California when I was ten because we couldn’t afford it and also so they could get away from their druggie friends circle. Thankfully I liked science and had people who encouraged me, and I now have a PhD in molecular biology and my partner does computer programming and makes a lot.
But before I decided on science, my progressive parents + being poor + Intro Philosophy + Against Me anarcho-syndicalist punk rock made me want to major in some combo of history, economics, and political science so I could change/overthrow the system from within. I still have the anarchy tattoos behind my ears, though! But I think Scandinavian style Democratic socialism is better suited to modern technological society.
And now I’m in academia, most people here grew up middle class or upper middle class, and the entitlement is mind boggling sometimes. I’m learning more and more how to blend in with them, my partner is upper middle class academic family. But sometimes I still feel like some of them can tell I’m a dirty poor.
It just pisses me off so much that there’s soooo much wealth in the world and it’s all locked up by rich people. I read somewhere that a study by the Swiss bank found that if all the wealth in the world was evenly divided amongst every men women and child, each person would get like $30,000. That would be amazing! No more world poverty! A living wage would be a great start.
Anywho, it’s late, I’m tired and rambling. TLDR: eat the rich.