people always tell me to grow up and then end up coming to the same conclusions in adulthood that I did when I was 16
I remember going through history and reading about the fall of Rome, Greece, Persia, etc and thinking to myself "it sure looks like I’m living during the decline of the US empire… Listened to Punk and Ska, and asked how “Trickle down economics” would ever work when a public corporation’s sole reason for existing is to provide value for shareholders.
I also remember talking to my dad in the early 2000s about global warming and asking how any of it could ever change. He told me we’d have to vote for the right people.
Then Citizens United happened and put the nail in the coffin for all of it.
Yup things continue to get significantly worse, and I’m told one of the same two things
1.) “I’m sure children who died in factories during the Industrial Revolution would agree with you”
2.) “Unfortunately that’s just how the world is. I was like you once”
I really don’t know how else to say it. Like I can acknowledge the fact that I’m privileged and want to use my privilege to try and do something about the flagrant injustices around, but that comment is usually left with a snide response as well.
I keep shouting from the fucking mountain tops that the only way to make change is to build solidarity in your local communities, but fucking DNC plants are dropped from the sky it seems telling people to invest that energy into calling their representatives and VOTING. Which has yet to do jack shit materially
And surprise surprise. The same ghoulish developers and builders keep coming in to gentrify everything in fucking sight, corporations start outsourcing factory jobs leaving hundreds unemployed, rent increases astronomically all while millions of people are fixated on an election that is effectively kayfab
When you think of it like this, the DNC is so so fucking evil. They have a robust network of organizations that they could theoretically use to make a meaningful difference in people’s lives. But of course they fucking don’t, too busy posting about how the latest ruling or whatever has made them sad.
They’re going to do such a when trump 2.0 is elected and opine about “the state of our country” or some shit while completely ignoring their role in all of this.
The children who died in factories in the 19th century did fucking agree with me we have the fucking letters and they think August Willich was a lib.
And Willich challenged Marx to a dual for not being radical enough, so that’s really saying something
I came to those same conclusions at 16, then briefly thought teenage me was just being edgy and idealist, then very quickly realized that teenage me was right and we should in fact [redacted] every fascist cop.