this post was submitted on 03 Jul 2025
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Around what age did you become politically conscious/aware? (hexbear.net)
submitted 3 days ago by Acute_Engles@hexbear.net to c/askchapo@hexbear.net
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I'm at such an intersection of privilege that I don't think I considered politics in any meaningful way until my early 20s when I got hit with the libertarian propaganda and realized that maybe the police and army are political actually.

I always hear of people doing such great work and being so political in their teenage years ago I wonder if it's more common for someone to not engage in politics until adulthood line myself or if it's truly just my position in life that allowed me to be ignorant for so long.

I remember buying a shirt with "fuck politics I just want to burn shit down" when I was around 17 and honestly edginess was I think my entire ideology at the time

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[–] TraschcanOfIdeology@hexbear.net 2 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

It was all random luck. I had a few very good teachers who were passionate and knowledgeable about history, politics, and philosophy, especially my 9th grade history teacher painted such a vivid picture of 20th century History that i couldn't help but see the damage done by the right wing everywhere. I used to hang out with punks and skinheads (the communist and anti-racist kind) so I became an antifascist early, too. My city was having a resurgence of neo-nazi and right-wing groups at the time, so being part of those opposing them put me in contact with a lot of communists and anarchists who weren't shy about punching nazis.

Add this to a very strong sense of justice related to my neurodivergence, and the fact that I was a devout catholic back then and most priests I knew espoused some kind of social justice mixed with their christianity, it drew me closer to liberation theology. I even called myself a christian communist (a real thing) at one point lmao.

[–] Acute_Engles@hexbear.net 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I grew up in a small town so I wasn't exposed to much like that outside the odd concert in the city. Very cool path

[–] TraschcanOfIdeology@hexbear.net 1 points 3 days ago

It was cool, but then I spent like 10 years being apolitical, or worse: technocratic, so… I also meant to say that the political journey isn't linear, and that we all start somewhere, or like in my case, we start really strong, and then we kind of fuck off, and then have to pick up from where we left.