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.
I came of age at the tail end of the Great Recession. I like to refer to my trajectory as the "Yes We Can --> Fuck Obama" pathway.
I was always a "socialist" since the beginning of becoming politically conscious. And by that, I mean a progressive liberal who still thought the system was reformable. Even canvassed and volunteered for Bernie Sanders a few times.
Worked shit jobs my whole life. Finally worked my way into some good opportunities but lost all of them from the 2020 COVID shutdown (and thus my hopes of ever purchasing a house). Also, participating heavily in BLM actions the same year, and witnessing both parties scapegoat minorities and leftists for the US's economic woes pushed me to be more disciplined in reading theory and developing a material analysis of politics.