While none of us were precisely born as liberals, the vast majority of us were raised as such.
If you could reach back in time to the past version of you that remained under the illusions of liberalism, what would you say?
“What if I told you that liberals aren’t leftists and that there are actual leftists out there, and they’re pretty cool?”
“You’re not the only one who feels this way.”
“It’s okay to be angry.”
“get the fuck off of 4chan, it’s giving you brain damage and making you unlikable”
“read these articles and books by trans people. you might see yourself in them”
“read more feminist/queer/anti-racist literature so that you can stop being a shithead to the people around you”
i was already on the path towards leftism in high school i dont really think that i needed an extra push towards communism. but i was an edgy, stupidpol-esque asshole and i wish i wasnt. also my life would be a lot easier rn if i’d realized i was trans in high school instead of in my mid 20’s
imo there is nothing I could say to my old self to speed up the process. My whole move away from liberalism and into communism was gradual, but also punctuated by several real life moments that can’t be instilled in a person through words.
People on the right are not working in good faith. There is no series of words you could say to any Republican politician, or most “regular conservatives,” that would make them understand the error of their ways and move to the left. They believe that the way that society is ordered, or was ordered in some imagined past, is the way it must be ordered. And while there may be people in power above them that they are subservient to, they are not at the bottom of the social order either, and they must protect their place in the existing structures of power. The suffering and pain that they inflict on others is not out of a misguided attempt to make the world a better place. The suffering and pain is the point; to keep those that they believe ought to be below them in line, to put those who have gotten out of line back in their place, or to eradicate those who might upset the social order they seek to protect.
And liberals will join those on the right if something threatens their comfort.
“Why is it we live in a democracy but our schools and jobs are dictatorships?”