Growing up one of my only sources of entertainment were flash games on the internet. I used to watch nickelodeon, disney, or cartoon network growing up, but I distinctly remember my parents changing my tvs, something happened, and I was only able to watch the local channels from satellite. The news, PBS kids, I don’t know. Haven’t switched back since.

I only played the flash games from their respective websites. I didn’t know how to pirate or torrent back then. I just played flash games and screw around on youtube. I did remember going on an illegal streaming site and watching anime there, though. It was old, running an even earlier version of windows too, and earlier in the last decade i had a laptop with windows 7 (It’s broken now)

Honestly I don’t try to feel shame about not growing up the richest person in the world. It’s something beyond my control, what I like about leftist spaces is that I don’t have to hide it at all.

fuck I remember when I was so poor the only way for me to watch anything was to carry my SO’s laptop with me while I walked to work for an hour thru the snow to put it in my locker & leave it to torrent movies & shows off the wifi while I worked until the battery died then carry it home to see what had completed in time like I was opening a lootbox full of vids. It was a macbook so it couldn’t play basically any games and it was old so any games that could run on mac couldn’t run on it, so for over a year of my life the only form of entertainment I had (bc I don’t like tv & movies dont come out that often/I can stand watching reruns) was to just sit on the floor in a dark room playing an indie game from 8 years before then bc it was the only thing coming out lightweight enough to run, every waking hour of my life that wasn’t spent working. for the record that game was starsector, ultralightweight mount & blade crossed with mech warrior, in space http://fractalsoftworks.com/

Thank you for posting this. I grew up fairly poor (powdered milk & government cheese type shit) and, even though I’m doing much better now thanks to things beyond my control like gender and race, those experiences are something I’ve carried with me into my 30s. It’s a big part of why I try to spread around my excess when and where I can.

Even if I technically fit into the reddit demographic, I just cannot relate to those fucking people. Since finding the CTH sub over there, I’ve felt more at home among this group of people than anywhere else online.

I still carry a bit of shame of being poor but no one has ever called me out or tried to lecture me on bootstraps here. Because of this and other reasons I’ve felt safe in opening up about how I feel and the struggles and insecurities I face. It’s nothing in comparison to some of our marginalized comrades here but feels nice to talk about nevertheless.

Feel like the longer I’m here the more that shame goes away, it’s one thing to know money doesn’t equate to moral value but talking with others and not being measured by what I can afford really drives it home.

Planned Obselecense is Capitalism in a nutshell