thepaperpilot
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My Political Journey
714 words, ~4 minute read.
My Political Beliefs have changed over time, although I believe it mostly stems from me becoming increasingly informed. Since this website contains content from as far back as 2006, when I was only 10 years old, I'd like to make it extremely clear that I have changed as a person, as we all have, and disavow a lot of my older opinions, roughly everything before 2020 or so but to be safe let's just give a dynamic (current date - 2 years). It's likely you are on this page from viewing a timeline post from that range and clicking the banner. There are bits in that period I may still agree with, but perhaps it would be best to just assume I don't have a stance on it unless there's something more recent about it. Pages in the garden section of this site are evergreen though, meaning I'll keep them up to date as my views change. Feel completely free to judge me for my opinions in there.
Core beliefs
I believe I've been fairly political since I was quite young, and had a relatively consistent set of core values that have just been expressed in different ways and through different lenses during different points of my life. For example I've always believed in fairness, but have used that belief to both argue for and against affirmative action. Concepts like freedom or meritocracies have similarly been redefined as I've become more aware of the influence of imperialism and colonialism on our cultural values and society.
Other beliefs of mine have always been around, but I just wasn't informed enough to properly express my views. I've voiced for a very long time that I think society will inevitably trend towards post-scarcity, a world without class, currency, or jobs, where all our needs and desires are met fully, automatically, and sustainably. I've never once pictured that society retaining a hierarchy of wealth or power in any way. But I would not have recognized that as an anarchistic society until relatively recently, mostly due to misinformation and propaganda against anarchy.
Anti-SJW
Alright, I'm guessing you're specifically on this page because you saw me upvote something on r/KotakuInAction or like a video from PSASitch or something like that. I'm not proud of this time period, where I read and watched a bit of Anti-SJW content. I'm glad to have moved on from this point of my life, and wish it hadn't happened in the first place. I don't really have any excuses, but appreciate understanding that I have grown as a person since this time.
I migrated a LOT of posts to this website for the sake of having them all in one place and under my control, rather than other websites'. I have not been able to look through the tens of thousands of posts (mostly upvotes/likes), but have done some basic filtering of these opinions I no longer hold. I'm open about the fact I once held these beliefs, but I don't need to be de facto promoting them by sharing them on this website. If you stumble across a post you think I'd rather not have on this site anymore, please reach out.
Radicalization
I believe a lot of things contributed to my radicalization, which happened sometime in the early 2020s. Ultimately I think I was just aware that I didn't really like the views I was being exposed to, the direction that media was trying to to pull me, and slowly over time just engaged less and less with that kind of content. I'd always been very economically leftist, so just needed to get over my edgy/cringe phase. I think what put the nail in the coffin was watching through the alt right playbook, a great series I highly recommend. I also started really enjoying a lot of leftist creators, like hasanabi, philosophy tube, and others. The people around me also affect my views, and after leaving college I think I interacted with nicer people on average. Of particular note here is my wife, who had their own political journey which has similarly culminated in us sort of having a positive feedback loop further and further left. Certain events like the BLM protests following George Floyd similarly cemented our position further and further left.
I actually want to also point out I've found a lot of people in this space to be very accepting of people who previously held problematic beliefs. It's largely why I feel comfortable (enough) having a lot of my history public both on this page and the site in general, and being able to describe how my political journey got me to where I am today, a very radical Leftist.