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darsa wrote (edited )

I was in American Middle School when I got an arbitrary punishment for something I didn't do. It brought me to question why the teacher, the vice principal, the principal are above me. Then why my parents are. Then why anyone has the right to say they're above me or worth more than me or know more than me.

It was somewhat natural from there, after growing up and actually thinking about it in a way that made more sense (I signed up for this site recently, the day I turned 16) and my searches online lead me to anarchist literature; the ideas of horizontal organization, consensus, and of course the dissolution of hierarchy all came to be natural following my thoughts in my earlier childhood. Since then, I've been highly political and an advocate of anarchy, even if I don't understand most branches very well and only read some.

I know the beginning example is hollow and doesn't hold up to the other examples in this thread, it just really is the first time I can remember beginning to question why this world is how it is, over a minor detention.

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PerfectSociety wrote

I started gaining interest in politics in high school and I started forming more in depth political positions in college. It was more of an interest that grew on its own rather than attributable to a particular memorable source.

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RedEmmaSpeaks wrote (edited )

It's a classic case of "starting as a liberal, because things are effed up, but they just need to be reformed," before after many years, crossing over into "the system's not broken; it's doing exactly what it was intended to do in the first place" with also Dietrich Bonhoeffer's quote "We are not to simply bandage the wounds of victims ground beneath the wheels of injustice, we are to drive a spoke into the wheel itself."

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An_Old_Big_Tree wrote

I don't have a simple moment, I can trace its beginnings as far back as some of my earliest memories.

I was briefly a student in a town with an anarchist infoshop, where I devoured the literature and where I met a range of people, two of which completely changed my life.

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ziq wrote

two of which completely changed my life

How? Have you repeated their method with others and found success?

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An_Old_Big_Tree wrote

They had elements of their politics that were brilliant and transgressive and vastly more developed than mine I quietly worked my ass off to live up to their faith in me and my sense of who I wanted to be. I still do.

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lookin4 OP wrote

For me it was the upcoming obligatory military service, initiated by a official letter.

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ziq wrote (edited )

Been there. Spent most of my childhood dreading it. I could never do commands.

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zzuum wrote

To be honest, reddit's random subreddit button brought me to /r/anarchism.

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ziq wrote

But what made you stay?

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zzuum wrote

Admittedly i was pretty much an ancap, but the sidebar cleared that right up. Tried engaging on other subs like socialism but they are clearly inept at being people rather than an article posting board that pisses on anyone not of their liking.

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ziq wrote

Just every fucked up smuglord authority that ever fucked me or people around me over.

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videl wrote

Well, it was definitely built up for a very long time but the straw that broke the camel's back was my first office job. It was a job that - for my age - people would consider me having "made it." But the job was pretty much meaningless and possibly actively harmful.

After being miserable working too much, I just thought "if this is what success in this system looks like then fuck this. Why am I even being paid for this? Everyone would be better off if I was paid to specifically not do this and to do nothing."

From there I sort of lost the ground beneath my feet, became very curious about everything, read more books in the few years that it's been than I have my entire life previously, and now here we are.

Useful part: I remember the first couple books that really brought me around were Miya Tokumitsu's Do What You Love and the Malcolm X autobiography. So if you want to radicalize office workers, maybe think of 1 these books.

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jaidedctrl wrote (edited )

I was in that cringy "atheist community" bit on YouTube, which got me into liberal politics. At the same time, I started getting into the Free Software community.
Because of my interest in liberal politics and Free Software, I read some of Aaron Swartz'es essays— one of them on socialism. While that essay didn't have much substance in the end, it let me be a bit more curious and open-minded about what was drilled into me as “evil” for my entire life.
After that, I started reading more leftist texts, got into the leftist subs on Reddit, then eventually jumped ship to Raddle.
I wouldn't consider myself an anarchist right now, but I've been becoming more and more questioning of authority since coming here. :p

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