I came from a highly patriotic, religious fundamentalist family.
Unfortunately for them… I am also very inquisitive, very curious, pretty autistic, and very good at analysis.
The cracks were subtle at first… but they could not be ignored… the more I took it upon myself to learn… the worse it got, in terms of upholding the false reality.
I couldn’t pinpoint an exact thing or moment.
Maybe it really was watching the Matrix… a barely describable unease, sense that something… is wrong… a splinter, in my mind, driving me mad.
I was talking, with people from all around the world, in realtime, in the early 2000s, taught myself how to code, read voraciously, did well in school, got those two degrees… at the same time, just had to do either one or two extra summer quarters to finish in 4 years, went to work in corpo america, bounced off of its bullshit rather rapidly, went to non profits, to be able to use my skillset but not feel morally disgusted with myself.
I do remember one thing… walking to work one day.
A lump, of blankets, in the alley near the downtown corporate hq i worked at.
… huh.
Work.
Lunch.
Time enough for a bit of a walk.
Pass by that same alley.
The lump is gone. In its place, there is a … stain.
And there are city workers, with flamethrowers, burning it away.
Sterilizing it.
Because it was the remnants of a decaying, human corpse.
I think it may have been that moment that I realized our society does not give one fuck for the poor and homeless… and that at that point in time… my job was ultimately to facilitate the grander processes that led to that person’s likely avoidable death.
Which is why the Republicans intentionally misunderstand, infantilize and demonize the first, and destroy the latter.
We are down to about an 85% literacy rate now.
Average American reads at a 6th grade level, less than 5% can actually do critical analysis, compare and contrast different news stories covering the same event/story.
I came from a highly patriotic, religious fundamentalist family.
Unfortunately for them… I am also very inquisitive, very curious, pretty autistic, and very good at analysis.
The cracks were subtle at first… but they could not be ignored… the more I took it upon myself to learn… the worse it got, in terms of upholding the false reality.
I couldn’t pinpoint an exact thing or moment.
Maybe it really was watching the Matrix… a barely describable unease, sense that something… is wrong… a splinter, in my mind, driving me mad.
I was talking, with people from all around the world, in realtime, in the early 2000s, taught myself how to code, read voraciously, did well in school, got those two degrees… at the same time, just had to do either one or two extra summer quarters to finish in 4 years, went to work in corpo america, bounced off of its bullshit rather rapidly, went to non profits, to be able to use my skillset but not feel morally disgusted with myself.
I do remember one thing… walking to work one day.
A lump, of blankets, in the alley near the downtown corporate hq i worked at.
… huh.
Work.
Lunch.
Time enough for a bit of a walk.
Pass by that same alley.
The lump is gone. In its place, there is a … stain.
And there are city workers, with flamethrowers, burning it away.
Sterilizing it.
Because it was the remnants of a decaying, human corpse.
I think it may have been that moment that I realized our society does not give one fuck for the poor and homeless… and that at that point in time… my job was ultimately to facilitate the grander processes that led to that person’s likely avoidable death.
The ‘tism can be a great asset for seeing through BS, along with education.
Which is why the Republicans intentionally misunderstand, infantilize and demonize the first, and destroy the latter.
We are down to about an 85% literacy rate now.
Average American reads at a 6th grade level, less than 5% can actually do critical analysis, compare and contrast different news stories covering the same event/story.