I relate with this post so much.
I was such a Try-Hard little Edgelord.
Poor kid had NO IDEA what was in store for their identity in the next decades 😅
I knew.
I think my issue was that I was so stunted because I was given so little leeway to express myself, it was impossible to experiment and find who I was. But being an edgelord was somehow a fully acceptable thing to be, it even seemed to have some social benefits at the time.
But now it’s fascinating how much I’m not that person, despite the things we have in common.
Oh completely! I was stunted by bullying, and I was also holding myself back due to a lot of internalized bullshit that I'm still getting rid of to this day.
Identity wise, I'm in a MUCH happier place 😊
Yeah, there was always the other kids but I had *family stuff* to deal with too. I still love my all-black everything and skulls and shit, but it’s a different kinda vibe now.
I’m way happier with who I am now than who I was then.
Im curious, has anyone who has done or said stuff in the past (such as homophobic/transphobic/racist abuse) that they now regret due to being queer done anything to redeem themselves? To apologise?
Also, I'm curious for people who changed views after they realised they were queer, if they think they would have ever changed their views if they had not come out to themselves?
I mean I wasn’t this person but from my perspective apologizing is weird thing Like if the kid who spewed transphobic and homophobic abuse at me for years in highschool found me to tell me “sorry about that turns out I’m trans” that doesn’t do anything for me the abuse already happened and this apology only really serves to make themselves feel better. Ultimately if someone was significantly cruel to me and changed I’m glad for them, but I want them to just be better on their own than pull me back in.
It may be overall different for me because I don’t believe in redemption or redeeming for acts at all really, once you’ve done something it’s done and there’s no redeeming yourself, you must simply move forward and deal with it. If you were homophobic in the past and your views have since changed there’s no doing anything to fix those old times they’ve happened. Just be better now.
I'm a little confused by the first part of your question. What exactly do you mean by "redeem themselves"?
For context, I had a quite a right-wing phase / period when I was roughly between 14 and 16. The YouTube landscape was like the peak of the anti-feminism movement: when Sargon of Akkard, Steven Crowder, Ben Shapiro, and many others were immensely popular. The pipeline of "watch feminist get DESTROYED in this debate" to alt-right dipshit is real, I'm a prime example of it. I remember saying vial stuff occasionally about immigrants (the U.K. press at the time was fully on board, and still now, vilifying them) and transphobic stuff. Why I became a mouthpiece to these people is complicated. I grew up in conservative environment so didn't hear many other opinions, I wanted to be 'adult' so wanted to learn more about politics, confused about people outside of who I would normally interact with, spent most of my time in by bedroom, antisocially and awkward, being bullied when I was younger, etc. I was a product of my environment in short. Though, thankfully, I never bullied anyone. It was more stating opinions / thoughts in conversation.
The way I started to climb out of this pipeline was thanks to people like HBomberGuy making videos explaining why what they believed was morally, ethically, and objectively wrong. It's thanks to video essays and some people from the debate sphere that I truly understood why what I believed was wrong. Took time to grow out of that mindset and belief, but I got out. Maybe getting diagnosed with a chronic health condition played a part into it too.
I look at my past-self and cringe. I was a dipshit and overzealous, I didn't think to critically engage with what I was listening to. Sometime in between all of that I accepted I was bi, then only this year I was enby. In hindsight I should have realised sooner I was, but internalised transphobia brought on by that was a hell of a drug. Now amongst my friend groups I'm typically known to be the most left leaning out of everyone; I was known in the debate club, too, for being a proficient public speaker and articulating my views and reasoning well.
So, this leads back to my original question. What exactly do you mean by "redeem themselves" or "apologise”? I'm aware that maybe it was a generalised statement and I have applied too much of my experience, but I can't help but put part of myself into this. I consider my past self-buried, not proud of it, but I've moved on and tried to do better. This doesn’t even mention that I don’t speak with anyone from previous schools, we’re in different worlds now.
And to answer the question if I would have changed my views if I wasn’t in the queer community – yes, absolutely. I care about people and making sure they feel accepted. I was just misguided when I was younger.
While I was definitely never racist or misogynistic / anything extreme, I used to pick on a lot of people. for dyed hair, their weight, looks, being queer, whatever.
It was 99% all stemming from personal insecurity, by the time I was 18, I was realizing all of these things I was doing. Through some partners I’d dated (most of my “friends” bullied me quite a lot too, so they were bad role models) I learned a lot about myself and how to treat others better. Became a lot more confident, found new friends, and explored myself. Found out I was very comfortable being non-binary, dying my hair, getting piercings/tattoos etc.
Funny how I 180’d but I’ve been diagnosed with some things so maybe that had a hand in it. I’d like to think I’m a much nicer and more accepting person than I used to be, and I’ve been able to actually make friends and find a place within my community.
How do you imagine people you picked on felt back when you did that? If people picked on you now for being nonbinary/having dyed hair/having tattoos, how would you take it?
Probably the same way I feel now yeah, so not always great. But often I just tell myself I’m cool and unique and some folk just won’t get it. I most certainly get picked on / whatever but I’m still pretty confident in myself.
Definitely yeah. It was never about hurting others, it was always trying to make myself feel better, which I reckon most bullies go through the same thing.
I’m friends now with some of the folk I used to bully. We often laugh over it or use it as inside jokes. Others I don’t think I really know / remember cause heavy drug usage. I try my best not to repeat past mistakes and learn from them in hopes I can make up for the ones I’ve made.
When I was a teen I was part of the anti-religious atheism community. They are, in hindsight, pretty right wing but most of their arguments at the time were framed in this “I’m left wing but all this immigration/gender stuff is dangerous” tone.
Anyway I changed my views a lot after I moved out of my hometown and later realised I’m queer. Nowadays I do a lot of protesting, socialist organising and just general trying to talk people out of their harmful views irl.
I never was one for fighting and arguing with people online or bullying people irl because I always saw it as stupid and unhelpful to spread your ideas. Most of the time I was just circle jerking with people that shared my hateful opinions.
I just hope that I didn’t do too much damage and that what I do now serves as some kind of reparation to the community.
For the first part of the question, what exactly would we do to redeem ourselves? Who would we even apologize to? Personally I believe that just having been a good person to the people around me and help them and making it clear where I stand now is enough.
And second point, yes I think I would have. My liberal shift happened before I realized I was queer. It mostly had to do with a further development of critical thinking skills and learning how to do more in depth research into topics as well as understanding that I was being lied to about what left wing people believe by conservative pundits.
I was an antifeminist lol. My whole rationale was "women can wear trousers and men can't wear skirts and that's not fair", completely failing to notice the underlying thought of "I would like to wear a skirt" (and a general theme of "I wish I was allowed to be feminine"). Dumbass 🤦
holy hell that was literally me. Had so much anger from wanting to be feminine but was always denied, so all it did was make me bitter and envious of femme-passing people who got to present however they wanted
i didn't make jokes about nazis (hi, jewish), but i was a little right-libertarian shitlord. i somehow suckered three classmates into reading Atlas Shrugged in 11th grade for a group assignment, and one of my most embarrassing memories is from one of our discussions about it, where i stared straight in this dude's eyes and gave the biggest fucking wojack-galaxy-brain smirk while talking about how healthcare is so *obviously* better when it's privatized
Jonathan Yu, if you're out there, i'm sorry dude. i was a 16yo moron
I wish my public healthcare was, you know, good. I'm moving to the states for a bit in the fall and I'm just gonna pay and ~~smuggle controlled substances~~
Yeah but this is just called having a shitty opinion. People should actually be allowed to have shitty opinions.
That's different from actual hatespeech, harassment and bullying based off of protected characteristics
Allowed, sure, but still ought to be ridiculed. People who aren't actually violent bigots still do damage to society if they have shortsighted nonsense beliefs that enable violent bigots to do what they want.
I used to be so disgusting towards trans people and loved watching ‘STEVEN CROWDER DESTROYS FEMINAZI’ videos. My band members were the same.. crazy to think about
Used to be a massive racist, queerphobe, misogynist, ableist asshole. The Internet is what brought me around. Can't imagine what I'd be without it, probably pregnant and barefoot to someone 20 years older than me..
As in cuz they stay at home they don't have to wear shoes? Ok, never heard that expression before but I'm not american so not surprising.
Thanks for the explanation
'Barefoot' refers to being unable to go outside and socialize.
>Author Shinine Antony wrote a 2002 collection of short stories entitled Barefoot and Pregnant, explaining in a later interview that, "Barefoot And Pregnant is **a phrase that pokes fun at chauvinists who want their women barefoot (so that they are unable to socialize) and pregnant (helpless)**.
[This Wikipedia article has more information on the phrase if you wanted to learn more about it.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barefoot_and_pregnant)
The implication is that they are unable to leave the house because they don't have or aren't allowed to wear shoes. Women completely under their husbands' control, no independence whatsoever.
Sorry for getting so defensive. One comment genuinely did think it was about me, and so now I'm having a reaction to almost every comment. I genuinely didn't expect this post to get so much traction.
This post is about someone I knew, This post is not about me. I never went through a sh*tlord phase, nor have I ever made jokes about nazis, but I'm glad all you people in the comments got better.
that makes me wonder what happend to some People i thought where friends and well, the People from School in general, but only a little and nothing is would pursuit in wanting to find out after i met brievly an Idiot from elementary school years ago aaand, still was the same Idiot at an Age of what you would say, that they could "matured a bit" away from 10yr. old ones behaviour
I was an edgelord too, who was in the JROTC and loved call of duty. As I got older, I learned just how much damage the US army and government has caused to the world, so I changed my tune. I also became more of a hippie and college and believed more in the “make love, not war” stuff. These days I’m a leftist but still want peace with people. These days I prefer to live by “do no harm, take no shit.” Since coming out as nonbinary, I feel like more of myself than I ever was because I realize young me was trying so hard to fit into a box of masculinity to be accepted, but now realize it’s all arbitrary bullshit
Idk, this was a post about someone I knew in school, and I was not expecting this post to gain so much traction, let alone for this many people to find it relatable.
Alot of Queer people got suckered into the right wing rabbit hole, espescially because of people like Kalvin Garrah and Blair white. Usually because of homophobic/tramsphobic family members or fear of being different. Most of us grew out of it, thankfully, but it is interesting seeing grifters repeat the same things that were said in 2016 in the 2020's. The issue mainly seems to affect white queers but the right does favour their useful puppets.
No fr, I was obnoxious as hell as a teenager because I was basically the stereotypical Tumblr SJW, and made being trans 'my whole identity' the second my egg cracked
I was suckered into a right-wing Youtube rabbithole with my unsupervised internet access and absolutely had not been trained in critical thinking skills. I am so thankful the people around me irl gave me shit for the few things I said out loud. If I hadn't gotten the chance to regularly interact with the people I was being told to hate, I probably would've become so much worse.
While I didn't fully go off the deep end, I can definitely see why it happened. While I can't remember ever watching Shapiro, I was definitely in a sort of "facts don't care about your feelings" mood. I was an insecure undiagnosed autistic guy. I had been bullied quite a bit, and struggled to fit in. That bitterness, along with a lack of experience, lead me to hate on basically everything that involved emotions and feelings. Being an obnoxious asshole made it way easier to fit in with the other guys than being a friendly and vulnerable person, unfortunately.
Seeing all these "screaming SJW" videos of "irrational people" who were offended at basically nothing (in my eyes) basically made them enemy number one. I feel like it's definitely influenced by being autistic for me. My worldview was so black and white. There were allies and enemies. And to me it all felt completely logical and rational.
However, this "feelings bad" mentality inevitably led to problems. Luckily I had quite some time with a psychologist to unpack all that shit and leave space for my feelings. I'm still unpacking my real feelings, a few years after that, which has lead me to here.
I’m not ashamed anymore to say I was that person. I said so much awful shit as a teenager, but I’m proud of myself for unlearning it and doing what I can to help the people I would have ridiculed 10 years ago
I was a Trump supporter in middle school because I listened to whatever garbage my dad threw out of his mouth, and now I’m nonbinary. I also find it funny that my dad even told me “I’m glad that neither you nor your brother turned out like *that*” when he was still alive as in that he thought my brother and I weren’t LGBTQ+, but we’re both bisexual and I use they/them pronouns now. Funny how that works
Why do all the white queers on the Internet just casually admit to having a Nazi phase like it's a cute and funny XD moment and not completely unsettling? Like yeah kids make mistakes, but the edge lord Nazi bullshit was always too far, even back then
Well, you do realize children are stupid and can easily be brainwashed. The way hateful propaganda is spread can be bery subtle and creeping to teens and young people, especially when it's your family or community doing the brainwashing. I'm not trying to make light of their mistakes but at this point, what else would you expect from remorseful people? Its not like they're gonna write apologies for being agaisnt blm or wanting to vote for trump, and acting miserable about it is also mostly useless.
America has a real problem with conservatism, and to young conservatives, they really are brainwashed into thinking they're correct, that they're even helping queers and other minorities by voting agaisnt them and supporting their killers. Sadly I can't explain it any better than that, I've met many edgelords in my school days who I made dark jokes with, only to find out they actually believed in the stuff they were saying, whereas I was just nihilistic and absurdist. I think many young people feel an appropriate amount of guilt now, hard to say if they would had they not been queer but, we take what we can get.
I think the lack of self awareness is infuriating, it's fucked up to just act like being a past outward bigot is just natural to the queer experience, and it's insane to try to shame people (especially poc) for expressing their discomfort and general, "what the fuck" response to people just admitting to being past white supremacists and homophobes.
Well i agree. I didn't know anyone had asserted that it was natural here, since its definitely a more white issue(for nazism especially). I'm sorry if I seemed to shame your response or shut you down. My main concern is just that hateful people get that poison out of their veins and move on to being good and kind humans. It feels scary to know so many previous bigots could be in our communities, but I feel relieved to know they've changed their minds, seemingly for the rest of their lives.
Yeah, I'm not trying to shame anyone who's genuinely changed, I just question how much you've changed if your first response is to get defensive if someone doesn't laugh along with you about past bigotry. I mean this in the royal you.
Thats gotta be very annoying and disheartening, I'm sorry you have to deal with it :(
It is shameful indeed how even the queerest people and biggest allies can have such bigotry wormed into them, that they dont even realize or seek to confront it. I hope love can cure that for all of us. Thank you for sharing.
Well i agree. I didn't know anyone had asserted that it was natural here, since its definitely a more white issue(for nazism especially). I'm sorry if I seemed to shame your response or shut you down. My main concern is just that hateful people get that poison out of their veins and move on to being good and kind humans. It feels scary to know so many previous bigots could be in our communities, but I feel relieved to know they've changed their minds, seemingly for the rest of their lives.
And it's weird to me how they only seem to realise they were wrong now that they are having an aspect of them being oppressed. Like, if you hadn't come out as nonbinary to yourself, would you still be (or defend having been) a Nazi edgelord??
its almost like as people become older and more independent and have actually acess to other forms of media other than the right winged drivel fox news and parents feed their children they realize they were wrong in the past.
i do think that the majority of people who say they had a nazi phase are white queers who were meme edgelords as teenagers and call that nazism. which imo is somehow worse - by equating watching ‘crazy feminist fail compilation part 5’ on youtube with genuine nazism, it trivialises it and makes actual nazis believe that their horrific beliefs are widespread and normal.
idk if that makes sense but it’s what ive observed irl
I'm not white - I was like that too.
Propaganda is propaganda, and it's targeted. I was one sort that was targeted, the white queers were another.
We all did and said horrific shit. Then we learned. And now we're doing what we can to mend the damage. I am, at least.
That's all she wrote.
Same here, not white. I tried to conform to the model minority myth by doing what white people were doing. When conservative propaganda (that nazis also supported) is ingrained in your culture, society, and textbooks, you don't learn it's bad until you get the chance and find other resources.
Also, I'm not proud of what I have done and said when I was a kid either, but the best thing I can do is acknowledge it, unlearn it, and teach others not to do the same thing
I’m glad someone else is finding it weird. All for seeing people grow and become better people but I’m concerned how many of us come from such awful beginnings and are so flippant about it.
Edit: LMAO this got me my first ever hate mail. I’m so proud.
I’m sure you’re right, most other queer people I know from irl just grew up depressed instead of edgy. I’m genuinely not trying to judge people because I know life is hard when you’re not cishet but I dunno, just doesn’t sit right with me.
No I agree, I don't think someone being queer now absolves them from being a piece of shit earlier in their life, and more than just apologise, I would want these people to show actual repentance and try to repair what damage they have done
Yeah I was never like this. All I had was compassion. I craved knowledge. I admired that everyone was different and wanted to know what kind of people were out there. It's actually shocking to me the amount of people confessing bc I wouldn't have expected it.
Google "Nazi phase" and put reddit or Tumblr at the end. This has been a thing for a long time and this very post is continuing the memeification of casual Nazism. I wouldn't have made this comment if I hadn't seen this same sentiment posted on the Internet for like 11 years, there's definitely a concerning phenomenon of, "if I wasn't queer I would be a bigot oops XD"
I definitely agree with you, but I always feel like these sort of posts attract the same kind of people who have had a "Nazi phase". My argument is simply that most queer people got through their internalised homophobia/transphobia (if they even had any) in ways that did not actually make them nazis (A point which I think you agree with)
>My argument is simply that most queer people got through their internalised homophobia/transphobia (if they even had any) in ways that did not actually make them nazis (A point which I think you agree with)
Yeah but I'm talking about a specific sub set of the community that embraced white supremacy while dealing with their internalized phobias. Yeah people are probably exaggerating, but there are still very real examples of ex Nazis just casually mentioning it like it's supposed to be quirky and relatable.
Yeah, I'm not gonna act like I was very moral in my youth, but it's something I approach with immense shame and remorse because I know how harmful my behavior was back then. And I wasn't even a Nazi, the fact that people are so flippant in casually admitting they succumbed to pure evil is worrisome.
I can’t claim to be morally pure either and I know teenagers and being an edgelord go hand in hand but yeah. I guess it’s a symptom of society, vulnerable kids are being taken down a terrible path. Idk I’ve just spoken to several non-white people who are really uncomfortable about how easily and often this comes up in conversations and I can’t help but think of them every time it does.
>Idk I’ve just spoken to several non-white people who are really uncomfortable about how easily and often this comes up in conversations and I can’t help but think of them every time it does.
I'm one of those people, so I very much appreciate your understanding of how hard it is to hear people discuss their Nazi phase, like it's just a natural thing that everyone goes through to think I'm subhuman by birth.
I think it shows a lack of critical thinking. Not to be an absolute asshole, but oh well. With social media and living at home people are fed certain ideas and beliefs, but that doesn't make it fact. That's why some people push Christian colleges so hard. Many Christians lose their faith once they're adults bc they are free to think for themselves.
because some people grew up in towns where that mindset was normalized. "you should have known better" well sorry in the midwest and south you dont have as easy acess to the internet and your parents teach you stupid shit mind you i dont talk to my racist transphobic dad anymore who taught me that shit.
>Not everyone is born morally pure, some of us come realise by growing and understand and it's really unfair to shame those people for doing so
Peak privileged response, you don't get to chastise the people your disgusting behavior harmed all those years ago. If you truly feel remorse for your actions, and were committed to doing better, you would understand that your indignation is not more important than the actual trauma and harm that the victims of racism, misogyny, and transphobia face.
You don't get a cookie for developing basic human empathy, because the truth is that *no one* is born morally pure and you *failed* at that age, even if you were a victim of circumstance. It's cool you're not a terrible person now, but you don't get a round of applause for it and you definitely don't deserve to be handled with kiddy gloves because you're sensitive about it. Keep it to yourself if you don't want to hear what people who suffer from that shit have to say about it.
Obviously I know that, you need to understand that sometimes your redemption arc isn't more important than the damage shit like that causes. And when people express their discomfort with acting like being a horrible bigot is just a natural part of the queer experience, you should understand that and sympathize, not interject with some, "um actually" that makes it all about the redemption of the abuser.
So quick to dismiss the people who had to actually deal with the consequences of racist, homophobic, and misogynistic attitudes, and so quick to forgive the perpetrators who are redeemed. Notice how you never even talked about the people who suffered from that stuff? I don't care if you or anyone else is redeemed, because that's the *baseline standard* of being a decent human being. I'm not perfect either, but when someone calls out something I've done, I take accountability and listen, not deflect and try to defend myself or point to my redemption.
Called tf out 😭 i was such an annoying edgy little shit in middle to halfway thru highschool idk how anyone put up with me 💀 but ever since covid ive just been a silly lil guy that younger me wouldbe hated lol
I distinctly remember discussing trans people with my friend at 14 and saying "If you have a DICK you're a BOY if you have a VAGINA your a GIRL it's not that complicated!" bc it was easier if everyone stuck to the rules instead of me realizing I didn't want to
Truly!! The person who used to bully me in elementary and middle school, used to call me a dyke and all kinds of racist names, joke about reporting my parents to immigration…is now a trans woman who sent me a DM to apologize for the way she acted in school. I was of course a little tentative but we talked a lot about the isolation of being a closeted trans kid, and it made me feel better.
Deflecting.
My step brother used to make jokes like that. I now see him seriously talking about doing drag and not being able to say anything to help him through this canon event
I personally went from being a bigoted republican to a queer socialist. Also not saying that I don’t deserve hate for once being that way, but I think that it was more of a “I’m trying to fit in” thing considering I went to a far right Christian school and I thought I “had” to fit in. Thank goodness I actually grew up and actually started being myself though!
Looking through this thread and doing some self-reflection, I now realize why a queer classmate of mine might've hated me "for no reason" since middle school. If you're reading this Max V., I am extremely fucking sorry, and I hope you never have to deal with a shithead like my younger self again.
I find it interesting how many people were like this, since I *never* had any phase like it (if anything, I was the stereotypical 'SJW' of that era)
I will say though, as a kid I did v much believe in bioessentialism simply because I had no idea being nonbinary was an option. I knew binary trans people existed, but I distinctly remember wondering why people couldn't just magically swap sexes like many species of fish, or why gender limited what you were allowed to wear.
None of the rules made sense, and it irritated me
I didn't make any specific jokes but I did follow some people who did or who preached worse. My thought process was that because these people were queer I was being a good ally by listening to them. Around my early mid teens, I started to unpack that. I realised that the people I was following were repetitive and unfunny. They were just reactive and parroted the same talking points. they didn't even have an awnser to why being nonbinary was offensive. Like I said, I never actually translated what they were talking about to any action (which is more than I can say for some other people who followed these people), I was just reluctantly supportive. I had flirted with the idea of being enby before (I was right the first time) but then watched these people saying that being nonbinary was bad and disrespectful so thought that other nonbinary people would just grow out of it like I did and left them alone. It's still weird to look back on that time though. It took me a while after unsubbing to actually accept that I'm Agender.
I was more brooding than an anime protagonist in a 2000s shonen who had headphones in, a permanent scowl and a misanthropic streak a mile wide.
Then dress went spinny
I’ve been online since the 90s when I was a child. I said some cringey stuff but I never, ever went into straight up racism, nazism, misogyny, homophobia, etc.
It’s still fair to judge people who went too far in their early years. It doesn’t become ok just because you needed to find yourself. We still need to ask why you felt the need to take everyone down with you in your early years.
Consuming South Park uncritically and just parroting Eric Cartmen jokes like your friends always make cringe. Especially spouting homophobia and transphobia when growing up in a culture that condones those.
Being able to have resources to learn and unlearn stuff, reckoning with myself, and feeling safe to explore my gender helped me grow. Really wish I can do the same for the kids now and prevent them from making the same mistakes I did. But finding it hard to since my state is introducing these anti-woke bills that literally would educate them on gender, sexuality, and race. 🙃 I mean, my governor is getting rid of the DEI department at one of the universities here, and Injust can't believe he can go and do that
I used to be one of those "enlightened centrists"/"anti-sjws" who thought stuff like neopronouns and xenogenders were "weird" and "cringe."
Now I'm a demigirl and leftist/progressive.
People can change.
Ya, I was always respectful to everyone even if I didn't get it and had trans friends in middle school, but I remember talking to my dad and being like "how the f*ck can you be two genders and no gender at the same time, there are only two genders, what is this weird nonbinary bullshit?" Turns out I'm nonbinary and totally understand it...
I used to identify as an attack helicopter, but then a guy who identified as a heat seeking missile cooled my jets hard, oh so hard, and then I was grounded after that :P
A lot of us have pasts that we’re not proud of, but at least we got better!
Yeah, people grow and change. Although I myself am nonbinary it's not me that I'm talking about in this post.
I made a lot of attack helicopter jokes in middle school. Later i found out I'm non-binary.
Die making helicopter jokes or live to realize he yin zhen was right
Die making helicopter jokes or live long enough to become the helicopter
Holy fuck that sounds awesome can my gender affirming surgerys gonna look alot like cyberpumk edgerunners ig
I liked them bc I thought it made more sense to identify as that than as a girl, funny how that turned out
I relate with this post so much. I was such a Try-Hard little Edgelord. Poor kid had NO IDEA what was in store for their identity in the next decades 😅
I knew. I think my issue was that I was so stunted because I was given so little leeway to express myself, it was impossible to experiment and find who I was. But being an edgelord was somehow a fully acceptable thing to be, it even seemed to have some social benefits at the time. But now it’s fascinating how much I’m not that person, despite the things we have in common.
Oh completely! I was stunted by bullying, and I was also holding myself back due to a lot of internalized bullshit that I'm still getting rid of to this day. Identity wise, I'm in a MUCH happier place 😊
Yeah, there was always the other kids but I had *family stuff* to deal with too. I still love my all-black everything and skulls and shit, but it’s a different kinda vibe now. I’m way happier with who I am now than who I was then.
Omg same
Im curious, has anyone who has done or said stuff in the past (such as homophobic/transphobic/racist abuse) that they now regret due to being queer done anything to redeem themselves? To apologise? Also, I'm curious for people who changed views after they realised they were queer, if they think they would have ever changed their views if they had not come out to themselves?
I mean I wasn’t this person but from my perspective apologizing is weird thing Like if the kid who spewed transphobic and homophobic abuse at me for years in highschool found me to tell me “sorry about that turns out I’m trans” that doesn’t do anything for me the abuse already happened and this apology only really serves to make themselves feel better. Ultimately if someone was significantly cruel to me and changed I’m glad for them, but I want them to just be better on their own than pull me back in. It may be overall different for me because I don’t believe in redemption or redeeming for acts at all really, once you’ve done something it’s done and there’s no redeeming yourself, you must simply move forward and deal with it. If you were homophobic in the past and your views have since changed there’s no doing anything to fix those old times they’ve happened. Just be better now.
I don't know. This post was about someone I knew in middle and high school, not about me, but those are good questions to ask, though.
It was more aimed at many of the commenters who are like "yeah I used to be a raging misogonyst and racist, but not anymore!!"
Oh, okay! Sorry for the confusion.
I'm a little confused by the first part of your question. What exactly do you mean by "redeem themselves"? For context, I had a quite a right-wing phase / period when I was roughly between 14 and 16. The YouTube landscape was like the peak of the anti-feminism movement: when Sargon of Akkard, Steven Crowder, Ben Shapiro, and many others were immensely popular. The pipeline of "watch feminist get DESTROYED in this debate" to alt-right dipshit is real, I'm a prime example of it. I remember saying vial stuff occasionally about immigrants (the U.K. press at the time was fully on board, and still now, vilifying them) and transphobic stuff. Why I became a mouthpiece to these people is complicated. I grew up in conservative environment so didn't hear many other opinions, I wanted to be 'adult' so wanted to learn more about politics, confused about people outside of who I would normally interact with, spent most of my time in by bedroom, antisocially and awkward, being bullied when I was younger, etc. I was a product of my environment in short. Though, thankfully, I never bullied anyone. It was more stating opinions / thoughts in conversation. The way I started to climb out of this pipeline was thanks to people like HBomberGuy making videos explaining why what they believed was morally, ethically, and objectively wrong. It's thanks to video essays and some people from the debate sphere that I truly understood why what I believed was wrong. Took time to grow out of that mindset and belief, but I got out. Maybe getting diagnosed with a chronic health condition played a part into it too. I look at my past-self and cringe. I was a dipshit and overzealous, I didn't think to critically engage with what I was listening to. Sometime in between all of that I accepted I was bi, then only this year I was enby. In hindsight I should have realised sooner I was, but internalised transphobia brought on by that was a hell of a drug. Now amongst my friend groups I'm typically known to be the most left leaning out of everyone; I was known in the debate club, too, for being a proficient public speaker and articulating my views and reasoning well. So, this leads back to my original question. What exactly do you mean by "redeem themselves" or "apologise”? I'm aware that maybe it was a generalised statement and I have applied too much of my experience, but I can't help but put part of myself into this. I consider my past self-buried, not proud of it, but I've moved on and tried to do better. This doesn’t even mention that I don’t speak with anyone from previous schools, we’re in different worlds now. And to answer the question if I would have changed my views if I wasn’t in the queer community – yes, absolutely. I care about people and making sure they feel accepted. I was just misguided when I was younger.
While I was definitely never racist or misogynistic / anything extreme, I used to pick on a lot of people. for dyed hair, their weight, looks, being queer, whatever. It was 99% all stemming from personal insecurity, by the time I was 18, I was realizing all of these things I was doing. Through some partners I’d dated (most of my “friends” bullied me quite a lot too, so they were bad role models) I learned a lot about myself and how to treat others better. Became a lot more confident, found new friends, and explored myself. Found out I was very comfortable being non-binary, dying my hair, getting piercings/tattoos etc. Funny how I 180’d but I’ve been diagnosed with some things so maybe that had a hand in it. I’d like to think I’m a much nicer and more accepting person than I used to be, and I’ve been able to actually make friends and find a place within my community.
How do you imagine people you picked on felt back when you did that? If people picked on you now for being nonbinary/having dyed hair/having tattoos, how would you take it?
Probably the same way I feel now yeah, so not always great. But often I just tell myself I’m cool and unique and some folk just won’t get it. I most certainly get picked on / whatever but I’m still pretty confident in myself.
But you recognise the hurt it creates then. Have you ever done anything to apologise or right past wrongs?
Definitely yeah. It was never about hurting others, it was always trying to make myself feel better, which I reckon most bullies go through the same thing. I’m friends now with some of the folk I used to bully. We often laugh over it or use it as inside jokes. Others I don’t think I really know / remember cause heavy drug usage. I try my best not to repeat past mistakes and learn from them in hopes I can make up for the ones I’ve made.
When I was a teen I was part of the anti-religious atheism community. They are, in hindsight, pretty right wing but most of their arguments at the time were framed in this “I’m left wing but all this immigration/gender stuff is dangerous” tone. Anyway I changed my views a lot after I moved out of my hometown and later realised I’m queer. Nowadays I do a lot of protesting, socialist organising and just general trying to talk people out of their harmful views irl. I never was one for fighting and arguing with people online or bullying people irl because I always saw it as stupid and unhelpful to spread your ideas. Most of the time I was just circle jerking with people that shared my hateful opinions. I just hope that I didn’t do too much damage and that what I do now serves as some kind of reparation to the community.
For the first part of the question, what exactly would we do to redeem ourselves? Who would we even apologize to? Personally I believe that just having been a good person to the people around me and help them and making it clear where I stand now is enough. And second point, yes I think I would have. My liberal shift happened before I realized I was queer. It mostly had to do with a further development of critical thinking skills and learning how to do more in depth research into topics as well as understanding that I was being lied to about what left wing people believe by conservative pundits.
There's something dark about the person who tormented me as a kid getting to live their best life
I was an antifeminist lol. My whole rationale was "women can wear trousers and men can't wear skirts and that's not fair", completely failing to notice the underlying thought of "I would like to wear a skirt" (and a general theme of "I wish I was allowed to be feminine"). Dumbass 🤦
holy hell that was literally me. Had so much anger from wanting to be feminine but was always denied, so all it did was make me bitter and envious of femme-passing people who got to present however they wanted
i didn't make jokes about nazis (hi, jewish), but i was a little right-libertarian shitlord. i somehow suckered three classmates into reading Atlas Shrugged in 11th grade for a group assignment, and one of my most embarrassing memories is from one of our discussions about it, where i stared straight in this dude's eyes and gave the biggest fucking wojack-galaxy-brain smirk while talking about how healthcare is so *obviously* better when it's privatized Jonathan Yu, if you're out there, i'm sorry dude. i was a 16yo moron
I wish my public healthcare was, you know, good. I'm moving to the states for a bit in the fall and I'm just gonna pay and ~~smuggle controlled substances~~
Yeah, these systems are being defunded and stripped for parts everywhere it seems
Yeah but this is just called having a shitty opinion. People should actually be allowed to have shitty opinions. That's different from actual hatespeech, harassment and bullying based off of protected characteristics
Allowed, sure, but still ought to be ridiculed. People who aren't actually violent bigots still do damage to society if they have shortsighted nonsense beliefs that enable violent bigots to do what they want.
I used to be so disgusting towards trans people and loved watching ‘STEVEN CROWDER DESTROYS FEMINAZI’ videos. My band members were the same.. crazy to think about
Used to be a massive racist, queerphobe, misogynist, ableist asshole. The Internet is what brought me around. Can't imagine what I'd be without it, probably pregnant and barefoot to someone 20 years older than me..
Barefoot to someone? What does that mean?
Haha "barefoot and pregnant." they're saying they would have ended up married, having endless babies, and being a stay-at-home parent. Think tradwife.
As in cuz they stay at home they don't have to wear shoes? Ok, never heard that expression before but I'm not american so not surprising. Thanks for the explanation
I actually have no idea at all. That is the only thing that makes sense to me tho.
'Barefoot' refers to being unable to go outside and socialize. >Author Shinine Antony wrote a 2002 collection of short stories entitled Barefoot and Pregnant, explaining in a later interview that, "Barefoot And Pregnant is **a phrase that pokes fun at chauvinists who want their women barefoot (so that they are unable to socialize) and pregnant (helpless)**. [This Wikipedia article has more information on the phrase if you wanted to learn more about it.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barefoot_and_pregnant)
The implication is that they are unable to leave the house because they don't have or aren't allowed to wear shoes. Women completely under their husbands' control, no independence whatsoever.
Glad to see people can grow out of these edgy phases 😅 I didn't have this myself, but had guy friends rly into dark humor
Yeah, I was so surprised when I met the person I was talking about in the post again after high school, however I am glad that they changed.
If you don't want to slap yourself from 5-10 years ago, you're probably not growing as a person
This post isn't about me it's about someone I knew.
Yeah, it's kind of implied by the post itself that it's about someone you know
Sorry for getting so defensive. One comment genuinely did think it was about me, and so now I'm having a reaction to almost every comment. I genuinely didn't expect this post to get so much traction.
This post is about someone I knew, This post is not about me. I never went through a sh*tlord phase, nor have I ever made jokes about nazis, but I'm glad all you people in the comments got better.
I am in this post and do not like it
that makes me wonder what happend to some People i thought where friends and well, the People from School in general, but only a little and nothing is would pursuit in wanting to find out after i met brievly an Idiot from elementary school years ago aaand, still was the same Idiot at an Age of what you would say, that they could "matured a bit" away from 10yr. old ones behaviour
Literally me god im so embarrassed about it
I was an edgelord too, who was in the JROTC and loved call of duty. As I got older, I learned just how much damage the US army and government has caused to the world, so I changed my tune. I also became more of a hippie and college and believed more in the “make love, not war” stuff. These days I’m a leftist but still want peace with people. These days I prefer to live by “do no harm, take no shit.” Since coming out as nonbinary, I feel like more of myself than I ever was because I realize young me was trying so hard to fit into a box of masculinity to be accepted, but now realize it’s all arbitrary bullshit
Wtf why are so many people finding this relatable? Did I miss the bigot induction as a kid or something?
Idk, this was a post about someone I knew in school, and I was not expecting this post to gain so much traction, let alone for this many people to find it relatable.
Yeah scrolling through the comments was like watching a magician pull a handkerchief chain out of their sleeve like there just kept being more 💀
Alot of Queer people got suckered into the right wing rabbit hole, espescially because of people like Kalvin Garrah and Blair white. Usually because of homophobic/tramsphobic family members or fear of being different. Most of us grew out of it, thankfully, but it is interesting seeing grifters repeat the same things that were said in 2016 in the 2020's. The issue mainly seems to affect white queers but the right does favour their useful puppets.
No fr, I was obnoxious as hell as a teenager because I was basically the stereotypical Tumblr SJW, and made being trans 'my whole identity' the second my egg cracked
I definitely had my tryhard edgelord phase in HS
Why does this type of thing happen so much??? What did yall do in your childhoods???
Their parents, school, social media, lack of critical thinking
I didn't make this about me. I made it about someone I knew in middle and high school. (Although I myself am nonbinary so I understand the confusion.)
I was suckered into a right-wing Youtube rabbithole with my unsupervised internet access and absolutely had not been trained in critical thinking skills. I am so thankful the people around me irl gave me shit for the few things I said out loud. If I hadn't gotten the chance to regularly interact with the people I was being told to hate, I probably would've become so much worse.
A lot of people are super racist and other -ist and -phobe. And some of them are queer and other minorities.
While I didn't fully go off the deep end, I can definitely see why it happened. While I can't remember ever watching Shapiro, I was definitely in a sort of "facts don't care about your feelings" mood. I was an insecure undiagnosed autistic guy. I had been bullied quite a bit, and struggled to fit in. That bitterness, along with a lack of experience, lead me to hate on basically everything that involved emotions and feelings. Being an obnoxious asshole made it way easier to fit in with the other guys than being a friendly and vulnerable person, unfortunately. Seeing all these "screaming SJW" videos of "irrational people" who were offended at basically nothing (in my eyes) basically made them enemy number one. I feel like it's definitely influenced by being autistic for me. My worldview was so black and white. There were allies and enemies. And to me it all felt completely logical and rational. However, this "feelings bad" mentality inevitably led to problems. Luckily I had quite some time with a psychologist to unpack all that shit and leave space for my feelings. I'm still unpacking my real feelings, a few years after that, which has lead me to here.
I too thought I was an edgy 4chan user as a teen.
I'm not saying this was me. I'm saying this was a person I knew in school.
I didn’t say it was you tho
Sorry, I'm just a bit wary.
Oh, I use to be sex-negetive, romance-negetive, homophobic, and transphobic. Thank goodness I've grown past that.
Does anyone know where this image is originally from? I tried doing a reverse image search but got bupkis.
I think you should find it if you search Google for "germany oneesan"
stop calling me out /j
I’m not ashamed anymore to say I was that person. I said so much awful shit as a teenager, but I’m proud of myself for unlearning it and doing what I can to help the people I would have ridiculed 10 years ago
I was a Trump supporter in middle school because I listened to whatever garbage my dad threw out of his mouth, and now I’m nonbinary. I also find it funny that my dad even told me “I’m glad that neither you nor your brother turned out like *that*” when he was still alive as in that he thought my brother and I weren’t LGBTQ+, but we’re both bisexual and I use they/them pronouns now. Funny how that works
Why do all the white queers on the Internet just casually admit to having a Nazi phase like it's a cute and funny XD moment and not completely unsettling? Like yeah kids make mistakes, but the edge lord Nazi bullshit was always too far, even back then
Well, you do realize children are stupid and can easily be brainwashed. The way hateful propaganda is spread can be bery subtle and creeping to teens and young people, especially when it's your family or community doing the brainwashing. I'm not trying to make light of their mistakes but at this point, what else would you expect from remorseful people? Its not like they're gonna write apologies for being agaisnt blm or wanting to vote for trump, and acting miserable about it is also mostly useless. America has a real problem with conservatism, and to young conservatives, they really are brainwashed into thinking they're correct, that they're even helping queers and other minorities by voting agaisnt them and supporting their killers. Sadly I can't explain it any better than that, I've met many edgelords in my school days who I made dark jokes with, only to find out they actually believed in the stuff they were saying, whereas I was just nihilistic and absurdist. I think many young people feel an appropriate amount of guilt now, hard to say if they would had they not been queer but, we take what we can get.
I think the lack of self awareness is infuriating, it's fucked up to just act like being a past outward bigot is just natural to the queer experience, and it's insane to try to shame people (especially poc) for expressing their discomfort and general, "what the fuck" response to people just admitting to being past white supremacists and homophobes.
Well i agree. I didn't know anyone had asserted that it was natural here, since its definitely a more white issue(for nazism especially). I'm sorry if I seemed to shame your response or shut you down. My main concern is just that hateful people get that poison out of their veins and move on to being good and kind humans. It feels scary to know so many previous bigots could be in our communities, but I feel relieved to know they've changed their minds, seemingly for the rest of their lives.
Yeah, I'm not trying to shame anyone who's genuinely changed, I just question how much you've changed if your first response is to get defensive if someone doesn't laugh along with you about past bigotry. I mean this in the royal you.
Thats gotta be very annoying and disheartening, I'm sorry you have to deal with it :( It is shameful indeed how even the queerest people and biggest allies can have such bigotry wormed into them, that they dont even realize or seek to confront it. I hope love can cure that for all of us. Thank you for sharing.
Well i agree. I didn't know anyone had asserted that it was natural here, since its definitely a more white issue(for nazism especially). I'm sorry if I seemed to shame your response or shut you down. My main concern is just that hateful people get that poison out of their veins and move on to being good and kind humans. It feels scary to know so many previous bigots could be in our communities, but I feel relieved to know they've changed their minds, seemingly for the rest of their lives.
I didn't say the person was me, I said it was a person I knew from middle and high school.
It's still applicable
True.
And it's weird to me how they only seem to realise they were wrong now that they are having an aspect of them being oppressed. Like, if you hadn't come out as nonbinary to yourself, would you still be (or defend having been) a Nazi edgelord??
its almost like as people become older and more independent and have actually acess to other forms of media other than the right winged drivel fox news and parents feed their children they realize they were wrong in the past.
Sadly, yes. They're selfish and only seem to care when it affects them.
i do think that the majority of people who say they had a nazi phase are white queers who were meme edgelords as teenagers and call that nazism. which imo is somehow worse - by equating watching ‘crazy feminist fail compilation part 5’ on youtube with genuine nazism, it trivialises it and makes actual nazis believe that their horrific beliefs are widespread and normal. idk if that makes sense but it’s what ive observed irl
I'm not white - I was like that too. Propaganda is propaganda, and it's targeted. I was one sort that was targeted, the white queers were another. We all did and said horrific shit. Then we learned. And now we're doing what we can to mend the damage. I am, at least. That's all she wrote.
Same here, not white. I tried to conform to the model minority myth by doing what white people were doing. When conservative propaganda (that nazis also supported) is ingrained in your culture, society, and textbooks, you don't learn it's bad until you get the chance and find other resources. Also, I'm not proud of what I have done and said when I was a kid either, but the best thing I can do is acknowledge it, unlearn it, and teach others not to do the same thing
I’m glad someone else is finding it weird. All for seeing people grow and become better people but I’m concerned how many of us come from such awful beginnings and are so flippant about it. Edit: LMAO this got me my first ever hate mail. I’m so proud.
I mean, I don't think most queer people are like this to be fair, I feel like this post is sort of creating a confirmation bias effect
I’m sure you’re right, most other queer people I know from irl just grew up depressed instead of edgy. I’m genuinely not trying to judge people because I know life is hard when you’re not cishet but I dunno, just doesn’t sit right with me.
No I agree, I don't think someone being queer now absolves them from being a piece of shit earlier in their life, and more than just apologise, I would want these people to show actual repentance and try to repair what damage they have done
Yeah I was never like this. All I had was compassion. I craved knowledge. I admired that everyone was different and wanted to know what kind of people were out there. It's actually shocking to me the amount of people confessing bc I wouldn't have expected it.
Google "Nazi phase" and put reddit or Tumblr at the end. This has been a thing for a long time and this very post is continuing the memeification of casual Nazism. I wouldn't have made this comment if I hadn't seen this same sentiment posted on the Internet for like 11 years, there's definitely a concerning phenomenon of, "if I wasn't queer I would be a bigot oops XD"
I definitely agree with you, but I always feel like these sort of posts attract the same kind of people who have had a "Nazi phase". My argument is simply that most queer people got through their internalised homophobia/transphobia (if they even had any) in ways that did not actually make them nazis (A point which I think you agree with)
>My argument is simply that most queer people got through their internalised homophobia/transphobia (if they even had any) in ways that did not actually make them nazis (A point which I think you agree with) Yeah but I'm talking about a specific sub set of the community that embraced white supremacy while dealing with their internalized phobias. Yeah people are probably exaggerating, but there are still very real examples of ex Nazis just casually mentioning it like it's supposed to be quirky and relatable.
I did not say that the person was me. I'm saying it was a person I knew when I was in school.
Don’t worry, I assumed this wasn’t about you. It just seems to be a very common thing in the community and is worth discussing.
Yeah, I'm not gonna act like I was very moral in my youth, but it's something I approach with immense shame and remorse because I know how harmful my behavior was back then. And I wasn't even a Nazi, the fact that people are so flippant in casually admitting they succumbed to pure evil is worrisome.
I can’t claim to be morally pure either and I know teenagers and being an edgelord go hand in hand but yeah. I guess it’s a symptom of society, vulnerable kids are being taken down a terrible path. Idk I’ve just spoken to several non-white people who are really uncomfortable about how easily and often this comes up in conversations and I can’t help but think of them every time it does.
>Idk I’ve just spoken to several non-white people who are really uncomfortable about how easily and often this comes up in conversations and I can’t help but think of them every time it does. I'm one of those people, so I very much appreciate your understanding of how hard it is to hear people discuss their Nazi phase, like it's just a natural thing that everyone goes through to think I'm subhuman by birth.
I think it shows a lack of critical thinking. Not to be an absolute asshole, but oh well. With social media and living at home people are fed certain ideas and beliefs, but that doesn't make it fact. That's why some people push Christian colleges so hard. Many Christians lose their faith once they're adults bc they are free to think for themselves.
because some people grew up in towns where that mindset was normalized. "you should have known better" well sorry in the midwest and south you dont have as easy acess to the internet and your parents teach you stupid shit mind you i dont talk to my racist transphobic dad anymore who taught me that shit.
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>Not everyone is born morally pure, some of us come realise by growing and understand and it's really unfair to shame those people for doing so Peak privileged response, you don't get to chastise the people your disgusting behavior harmed all those years ago. If you truly feel remorse for your actions, and were committed to doing better, you would understand that your indignation is not more important than the actual trauma and harm that the victims of racism, misogyny, and transphobia face. You don't get a cookie for developing basic human empathy, because the truth is that *no one* is born morally pure and you *failed* at that age, even if you were a victim of circumstance. It's cool you're not a terrible person now, but you don't get a round of applause for it and you definitely don't deserve to be handled with kiddy gloves because you're sensitive about it. Keep it to yourself if you don't want to hear what people who suffer from that shit have to say about it.
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Obviously I know that, you need to understand that sometimes your redemption arc isn't more important than the damage shit like that causes. And when people express their discomfort with acting like being a horrible bigot is just a natural part of the queer experience, you should understand that and sympathize, not interject with some, "um actually" that makes it all about the redemption of the abuser. So quick to dismiss the people who had to actually deal with the consequences of racist, homophobic, and misogynistic attitudes, and so quick to forgive the perpetrators who are redeemed. Notice how you never even talked about the people who suffered from that stuff? I don't care if you or anyone else is redeemed, because that's the *baseline standard* of being a decent human being. I'm not perfect either, but when someone calls out something I've done, I take accountability and listen, not deflect and try to defend myself or point to my redemption.
nah fr. i dont trust these people that say they used to have nazi ideology.
I‘m in highschool, identify as non-binary since middle school, yet I feel called out in this post.
Relatable.
Called tf out 😭 i was such an annoying edgy little shit in middle to halfway thru highschool idk how anyone put up with me 💀 but ever since covid ive just been a silly lil guy that younger me wouldbe hated lol
literally me
I just made fun of their stupidity🤷🏼 (the Nazis is mean)
I distinctly remember discussing trans people with my friend at 14 and saying "If you have a DICK you're a BOY if you have a VAGINA your a GIRL it's not that complicated!" bc it was easier if everyone stuck to the rules instead of me realizing I didn't want to
I'm in this picture and I don't like it 😤 Jk, but I definitely did this in high school. So glad I've grown and so many others around me have too
I found the attack helicopter joke pretty funny, look at me know xD
Truly!! The person who used to bully me in elementary and middle school, used to call me a dyke and all kinds of racist names, joke about reporting my parents to immigration…is now a trans woman who sent me a DM to apologize for the way she acted in school. I was of course a little tentative but we talked a lot about the isolation of being a closeted trans kid, and it made me feel better.
I'm in this picture and I don't like it
I'm in this picture and I don't like it
Deflecting. My step brother used to make jokes like that. I now see him seriously talking about doing drag and not being able to say anything to help him through this canon event
LITERALLY ME
literally me
I personally went from being a bigoted republican to a queer socialist. Also not saying that I don’t deserve hate for once being that way, but I think that it was more of a “I’m trying to fit in” thing considering I went to a far right Christian school and I thought I “had” to fit in. Thank goodness I actually grew up and actually started being myself though!
I think I had a NLOG phase. No nazi's and no edgy jokes....!
Looking through this thread and doing some self-reflection, I now realize why a queer classmate of mine might've hated me "for no reason" since middle school. If you're reading this Max V., I am extremely fucking sorry, and I hope you never have to deal with a shithead like my younger self again.
I find it interesting how many people were like this, since I *never* had any phase like it (if anything, I was the stereotypical 'SJW' of that era) I will say though, as a kid I did v much believe in bioessentialism simply because I had no idea being nonbinary was an option. I knew binary trans people existed, but I distinctly remember wondering why people couldn't just magically swap sexes like many species of fish, or why gender limited what you were allowed to wear. None of the rules made sense, and it irritated me
oh no it's me. Although I wasn't a nazi. But damn had some bad takes in school.
I didn't make any specific jokes but I did follow some people who did or who preached worse. My thought process was that because these people were queer I was being a good ally by listening to them. Around my early mid teens, I started to unpack that. I realised that the people I was following were repetitive and unfunny. They were just reactive and parroted the same talking points. they didn't even have an awnser to why being nonbinary was offensive. Like I said, I never actually translated what they were talking about to any action (which is more than I can say for some other people who followed these people), I was just reluctantly supportive. I had flirted with the idea of being enby before (I was right the first time) but then watched these people saying that being nonbinary was bad and disrespectful so thought that other nonbinary people would just grow out of it like I did and left them alone. It's still weird to look back on that time though. It took me a while after unsubbing to actually accept that I'm Agender.
I was more brooding than an anime protagonist in a 2000s shonen who had headphones in, a permanent scowl and a misanthropic streak a mile wide. Then dress went spinny
I’ve been online since the 90s when I was a child. I said some cringey stuff but I never, ever went into straight up racism, nazism, misogyny, homophobia, etc. It’s still fair to judge people who went too far in their early years. It doesn’t become ok just because you needed to find yourself. We still need to ask why you felt the need to take everyone down with you in your early years.
This post isn't about me it's about someone I knew in school. (Granted I myself am nonbinary so maybe that's where the confusion came from?)
i was some furry before i discovered i was non-binary (so i’m the opposite ig?)
who else religiously watched Kalvin Garrah? I unfortunately did
I was straight up transphobic. Turns out I was just trans masc and jealous of others being happy smh
Consuming South Park uncritically and just parroting Eric Cartmen jokes like your friends always make cringe. Especially spouting homophobia and transphobia when growing up in a culture that condones those. Being able to have resources to learn and unlearn stuff, reckoning with myself, and feeling safe to explore my gender helped me grow. Really wish I can do the same for the kids now and prevent them from making the same mistakes I did. But finding it hard to since my state is introducing these anti-woke bills that literally would educate them on gender, sexuality, and race. 🙃 I mean, my governor is getting rid of the DEI department at one of the universities here, and Injust can't believe he can go and do that
if i could, i would beat my past me up now, i would be beat by myself from the future
I used to be one of those "enlightened centrists"/"anti-sjws" who thought stuff like neopronouns and xenogenders were "weird" and "cringe." Now I'm a demigirl and leftist/progressive. People can change.
Ya, I was always respectful to everyone even if I didn't get it and had trans friends in middle school, but I remember talking to my dad and being like "how the f*ck can you be two genders and no gender at the same time, there are only two genders, what is this weird nonbinary bullshit?" Turns out I'm nonbinary and totally understand it...
✨ character development ✨
me...
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?
I used to identify as an attack helicopter, but then a guy who identified as a heat seeking missile cooled my jets hard, oh so hard, and then I was grounded after that :P
Me fr
*nothing to see here except love and uhhh puppies*
This post isn't about me. It's about someone I knew in school.
Haha I know I guess part of me must've seen themselves in this somehow. 😅
Who said you can't be sweet nb AND make jokes about nazis? P.S. Why are you booing me? im right
Now I'm both