Why have you become so political?

The winter of 2022 my writing and my Instagram content shifted hard into the political realm. I think I’ve done a pretty good job of explaining here, on YouTube, and in my Instagram posts, the motivation behind all that.

Namely, the pandemic revealed a whole lot about western society and culture - polarization, politicization, hidden authoritarian impulses, broken systems, etc. forcing me to reckon with things I’ve been ignoring and intellectually pushing aside for a long time. As it happened, I also started my graduate studies in the midst of the pandemic and what I’ve been learning in that program has provided me with a lens and language to articulate and critique political, cultural and societal happenings.

A lot of what I’m trying to explicate in this series is incredibly complex, above my pay grade, education, and training. I can’t hope to, nor am I suggesting, that what I will discuss is a unifying hypothesis of “what’s going on politically”.

I have spent the last few months reading and listening to more than my usual dose of philosophy, science, psychology, ethics, political theory, history, current events, etc... to try and understand my world, and to make sense of, and articulate, my own ideas. I have been wrestling intellectually and spiritually with what political action looks like in response to what I’m learning and processing.

This series is a response to all that.


It takes one to know one: Dogma, heresy & fear

It takes one to know one: Dogma, heresy & fear

Going through the pandemic and living in this cultural moment where it feels like down is up and up is down has taught me many things. But one clear lesson has been our human fallibility to closed-minded thinking, group think, mob mentality, and tyranny.

Situating myself on the political spectrum and the authoritarianism of the left

Situating myself on the political spectrum and the authoritarianism of the left

I identify politically with the left of the spectrum because I am fundamentally opposed to authoritarianism and its manifestations and subsidiaries most often associated with and championed by the right. And it became undeniably clear that the right did not hold the patent on authoritarianism.

Explicating core political & spiritual values

Explicating core political & spiritual values

Doing the work of defining and explaining my values, at this particular edge of my life. Values that grew in the living of them. Values that guided my homeschooling, undergird my mothering, my relationships, and my politics.

Everything is Political

Everything is Political

People’s responses to pandemic policy revealed their true political orientation. It revealed what they believe constitutes just governance. It revealed their own relationship with state authority, and the degree to which they trust those in power. It revealed their underlying ideas about how we should do life together and who gets to make the decisions about our lives.

Homeschooling as a political act

Homeschooling as a political act

Compulsory means alienate and undermine students/children from achieving the ends of developing autonomous thinking and action in solidarity-building relationships with family and community. This is both an educational and political stance.

Why have you become so political? I'm so glad you asked.

Why have you become so political? I'm so glad you asked.

I haven’t considered myself to be an especially political person. In writing this series however, in reflecting on my ideas and cataloging my past political engagement, I realize my political-orientated behavior this winter is not out of character, though it may be surprising to readers.