I have thoughts about anti-establishment, counterculture thought tendencies. I want to use the term “punk” here very intentionally to refer to anything counterculture, as punk music/culture was ostensibly conceived as anti-authoritarianism, anti-corporatism, and anti-consumerism.

However, the term “punk” and the punk aesthetic have also been co-opted by everyone from libertarians to skinheads to support some of the most foundational power structures of inequity upon which our society is built: racism, misogyny, and corporate power.

I never thought of myself as punk, but in the past (I hope it’s mostly in the past) I had plenty of counterculture disdain for anything “corporate” or “mainstream” that I could use to condescend to others while jerking off my own ego.

I would always let people know that the things they liked or believed were stupid in a very nice, helpful way, of course. I liked to turn my nose up at pop music or rap that I saw as “materialistic” or “misogynistic” (which I now understand was my racial/cultural blindness).

I was “very intelligent” about viewing any sexualization of women as corporate objectification, which required the removal of all agency, intent, and motivation from the woman to fit into my understanding of the world.

At one point, I thought very little of “breeders” who were all kinds of terrible for having children for every reason from overpopulation to the perpetuation of the consumerist nuclear family model to the “very punk” disdain for the “traditional family” configuration.

I could sneer at people with decent-paying corporate office jobs as I used a smart phone, put gas in my car, ate at McDonalds, and shopped at Wal-Mart or Amazon.

Alternatively, once I had a decent-paying job (relatively-speaking) at a “very punk” non-profit, I could sneer at poor people for supporting big corporations by eating at McDonalds, shopping at Wal-Mart, or working at Amazon.

Of course that was all me being an elitist asshole. That streak of asshole elitism is the same one that allows Trump supporters to believe that Trump is anti-establishment even though he champions every pillar of societal inequity one could name.

It’s simple, but the best advice I may have ever heard is “Let people like things.” Everyone is doing their best, no matter where on the “punk” scale that might land, and you’re not going to “help” them by being a dick about it.

What will help is living the best life you know how and hopefully offering an example that might set a helpful model for other to follow, should they choose to recognize it and do so. To be clear this includes acknowledging and addressing intolerance wherever it is found.

Karl Popper was right about that with his Paradox of Tolerance. Attacking racism or sexism or misogyny is not the same thing as being a dick because someone had a kid, or is poor, or likes Beyoncé. I trust that you can see the difference there.

Anyway, I guess that’s all I had to say. Don’t be an asshole; let people like things.

I forgot to include this up in the examples of me being a dick, but it’s relevant. Language, grammar, and spelling. Don’t be a dick about that. Not only is it classist/racist, but language evolves. If you’re gatekeeping language, you better do it in Beowulf olde English.