About My Politics

My identity and conscious experience are inextricably linked with others. I see myself not as an individual, but as a part of a collective, in relationship with everything and everyone else, simultaneously. I am occasionally persuaded that I am the individual writing this text, having these thoughts, unique and special and separate from others. But upon reflection, I consistently return to understanding myself as part of a 'we' rather than an 'I'. From that, my conception of how social, political, and economic systems should be constructed is based on my understanding that to benefit others is, in many ways, the same as helping myself, and that prioritizing myself over others leads to behaviors that I see as anti-social, exploitative, individualistic, and selfish. These behaviors, which may grant me some short term “competitive advantage”, ultimately self-sabotaging, because even the separation of competition creates a rift in me that doesn’t jive with my lived experience.

If I had to use overly simplistic labels, some words that come to mind are Abolitionist, Feminist, Anarcho-Communist, Anti-Capitalist, Anti-Fascist. Ironically, I am growing more and more to see myself as a form of Christian, despite the way those teachings and identities have been used to create and justify so many of the systems I oppose. I think that the Bible, like many sacred texts, is not literally true, but offers insights into how some humans arrived to a worldview like mine. Jesus, as he’s described in the gospels, was a socialist who spent time with “sinners” and advocated for egalitarianism.

As someone who was born and raised in the US for 35 years, and due to the USA’s outsized influence in almost all affairs of global concern, I believe that the priorities of the US government should be radically shifted from maintenance of the current social order (through violent oppression and coercion) towards the wellbeing of all sentient life, and the planet Earth as a whole. Even before considering my hyper-empathetic connection to others, I have personally been on the receiving end of homophobia, racism, transphobia, violent policing, housing and food insecurity, and so many other forms of oppression at the hands of the US. I feel well positioned to offer potential alternatives, if not outright solutions.

Practically, this looks like a massive and rapid deconstruction of the Military Industrial Complex, which is far and away the most expensive and destructive system on the planet. The money, time and energy not spent on war and violence (including punitive, carceral “justice” systems) should then be allocated to medical, agricultural, and sociological research with the goal of providing for the most basic needs of all humans (food, shelter, access to education, etc) while simultaneously respecting the land and people around the globe. This will include re-wilding some of the planet, including returning indigenous sovereignty to communities who have a history of living within the limits of a given region or ecological system. This will include the redistribution of food and medicine, along with a shift in agricultural practices away from homogeneous mono-cropping and towards diverse, sustainable food systems. This means an end to the exploitation and massacre of non-humans, and a perception of land as community members to which we owe the same respect as our mother, brother, or neighbor.

I value compassion, curiosity, and change. I aim to spend all of my time and energy improving the lives of those around me, with an ever expanding circle of empathy which ultimately consists of all of existence. I am God, Starseed, Earthseed, and Eris. And I am You. This is Our experience. We chose it, and we choose it. If this doesn’t vibe with you, you can choose not to join me in this experience. You have the freedom to create, discover or describe an experience of your own. Or ,ultimately, you could choose not to experience anything at all (Which is to say, there’s no experience after death. But like, please don’t kill yourself.) But I’m not convinced you can ever fully separate yourself from me, from us, from we.