I been seeing a lot of fucking poser punks whining after getting called a poser after vocally voting trump, and also posers crying that “voting isn’t punk”, so I’m making a statement here for general punk audiences:
PUNK IS INHERENTLY LEFT WING AND ANTI-OPPRESSION. Punk isn’t about being a lone wolf contrarian and non-conformist to general society. Punk is about walking the road alongside the downtrodden and lifting them up out of the systemic oppression in our society. You don’t get to pick and choose who you lift up. You help everyone on that damn road because you know that if you dont help them they will get hurt by the systemic oppression. We stand for those having a hard time standing for themselves. Our roots are in back alley gay clubs acting as unofficial bouncers and bodyguards. Our roots are in breaking the chains of the enslaved and carrying them to freedom. Our roots are in building communities where everyone can be free to be themselves and are safe doing so.
Real punk isn’t voting for someone because the media “is against them”. Real punk is understanding that voting is a tool in our toolbox as we walk down the road with those whose lives are endangered by oppressive laws and fascistic policies. Whether brick or ballot, we can’t ignore one tool and only rely on the other. The job requires both to be used. If we don’t use both, nothing will get fixed. You don’t use a hammer on a bolt, nor an Allen wrench on a nail. The tools get used on what they’re made for, and they all get used when it’s time to use them.
Punk gatekeeps against those who want to bring down our movement. Posers bring down our movement and pretend punk wasn’t founded on left wing principles. Posers can kick rocks.
And as a small aside to the general queer and mogai communities of tumblr: your existence is punks as fuck. Your Neo, Xeno, and Nounself pronouns are punk as fuck. The way you express your identity through art, music, fashion, and even surgical procedures is punk as fuck. You always have an open invitation to sit with us. All we ask in return is that you aren’t an asshole and to do the same for the oppressed as punks do. Standing against oppression is the bare minimum, and all we ask is you do what is feasible for you within your own capabilities. Take care of yourself, and take care of others as though they were you. If all you can manage is spreading information and kindness, that’s fine. You are not an island, nobody is and nobody should be expected to be so. You are a part of a tightly packed community pushing up through the grass to show that others aren’t alone and that you are there to help them to the best of your abilities. To take a nerdy (and pretty tumblr appropriate) approach to this, you are the mycelium in the ground, pushing up mushrooms to spread the community, sprawling through the ground in an intricate and dense manner, filling in daisy patches with your mycotic blooms and refusing to disappear, showing other that they can be seen too, that they matter, and that we will work together towards a better future. That is what punk is, and if anyone tells you otherwise, that poser bastard can kick rocks.
