my dad didn’t bail me out of shit and i ended up not being able to speak up or advocate for myself about anything. since i never had a safe out i ended up desensitized to uncomfortable situations, spending the most formative decade of my life working out the suicidal ideation i had developed after getting bullied into an injury that i lacked the self-advocacy to speak up about. i sure would’ve appreciated a hand.
“weakens people” reads to me like the extremely flawed mouse utopia experiment that i still hear thrown around as a deflection to the reduction of suffering. fuck off with that bullshit.
as someone who thinks “left” and “right” are fake politics, my experience has led me to think about the range as the scope of your compassion. the further “left” you are, the more you care about the people as a whole. the further “right” you are, the more you care about yourself.
eventually, you get so egocentric that you cannot even fathom an opposing perspective so the “common sense” becomes your only basis for thought. the way you perceive your own stance literally shifts back towards the center as your actual position gets more extreme.
source: was raised by one