Howdy Open Theaders, Jay here, filling in for Keith who has the day off.
This week's sprawling feature story on the wild 2013 Minneapolis mayoral election got me (and it seems many others) politically nostalgic. In that spirit, I'm gonna rip off a question that's asked in every episode of Joshua Citarella's Doomscroll podcast: What activated you politically?
For me, without question, the answer is the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which began when I was a freshman in high school. I did the student walkout/march. I bought the "NO BLOOD FOR OIL" T-shirt. I started down the Michael Moore to Howard Zinn to Noam Chomsky pipeline that would form the bedrock of my belief system. Some artifacts from that era ring a little corny today (loved my Rock Against Bush, Vol. 1 comp!), but I remain struck by the moral clarity my cohort of teens mustered as politicians from both parties lied and cheerled the country into foreign policy disasters that directly killed almost 1 million people.
How about you? It could be an event, cause, experience, person, book—whatever! Or, as always, feel free to ignore this prompt and talk about whatever you want. This is your Open Thread, after all.
I'll leave you with a politically charged song I had on steady MiniDisc rotation at 15. And ya know what? After listening this morning for the first time in a decade, I can say it holds up!
