My whole life I have been told to calm down! And then two years later everyone freaks out because I fucking told them so. Trans women raised the alarm about the turning tide on bodily autonomy and no one fucking cared, and then abortion was taken away because no shit! We were fucking told we had enough, we were told to become complacent, we were told to let fascism happen.

I am 16 years old, reading Umberto Eco, Judith Butler, and Karl Marx. I thought the Government was meant to take care of my health and safety, but it seems like I have to become my own activist.

I live in New Zealand, we are known for being good. We have become complacent. I went to school with the Finance Minister’s son. Now every day on the news I watch Nicola Willis explain why only women can give birth, and attack trans people for competing in sport.

She is not an ally, but every interview she has the fucking Pride Lego set sitting behind her, which has the trans colours in it. This is what I mean when I say we’ve become complacent, and this is what I mean when I say alienation under capitalism has finally come to terminal velocity. She believes she is an ally just because she bought the fucking Lego set.

When Trump was elected in 2024, my family told me to calm down because that’s over there and we live here. I don’t think I need to explain why that is a stupid argument about why we don’t even worry about the rising tide of fascism internationally.

They may say we’re in Plato’s cave. I would say we’re Pavlov’s dogs, because they keep on ringing the fucking bell and they keep on responding with dopamine.

Or maybe Stockholm syndrome, because they refuse to admit the powerful failed us, just like Kristin Enmark deescalating where the police escalated. People will say fuck the police 20 years after we cared. Now we want more than words, so fuck the inaction. I say burn the world, and people wonder if that will hit their net zero target.

I may sound complicated or pretentious. That’s because my entire life I’ve been taught if I construct a good enough argument I can win, I can win a fight, I can win a debate, I can win my rights back. So if I’d learn enough philosophy, if I listen to enough economics, if I just knew enough theory then I could prove that my life is valuable. But I’m done living up to their fucking expectations.