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Amongst all the threads of true importance, this post is completely pointless. This post serves no other purpose than to satisfy my own selfish desires and therefore I thank anyone who is willing to set aside a portion of their day to read it. Excuse the weak outline and weak substance.
Since the age of twelve, I've spent time learning the nature and essence of politics and, accordingly, I have come to understand and accept the range of human opinions. I pride myself on the fact that I take time to consider nearly all opinions, but at times I grow tired of the inner debates I conduct between my own opinions and that of the Republican or Libertarian or whoever is on my mind.
Sometimes I simply get tired with the whole thing. I can't stand the fact that I spend time being objective but in the end I receive no credit because of the fact that I'm a sixteen year old Democratic Socialist or as some like to call it: "young and naive".
I read Marx and Orwell; I read Chomsky and Hartmann; I read the opposition (Ayn Rand), but no matter how much I learn, I know that I'm dismissed. The Right, the Middle, the apolitical, and even the moderate Left dismiss me. The Right and the Middle call me "naive and an extremist", the apolitical call me "ignorant and dogmatic", and the moderate Left call me "smart but misguided". None of them believe that I can hold my positions as I advance into old age, but I know-and perhaps this truly is naive-that I will not surrender to complacency, or to conformity, or to ignorance.
I realize that many people have made stronger statements than mine and have still surrendered to those vices, but I know that I am not one of them. I belong to the other group of people. I belong to the group of people that have retained their perspective-who continue to make an effort. I will not back down from my positions and I will not soften them because they are too harsh for some.
In essence, all I'm truly saying is: Not all youth conform, so don't dismiss me simply because I'm young and you don't agree with me.
"Each generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it." - George Orwell
"Case by case, we find that conformity is the easy way, and the path to privilege and prestige; dissidence carries personal costs." - Noam Chomsky
"Always go too far, because that's where you'll find the truth." - Albert Camus
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