Wrote this comment in r/punk that will almost certainly deleted, would appreciate some thoughts

submitted by RuinedSpiral from (self.TumblrInAction)

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[–]RuinedSpiral[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

That’s actually a common misconception about punk, even, if not especially, among punks themselves.

The truth is punk has always been left leaning economically and socially, and it made sense for a lot of activists to adopt this whole free speech/nonconformity thing back when the political right had a lot of power during punk’s heyday, but for a lot of these activists it was never about liberation or anything, it was about power. You see a lot of this on the right now, people trying to co-opt anti-authoritarian sentiment to advance their political careers and agendas.

The sad thing is, a lot of contemporary punks never really got the memo that their side ostensibly won and they had been exploited as useful idiots, and still see themselves as some sort of anarchist rebels even though that couldn’t be further from the truth. In a lot of ways it’s a cautionary tale for those who hate woke shit who see the political right as some kind of salvation.

[–]LyingSpirit472 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Even then, though, punk wasn't totally involved with any political movement. There were many left-wing/progressive punks in the time when the political right had power, yes, but the very nature of skinheads being a thing in punk shows there were a lot of neo-Nazis running around the scene as well.

The only true "spirit" of punk has always been being a rebel, and much like Rebel without a cause, whatever a punk is up against, the answer is "what've you got?"