I’ve been struggling lately with political “feelpinions”, political opinions mostly informed by feelings. I have strong opinions about a lot of what’s going on in the world at the moment, but those opinions are backed by feelings instead of things like in-depth research. I just don’t have time.

I can handle this, even when my opinions come into conflict with someone else’s. After all – their opinions are probably not more informed than mine. But when what I believe conflicts with mainstream narratives, life becomes hard. Reading the news or talking with colleagues is oftentimes difficult.

Before I continue, I’d like to address the fact that that last paragraph probably sounded a bit conspiratorial. “Mainstream narratives” etc. My opinions aren’t really that extreme – they’re just outside the Overton window. For example, it’s pretty obvious to me that capitalism is wholly incapable of dealing with climate change. However, I still need to survive my day-to-day life in a society built on capitalism; it’s hard for me to motivate myself to work building tools for the art market when I know that that market exists inside a system that’s thrusting our species towards its inescapable doom.

(And, obviously, I need to acknowledge that interacting with the rest of society has been even more difficult lately because of some recent life changes).

To help me cope, and maybe to let others of similar opinions know that they’re not alone, I’m going to rapid-fire some political feelpinions I have that go against the grain of what’s “normal” – opinions I have that I haven’t necessarily interrogated in-depth, but opinions I hold nevertheless.

Here we go!

• Capitalism is responsible for a massive amount of worldwide suffering, and this suffering overwhelmingly affects women, people of colour, people living in poverty, and members of other marginalized groups.
• Climate change is going to continue getting worse, and will get more worse more quickly as time goes on. Our species is likely headed to extinction.
• The Democratic Socialists of America are a cool organization, but are not without their flaws. They do good work.
• Many criticisms of Hillary Clinton are based in (and motivated by) misogyny. This fact is used by centrists to stifle legitimate criticisms of her policies. (For in-depth feminist critique of Clinton’s policies, check out this book).
• Many criticisms of Israel are based in (and motivated by) antisemitism. This fact is used by centrists to stifle legitimate criticisms of the country’s policies. After all, Israel is a country, and all countries’ policies have flaws, therefore Israel’s policies have flaws. This shouldn’t be a controversial statement.
• The Democratic Party is deeply, deeply flawed. Probably irreparably. They represent the interests of their donors first and foremost, and have failed to offer a meaningful resistance to the rise of fascism.
• The 2016 Clinton presidential campaign banked too heavily on “not being Donald Trump” instead of presenting appealing social policies (for example, single payer health care).

Phew! That felt good. Certainly not an exhaustive list. If you agree with any of these, that’s cool. If not, don’t @ me.

It’s the end of the world, baby!