You're in a desert, walking along in the sand when all of a sudden you look down and see a tortoise. It's crawling toward you. You reach down and flip the tortoise over on its back, atheqtpie. The tortoise lays on its back, its belly baking in the hot sun, beating its legs trying to turn itself over. But it can't. Not with out your help. But you're not helping. Why is that, atheqtpie?"

How were you allowed to wear a cap (that too a political one) in school? I went to a public school and we weren't allowed to wear caps or pull over our hoodies when inside.

Do you remember some of your earliest misgivings about going along with your families beliefs? Things that made you go ‘wait a minute…?’

You figured it out earlier than I did. I remember “voting” third party in my middle school’s presidential tally because the republican candidate wasn’t “conservative enough.”

It’s easy to be shaped by the opinions of your family when you’re young — your brain isn’t fully developed and they’re your unit. Once you started experiencing other perspectives, and realized they made more sense, you changed. It took me until undergrad to realize my previous beliefs made no sense. Give yourself credit, and stay curious.

What was the thing that made leftism click for you?

Still religious?