Over the past few years, we as a society have faced a number of difficult conversations.
We’ve discussed systemic racism with #blacklivesmatter. We’ve explored rampant sexism and harassment in the wake of the #metoo movement. We’ve even managed to have a few conversations without a hashtag. It’s been quite the cultural awakening.
While it’s difficult to have these tough conversations day after day, there’s one more topic we need to tackle and we need to do it now: we need to talk about punks giving a fuck.
Almost every single day I read another story about some punk not giving a fuck about this or about that. News outlets are constantly reporting about punks thoroughly disregarding basic cornerstones of decency and human interaction. Every single one of these stories, without fail, warms my heart.
But these stories ignore the elephant in the room. Because, and please prepare yourselves, there are (and always have been) punks out there who give a fuck.
Related: Just Because I Don’t Dress Like It or Go to Shows or Believe In any of the Core Tenets Anymore Doesn’t Mean I’m Not Punk
Punks have given a fuck in broad daylight forever and we’ve chosen to ignore it. It’s not just giving a fuck about cool stuff either. It’s everything: politics, getting super good deals on stuff (coded as “jamming econo”), TV Parties, D.A.R.E. (except punks call it “straight edge”). Some punks out there give a fuck about cool things like drugs and fighting, but it’s still a problem.
It’s simple: If you’re a punk, you shouldn’t give a fuck. It’s not hard.
So what do we do? For a start- if you see something, say something. If you catch a punk caring about something, tell them to stop it. Just make sure you do it in a way that makes it seem like you don’t give a fuck about them. If not, the fuck giving cycle will continue on.