telling me I needed to learn more

This is so funny to me because socialists tend to be far better read and more educated in history and economics than the libs who say this. They think "learn more" means that the lessons you should take from life is that it does not get better, not that we must fight for a better world right now.

But almost without fail, the only history these people know about places outside the US are American propaganda about our wars, and anti-communist propaganda about places like Venezuela, Cuba, China, etc. They don't really know anything about Central America, Africa, etc and the places we've staged regime change without getting into more traditional warfare.

They know nothing about the labor movement, the way striking won workplace protections, and how our employers have worked tirelessly since the very second they allowed these concessions o undo them.

They only see the MLK, Jr. speeches organized with hundreds of thousands in attendance, but never know that he was deeply hated by white America as a whole, and that the movement faced heaps of state and vigilante violence against them.

They forget that Stonewall was an actual, legit riot against the police, because now Pride is some corporate sponsored charity march that often invites the fucking police to march alongside corporations who donate to the LGBT lobby (who only seem to care about middle-class gay and lesbian couples).

It frustrates me to no end when I interact with people who want political activists to play nice all the time. They always think they are more knowledgeable about things, and it is almost never true. And when they do actually know their history, it tends to be that they were against the progress that happened while the fight was happening, but have no ability to think further ahead about what change is actually needed. They often still hold reactionary and bigoted views, and they will refuse to admit it outright.

Whoo....that was a bit of a rant.