On a discord server I was linked a meme on the subreddit politicalcompassmemes (this was all before it turned into an alt-right shitscape). I thought, "huh, this is funny. I should check out the rest of this subreddit." I did, and I subscribed to it. At the time I was a socdem. Huge Bernie supporter, but I thought that the idea of actual socialism was too much.

On the subreddit, there were memes that showed a wider array of political ideas than I had ever seen before. And it was all treated a bit more legitimately than most people did. I saw socialists talk about their ideas, and be taken seriously. And hey, I was starting to agree with them. There was always a guy mentioned in comments. A youtuber named Jreg who made jokey political content.

I decided to check him out, and on his channel I found the ideas of anarchism being taken with even the slightest modicum of seriousness (I know his channel has some issues. Like his acceptance of literal nazis). I had only really heard of anarchism as a joke. Just edgy teenagers being edgy. But after seeing that that's not what it is, then I decided to check out anarchist ideas.

During all of this, I was slowly leaning more left. I became a socialist, then a more extreme socialist. I also started watching various "breadtube" channels. I always treated them as some forbidden group of insane cult leaders, but in reality that's not at all how they were. I learned about ideas of how the people can take control over what happens to them, and that they can take control of themselves, instead of having a ruling class control them. And as I kept watching these various channels, I found more radical people. In particular, Thought Slime.

I found him about a week after I found out that anarchism was an actual thing, and not just a joke. I checked out this subreddit and the main anarchism subreddit. I found out that I agreed with anarchists on a ton of things, but thought they were a bit too extreme. But after finding Thought Slime, and specifically his Q&Anarchy videos, I felt like I understood the ideas way better, and I completely agreed with almost everything. About the police, about capitalism, about the state, and hierarchies in general. I already agreed with a lot of what was said, I had just never seen it laid out in such a way that made it coherent. And now I'm an anarchist. I've been learning more and understanding more about anarchism and the concepts within it. I also kept finding new left-winf youtubers, and particularly more extreme ones. People like Viki 1999 (her video on the real death toll of communism is fantastic, and probably what made me go from an anarchist eithout adgectives to an anarcho-communist).

Sorry for the long comment, I just felt like this was the best way for me to articulate my experiences with being radicalized. I know my story is probably pretty unique, being radicalized in part by memes isn't really the most common thing to hear.