Not Enough Hours in the Day

In general, counterculture is predicated on the idea of disenfranchisement, of powerlessness, of being outside the system. This often requires a certain amount of willful self-invention, i.e. disingenuous affectations of poverty and the denial of privilege. Once you’re dug into that situation, being informed that your words and actions DO affect people can feel like a punch in the nose, because it contradicts the foundation of your being. (I’m speaking from experience here as someone who’s gotten called out on ‘edgy’ jokes in younger days; the gut instinct to ‘stick to your principles’ is real and difficult to examine objectively.) Add that to our society’s never-healthy approach to race, in which we demonize Racists while saying that racial inequity is someone else’s problem, and the results are predictable. Oh yeah, and in 2012, add a dash of internet anonymity.