For me, it\u2019s another instance of paraphrasing my good friend Hannah Cohen<\/a>: punk is how I engage with the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s a bridge-blower\u2019s attitude at work, here. Punk means always being able to say \u201cfuck this, I\u2019m not part of this.\u201d That\u2019s how I felt at age 15, in the lead up to the Iraq War, the specter of having to mail in my selective service card looming. That\u2019s how I feel now, as “being willing to use GenAI” becomes a minimum requirement for having a corporate job. Speaking of jobs, I\u2019ve honestly never felt like I belonged anywhere. In service jobs, I worried people could smell the stink of \u201cdoctor\u2019s son, private college\u201d on me. In corporate jobs, I couldn\u2019t make myself care about promotions or overlook the fact that a company motto (\u201cmake our website a daily habit\u201d) sounded like a drug dealer. I tried really hard to fit into corporate stuff\u2014I write a great email, I say yes to things, I am generally willing to participate in team-building activities\u2014but then I realized that none of that shit saves you from layoffs. Plus, becoming a dad really makes it hard to care about corporate culture. Shit, when Mallory got pregnant, I couldn\u2019t even make myself excited for team happy hours, and I was a drunk<\/em> drunk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Punk is a place where anyone can belong. Provided they\u2019re not a huge piece of shit or a Nazi1<\/a><\/sup>. You can be Black, Latine, Asian, Indigenous, Irish, gay, trans, a cross-dresser, a quadruple amputee, a cartoon goth, a skater, Christian, or whatever else. You just can\u2019t be fake, and you have to be nice to people. Even if you\u2019re throwing bows at each other in the pit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The pit, somewhat famously, is one of the first places you learn about punk\u2019s altruism. Everywhere I\u2019ve been, people help each other out in the pit. I know it\u2019s not the same with every scene, I know there are some real looking for a fight motherfuckers out there. Just wasn\u2019t the case where I\u2019ve been, though. In fact, the Murfreesboro scene really started to alienate me when it shifted to metal\/djent, because I viewed slam dancing as a way to selfishly colonize the pit. No one can stand within 10 feet of the band if someone\u2019s windmilling their fists and blindly karate kicking. That\u2019s individualistic. A bunch of people pogoing and pushing one another though? That\u2019s camaraderie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There has to be a mutual aid component to punk. You have to be agitating for the revolution. Food Not Bombs is punk. As DOA said, TALK-ACTION=0. The Clash going to Jamaica was a mixed bag, but \u201cRock Against Racism\u201d was and is a necessary platitude. No Eric Clapton-style xenophobia, no hair metal-style hedonism (read: no raping minors and then bragging about it in song).\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ever since reading it, I can’t stop thinking about Michelle Cruz Gonzales and the story of Spitboy not only using thrifted tees to screen print their merch on, but being so committed to screen printing that they’d even do it on the road. Also the Spitboy story of someone telling them to “shut up and play or spread your legs” and Michelle bounding over the drum set, looking to fight whomever was in the crowd, people holding her and the rest of the band back, the band all crying from rage, everyone working to kick that asshole out. Nothing good<\/em> about that happening at a gig, but a willingness to fight has to be a necessary response or else you’ll be walked all over for the rest of your life (by this defination, Democrats are the least punk rock people to ever exist). <\/p>\n\n\n\n Again, punk is not perfect. No one lives up to this bullshit. Still, I like the vague creed. I grew up Christian.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n One thing I\u2019ve been introduced to since growing out of being in the scene<\/em> that really reminds me of punk is small press literature. Particularly small press poetry. I remember sitting in workshop one time and Josh saying \u201csure, in fiction, you can have a career, but poetry, you don\u2019t have to play the capitalist game.\u201d Josh didn\u2019t talk about anti-capitalism much. He did, however, make us make zines (excuse me, chapbooks) for our final every semester. He did make us buy 8-10 small press books every semester. He did make a tour documentary about Califone.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n One time, I described my love for small presses to Brendan, telling him I didn\u2019t want to even think about an agent or Big Five publishing until I had a few small press books. I probably said something about artistic integrity, people doing it for the love of the game, more or less everything I just wrote. \u201cYou\u2019re describing punk rock,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I do<\/em> happen to think the small press scene is punk rock. Another definition of punk, though, is accidentally booking a show at a Nazi bar and opening with a cover of “Nazi Punks Fuck Off.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/image-2-1024x1024.png\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/image-3.png\")
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![markheybo<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nOne thing I\u2019ve been introduced to since growing out of being in the scene<\/em> that really reminds me of punk is small press literature. Particularly small press poetry. I remember sitting in workshop one time and Josh saying \u201csure, in fiction, you can have a career, but poetry, you don\u2019t have to play the capitalist game.\u201d Josh didn\u2019t talk about anti-capitalism much. He did, however, make us make zines (excuse me, chapbooks) for our final every semester. He did make us buy 8-10 small press books every semester. He did make a tour documentary about Califone.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\nOne time, I described my love for small presses to Brendan, telling him I didn\u2019t want to even think about an agent or Big Five publishing until I had a few small press books. I probably said something about artistic integrity, people doing it for the love of the game, more or less everything I just wrote. \u201cYou\u2019re describing punk rock,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\nI do<\/em> happen to think the small press scene is punk rock. Another definition of punk, though, is accidentally booking a show at a Nazi bar and opening with a cover of “Nazi Punks Fuck Off.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n](\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:MXPX_concert.jpg\"){kind=link}