Similar experience for my first time having they/them pronouns used IRL… I was mountain biking in full body armor, full face helmet, and goggles. Someone said to their kid, “let them go ahead, they’ll be really fast,” or something. I proceeded to hit 48km/h on singletrack, a speed I haven’t replicated since. So I guess I was given a speed boost by the comment?

Agreed. In many ways the idea of ideology is a reductive concept. All ideologies hold some amount of merit and problems. If you try hard enough, there is even a decent argument to be made for kings (no, I’m not arguing for kings, I am simply using it as a talking point). I really don’t subscribe to any one ideology, and I don’t think most people here do either. I like aspects of anarchism, socialism, communism and georgism, all have merits, all have problems. I suspect most people here are the same, we all come to different conclusions from different life stories. We recognize the problem, but our plan for the future by no means has to look the same. Honestly, the “leftist infighting” is our greatest strength, not a weakness.