As a leftist I came to men's issues after much consideration and research.

Background information: I was pretty much always left-leaning (though I have dabbled in authoritarianism at times). By college I was an out Marxist (A little bit before it become popular with other millennials) and actively worked to promote a left wing agenda in my community.

Like most of you I was a radical feminist and thought fairly low of men's rights advocates. I'm ashamed to say that I made fun of them and said some pretty awful things.

My "Aha" moment came when I started reading stats and research on gender and racial disparities. Though I honestly believe that women are in many ways at a disadvantage, it became clear to me that there are a lot of disadvantages to being a man as well. The seed was planted but I didn't connect the dots to how this stuff effected my own life.

As a black man who grew up poor my passion has always been for racial justice and the class struggle. Having studied psychology and social theory you gain an ability to look at social dynamics differently.

I was on a very liberal campus where the right wing students literally kept their beliefs secret for fear of being thrown out of student organizations or shunned completely.

Despite the clear dominance that we had over the social scripts on campus, I saw examples of pure bitterness and resentment towards groups of people deemed "Privileged" in particular there was a strong focus on male privilege in almost every conversation in or outside of class.

I believe that there are some privileges associated with being a male. But none of what was being used as an example was congruent with my own personal life nor any of the people that I knew.

I had been sexually harassed and sexually assaulted but because I believed that these were things that men do in order to exert patriarchal power over women I reasoned that nothing worth sharing had happened (Being abused as a child didn't help).

All of my male friends shared with me their stories of rape/sexual abuse. These stacked on top of my brother and dad's stories that had been shared with me a few years prior. None of this squared with how I believed that the world worked.

I think that my awakening happened when I realized that classical feminist theory failed to offer a reliable account of the underlying causes the disparities between the genders. In the majority of cases it only focused on the problems facing women and girls.

To be clear, it's great that we have a movement that focuses on women but I can see all of the ways that society has failed men and boys and legitimately don't feel that the majority of the left can't address them with their current theories.

I knew that I wasn't an MRA in the classical sense because some of them lean very right and for the most part their ideology doesn't offer a comprehensive account of the gender disparities that exist.

So you can imagine what a Godsend this sub was along with a few others. So I guess thanks for having a space for leftys who care about 100% of the human race.

Btw Im curious to know, what brought you here?