Today I was reminded why people (even "punks") suck a lot of the time.

My sister is just now getting into punk music. At first, I went all elitist on her, telling her to stop being a poser. But now I realize that as long as she's in it for the right reasons, that's cool. And she has the basis to be in it for the right reasons. We both live in the same torn down environment that fueled me.

So she goes into an "Oi" chatroom. She's in there typing away, and I'm watching the remnants of Survivor (my guilty pleasure). Then suddenly, she yells from the kitchen, "Rachel, name some oi bands." Now, you must understand that I went through my "Oi-I'm-a-wannabe-skinhead" phase, so this was right up my alley. I start naming them, bands like L.E.S. Stitches, Blanks 77, and the like. And the bitches in the chatroom start asking questions. "How long did it take you to look that up on the internet?" "Yeah, right. What songs?" Whatever.

So I'm getting pissed. Sure. My sister has never heard of these bands. But I have and this is my game now. It's like they're insulting me. And I was angry.

Then, they had the gall to insult my Boston boys. Oh yes. DKM started getting dissed. Man, I was pissed. There are three bands you don't fuck with, as far as I'm concerned. First, Rancid. Then DKM. Then, of course, The Bouncing Souls. But anyway. Here's where I had the problem.

They insulted her because her screen name alludes to the "raver" community. So the fuck what? Is it not possible to be into two things at once? I understand that the skinhead philosophy and the raver philosophy are at opposite ends of the spectrum, but who's to say she hasn't given that up? Maybe she's just getting into punk music and went into to meet some cool people. Fuck them. Since when does the skinhead philosophy involve excluding people because they aren't carbon copies of you? Maybe she didn't know any of those bands. Does that make her any less punk than they are? No. In fact, I'd say it makes her more punk, because she was a hell of a lot more open-minded than they could ever be.

This is what I ran into time after time in the "punk" scene. People claiming to be open-minded and accepting, who lunged at your jugular the second you said something that wasn't 100% their definition of "punk". It's why people were willing to crucify the Clash and Rancid when they began to include other musical influences into their spectrum. It's why I never wanted to be classified a "punk" after I met the kids who did. I didn't want to label people as "posers" just because they didn't wear leather and spikes. I didn't want to look down on someone just because they were new to the scene. I didn't want to judge people based solely on their friends, or what shirt they were wearing. That's what I was fighting against the whole time. That's what Brian Deneke died because of. People took one look at his shirt and his mohawk and just KNEW that he was a "goon". And the whole fucking scene banded together after that. They said, "Yeah, this is what we were fighting against the whole time. We just wanted to be ourselves and not die for it." So why the fuck is it different just because it's someone on the "outside"? Why the fuck is there that goddamned double standard? Why is it okay for me to call you a poser or judge you because you don't own every Black Flag album out there? Did you like it when people judged you because you didn't have a crew cut or wear American Eagle? No. That's what we're fighting against. And yet, some people out there are too fucking ignorant to realize they're doing the same fucking thing.

Yeah, I don't want a bunch of people whose hearts aren't in it shaving their hair into mohawks because it pisses their parents off. I'm with you on this one. But until you can differentiate absolutely between a "poser" and the real deal, don't fucking judge someone because they're new to the scene. At one point, every one of us out there was new to the scene. I knew all along my heart was in the right place. But because I had long hair and wore a "non-punk" shirt, suddenly, I wasn't as good as them. And I didn't understand that. I was like them, where it counted. They were just too shallow to realize it. I thought that the punk scene was about unity. It was about sticking together for a common cause. It wasn't a fucking fashion show. So why didn't they realize it?

Will there ever come a day when the scene becomes what it's supposed to be?