"By the time I turned 18, I was pretty completely sure that voting didn't matter since the folks in charge were all politicians, and all lied about everything. That was just my intuition and some really basic observation, but I certainly hadn't researched the system at all, and I certainly hadn't started building my philosophical grounding yet."

lol, I was exactly the same. I have never watched mainstream media, even from an early age, because of my intuition. I have always known it was BS, it just took me a while to figure out why and know the ins and outs of their propaganda and mind control.

I don't know how so many people fall for this BS. I guess this quote sums it up quite nicely:

“Fortunately, some are born with spiritual immune systems that sooner or later give rejection to the illusory worldview grafted upon them from birth through social conditioning. They begin sensing that something is amiss, and start looking for answers. Inner knowledge and anomalous outer experiences show them a side of reality others are oblivious to, and so begins their journey of awakening. Each step of the journey is made by following the heart instead of following the crowd and by choosing knowledge over the veils of ignorance.” - Henri Bergson

Great post.