I learned early
To keep quiet
I learned early
Not to stand out in the crowd
I learned early
The price of difference
So on the back of the bus
I turned my headphones up and I'm drowning out the world
Cause I was 8 years old when I first heard the word faggot
A late bloomer I know but I guess it had to happen
Up 'til then I was just fucking lost in the girls' bathroom
Limpwristed and lacking language for the world I lived in
At that very moment it was 1989,
There was no internet, no dial up America On-line
The shit you learned in schoolyard was the truth above all other
Cause it trickled down through word of mouth
From friends with older brothers
Now that I'm a Twinkle, that's an older wiser Twink
I feel sorry for the parts of me, that were taught those things
My inner Christian Slater's on pirate radio
Yelling "fuck this shitty system, let's burn down the world"
Same old story she said what's the use of tears
Same old questions like how did we end up here
We've been going round in circles all these years
Barely breathing beneath all were taught to fear
So I took refuge in rock and roll and alcohol and rupture
Where libertarian entitled boys posed as counter culture
Thought I found myself but what I found was always so afraid
Disaffected, down, dejected was the pattern to the play
It was still so hard to name against the claim of anarchism
With pizza party t-shirts and that transgressive rhythm
The politics of shame run deep, even punk scenes have confines to keep
It had me questioning my commitment to collectivism
Now I have some hindsight I can finally start to see
The ways I was put down became the ways that I saw me
World so structured by elite white male insider attitudes
Our collective power is always working to include
Same old story she said what's the use of tears
Same old questions like how did we end up here
We've been going round in circles all these years
Barely breathing beneath all were taught to fear
Same old story she said what's the use of tears
Same old questions like how did we end up here
We've been going round in circles all these years
Barely breathing beneath all were taught to fear