i am begging people to stop acting like the whole point of Punk is to look hard as fuck all the time.
Punk was never about being hard as fuck. it was always about anti-capitalism, it was always about anti-discrimination. it was always anarchist, communist, socialist, take your pick. but it was never about looking hard 24/7.
being anti-discrimination means being soft sometimes to learn and grow. to listen to people from outside your culture and take information in. to understand people, and tell corporations to fuck off.
corporate PC culture is designed to protect the company and its market share, not the employees. fuck corporate pride, fuck corporate anti-racism, because they don't genuinely mean what they say. they don't do anything to combat the racism and queerphobia in their own ranks or outside them. in fact they financially support politicians who are racist and queerphobic.
but naturally, people LOVE to come at real punk music shouting "UHHH THIS IS WOKE PC BULLSHIT." and i got to tell you, i am motherfucking sick of the nazi posers running their mouths online because they'd get glass in their eyes at a real punk show.
none of these soft fucks would actually go to a real punk show. and if they do, they'd just go there to look hard and leave, they wouldn't do anything that Punk stands for outside of being at a punk show. it's pure optics for them, and that is by far the softest shit on the planet.