As both a participant and observer, I’ve seen the underground punk scene increasingly succumb to identity politics and cancel culture at the expense of free thought and expression. In recent years, however, a Manichaean ideology with Maoist undertones and an obsession with race and gender identity has taken hold of the scene, replacing punk’s humanist outlook with an illiberal mindset. A disproportionally large number of punks present as trans or queer today, which, on the surface, aligns with punk’s historical rejection of heteronormativity.