My political awakening happened in the wake of 9/11. (But I was always a bit unconventional politically and socially and even voted Libertarian in the 2000 presidential election.)

I remember sitting during the national anthem at the Mizzou vs Texas football game in 2001 and my friend there urged me to stand up, and someone behind me said they were going to kick my ass.

It was my protest for the fact that the US was looking to exploit the terrorist attacks to go to war in Iraq, which I just assumed was a foregone conclusion. Also, I was protesting the treatment of Muslim students on campus, forty of whom left the school that fall because of the horrid way they were treated and the lack of action on the part of school administration.

A few years later I read A People's History of the United States, and the killed any patriotism I had left.