My dad was a very active member - even president briefly - of communist party in our town (Socialist Yugoslavia), so me and my bro received the right education early and never went astray. Well I had a brief “rebel!freedom!democracy!” phase in 90s (too much western comics, movies and video games), but I was still a kid and it didn’t last long =)
I was raised in your pretty standard Christian conservative household, at least by American standards. Both parents were Republicans, as per usual their politics rubbed off on me growing up. Ended up falling into the alt-right pipeline via Youtube. Started out with libertarianism/ Paleo-conservatism, Ben Shapiro, Steven Crowder, etc. In the end, I considered myself a fascist. Had some pretty racist, and homophobic opinions. Pretty cringe shit looking back on it. Now I’m a Marxist-Leninist and bisexual, people change.
goddamn yeah, I would punch teenage shit me if I saw them now.
You have no idea. 18 year old me signed up for a trip to Afghanistan as an Airborne Combat Medic. Got hurt pretty bad and an old Vietnam Vet radicalized me in the VA hospital. So at least you never fucked up that bad.
I supported 2020 coup in Belarus (I’m from there). While I had my doubts about it doing any good, I didn’t realize how horrible “freedom and democracy” can get until Zelenskyy started sacrificing own citizenry for Western support in a bloody rerun of what our “democratic opposition” has been doing during the political crisis.
I was an ancap morphing into a monarchist from 2016-2017, it was a cringe time in my life.
Social Democrat ~> Democratic Socialist ~> Libertarian Socialist ~> Revolutionary Communist
I’ve decided to stop making political theory a part of my identity. I’m more a Marxist-Leninist with anarchist tendencies I suppose? But saying that just tends to piss everyone off, like I need to choose. I believe anarchy is useful in the current fight against capitalism, but “On Authority” also makes excellent points. No leaders or theory is infallible, but with how much anti-communist propaganda there is around the Soviet Union I don’t really care if I come off as a “Tankie” anymore, too many anarchist, even AnComs, believe capitalist propaganda about the Soviets and China for me to call myself one anymore.
its respectable, they make good points, its why they are in a sense our true equals and frenemies
Chinese-nationalism/pan-Asianism (14-15yo) > Liberalism/Libertarianism (16-19yo) > Social democracy (20-23yo) > Anarcho-Communism (24-25yo) > Marxist-Leninism (26-31/now)
I have been ready Marxist theories since like 18 but it took a long time for me to accept AES. I was the kind of idealists who think “Marxist analysis is absolutely right, but AES is not real socialism because there is no direct workplace democracy”, so I was practically liberal/socdem/anarchist for a long time despite speaking a Marxist language and explaining Marxist critique to people. It really mattered a lot that I eventually went into reading the history of socialist practice, instead of just economic theories and the Eurocentric “critical theory”.
Capitalists love to tie people down with their endless economic theories and jargon. Marxism is so much more, its an entire world view and philosophy, and most capitalist economic theories still makes sense within Marxism, its just about how the state manages that economy, not how economies work.
Wait what happen that make you move from Pan-Asianism? Curious because I still have that ideology too.
Well basically when I was around that age I was first getting introduced into the history of the “century of humiliation” of China, which really fuelled my nationalist anger. I remember there were also a lot of Chinese right-nationalist posts on internet discussion board around the early 2000s, so I became fascinated by the idea of China retaking the centre of the world as it historically has been, and that it’s gonna unite the entire East Asian Confucian cultural sphere in its struggle against the West, etc. It was an ideology I formed exclusively through diving too deep into the internet as a middle school nerd. The rational foundation was weak. The version of pan-Asianism I had was almost just a mirror image of the Imperial Japanese version of pan-Asianism. So it no longer stuck around as long as I start reading some more serious stuff on politics. And the more serious stuff I happened to read about was liberal philosophy, because I was getting into Western philosophy in general.
Liberal philosophy on paper had a rational charm for a young nerd like I was because it was the first time I hear people makes arguments on values and social arrangement, instead of just appealing to tradition/authority/emotion. It was particularly “empowering” for me because I can now make arguments against many of the conservative, patriarchal school rules that I disliked. I helped me getting over with some of the misogynistic sentiment nurtured by the internet too. But it took a lot more years for me to turn my attention from “pure philosophy” and “abstract rational argument” to the historical practice of liberalism and made me recognise the hypocrisy of it.
Although I don’t necessarily think it’s quite materially possible, emotionally I would still like to see a pan-Asiatic alliance. But unlike the sino-imperialist version I had as a kid, the focus now would be about Global South struggle against Western imperialism as a part of achieving world revolution for the working class, rather than the triumph of Eastern culture over Western culture, or the triumph of the yellow race against the white race etc. I no longer believed in the “clashes of civilisation” or any other 19C bullshit about racial Darwinism.
I see, in your opinion. What do you think about Vietnam? Since it is part of the East cultural sphere despite located more in the South. Despite what you might think it is extremely similar to China, even the culture is similar. It do not have a South culture but an East culture instead? Do you consider Vietnam to be part of the East Asia? It also have Confucian teaching.
… i dont remember? I watched Prager U a few times i think but i didnt watch more because it was boring
I was an anarchist then, then I became ML in like 2017
From shitty centrist to shitty socdem to shitty ancom to based marxlen
In middle school, I would watch a lot of ben Shapiro and was starting to go down the alt-right pipeline but lost interest when I entered my freshman year of high school. Then four years later I watched Hasan just to “see what the other side thinks” and now I’m here on a communist sub that got purged from reddit and defend china from propaganda.
I am a millennial who was apolitical until about age 27. I did participate in the occupy protests but I didn’t vote or have any real political movement I believed in.
After trump was first elected I did fear a rise in fascism. I started listening to NPR and pod save America and couldn’t feel the outrage that I felt I was supposed to be feeling. Mainly because they offered no solutions other than Hillary Clinton. During Bernie’s 2nd run I became much more involved politically. I donated, made some calls, and spread the word.
After the Dems did Bernie dirty I realized the whole damn system was incapable of change. I found PSL and started volunteering with them. A lot of people there opened my eyes to things I had never thought about and took as the truth. I remember a comrade telling me about Cuba and I was so resistant to what he was telling me. I now know he was right!
Finally I read The State and Revolution. The single most important thing I have ever read. Life changing. I have considered myself an ML ever since.
i was really into george orwell as a kid.
like i read everything he wrote, including his letters.
:(
A rapist, a snitch, a plagiarist, and a racist walk into a bar
The bartender asks; “How’s the new book coming Mr. Orwell?”
i miss the automod response :(
we need to make a juchebot for automated responses like in the sub
Am here
2016 was the year I really questioned myself what my politics were, of course due to the US election. After looking over “both sides” I aligned myself with Bernie Sanders idea of social democracy. Buuut, I had beliefs I eventually realized even social democracy couldn’t rectify, such as putting an end to America’s imperialist wars. I became disillusioned after a year, especially with all the open corruption of this bourgoesi dictatorship called the United States.
Skipping the details of my ancom phase after that, once the Hong Kong riots kicked off and the ancoms latched onto it for dear life so blindly, I declared myself “neutral” between anarchism and Marxism briefly… Eventually coming to realize the only way forward was Marxism-Leninism.
i was raised conservative in the early 00s, became a ‘progressive’ liberal during obama years, became a social democrat in my early teens, and by age 15 i was ML. Never had the ‘reactionary’ phase some people have experienced, thank god. I’m in my earlyish 20s now
I used to be a Jehovah’s Witness for most of my life. Now you might think that is a religion, not a political ideology but I was raised to be politically neutral. We didn’t discuss politics or vote or anything like that. I listened to hip hop and punk music so I had leftist sympathies.
Once I left I got into radical politics and then found Marxism-Leninism. Wasn’t much of a journey once I was out of the cult.
