It is very likely a case of the area I specifically live in, but I’ve just about had it after waking up to a message earlier today that I’m letting live rent-free in my head.
I admittedly go off on tangents and sometimes write a fuck ton if there is a means to do so (e.g., a Discord server). Most people I interact with on non-political levels, such as childhood friends I’ve maintained, do one of two things: they read it and respond, or they don’t and let it fly. I’ve made peace with that, to the extent I even made a separate channel on our shared Discord server just for me to rant on shit that’s not appropriate to other channels, and everyone is cool with that. I have no problem making friends everywhere I go and maintaining them.
But every (and I shit you not every) political circle I get involved in locally does not entertain this. It almost seems like it irks them if I try to start up a discussion or get involved in one. Due to the nature of our getting together, it’s political. Duh. Political discussions can run long, in time and content. It’s actually kind of wild to me how a political circle verbally and rudely refuses to read more than a paragraph if they have total freedom to ignore it, or even just refuses to engage any of it at all most of the time past aphorisms or thought-terminating clichés. What is the point of having a group if you aren’t going to discuss and build community in the off-hours?
I think that is my point, and I’ve seen all (and I kid you not all) of the local groups fail prior because of this inability to build a community at core. It can individually be a fault of platform (not everyone uses one but joined it thinking they might start), time, stress/mental health, introversion, etc., and all of those are understandable, but seeing it happen on repeat seems to me to be more a symptom of something local. I’m the only person keeping some of these groups alive, until I’m not such as when I feel there’s nothing left of beneficence to myself. COVID seemingly worsened it, reducing the lifespan on these groups from months to weeks and the frequency of their creation from several a year to one or less annually.
Trust me, I’ve self-reflected on this. I saw therapists nearly my entire childhood due to Tourette syndrome, and so visiting them in adulthood was simple and something I’ve done often. It helped me come to terms with many quirks about who I am versus how others are, and I found ways to deal with it. What I cannot do is come to terms with how disappointed I am that people will talk about how politically left they are, then just share memes and talk in short sentence fragments about intense subjects when they do talk at all. There’s a one-off person here and there that breaks the mold, and they all go on with their life because they’re great people…which means moving away lol.
Does anyone else have this problem? How do you solve it in person, if at all? I do have plans to leave the area in the next 1-3 years due to a variety of factors not related to this, but I really hate the idea of limiting my in-depth political interactions to online in the meantime.
EDIT: Let me elaborate as well that I have sought feedback from loved ones alongside self-reflection and therapy in the past. Folks who could be intimately involved in the situation or at least aware of who I am on an interpersonal level. The conclusion arrived at tends to be of finger-pointing at others. That’s well and all, but it doesn’t provide me an opportunity to change anything in myself that may be a blocker nor does it help for community building. I view every failure to interact positively as a failure on my own part.
Are you in the USA? It seems people are conditioned to have a very shallow understanding of how the world works. There is a lot of deprogramming that is needed. Most people (even many self described ‘leftists’/socialists/etc) have a VERY limited scope of political knowledge.
Yes, US. I have in my bio “in Appalachia” deliberately to be vague and highlight my cultural backdrop, but specifically I am in West Virginia. The fact that there are enough leftists here to form some groups alone is a miracle, but thankfully some people remember, spread, and cherish our history from a century ago during the Coal Wars.
That being said, you’ve hit the hammer directly on the head I think. I’ve aligned myself with socialism for about a decade now. I’m not the oldest person in said group, but something tells me I may be the most involved in reading and the one with the most experience. I don’t try to be obnoxious, but there’s a good chance my position is substantially further off from these folks now as compared to those aforementioned mold-breakers. I don’t hold myself as better, but I’m probably assuming a lot of understanding exists that just…doesn’t unfortunately.
Do you have any advice on how I manage that or at least my own expectations? I don’t care to explain stuff and recommend sources to people, but they just don’t even seem interested in it.
I’m trying to figure that out myself to be honest. I am wanting to get involved more in my local PSL chapter. The people I’ve met from there are very well informed.
I struggle sometimes with personal relationships. I know most people are propagandizes and trained to be anti-intellectual, but it’s very difficult to carry on conversations with people who are so ignorant. The sad thing is, I try very hard to not be ‘political’ in non-political settings. Yet, people insist on bringing up things that they don’t know much about. Very frustrating. I plan to make a separate post about this soon.
I hope things get better for you. I understand and relate. It’s not fun.
Hey comrade you’re my state neighbor! (I’m from Virginia) I’ve also had issues talking in political settings. Mainly this group that one of my friends made. It’s online but has a dozen or so people from where I live. Most of the people are completely politically ignorant but some are soc dems. I try linking to videos I think would help open their eyes a little bit (second thought mostly), and sometimes I do try writing paragraphs and having discussions but usually it’s shut down by people just saying I’m wrong. With no real reason. And I feel like it’s a certain type of person that thinks they know the most in the room. I think to have a constructive or personal talk about politics you really have to find a person that you can trust/ has a certain type of personality.
I’m sorry to hear that. I’m guessing it comes with naivety to the movement or the culture spread on Twitter and Reddit. I’m starting to think I’m not going to get what I’m looking for here and will just have to settle for making a discussion group with a specific purpose and see who bites.
That sounds like a good idea, good luck friend