In a nutshell, mine would be:

  • “My favorite color is red. Imma look up economic systems. Wait, what is socialism? Hey! The socialists like red! Oooooooh, their books are also red! I’m sure that these will be good reads-”
  • A few hours later
  • “Huh, I’m an ML now. I regret nothing.”

Though, I’m just asking what was the dumbest reason you get radicalized left-wards.

  • Muad'Dibber
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    232 years ago

    I’ve seen a bunch of posts on /r/anarchism where they were like:

    “I became a tankie to piss off my siblings / parents. Was one for 2 years. Once I learned about how authoritarian the USSR was I became an anarchist”

    Its all just ideology shopping to be contrarian, while doing none of the reading or actually learning what its about.

  • Bungkarnoenjoyer
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    202 years ago

    China uncensored made me become an ML Lmao.

    Ive watch lots of china uncensored (and also xenophobic media) that made me became anti-china (and xenophobic, thank god ive gone away with that) so bad back then. And then i wonder ‘how the fuck does these genocidal bat soup CCP (slurs) have so much power’. Ive digging into how the CPC and china works… then… ive came across marxist.org and show me all of the CPC stuffs… and you goddamn know ive read all of it, and also stumble accross the r/Genzedong subreddit and other ML subs… which slowly… slowly made me realized that ALL of the stories and videos about china from the west is all just…

    BIG. BULLSHIT.

    And also it learn me how racism is fucking wrong and just messed up. So yeah ive got to thanks falun gong propaganda for making me an ML lol

    • @cayde6ml@lemmygrad.ml
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      52 years ago

      I used to watch China Uncensored back when I was in high-school, and I still feel incredibly shitty for ever having taking him seriously.

  • @afellowkid@lemmygrad.ml
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    2 years ago

    Saw this interview on Fox News back in the day between right-libertarian Ron Paul and conservative pundit Bill O’Reilly. In this interview O’Reilly is trying to warmonger about Iran and then Ron Paul is like “Well I’m not scared of them, I see the Iranians as acting logically and defensively, considering we used the CIA to overthrow their government in the 50’s” and then O’Reilly goes into turbo damage control mode and starts yelling over Ron Paul about how “We don’t need a history lesson” and tries to continue his warmonger rhetoric while Ron Paul keeps saying “I’m trying to tell you it’s our own policies of overthrowing governments that are causing terrorism to increase” etc.

    Basically this conversation was a moment where the contradictions of U.S. foreign policy and imperialism and the inner conflicts of the right wing got accidentally exposed on the main conservative TV network and they tried to sweep it under the rug real fast. Seeing how Ron Paul, the only person I ever heard on TV saying the US should leave the Middle East, got completely smeared and regarded as a total joke and disregarded by everyone, got booed and side-eyed/cringed at in a debate for explaining the logical steps that led to 9/11 and for quoting Al-Qaeda’s reasons, showed me something about how things work.

    Anyway, thanks Ron Paul for making me a communist lol

    • ButtigiegMineralMap
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      82 years ago

      Ron Paul would probably cry if he heard that his GOP debate answers literally turned you communist lmao

  • SpaceCowboy
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    2 years ago

    I mean this isn’t why I did but I think you’re asking for joke answers, right?

    Best fashion and facial hair game in town.

  • ☭CommieWolf☆
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    192 years ago

    I shit you not I have real life friends who used to be far right chuds who have become pretty left leaning all because they started doing psychedelics. Apparently it made them “more open” to other ideas.

    • KiG V2
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      52 years ago

      And it’s like…the world man…and we…we’re like…everything’s connected and stuff and wow…love? has a psychotic breakdown

  • @201dberg@lemmygrad.ml
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    182 years ago

    “I have a big bushy beard and someone I know made a joke asking if I was going to dress up as some dude named " Marks” or something for Halloween. I looked him up and he was some old German guy that wrote some books. So I downloaded one and read it. Now I want to see the downfall of capitalism."

  • MexicanCCPBot
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    172 years ago

    Well for me being a hipster edgelord and liking obscure ideologies helped me being open towards the idea of communism in general, even though all I “knew” about it were bourgeois myths lol. I was at a point where I was desperately trying to make sense of the world, and yet, I couldn’t agree with any of the philosophies I read about. All of them were first-world idealist bourgeois nonsense, which didn’t fit with my own personal experiences as a third-world prole.

    • @Shrike502@lemmygrad.ml
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      102 years ago

      I was at a point where I was desperately trying to make sense of the world, and yet, I couldn’t agree with any of the philosophies I read about. All of them were first-world idealist bourgeois nonsense, which didn’t fit with my own personal experiences as a third-world prole.

      I feel that!

  • In 2019: Who’s this Tito guy everyone talks about non-stop? Omg this moustache man saved us from Germany in WW2!!! USSR best country it’s not yours it’s ours, vodka, bears, Slav squat, kazotsky kick, earrape anthem I’m so funny👌🤣

    Wait a minute, what if there is more in this ideology? What if I actually read into it… Welp the bearded man was 100% right and I want to kill all the rich and destroy USA and Europe NOW!

    That’s the evolution, funny thing is, in 2017 I wondered: what if there was no religion, it’s unfair that there are so many rich people while half of the normal population can’t afford basic needs and why do we must listen to bad governments, who don’t we overthrow them? Turns out there is a whole ideology based around it. Even tho then I was kind of an anarchist then(I didn’t know the term and ideology for it, my views were like that of anarchism). And here I am. From cringe to based in a few years.

  • @frippa
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    152 years ago

    I follow a philosophy channel on YouTube, about 2 years ago, when covid started he did a live about Marxism with a professor where he debunked some common myths and generally upholded Marxism, unfortunately he is a trot so I became that, not for long fortunately :-)

    • MexicanCCPBot
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      72 years ago

      At a point I was like that too. “I’m not a commie, but hey, you gotta know your enemy” and then I found myself agreeing to everything.

  • ButtigiegMineralMap
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    152 years ago

    Because you saw Che’s face on a shirt and said “who tf is this dude?”. I don’t wanna mock it too much tho bc I heard that Che’s face is one of the most iconic/recognizable symbols in human history. But still a silly way to discover Marxism-Leninism

    • SpaceCowboy
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      122 years ago

      I view that on the level of people who wear a rolling stones t shirt but couldn’t name a single song.

      But probably less so outside the imperial core.

      • ButtigiegMineralMap
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        122 years ago

        I got a Rage Against the Machine Che shirt bc my town is kinda Republican lol, so I hide behind saying im just a big fan of RATM. I do like them but I think wearing a Che shirt without any knowledge of Marxism is silly, infinitely better than wearing Black Rifle Coffee or those USA shirts with the American flag and a gun on the sleeves(unfortunately popular in my area 🤮)

        • SpaceCowboy
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          82 years ago

          Fuck you for reminding me that Black Rifle coffee company exists! lol. The right and grifting name a more iconic duo.

          • ButtigiegMineralMap
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            72 years ago

            Lmfao Black Rifle Coffee makes me laugh everytime bc Chapo did a hilarious bit about them. Basically they explained how Black Rifle tried to grift the entire GOP fanbase and when Trump separated the party even a tiny bit the customers complained that they weren’t pro-Trump enough

    • @fruityloop@lemmygrad.ml
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      42 years ago

      You may be joking but that was actually my first exposure to communism at all because his face was plastered on everything when I was a kid (it still is to some extent). I asked my parents who that guy was and looked him up, thought he was pretty cool then forgot about him for years.

  • Catradora-Stalinism☭
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    142 years ago

    Ummmm

    A gay cartoon that turned a little right wing asshole into an open minded boy. Then I found out how much Netflix and other mainstream services pretend to be “inclusive” but it only hinged on when it was profitable, and how long was that going to be?

    small contributing reason compared to the fact I was becoming an ex-mormon, but it was a reason that existed.

    Fuck the Mormons.