Hi all, I’ve been considering joining the PCUSA or PLS, but am afraid of being discriminated against when finding a job or internship. I’m wondering if anyone here can provide their personal experience with being in a communist or socialist party in the USA, and whether or not I should wait until after finding a job to join one?
Unless you’re looking for work in fields that require stringent background checks, you don’t have much to worry about. Your employer isn’t going to pay for a FBI background check on you, nor bother with the paperwork of it. But, as Muad said, make sure you keep your social media accounts separate, or alternatively keep your accounts super private and be cage-y about who you accept requests from. If your employer really cares about what you’re up to online, there are services they can use that will make printouts of everything you’ve ever done on your social media accounts (though, the content has to be public or accessible to the service.), and it’s not fun to be pulled into your superior’s office to be lectured about the memes you used to like when you were 15.
Other than that, your employer and co-workers won’t know dip damn about you unless you tell them. They can search all they want, but they’ll only find the public stuff.
Oh, I forgot to mention that in my state party affiliation is public info, so I would think it would show up on a basic background check though I could be wrong. If not then I might be joining an org soon
Perhaps it would be useful for you to do some googling on that, and some searching for examples of the relevant laws before you make up your mind. Where I live party information is private, but union information isn’t, so I’m not afraid of being a communist in my line of work, but I am afraid of unionizing, even though I could lose my licensing for either.