Alright, so some backstory. I'm 20 y/o and I live in a rural area. As the title says, I've been stuck at home for some time now. Mostly due to issues related to poverty. I have no money outside of some physical cash that I can't use because I can't go anywhere. Which leads me into the fact that I have no transportation outside of a family vehicle that would be too risky for me to drive because I have no insurance. My brothers have vehicles and insurance and they get to go places themselves. My older brother goes to college and leaves regularly as well as to go grocery shopping for us. He also has friends that he goes to visit, leaving me home alone with our mom. My younger brother is a high school dropout who has a job resulting in him being out most of the time, as well as having many friends who he spends the night with sometimes. Over the years he's mostly gotten what he wants by being a brat and complaining until he gets it. Which I have never been able to do due to having Asperger's and having social anxiety and literally not being able to bargain for what I want. I should talk about my mom briefly as well. She has MS and is incapable of working and is confined to a wheelchair. She's basically stuck at home like I am and doesn't go anywhere aside from when she has to go to the doctor every month or so. We live off of welfare for the most part. She's basically dying at this point and is bedridden. Which leaves me wondering what we'll do when she finally passes. As I mentioned earlier, I'm on the spectrum as well as my older brother. When she passes I fear we'll be either left out to dry or made the victims of some parasitic landlord or government worker. I have virtually no life experience or ability to deal with other people, so my destiny is pretty much out of my hands currently. My life goal is currently to become an organizer and basically to dedicate myself to the class struggle. But I have little way to do so offline. So the point is, does anyone have any advice or resources that can help me with my situation? I'm open to any suggestions. Optionally I'm also open to any mutual aid, however for me that's a last resort. Thank you very much, comrades.
EDIT: thank you all for the replies; a lot of good advice
Sounds like you've had a pretty difficult life. I would think the first part to becoming an organizer would be to get a job and deal with co-workers to understand what motivates people. My advice would be to maybe try to get a volunteer gig, then when you've been doing that for a little while lie on your resume and say you've been doing it for much longer. Find someone who will lie for you and be your reference at that job. This will make you a more competitive candidate for the jobs you do apply to.
I should note that this advice is from an urban background -- I don't know if your rural area is small enough that everyone knows each other / knows if you're BSing.
Thanks for the reply. I live on the outskirts of a small city. Not quite small enough to where everyone knows each other, however. The rural area I live in is pretty heavily forested and is not quite suburban. Basically in my neighborhood everyone lives on their own piece of private property and I assume no one talks to each other, to the point where everyone is wary of each other. I live pretty far away from any place of business. A minute or two away by car to the nearest convenience store, but up to an hour by foot. If that makes any sense.
That is a really shitty situation. Look around for a local or regional mutual aid group. They may be able to help you get out and on your feet.
Insurance follows the car. You should be on the insurance if your driving it with any regularity but like you could borrow my car and get pulled over and it'd be fine. In the US at least. Are there any orgs near you?
It's Alabama, so I'm pretty sure there aren't any orgs. Also I don't drive regularly.
Right that's my point you can use your mom's car to drive town, go to a meeting, or get to your first job. The cops only care that somebody has insurance on the car. The insurance company are the only people who care that you're not on the policy. So maybe not as trapped as you think.
As for orgs looks like there's one full dsa chapter and 2 chapters in the process of forming in Alabama. https://www.dsausa.org/chapters/ in my experience they're a little more rural than other orgs but ymmv.
2 iww chapters if the website is up to date https://iww.org/directory/union_category/al/
Looks like there's atleast a psl Birmingham https://mobile.twitter.com/PSLBirmingham
As for jobs you really don't need a ton of interpersonal skills to shovel shit, run a weedwacker, clean toilets, or throw around boxes at FedEx... maybe not your dream jobs but fuck it it gets you out of the house and gets some money coming in. Worste case scenario they fire you and you can't use it as a reference but that's about it. There's not any kind of a permanent record that follows you.
Thanks I probably should've done the research myself tbh I'm an ML myself but I assume any of those groups would be useful for getting a leg up and gaining some experience Also I've heard DSA tends to have some Marxists groups, if not individuals
Yeah especially if they're just forming the chapter you'd have a good opportunity to steer it that direction
With your mom's issues, look into seeing if your state has any kind of paid caretaking system, I know it at least exists in california, someone I know gets a small amount to basically be the full time caretaker for their grandparents. Could at least get you some savings to address some of the other issues like transportation
Your first priority should be a job, any job. I know that sucks but it's the easiest way out of the hole. If you can't use the car, you could try to find a cheap bike. You might have to bum a ride off of one of your siblings to pick it up, but then you can go quite a bit further than walking. Once you've lined up work you can save up either enough money for a decent bike and the necessary accessories, or car insurance.
