Constantly trying to thread the needle of "my target audience is not other communists but "vibes based" leftists, punks, skaters, goths, etc.
Yet I am definitely not afraid to speak my mind, to be openly and unapologetically political. Yet I fear this will only end up alienating more than it will agitate or educate. We lack time, we lack will, so we need space, we can't build will without space. Space means culture, culture has been entirely co-opted by the system, thus you need to create a line of flight to the space (Deleuze), we can do this by working towards deterritorizing the "underground" (counter culture). In this way the 'brand' super structure itself can be detourned, re-worked into a rhizome, ergo "HOUDINI".
But thats all pretty heavy shit and I worry that the openly political nature of the detournément will alienate before the rhizome can grow. For example someone I consider to be one of the most important voices in the gaming space as it relates to the medium as an art form, that person offered to write some articles for the brand, to grow the rhizome so to speak.
This person is not openly political and I wonder to myself, does he not see the level of political discourse I attempt to engage in? If not, will learning of that push him away, limiting the growth and shrinking the space, thereby lowering the will?
Don’t hide your “power level”. We communists don’t have the privilege of deceiving and hiding. We have to be more honest, more open.
I understand there is still this collective trauma in the west of being openly leftists (I mean my country had a very violent anti-communist dictatorship for decades, my parents grew up and became full blown adults within it), but the fear, making us skitter into hiding, that’s exactly why the past few decades were so rough for us. They want us to hide. To be afraid of being honest.
And when that happens, when we “hide our power levels”, when we appear deceitful and shady, the right uses that to say we are untrustworthy. We are hiding something.
We don’t have that privilege comrade. Be honest about what you believe in.