In all honesty, though, stumbling across Chapo in the second half of 2019 really helped get me out of my libness, and I'm genuinely grateful for that.

I came in as a full-on liberal who had positive opinions of people like Adam Schiff and Maxine Waters lmao. When I saw users posting about Evo, Castro, Lenin, and Chavez, I was super confused. I didn't understand any of the inside jokes, but I was intrigued enough to hang around and lurk. I was a huge Bernie guy, but I didn't realize there were unironic communists out there. At the time, I was a progressive dork who legitimately thought democratic socialism was like what Scandinavia had, and that "communist-style socialism" was only done by evil authoritarian countries like Cuba and China. :cringe:

I really didn't understand or particularly put great importance into what the US has gotten up to in Latin America. I didn't know about the Tulsa bombings, the Battle of Blair Mountain, Cointelpro, Eugene Debs, Fred Hampton and other black revolutionaries, or a whole lot else about US imperialism and violent anticommunism. But over the next 6 months, I learned a lot through osmosis and eventually began participating in the sub. Shortly thereafter, the sub got shut down and I ended up here, because I didn't get this kind of exposure to leftist thought anywhere else in my life.

I've since learned about trans issues, a lot about breaking down my own toxic masculinity, recognizing fascism, seeing through the bullshit of US exceptionalism, and about the struggles of the Global South against Western aggression. I know we all like to joke about how posting isn't praxis, but if a liberal white schmuck like me can be redeemed by memes, I feel like it can help other people, too.

  • MerryChristmas [any]
    ·
    2 years ago

    And unlike the liberals, we don't get the guise of "good intentions" to cover our mistakes. If they say something wrong, well, everyone believed that media pundit at the time! But if you quote an article that didn't come from the AP press, god help you. And then when that article proves to be right a few weeks later, you're still somehow the one who was stirring the pot because you came to that conclusion before "the adults in the room."

    Over and over again. It's so goddamn frustrating.