Honestly I just feel kind of powerless and hopeless.

Like...maybe I could join some organization, but left wing politics in the west just seems like a joke, either full of socdems or just fractured beyond belief.

One of the "easiest" things I guess I could do is just talk to people I know about politics. But, I honestly don't even know if Americans can be reached at this point. Assuming they can, I still don't know what the best course of action would be. Is it better to just be a super commie and radical to serve as some counterpoint to all their other influences? Or do people arrive at their own conclusions on their own time and I should just subtly plant seeds? One would certainly be safer, both in keeping my relationships intact and not having the government shove me into a van.

It seems futile, I am powerless against the osmosis of our society, even if I plant seeds, it means nothing if no one is there to water them. The one thing I can do on my own means nothing because I am a drop in the bucket of the cultural zeitgeist people are influenced by everyday. And any kind of collective action I could take just seems untenable.

idk I am just rambling

    • duderium [he/him]
      ·
      4 years ago

      A few months ago I found an organization that just gave out a free cooked meal to whoever asked once or twice a month. It was pretty awesome to volunteer for them. Then I found out that the people in charge (a white married couple which had converted to Sikhism) were anti-vaxxers. They would say things like: "I'm not an anti-vaxxer, I just refuse to vaccinate myself or my children at all." I know people who are immunocompromised. Major disappointment. They own some kind of health store, and were using the free food program to launder their reputations.

      Now that I think about it, even though an environment like that would have been almost perfect if not for the weird cultishness, it was still run in a top-down manner. The couple was in charge of everything and you did exactly what they told you, or you left. There was no democratic decisionmaking of any kind. It was a capitalist workplace powered by corporate charity.

      Of course that's not to say all such organizations are like this. I live in what may be the most bourgeois place on Earth, so it was the best I could find. The number of real socialists I know I can count on one hand. If you live in a place with more active leftwing groups, please join one of them for me.