Welcome again to everybody. Make yourself at home. In the time-honoured tradition of our group, here is the weekly discussion thread.
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Happy 120th birthday on 22/8 to certified cool dude Deng Xiaoping
I know you were being facetious and wasn't meaning it to be a serious critique of your comment. It just annoys me that they think they are leftists when they are really center right.
I was the same way too, but it's a journey. Hopefully more people will become class conscious, but so many are close-minded.
Absolutely. It's frustrating because I see myself in them, as recently as like 3 years ago. I don't really put myself out there to educate since I got burnt last time and decided to stop. We can only hope their understanding on politics evolves enough for them to understand that burger democracies aren't inert objects that are piloted by individuals, but rather systems with built-in failsafes and pressure release valves that proactively resist change. I had to struggle for years and hit rock bottom multiple times before I saw the truth: nobody is coming to save me. Or us.
I stopped online, but IRL, it seems worth it and I've made progress with people. It's a slog. Such an unforgiving, slow process. Online, I don't usually make serious posts or comments because it's just a place to relieve stress and hang out with comrades. I don't know many IRL and while the DSA is active in my area, most of them are not ML and have negative opinions of AES countries.
True. I think there are a lot of people recognizing this, but they end up nihilistic because they feel powerless. That's where I think there is room to make inroads exposing people to leftist theory. Not that I don't feel helpless sometimes, but learning ML theory took me from hopeless to determined because I saw a path to change, even if it's a long, hard road.
Yes I definitely have been accused (and have seen others accused) of spreading nEgATivItY when trying to explain that we are totally out of options to fix our problems electorally. I used to kind of understand it but now idgaf about the tone policing, they need to hear that the electoral strategies that have been used in the 21st century thus far have failed to deliver the goods. It's not just gonna work this time because they want it to.
I try to link relevant literature to show them a way out, but I think it's a cowardly defense mechanism that reveals that they don't actually understand that politics is a power struggle, not some game. I just try my best to stress that capitalism can't survive long-term and that most people aren't bad at heart, they're just put in material conditions that weren't designed for them to thrive. But there's only so much sugar I can pour on the facts when we live in an evil empire :shrug: