becoming a leftist honestly has made me feel more alienated in a way. every day I just get angry thinking about neoliberalism and how even among my more politically aware friends, many of them just have something about them that makes them libs that really bothers me. I don't really have any irl leftist friends, maybe need to get to organizing opportunities or mutual aid more
I feel you completely. It's important for us to remember though, that solidarity is at the root of all leftist values. Compassion for your fellow humans, even the stupid ones (especially them tbh) is necessary to accomplish anything, plus you'd be surprised how many will come around.
Also, you'll meet irl leftists eventually. That spark when you realize you've met another in the wild is pretty fuckin magical.
Realized recently that a long-time friend who I hadn’t been spending much time with over the past 5 years or so is a leftist. We were hanging out and he mentioned to me he hates Elon Musk which was interesting. A few weeks later we were talking about what we had been reading lately and when I mentioned Mark Fisher he got all excited and told me how he’s a huge fan. Now he’s recommending me lectures to watch on YouTube and works by philosophers to read on how garbage neoliberal culture is, it’s great! Hang in there, you’ll find someone eventually. Plus, there’s all of us here.
Something that helped me with this is just accepting that everyone is allowed to have some brain worms. None of us are ideologically perfect, and all of us have brain worms in some capacity, so as long as you can agree with the most basic, most important stuff, it's not worth the effort to try to convert someone on some niche issue that only matters 5% of the time.
Ok chief, that's great, but we have to take theory in context. The second to last sentence here is key: "The result is that both the organization and the individual are harmed." There is no major class struggle party or organization in the United States (which I assume is where OP lives, but this is true for most of the western world anyways), so there's no issue there. The second part refers to the ideological growth of both people. I think most people here would agree that if you are trying to radicalize someone, you don't start out by giving them Marx and Lenin trying to argue with them on all fronts. That's just going to turn people away from you, which harms both of you. You work with people where they're at, and if where they're at is "my boss pisses me off," or "it's pretty fucked up that Trump is going to get another justice on the supreme court," then you work from there.
If this was all just a meme like the hoxha poster above, I apologize, comrade.
becoming a leftist honestly has made me feel more alienated in a way. every day I just get angry thinking about neoliberalism and how even among my more politically aware friends, many of them just have something about them that makes them libs that really bothers me. I don't really have any irl leftist friends, maybe need to get to organizing opportunities or mutual aid more
I feel you completely. It's important for us to remember though, that solidarity is at the root of all leftist values. Compassion for your fellow humans, even the stupid ones (especially them tbh) is necessary to accomplish anything, plus you'd be surprised how many will come around.
Also, you'll meet irl leftists eventually. That spark when you realize you've met another in the wild is pretty fuckin magical.
Realized recently that a long-time friend who I hadn’t been spending much time with over the past 5 years or so is a leftist. We were hanging out and he mentioned to me he hates Elon Musk which was interesting. A few weeks later we were talking about what we had been reading lately and when I mentioned Mark Fisher he got all excited and told me how he’s a huge fan. Now he’s recommending me lectures to watch on YouTube and works by philosophers to read on how garbage neoliberal culture is, it’s great! Hang in there, you’ll find someone eventually. Plus, there’s all of us here.
Something that helped me with this is just accepting that everyone is allowed to have some brain worms. None of us are ideologically perfect, and all of us have brain worms in some capacity, so as long as you can agree with the most basic, most important stuff, it's not worth the effort to try to convert someone on some niche issue that only matters 5% of the time.
reject the revisionist theses, uphold marxism leninism hoxhaism
deleted by creator
Ok chief, that's great, but we have to take theory in context. The second to last sentence here is key: "The result is that both the organization and the individual are harmed." There is no major class struggle party or organization in the United States (which I assume is where OP lives, but this is true for most of the western world anyways), so there's no issue there. The second part refers to the ideological growth of both people. I think most people here would agree that if you are trying to radicalize someone, you don't start out by giving them Marx and Lenin trying to argue with them on all fronts. That's just going to turn people away from you, which harms both of you. You work with people where they're at, and if where they're at is "my boss pisses me off," or "it's pretty fucked up that Trump is going to get another justice on the supreme court," then you work from there.
If this was all just a meme like the hoxha poster above, I apologize, comrade.