Hey folks, long time poster/commenter. I haven't been a good leftist in a while. I had some pretty severe mental health problems I needed to focus on, and getting my career on track. I've forgotten a lot of theory, and fuck if it doesn't look bleak as hell out there. I can't see any way out except third world maoism, and that's a longshot. But past that life just felt more fun when I wasn't constantly thinking about politics. I think some of that was because my leftism was mostly online. I did what i could in person but had limited options. But to be honest what can I do other than mutual aid? Americans are too stupid to ever see past capitalism, there's no local governance I can affect, and anything else is just adventurism. Please pull me back, I know too much to even pretend to be liberal or conservative.
The revolution is going to operate based on resources available to it. Those resources have to be collected in the first place.
There is a misery that stretches across all the West, and it includes the rich people who are consumed by anxiety of class threats and the emptiness of their lives. While less than 1% of people are socialists, a large chunk of people harbor the wish of escaping from neoliberal capitalism through self-sufficiency that does not come at the expense of other people. Shrinking the size of the economy while building up practical supplies and holdings may be one of the biggest things we can do in our positions. Keep in mind though that these will be useless if we don't find other like-minded people to coordinate our operations with.