Not sure if this is just ingrained "American Dream" mentality but I want to get away from landlords and buy my own house. Partly this is so I can have my own space to work on my own projects, be messy, grow weed, walk around naked, etc. Lately this is looking like a real possibility since I've paid off my college debt and started saving money for a down payment. I'm also expecting house prices to fall in the next year as the economy implodes.
Despite all that, housing is still really expensive where I live and I probably wouldn't be able to afford a house without a partner or a roommate paying part of the mortgage. My romantic prospects aren't looking too good and I really don't want to be a landlord. And I don't know how I would feel buying a foreclosure. Not to mention I'd be locked into a 30 year mortgage that won't be paid off until after climate change has forced us all to migrate to Nunavut.
Tell me chapos, what's the moral thing to do here? Should I keep renting? Buy a house and try to be an "ethical" landlord? Move in with the next woman I meet after the 2nd date? Go join a commune/cult?
Your initial points were spot-on, but you lost me here. Being a landlord is by definition reactionary, and unless you're a solely self-employed worker, so is being a "business owner". In both instances, you're extracting surplus value from the people under you in the hierarchy.
What do you think reactionary means? Honestly I knew it would ruffle feathers, and it doesn't matter much to me because I personally am very far from even owning a home for myself to live in let alone anything else. If we are being honest, just living in the US is "reactionary" considering we live on stolen land and benefit from mass exploitation of the global south. The point is you can be a class traitor, and participating in the fucked up system we live under shouldn't preclude one from being revolutionary.
I think my issue is that none of the ethical posturing means shit if there is no revolutionary praxis being done, and if revolutionary praxis is being done, that's what actually matters. That's why people like Engels weren't kicked out of the International, and why Zhou Enlai and Mao Zedong himself were not excluded from the CPC before the revolution. Even today, there are Bourgeois Kurds in Turkey who use their class position to support the PKK.
I completely agree with you here, and most of your other points as well. Being a US citizen means benefiting from imperialism and genocide by default, and it's our duty to organize and empower our communities as best we can.
I just thought the landlord bit specifically was a bit strange given the fact that we're all pretty strong leftists here.
I guess I used that as an extreme example of the distinction between ones social relation to production vs ones commitment to revolution. In the west we are especially inundated with liberal hegemony and thus tend to think of things in terms of our own personal choices. That's why we have so many people that think being vegan or refusing to drive or working at a co-op is revolutionary praxis. I really fucking hate the term "be the change you want to see in the world" because it encapsulates this ethos. You need to MAKE the changes you want to see in the world through actual praxis, as in action guided by revolutionary theory, not just doing "good" things.
Tbh I'm being a bit controversial on purpose because I hate moralizing and have been in a precarious enough position that I've done unethical things to keep myself from being on the streets. I've said before on this site that drug dealing is counterrevolutionary and people were mad at me but when someone asks if it's cool to rent out extra rooms in their home people say they'd be reactionary unless they gave the tenants a stake in equity. Coming from the heroin capital of America and having experience as a drug addict myself, I can't help but laugh and assume that the vast majority of people on here are somewhat downwardly mobile suburban white folks with zero connection to the revolutionary struggle. I legitimately think this is understandable though, as it's reflective of the society we live in, and I think many people here really do want to change the world, they just need to break free from liberal idealism
None of the individualist changes are good without revolutionary praxis, but there's quite a bit of difference from connection to the revolutionary struggle, and your initial point of it being easier to be revolutionary in an effective manner with income, and seeking out to position yourself financially in a way that your own interests would be harmed so heavily by revolutionary action. A large part of current organizing is tenant organizing for incoming eviction waves and a less large part is homeless assistance in some cases for those that have lost their homes, and having more people be landlords be also leftists can potentially hamper effectiveness there. The desire to be economically secure and never have to be in that situation again is still understandable, and it's similar to an extended version of the poor people joining the military aspect.
Class traitors are good.
Yeah, you got me there. And I'd wager you're right about most of the users here being in the same position.
I kinda missed your overall point before, my apologies for zeroing in on that one piece. I hadn't really considered before how the Western Individualistic mindset poisons discussion among even strong leftists. You've given me a lot to think about.