I've got three incredibly close and good friends. They aren't perfect people, ranging from typical American lib, to centrist/conservative. We generally stay away from hot button topics, because we just don't agree on stuff.
(ie : an argument that i made suggesting cops don't belong in kids showa/movies, and they were all cool with it because "what's the harm in showing kids what police should be)
I linked to a meme on Twitter just today, and the user had a hammer & sickle, after laughing one friend said" wow, hammer and sickle big yikes". They don't have any idea about where I lay politically, and frankly it's been a pretty radical shift left in the last 10 months.
Anyone else have a situation like this? And how do you approach things?
My point of view is that it is important to have close friends like that and "converting" them should not be an active priority. I do not hide my political leanings from close friends, but it's not like I advertise them or bring them up in conversation if it doesn't come up naturally. Debating people is usually unfruitful and could be harmful to friendships. Sometimes hostile topics like "but they killed 100 million" come up, and I say something like "that ignores historical context and is never compared to similar deaths under capitalism, but I'm not really interested in debating about it."
Of course, if they know you are a commie they might one day come to you with honest interest, and in that case, you should be ready to have a dialogue with them, but it should not be thought of as a goal of friendship.
Yes, be a good example. Be a normal, likeable, approachable good friend and also be a communist. And also be a good communist and stand up for things you believe in and speak out against obviously harmful things. But mostly be approachable as someone who has set a god example and is knowledgeable about communism, as you will be proven right and reasonable people might come to you for genuine insight and guidance one day.
I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this, but you're doing at least 4 types of :LIB:eralism 😔
Liberalism manifests itself in various ways.
To let things slide for the sake of peace and friendship when a person has clearly gone wrong, and refrain from principled argument because he is an old acquaintance, a fellow townsman, a schoolmate, a close friend, a loved one, an old colleague or old subordinate. Or to touch on the matter lightly instead of going into it thoroughly, so as to keep on good terms. The result is that both the organization and the individual are harmed. This is one type of liberalism.
To hear incorrect views without rebutting them and even to hear counter-revolutionary remarks without reporting them, but instead to take them calmly as if nothing had happened. This is a sixth type.
To be among the masses and fail to conduct propaganda and agitation or speak at meetings or conduct investigations and inquiries among them, and instead to be indifferent to them and show no concern for their well-being, forgetting that one is a Communist and behaving as if one were an ordinary non-Communist. This is a seventh type.
To see someone harming the interests of the masses and yet not feel indignant, or dissuade or stop him or reason with him, but to allow him to continue. This is an eighth type.
I linked to a meme on Twitter just today, and the user had a hammer & sickle, after laughing one friend said" wow, hammer and sickle big yikes".
The "you know the Soviet Union actually wasn't this cartoonishly evil empire" conversation is tough, even for some genuine leftists. A century of anticommunist propaganda is a hell of a drug.
You have to pick your battles if you want to convince anyone of anything. Move them one step left on an issue they're persuadable on, then do that again and again as they start opening themselves up to even more conversations.
The moment I decided that I was a communist, I turned up my vocal politics by 1000% to deliberately alienate anybody in my life that was not okay with it. The ultimate people sorting machine.
I have a friend that used to be a pretty big chud but at least we found common ground in our hatred for rich people. We've had pretty long convos about politics. I fully believe it was shitlibs that drove him to hate the "left." It was through his eyes that I really started to see how good the liberals have gotten at using idpol as a weapon against legit movements like BLM and Trans rights. Latching onto it like the fucking bloodsucking parasites they are and poisoning it with their bullshit. It's why I feel less hate towards stupidpol than the average of what I see on here. It more entrenches my hatred for libs for turning idpol against us and I just feel sad that so many have fallen for their trap.
Over the years though my friend has had his eyes opened more towards class struggle. He works at a hospital as whatever it is that helps nurses. Moves patients, preps rooms for surgery, etc. He sees every day how the class structure works through the attitudes of doctors and nurses. He's seen how little they care about preventing covid and how they couldn't give two shots to protect the workers. He has to argue and fight just to get the proper gear to clean rooms. At the start of the pandemic he legit got suspended for wearing a mask all the time and making people "nervous." Couple weeks ago he straight up said the USSR was cool and that he fully supports legit communism. He's still a bit of a stupidpoller due to years of entrenched racisms but I think that's starting to crack as the class struggle seeps in further. I've never really let him indulge in those kind of views in my presence and I think that's helped. Opening his eyes to the difference between the legit left and the fake lib "left" has done a great deal for his movement as well. Showing him that all his racist views are based on lib media poison is slowly working as well. It's been a slow process but it's been worth it. There have been many times I've legit almost just told him to Fuck off and end our friendship. I'm glad I didn't.
I was a Republican in high school because I was a fucking idiot, then quickly radicalized left once I got to college. I never really talked about it out loud, I would kind of just mock libs and conservatives alike. After a while I thought it was pretty obvious that I was a leftist, but one of my best friends told me he thought I was a conservative. I pretty much laughed him out of the room. Now I'm pretty explicit about it because that was a bad feeling having someone think I was a conservative
My friends are all aware of my leanings
In fact they joke about it
I am, however, actually making progress on them
softball them with the easy shit like
wow video game company do the bad, mean to employee :'(
wouldn't it be cool if instead of stock holders and bosses made all the money, all the workers did lol
I only have three close friends. One's an abolish-the-police socialist, another one is a socdem/demsoc, and the other is apolitical. Only found these out after being friends with them for years, so I guess it worked out pretty well. Once (if) I make more friends this could be an issue though :/
Friends? No, but I don't have many offline friends that I actually talk to anymore. Like basically two lol. Family though, yeah, noone in my family knows im a pinko.
