What's something low profile comrades say that communicate immediately that they know which side they fight for in the class struggle?
Example: if anyone in the wild speaks "material conditions", or "bourgeois state", out loud, I'm listening.
Usually it's the breath. We all have the same breath because we all use the same toothbrush.
When i ride the bus and i here people say "Another krakkka down, endless genocide to the white race" i feel like there might be some leftism going on.
I was at a local bookstore/clothing consignment/vinyl shop with a friend because he collects vinyl. I was looking through the books and spotted "A People's History of the United States" by Zinn and ended up picking it up for another friend. I started talking to the owner as I was ringing up about the few leftist texts that he had and how it's kind of cool to see that sort of thing in the TX panhandle since there aren't really many leftists here and he simply replied "yeah, we're out there."
I now call that place the "Commie Record Store" lol.
Last time I was there he had a 4th print edition of State and Revolution from 1935, that is now in my possession. The book is super old and the spine is brittle and I don't know what to do with it, but I feel like it's somehow special now.
He now acts as my source for physical books. I mostly read digital but I would like a small collection of "the classics" so to speak.
And similar to comrade Queerecommie, I have a hat with several buttons that anyone here would recognize but the average lib won't. I also use the big nerdy Marx words like dialectics, material conditions, praxis, bourgeois, etc.
I have a black flag, an AnCom(like my banner), and Anarcha Feminism(purple and black) one. Then I have a trans rights one, a smash the patriarchy one, and one that says All Cats Are Beautiful(ACAB). I also have Black Fist and Pride Flag/Inclusive one. I stay away from Hammer and Sickle just because it's so known. The earnings sound cute though lol. A lot of these can be marked up as like just being progressive I guess.
I want a DSA rose eventually.
Overall, it's sort of all over the place but each sort of represents the stages I have gone through along my leftist journey.
Nice, if you want to be more explicit you could try AES flags, antifa symbol, baby Lenin, or master Soviet hemp grower. You could also get random Soviet pins.
Edit: also based band pins. I know my dad has a cool Rage Against the Machine pin.
I have a few antifa pins that didn't make it on the hat and I think the Antifascist Action one is a bit more known so maybe too obvious? I think my friend ended up nabbing the scared cat pin one from me.
I should clarify I didn't mean the Black Flag band logo, but just the black flag anarchist one. I do have a Misfits pin that an old friend gave me and I was gonna look to get an Anti-flag pin but the SA allegations happened so idk now lol.
Antifa is assumed to be anarchist, so people won’t assume you’re a commie. I didn’t assume you meant the band black flag. The misfits are reactionary, but their music is good, so whatever. Anti-flag is generally recognized as cringe, so probably not. We should each independently look into pins for various leftist bands from SOAD to Immortal Technique. Pins also, aren’t too hard to make.
First, it looks like I'm gonna be listening to SoaD today lol. Second, I've actually been wanting to get a few custom pins made and have a friend that does graphic design. I have an idea for one with like a big rainbow and clouds but the clouds are big bubbly text that says "Stay woke, comrade." The idea is sort of a on-the-nose way of making fun of the chuds that decry "woke culture" and such.
I just happened to be listening to IEAIAIO rn, which is quite a coincidence as I’m shuffling my whole library. I thought of more ideas. You could get a Palestinian flag, a panafrican flag, or a black panthers symbol.
I'm listening to their whole discog from newest to oldest today. That's my mini goal lol.
I've been considering getting something for the Black Panthers but want to wait until I focus my reading on that subject. Palenstinian flag might be fun since it will piss off both dems and reps. You know what, maybe some purchase therapy might be in order today.
SOAD is one of the only bands I do that with (listen to all their stuff in one go).
Lol the only buttons I have are a Starry Plough pin and a QR code that directs to Marx’s manifesto, so literally like nobody notices them
I can take a picture of it later when I’m off work, it’s pretty inconspicuous, but comes in handy when you’re bored and in need of reading material
https://www.redbubble.com/i/pin/communist-manifesto-qr-code-by-psychicsappho/77266524.NP9QY This is the Redbubble link, idk where I got it from tho
Sweet thanks. I might have to order this in the near future lol.
It may be possible for you to get the book rebound or at least partially restored. I know in my city there are a few artisan bookbinder shops that do this.
I need to look into it. The book might even be a reprint. It's old and in poor condition but the last date states 1935 so I am going off of that. I can look into getting it rebound. I'm afraid to really even touch it because the spine creaks when I open it like it's begging to fall apart.
I know only one person who is conscious about politics and he is a weird libertarian.
I was at a wedding once and some random cool dude who sat next to me used the term "historical materialism" so that seemed pretty obvious.
When I met my former coworker for the first time, she said material conditions and that's when I knew.
Someone doing organizing or even clipboard warrior stuff I'll assume the best of them. Like even if they're not actually a comrade it's whatever most of the time. Maybe it'll end up with an annoying conversation about how the USSR wasn't actually communist or something, but you've gotta assume the best imo. A lot of people just wanna 'make the world better' without doing theory and you can just give them books when you're done with them.
The socialist fraternal kiss, it’s something we need to bring back:
Show
We’ve got a paradox here. You kiss someone fraternally because they are socialist, but it’s also supposed to be the way you know whether someone is a socialist. I guess we could just kiss random people and if it feels right it becomes socialist and fraternal.
do tell
