• GeoffreyKlien@lemmygrad.ml
    27·
    9 days ago

    Has anyone gotten their friends into communism?

    I’ve seemingly started a chain reaction within my online friendgroup of people turning into leftists and getting into communism. I first got my friend into it by just talking about politics and stuff, he even used to argue with me about “communism’s never worked” or “doesn’t North Korea do [thing].” Eventually he switched up and I actually got him to read theory like Marx. Then, me and the first guy got another friend into it and now he’s beginning his journey into theory and understanding. Today, I’ve just seen that 2nd guy sending another guy Principles of Communism.

    It’s really cool seeing people start out, how they grow and change with it.

    All of these people were liberals/left-aligned/not even really interested in politics before, so, it goes to show that liberals and the such aren’t always a lost cause and with some effort you can get them into it.

      • GeoffreyKlien@lemmygrad.ml
        3·
        4 days ago

        I first got into socialism through the DPRK. I got into the DPRK through Boy Boy’s video “We Went to North Korea to get a Haircut” The video made me realize exactly what the US is all about, what it has done, and what it continues to do. As an American, you understand that the US has done bad stuff, but you never actually think about it in terms of the US being the pure evil it actually is.

        And from there I really branched out and got where I am today. I went from being a pseudo-conservative that was indoctrinated by SJW videos and other bullshit, to a self-described “centrist” liberal, and finally into a communist. I don’t think I ever actually believed in that bigotry shit; I’ve always been socially intelligent and empathetic. Liberalism was understanding things were bad, but not having the proper analysis viewpoint on the issues to think of actual solutions or change.

        Although I was into socialism for around a year, the true death of my liberalism was the 2024 election. I was of course rooting for Kamala, and was upset she didn’t win and that he’d be back, but, I just sort of realized that it was all a sham and, Kamala or Trump, the neoliberal system would be maintained.

        • ExistentialNightmare@lemmygrad.ml
          4·
          4 days ago

          I’ve been firmly socially progressive ever since I got ever my edgy phase when I was like 13-16 years old so when it came time to vote I was a Labour voter, originally Corbyn and then Starmer. I didn’t go deep into what these people represent or what they have done I just thought it was a fight to keep progressing and getting rid of the tories. I lacked any real political education and feel for the culture war bullshit, like many people.

          All I heard all my life about communism is it is violent and brutal and it doesn’t work and so on, I knew my country was far from perfect but I didn’t think they would lie to me my whole life in so many different ways, so in a way the naïvety kept me anti-communist.

          A few years ago I started getting really depressed and realised I had been quite depressed for a long time, it lead me to question everything, why should I live, what is this society, what type of person should I aim to be e.t.c. and while this was happening I was seeing the end of 14 years of the conservative government, I put all my hope in Labour bringing back hope and progress. Well it became clear maybe about 6 months in to Starmer’s term that these guys are not the solution. Then I started getting into the tax the rich and wealth inequality sort of crowd (AOC, Gary’s economics, JimmyTheGiant, Hasan somewhat) that pushed me to be less of a liberal and more of a demsoc, socdem type of guy and be opposed to neoliberalism and centrism.

          But crucially after that depressive episode and the existentialising that came with it, I had learned to keep an open-mind and I realised that now identifying as a socialist, I was hearing about Marx and Lenin and I just decided to hear out these communists side of the story, because what didn’t make sense was that if the USSR was everything I had been told about it, no one in their right mind would still be a communist.

          I think it might have been Hakim who did the most for me with youtube class consciousness or whatever you want to call it but I can’t remember an exact video that ‘pushed me over the edge’, so to speak. It didn’t take long for me to recognise the genius in Marxism-Leninism anyway, I then had to undo all my anti-com propaganda (that was still making me doubt if I was on the right path) and start learning the theory, science, philosophy, start applying it where I could, and here I am now, still doing that. I’ve come to really love the online culture the imagery, the music - red sun in the sky will always be a hell of a tune - and the community of course, I really want to see that kind of community IRL one day.

            • ExistentialNightmare@lemmygrad.ml
              3·
              3 days ago

              Christ, so being able to own a home quite easily under western capitalism was only possible due to the pressure of communism (also it was 100% a white privilege), revolution really is so much more effective than reform it’s laughable.

              Xi Jinping, keep winning please!

              • darkernations@lemmygrad.ml
                2·
                24 hours ago

                In my opinion it is one of the easier arguments to make that the workers of the west used the Soviet Union as leverage of threat of domestic revolution to gain the concessions they did for the welfare state, and thereby forced capitalists to invest in “human capital” that allowed massive upskilling of the work force and unlock the tech ladder as we know it today. And when the USSR collapsed (and potentially you could even use the fall of the Berlin wall) that leverage was lost and thereby the losing of concessions gained leading to the state of affairs as we know it now. It puts the like of Stalin and Lenin head and shoulders over any known Western leader.