I remember thinking anarcho capitalism was a cool idea when I was in middle school, but I grew out of that pretty quickly. Growing up queer in the Southern US I wanted to get into politics. I knew enough to think “liberals are democrats, conservatives are republicans, and that’s the only two options”. When I was in highschool I read a book called “Why We’re Liberals” by Eric Alterman, and let me tell you. That was the most pusillanimous tripe I’ve ever had the displeasure of reading. The brief section they had on gay rights was just pathetic, talking about how they really care about gay rights, honest, but y’know it’s just not the priority right now. And even as a kid I realized how useless liberals were. But since I didn’t realize there were other options I just went from a young kid excited to get involved in politics to “apolitical” because I didn’t see any real support. I think after Trump, like a lot of people in the US, I started to get back into politics but I was a complete lib-ass nerd that cared too much about YouTubers, then I became anarchist, then I actually read Kropotkin and later State and Rev and realized how shallow Kropotkin is. Blackshirts and the Reds really cemented me being ML and that YouTuber guy with the ski mask as well as NonCompete and Luna Oi really broke me of my chauvinism towards AES.
My dad was a very active member - even president briefly - of communist party in our town (Socialist Yugoslavia), so me and my bro received the right education early and never went astray. Well I had a brief “rebel!freedom!democracy!” phase in 90s (too much western comics, movies and video games), but I was still a kid and it didn’t last long =)
I was raised in your pretty standard Christian conservative household, at least by American standards. Both parents were Republicans, as per usual their politics rubbed off on me growing up. Ended up falling into the alt-right pipeline via Youtube. Started out with libertarianism/ Paleo-conservatism, Ben Shapiro, Steven Crowder, etc. In the end, I considered myself a fascist. Had some pretty racist, and homophobic opinions. Pretty cringe shit looking back on it. Now I’m a Marxist-Leninist and bisexual, people change.
goddamn yeah, I would punch teenage shit me if I saw them now.
You have no idea. 18 year old me signed up for a trip to Afghanistan as an Airborne Combat Medic. Got hurt pretty bad and an old Vietnam Vet radicalized me in the VA hospital. So at least you never fucked up that bad.
I supported 2020 coup in Belarus (I’m from there). While I had my doubts about it doing any good, I didn’t realize how horrible “freedom and democracy” can get until Zelenskyy started sacrificing own citizenry for Western support in a bloody rerun of what our “democratic opposition” has been doing during the political crisis.
Chinese-nationalism/pan-Asianism (14-15yo) > Liberalism/Libertarianism (16-19yo) > Social democracy (20-23yo) > Anarcho-Communism (24-25yo) > Marxist-Leninism (26-31/now)
I have been ready Marxist theories since like 18 but it took a long time for me to accept AES. I was the kind of idealists who think “Marxist analysis is absolutely right, but AES is not real socialism because there is no direct workplace democracy”, so I was practically liberal/socdem/anarchist for a long time despite speaking a Marxist language and explaining Marxist critique to people. It really mattered a lot that I eventually went into reading the history of socialist practice, instead of just economic theories and the Eurocentric “critical theory”.
Capitalists love to tie people down with their endless economic theories and jargon. Marxism is so much more, its an entire world view and philosophy, and most capitalist economic theories still makes sense within Marxism, its just about how the state manages that economy, not how economies work.
“apolitical” (status quo) —> Marxist.
I didn’t really care much about politics until age 17.
- From a reddit post, I found out that being apolitical is impossible. I figured out that they were right so I sought to learn more.
- Problem is that I could not understand any theory I read. It felt too long and boring.
- Then the Ukraine war started. I figured that out through this r/autism thread. I became terrified because I feared getting drafted. (well, I don’t think I have to fear that anymore…)
However, I also learnt of Lemmy and was browsing this place. Seeing posts on the Ukraine war made me curious and learn more about the war from Lemmygrad’s perspective.
- I was surprised to find that actually, Russia was the one bringing peace to Ukraine, not the U.S.
I inevitably heard of Marx and read his works. Now I’m a marxist.
I was an ancap morphing into a monarchist from 2016-2017, it was a cringe time in my life.
Raised in democratic political family, like knew Bill Clinton political. Became obsessed with religion and became an atheist in high school. Started learning about the League of militant atheism and the history of the USSR. Started reading debates between anarchists and ML’s. By college I was looking up how to join the Shining path and defect to North Korea.
I hope you stopped wanting to join Shining Path.
got raised in a soccdem family with communist aesthetics (parents are socdem but for example dad is adamant that Stalin saved the planet).
When i was 15 the local socialist party tasked some people to reform the youth wing. i got recruited, i was the youngest. Initially i was very active and involved. As one of the first members i got to power positions relatively quickly and by 18 i was already in the “everything sucks and electoral socialism is pointless” phase. As i got mature enough to read theory and do proper research, i gradually moved closer and closer to marxist-leninist ideal and developed a more objective (and, by comparison, positive) opinion of AES countries that our media constantly demonized.
I then had like 4-5 years where i barely did anything in the party but hang around and make use of my reputation/influence i had built until then to occasionally steer the discussion on some votes. But i was already quite certain that this movement was going nowhere, so what i really cared about were the insider informations going around in the main party and in the government (i personally knew people who eventually got elected).
With time i formed my clique of closet communists who do the same, sort of hang around and coordinate to strike when needed.
now i still “pull strings” in both the youth wing and the main party, but because of my ideology i rarely engage in activism or debates. I use it as a way to scout for promising radical zoomers and as a platform to dish out the occasional marxist analysis of situations.
I’m trying to find my way towards something more serious and underground, but obv i ain’t gonna share much detail right now
