chapotraphouse
Banned? DM Wmill to appeal.
No anti-nautilism posts. See: Eco-fascism Primer
Gossip posts go in c/gossip. Don't post low-hanging fruit here after it gets removed from c/gossip
So I'm not saying that encouraging people to go outside is bad by any means, but I think finding out why people can't or don't want to go outside is something we could probably do better at as a community. I don't think saying "it's not that big a deal" is nearly as useful as having a good discussion/plan on how to overcome those issues that keep people stuck inside.
I literally did this and the answers for people are depression, the sheer suppression that the US specifically does to orgs, burnout caused by school and work, Covid, and overworking. Telling people to go organize seems… well it’s good, but until we start posting resources that can help with one or all of those issues, very few people will actually do it
we have this conversation every week tbh but you're right
But what if I'm cringe IRL and I can't change my username and pretend I'm someone else?
You can legally change your name.
well you wouldn't be the first cringe person to join an org, not by a long shot
This post was literally the push that got me to join an org, literally just now.
...Well, I started the process of joining an org just now - it's going to take a few days - but you get the idea.
By Jove, 2024 will be the year that I go from "Internet shitposter with good opinions" to "Proper Revolutionary". One of my resolutions for 2024 was in fact to join an org, but I've been trying to be a Stakhanovite with my one-year plans, going a bit ahead of schedule!
Good job!
The hexbear marble countertop gang is encouraging people to be "normal" again.
For what it's worth, I think an org should also have other activities. That means like a bowling night or something. Or a movie night, dinner night, or going out to a bar night. And, this might ruffle some feathers, it should also be a place where you can meet someone for dating, a fling, etc. That's how most people meet each other, through a shared activity (like school, a club, church, etc.). Democrats and Republicans meet each other in shared spaces like that all the time, but for some reason it's like the ultimate taboo to talk about it in leftist circles. But why? Just cuz some peeps here and there developed sex cult personalities? How many comrades of the past met each other through the Soviet Party or the Communist Party of China or in Cuba or Vietnam? Probably millions.
it's the sex pest problem, unfortunately. a lot of the women I know in local organizing circles - including myself - have been SAed by other organizers (usually dudes). I don't personally have a problem with dating in organizing circles but I know others do.
the sex cult pattern isn't just a rare occurance unfortunately. it's practically inevitable in any organization which 1) asks that its members become deeply emotionally invested, 2) places emphasis on stability, unity, and not rocking the boat, and 3) concentrates real power in the hands of those few with the most time, energy, and charisma. Mainstream political parties notably give salaries to the people who keep the party actually running. This allows individual members to subsist on more than the good feelings they get from seeing their friends at meetings, as well staves off the fear that the entire organization might collapse if an abuser is challenged.
but if someone has anecdotal evidence stating otherwise i'm willing to hear it.
Unfortunately I have anecdotal evidence to support what you said and in that case the scandal basically destroyed the entire org since the leadership was involved
Yeah, it’s a huge problem just dealing with the widespread alienation we experience and the mental health problems it creates or makes worse. Trying to bridge that gap could do a massive amount of good.
Each orgs chapter has an average of like 20 active people, that's why it always devolves into a sex cult in the US
I have a long comment history of ripping into Evangelical Christianity. Sometimes I feel like I rail against it more than anyone on this site. I have a million issues with American Christianity that still get me angry when I think about them even though I left the religion almost a decade ago.
BUT… when I think about the time I spent with various young adult church groups or Bible studies, I still have a lot of fond memories. Or even going further back to when I was a kid, my small little church had a pretty healthy social life that I do think made a positive impact in my life. Churches understand that and they’re pretty good at it. All that social stuff you mentioned really does matter. We are so alienated and disconnected from each other. To be able to offer a salve for that I think will help draw people to the org as well as help meet those social needs we all have.
The Chilean socialist movement that brought Allende to power worked because they had Party offices in the community where members of the community could go and socialize as well as learn! There are lots of stories of people who met their first dates at the party community centers, and so the social pressure forced people to become more based to fit in.
But the sharp grass cuts my delicate hide
And yet, you read Marxist books... which can give you a paper-cut.
Curious.
I only read theory on my Amazon Kindle™
The "™" made me chuckle.
"Hey you guys want to build some communism?"
"No, we like being narcissistic labor aristocrats."
"Oh, never mind."
Gazans have a shared living experience. I have 2 gay men who are repeatedly "adopting" their niece's mistake children and work as feds for the Canadian military as neighbours.
Sucks living here 'cause all the bourgeois freaks from Ottawa are spilling out here to get the cheaper real estate while bringing their equally awful shitlib politics. So it's them and freakish Canadian QAnoner types.
What about disabled people?
But, yes, you should be joining an org if you can.
We should honestly have dedicated disabled socialist orgs. I've gone back and forth on this idea a few times but the thing that's hung me up on pursuing it is the fact that participation in any org no matter to what degree is very likely something the tories here would use to say you're capable of working and therefore should lose benefits.
In the U.S. you can lose disability by taking a volunteer position, or by doing volunteer work that Social Security decides is “substantial gainful activity.”
Over here it's about capability. If you're capable of attending a meeting for an org, you're capable of attending a workplace... That kind of thing.
If you made it remote they'd end up saying you should be doing remote work if you can do remote organising for an org.
This whole thing is about significantly limiting the ability for the disabled to be politically active, since they're a group with more time to dedicate to political activity and more interest in doing so above the norm. It's "behave, or else".
There's a lady who shows up at Palestine protests here who has the palestine flag attached to her wheelchair. You do what you can. From each according to their ability and all.
Spiritually, disabled people can usually go outside/build communism. "Go outside" is really about logging off from your internet patterns and trying to have human interactions, which you can do from home in case a disability makes literally going outside uncomfortable or impossible.
Of course, with generalizations we should also understand that there will be exceptions but that naming them right away would prevent the call to action from being pithy. So if a person's disability precludes building socialism, I'm sure OP and others would understand.
Though I would say that there are many ways to build socialism, so even someone that thinks they can't might just be unaware of ways they could help out.
I mean wasn't Russian literacy super fucking low pre-Lenin? Many of the greatest revolutions ever done were done by illiterate people. Reading theory is good, but some people here treat it as far too important.
Those trying to build up the socialist movement early on were all heavy readers though. They need to be. Most of us live in a country where the movement is in the infantile stages
If a revolution does ever come to America, 99% of participants will have never read a single communist book, yea
Back then, it would've been, like, the one guy at the factory who knows how to read, reading things to fellow workers, right? So reading theory would've been to a large degree a social activity back then, whereas now it's often a pretty lonely activity. Even if you aren't just reading alone, but are doing a book club or something... a book club isn't quite the same when it's 12 people from around the world on Discord, compared to when it's 12 people in the room with you. And even if you're going through the effort of making the information you learn more accessible to others, making an audiobook for the consumption of countless anonymous people online isn't quite the same as reading something to someone in person; nor is translating a work and publishing it online quite the same as actually going through the effort of making a translation in paper and giving it to someone.
Basically what I'm getting at is that "theory" can and should be praxis in itself, and this is achieved by changing the ways we interact with and think of "theory". That is, sharing information can itself be a productive, creative, and social activity grounded in our immediate surroundings, that builds the networks and skills to make us good revolutionaries, rather than just giving us explanations of why the world's kinda messed up so that we can debate with internet strangers to prove who's more well-read.
Just because people were illiterate or had low literacy levels doesn't mean they didn't engage in theory though. This is also why vanguardism was so important to historical revolutions.
But you only need one comrade who can read for a classroom sized group of people (or larger) to be able to learn and discuss theory.
Part of what Mao did so successfully was to convey complex ideas in theory in very simple to understand language. In fact, he was so effective in doing this that most of his writings manage to cross a vast linguistic gap in a very nimble way.
Theory isn't the be-all and end-all, of course. But a party or the masses without theory is like a ship without a rudder.
Duh thats why its socialism and not antisocialism
Yeah can I still join the protracted People's war without a protractor? Haven't owned one since high school.
Yes, but it'll be revisionist.
Yes, this is why I encourage others to join an org (if you can and have the will, of course).
Tbf, I definitely do more organizing than reading. But lately I've realized I'm useless in certain groups and situations without a little more reading under my belt.
I don't have any organizations where I live and I'm certainly not brave enough to start one and face the ostracization that will inevitably come with it
Alienate your existing social circles and strangers with this one easy step!
I know I definitely could have handled it better, but coming out as Giving A Fuck Enough To Actually Do Stuff really fucked my social life up. People who would rather bitch from a place of comfort than make a difference even if it's uncomfortable seem to really not love it when you decide to stop bitching and do stuff.