"Pretty hard leftist" = Voted for Obama

"Deradicalized" lmao. This person was always a reactionary

“I was pretty far left, but i kept thinking having a country all to yourself and filled with reactionaries was actually GOOD!”

Having simple conversations and open discussions with people who held views I thought were similar to mine.

In my teens I was a big philosophy reader and this turned into economic and political philosophy. And after I read and learned enough I did what any young informed man would do, which is go onto the internet and debate randoms online. I think I would have considered myself a Marxist, and a lot of that background was informed by my readings and own personal experiences of growing up in poverty and working what felt like endless and unfulfilling jobs. It seemed like the morally correct position to take and it seemed like it had a lot of philosophical backing to not be wrong.

But then as I talked to more people I started to just run into... weird stuff. A lot of my philosophical underpinnings were based on things I viewed to be right or wrong. And on some of these debate forums (just here on reddit) I'd run into people who were heavily stalinist or leninist with a large radical anti-capitalist component in their rhetoric. But an objective historical lens shows us the outcome of these specific camps and ideologies which were literally paved by blood and starvation. I think the breaking point for me was when I encountered someone saying that North Korea was better and more ethical than the USA. I had just watched a documentary or read a news article or something detailing that some North Koreans had to eat fucking tree bark soup just to not starve. And here we have some guy typing freely from his computer in an air conditioned room not starving trying to sell this line that there was nothing wrong with literally one of the worse regimes that currently exist. I couldn't break through to him and it slowly occurred to me that radical ideologies can consume even the most well intentioned people.

Material conditions: :sleepi:

People on the internet challenging my "objective" blind trust in the news: :frothingfash:

This sub isn't deradicalized, its differently radicalized.

:data-laughing:

:miyazaki-laugh:

I used to blame capitalism for everything now I realized all along zoning laws is what I hated

"I bought into the system and am now only annoyed by some of it's more apparent symptoms which inconvenience me"

Spending more time outside of America, and realizing that my anti-capitalist friends who trash-talked America on social media all day were talking out of their asses & had no idea how good we have it here.

:yes-honey-left: Healthcare please

Talking to tankies and maga people

:both-sides: People who want better things and people who want everyone with too much melanin to be put in camps are the same.

I basically turned 18 and got out of the alt-right pipeline. Never really was into it but many things were appealing, since then I’m very left leaning socially. A fella really tried to radicalise me into communism but the stories of my parents in communist Albania were really eye-opening, when it comes to worker’s rights tho i go full commie mode as a son of immigrant workers that have been exploited. Tbh, i don’t like any ideology, I see many flaws plus I think ideologies are what keeps many people from being objective.

:centrist: "I want drastic change but am unwilling to ascribe to any system which would permit them"

So many just...AWFUL takes lmao

And they're EVERYWHERE

So much "Centrism is obviously the best" out of morons who espouse that they want change, but are just supporting the status quo

lmao lie