"As revolutionaries, we don't have the right to say that we're tired of explaining. We must never stop explaining. We also know that when the people understand, they cannot but follow us. In any case, we, the people, have no enemies when it comes to peoples. Our only enemies are the imperialist regimes and organizations." Thomas Sankara, 1985
International Anti-Capitalist podcast run by an American, a Slav and an Arab.
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I have lib friends that I have consistently failed to convert even into Soc Dem over the years despite that I have turned Tankie myself. Sigh
They are all worker aristocrats that fancies themselves "white-collar middle class". (We being in Hong Kong with a very recent history of western propaganda fanning the flames of local supremacy against China probably has a lot to do with it.)
What's the sentiment in HK like now by the way? Has it changed much?
The local supremacists have entered a doomer phase which they gave up hope of "independence", but many still retained vitrol and a bigotted idea that the mainland Chinese are somehow still "inferior" to them. Now they simply shut up about it until they get triggered like post civil war Southen whites in America.
Most of them have migrated away in 2022 to England or America, only to find themselves being fed lies about how great it would be their entire lives, and some have returned quietly after living there proved difficult.
(Particularly with how Starmer is screwing them with changing rules about British citizenship to appease his local xenophobes, ironically enough.)
However, the number of children that are proficient with Puthonghua and Mainland Chinese culture is increasing as a whole lot of online entertainment now comes from China, so in the long view Hong Kong is integrating properly into China as post coldwar propaganda loses its relevance with how shitty the American Empire is conducting itself.
Thanks! I grew up watching a lot of TVB here in Australia and recall a lot of the dramas showing Chinese pride (especially the costume dramas set in Guangzhou). Hope more HKers are waking up to reality as the West shows time and time again who they really are.
They'll have to face it sooner or later - the Mainland is becoming way more advanced and honestly, it's way more fun there!
However, the number of children that are proficient with Puthonghua and Mainland Chinese culture is increasing as a whole lot of online entertainment now comes from China, so in the long view Hong Kong is integrating properly into China as post coldwar propaganda loses its relevance with how shitty the American Empire is conducting itself.
China playing for the long game pays off.
The same is inevitable for Taiwan.
i'm not a person with "friends" in the strict definition, but i try to get along in most cases with people, so there's that...usually i discuss with people, talk in fediverse with leftist people, and try to fight against propaganda. here and the element groups are the places where i try to get some communist friends without the risk of having a date with a fed
I have many leftist friends, most are anarchists though. I'm slowly introducing them to more Marxist concepts and about their own anticommunist indoctrination. Hopefully eventually we'll all be highly educated Marxist-Leninists.
I have a bunch of communist friends and I've made some new ones online through the irl ones that I have visited and done a little organizing with
I have no friends. I’m socially phobic and agoraphobic.
Same here. I suffer from panic attacks when I leave my house (if I leave at all, which is very rarely). And it sucks. I may be good in theory, because all the time I don't spend socializing, I spend reading and studying, but praxis is the other important half, and I feel bad about it.
Nope, and there is not any (even vaguely) socialist organization in the area. Perhaps my coworkers at my new job? But it's too early to say. It's apparently unionized, but it's been dead in the water with inactivity. It's unfortunate all around, over here.
Nope. Buy I'm planting seeds.
Nope too busy with school. Will try to join an org later on though.
Yep, all my close friends are either organized communists or at the minimum agree with 90% of my takes I'm very lucky. Most of them I met organizing. I also hang out with non commies ofc but I couldn't imagine not having the freedom of loudly praising Stalin without having to justify myself on a regular basis.
My own husband. When you listen to enough Joti Brar, Vijay Prashad, and great geopolitical shows like Dialogue Works and Neutrality Studies, you inevitably find that the Marxist explanation of the world makes the most sense and is the most consistent. Wouldn't really label either me or him as Marxists yet but we're learning.
Two of my friends are left-leaning. One is a staunch Maoist while the other is a patsucc (not NazBol or ACP).
Would you consider leaving the country brother 🥺 it is nice here
Not people that I regularly see for that matter. I do, however, have friendly terms with a lot of the organizers I meet. It's primarily people in my own party, but also friendly organizers as well, along with people generally in the movement spaces. That being said, I don't know if I'd say we're friends per se? I invite events they invite me to sometimes, but I can't really call on these people to hangout in the same capacity that I would a friend from highschool, yknow.
I never really did until I left the west, on the periphery of the imperial core you can't shake a stick without hitting another communist.
I'm lucky enough to have two people close to me who are commies despite living in a deeply reactionary hellhole. Not much I can do to guide here because both were chance encounters at work and a music event and we just had the thing where neurodivergent people instantly click with each other rather than anything politics related.
I also know a few liberals that have been steadily radicalizing over the past few years. If people already know and trust you and the first cracks in the liberal worldview happen organically they can be quite receptive to communist ideas. Just listen to their grievances and chime in with bits of history and theory that is relevant to them. Nobody became a principled communist overnight, it's a long process and sometimes you need to pick your battles and smile and dissociate when they slip into reactionary thought that you don't have a good angle to attack yet, but I got people immersed in a deeply russophobic and anticommunist environment to consider that maybe the Soviet Union was... le good? Or at least not evil incarnate 1984.
Be cool, be open about your ideals without forcing them, know your stuff so that you can speak confidently and source your claims, be patient, and meet people where they are and you may be able to commie your friends but they have to take the first steps on their own.
I think I got extremely lucky where my friend group of 5 from high school kind of all moved more left as time passed.
Get into a socialist organisation if you can, that’s an easy way to forge lifelong friendships.
Yup, my best friend is a communist, he’s the one that got me into it. He’s not the most articulate guy in the world but he’s intellectually honest and never stopped trying. I’ve been slowly converting more and more folks. Lucky for all of us it’s getting easier and easier to convince people capitalism is killing us. From there it’s not a big jump to socialism.
I got several friends started down the path. Many of them got into The Deprogram once I started the push. Funny enough, I have never listened to it till they started. I was already through most of the Proles Pod so the Deprogram stuff was kind of like, baby commie to me. But I now support them because it made me realize how necessary their take is. They are probably the best bridge to get people on the right track. It's also why I don't complain when they have a takes that aren't as "hardcore ML" as I would like.
Anyway, yeah, I have a few commie friends. Yes I had to turn them all commie myself. I have one guy I'm still working out some of the racism/sexism for, but he's pretty much there otherwise. The gist is, don't fucking attack people like the way you see online. All that does is turn them off. Be a good friend and kind of push and prod when appropriate. Be informed and knowledgeable. Always try to have an answer and a response. So basically, be a good communist just don't shove it in their face. Some do better being taught. Other do better if they feel they came to that conclusion on their own. The guy that is still a little bit of a chud still, it's more of a refusal to fully let go of who he was, and trauma from a fucked up childhood. He's stubborn as fuck and it's taken me years. He won't listen to podcasts or anything. Basically I just had to always be right and sure of myself and he'd go home and persuade himself that he always believed what I was saying, or learned it himself by reading or something. He's kind of crazy, but he'd also die for his comrades.
This is what it takes, more patience then you will ever see anyone give I'm some online forum. Some it's easy. One guy it was practically overnight. Another took time, and one took years. But I got them there. As far as finding already commie friends.... Probably just luck and maybe volunteering at the right places.
And you also have to know when to let others go. I got another guy I'm no longer friends with. I dropped him when it became apparent he would never listen and was dead set on being a little incel fascist. It was in the same group as my chuddy friend and even he dropped that guy a year or so ago. That's when I knew one was gone and the other chose my path. lol
Most of my family and friends lean left, I'm the only one engaging with theory and such which is sad because I would love to discuss stuff irl
I joined a local socialist movement
Yup, a few of my friends became communists. The big factor for them was that liberal world view just couldn't explain what they were seeing anymore. Introducing them to material dialectics all of a sudden made things click for them.
My grandfather attended a few communist party events in late 1940s and early 1950s. He was later bullied by organized crime and tormented into early Alzheimer. I knew him in real life.
I grew up meming communism during the Bush years. Being loud and vocal will make you a lightning rod for other like minded people. Assuming you are good at keeping your friends the effect amplifies the older you get, the more you collect and convert
I do have a few in my home town, and some near where I live currently. I think in Brazil it's easier to know people left-inclined, even if they aren't die hard commies. Many were like I was, left leaning liberals or soc Dems a few steps away from radicalizing.
Start a book club/study circle with friends and radicalize them. They'll learn and youll sharpen your own understanding of theory and history
Yes, several, alhamdulillah. The white people I had to convert to communism, the non-whites were cool when I met them. I mean, they were all cool, just some less class conscious. It's a journey. Social jobs tend to have cool people. Teachers, social workers etc. if they aren't too bourgeois. People from countries affected by imperialism get it one hundred times faster. I'm talking days or weeks instead of years.
"Convert" might be the wrong word. I don't actively go up to them and try to change their mind. I'm just open about my politics and if they want to talk about it, I do it friendly and one step at a time.
Also, if you want a cheat code for meeting cool people fast: join an org. Or just show up to an action or a protest and ask the organizers how you can help. Bookclubs are cool too.
I have one friend who reads theory and I am in the process of converting others, the first one was a raging liberal when I first met him but yea, all of my commie friends are people who I've converted
I had a co-worker who was skeptical but open-minded and another who was a Fellow Traveler.
Closest I've ever had to IRL commie friends.
I live in a small rural college town, but my best friend from said college is also a communist, and my baby brother is also a communist, but he lives about 9000 miles away, so idk how much stock you want to give to that. I know I need more commie friends, but again it is not easy out here in rural Ohio