Everybody always talks about the west but what about these guys?!!!

Maybe this is too niche but I’m just making of that weirdo from a couple days ago :)

One of my friends married a conservative guy and she generally had average liberal views but now is falling deeper into right wing propaganda. She started questioning the system after having a child and instead of going left she ended up to the right. I tried to have a conversation with her about it but she starts parroting right-wing talking points, basically regurgitating whatever musk says on twitter. I found myself having to take a million steps back in everything i mentioned because she doesn’t even have a basic understanding of capitalism .

Are there any resources that gives a general overview of why America/capitalism is bad? It took me years to get to the point of understanding I am at now and it’s hard for me to meet her where she’s at. I need something straightforward, general & and not heavily theory based. It can be a video, book, article. anything 101. Preferably something with data and sources.

Based on the content she consumed she needs something layman’s terms.

I don’t think she has much hope of becoming a leftist but I at least want her to stop buying into the right wing propaganda. I love her and she is religious so she thinks she’s doing what’s right but her views cause more harm than good unfortunately.

Becoming a leftist and informing myself on Marxist-Leninist thought has done wonders for me. I've long struggled with personal issues like depression and self-hatred. In the past, hyper-individualist, liberal ideology has made it difficult for me to separate my own faults from the faults of the system. In other words, I blamed things on myself when really it was the material conditions around me and certain people in my life that were limiting my ability to see things for how they really are. I tried to "fix" myself through "self-help" that really ended up making me hate myself even more because it did not solve any of the immediate material struggles that I was facing in my personal life, nor did it "change" me as a person and make me into some sort of hyper-industrious chad like I was convinced (or progandized into thinking) it would.

During the gradual process of my radicalization that took a hard turn to the left, I began and then could truly see the bigger picture. I could see how alienation was causing my depression and general feeling of helplessness, and how the larger issues I had only heard about through the liberal framing were really all part of one intersectional class struggle.

While I am still learning (I have been listening to The Deprogram, Blowback; watching videos from JT, Hakim, and Yugopnik and other leftist creators; reading Marx and Lenin; etc.) I feel that my general awareness and politics have advanced far beyond the development of understanding most Americans experience in their lives.

Now, I'm able to direct the pent-up anger I feel towards myself towards the true source of all the problems in the world: the capitalist class that leaches off the workers and drives imperialism throughout the world just to keep their pockets lined; the bourgeois imperialists and warlords; the CEOs of big oil companies and arms manufacturing firms - those who the Republicans and the Democrats truly serve).

A major factor in my radicalization has been the genocide in Palestine. Seeing, reading, and hearing about the horrific atrocities being committed under the illegal settle colonial regime that is Israel has completely turned me against everything I used to naively believe the US stands for.

That being said, I've been going through a bit of an existential crisis. Knowing of the unequal exchange and exploitation that takes place every time I order something on Amazon or buy a product from WalMart, knowing that the circulation of money and commodities in the capitalist system serves to fund those who are complicit in genocide, makes it hard not feel a tremendous amount of guilt simply for partaking in this. I'm not here to make excuses for myself or portray myself as a victim in the context of participating in this framework, quite the opposite in fact. I want to know what I can do at this point to make a substantial difference.

So far, I have been advocating on social media, informing those who I can about the genocide, and focusing on educating myself and keeping myself up to date with the plight of the Palestinian people. That being said, I know this is simply not enough. Escalation in the region is leading to an all-out-war and pretty soon many people in my life (not all of them, thank God) are going to be justifying a full-out attack by Israel and the US on Iran and Lebanon.

After the shit-show that was the DNC, I felt a surge of anger at KKKopala HariSS$$ and the so-called "democratic" institution, so I decided, fuck it I gotta join some kinda party. In the moment I was just angry, but I'm glad I at least reached out. Given my current situation (still working on getting a driver's license, until then it's pretty hard to travel far) I didn't end up meeting the comrade I got in contact with, but it was a start and we are keeping in touch.

Recently, I have been looking into the BDS movement and how I can help. I've been doing my best to avoid places like Starbucks as I have seen the charts showing that these corporations are complicit in genocide, but I know I have funded place like McDonalds and I have Disney+ and Amazon subscriptions, both of which are megaconglomerates also, by extent, complicit in this evil. Watching The Boys for example, seemed fine (the first 3 seasons have some decent social commentary) until I learned more about Tomer Capone and began to feel cognitive dissonance between the character's more heinous actions and the person himself. 💀

As a Marvel fan I have considered boycotting the next Captain America film due to the inclusion of an Israeli Zionist, and this got me wondering about how much these people actually profit from these kinds of things. Like obviously as one individual consumer it doesn't make a huge difference but when masses go see these films or fund these corporations it keeps the gears grinding. This makes me feel kinda fucking hopeless, like how the fuck I am supposed to enjoy anything if I'm somehow contributing to genocide in the process of supporting it as a consumerist venture?

I have an anarchist friend and an ML friend and I'm planning to work with them to build awareness and solidarity in my area. Not sure exactly how to go about this yet but I have some ideas, including praxis/organizing and putting BDS pamphlets in my new novel once I get it published.

Overall tho, I'm not an expert in any means in theory of capitalist production applied to modern circumstances but I am learning from Lenin's various works and reading Capital. I just want to know what the best ethical approach is to surviving under capitalism without going crazy and while trying to make a difference without starting the Fight Club or something.

TL;DR: wtf do I do? (Critiques and advice are both welcome.)

Like, not the ideal form, but how to start moving on from capitalism right now. And not just generic things, like, idk, something more specific. Don't ask me why I need that.
Edit: doesn't mean strictly an effective way to abolish capitalism whatsoever and build something new in its place, just, like, something. Some kind of "at least something" that would work right now without backfiring, politically and diplomatically included.

Note that the Technocrats are an in-game faction closest to socialism.

Some right-wing tropes are present from the opponent: Claiming equality means making all the same, conflating socialism with utopia and also claiming that I am wrong because of socialist bias fitting the narrative. Humanist Socialism, the ideology the opponent is referring to, is described here.

It's a simple proposition.

It should be illegal to be fired from your job for failure to show up as a result of being arrested, until such a time that a judge has been given an opportunity to dismiss your case and decides not to.

I have not read this comic issue, but lately I’ve run into a couple of clips from the Red Son Justice League movie and was just having the impression it was one of the many portrayals of the USSR as tyrants (seen this way by the US).

If someone has seen this movie or read the comics, could you share your thoughts on them from a leftist perspective?

Hi hello I know this has probably been asked a million times but yes where should one get relatively cheap books I know the anarchist library has basically every book ever for free however I much prefer physical media over digital when it comes to reading, but most of the places selling physical media are like £15+ and unfortunately I cannot afford that as the only money I get is DLA/PIP (disabilty) The only place I know of is Calton books in Glasgow n they're generally pretty cheap so surely there's other places whether it be in person or online that do stuff for <£10-15 Also if anyone has any suggestions of books to add to my reading list that would be greatly appreciated:3 mostly focusing on socialism, liberationism, queer history, IWW, anarchism, etc certa however anything really I'd love to read Thank you so much if anyone replies and I hope all reading this have an amazing Wednesday 💞

So I go to a University that I’m not at “Liberty” to say. It’s not by choice, and I’m not gonna go into the whole reason why I’m going to this place to start with so don’t ask. Anyways, I’m not conservative at all, so I knew right off the bat that Vivek’s speech was going to be interesting. At first, he went in a non politics route. Essentially he was saying Americans need to be more curious, Americans need to be ambitious and intellectual. On the surface that doesn’t look too bad. We should always strive for excellence and it’s good to learn all we can about the world around us. Soon, enough Vivek starts dropping sprinkles of his political ideology because he knows it will work. He’s definitely not a bad speaker. He appealed to the emotions of his largely conservative audience.

He started saying “some people may see the nuclear family as weird” I’m paraphrasing, but he was acting as if nowadays the nuclear family is something taboo and it’s not. He went on saying that America is a place where you can be who you want to be but yet he again complained of the woke agenda and “transgenderism” as if Trans people are some ideology. Eventuality he just started shouting off conservative ideals as people clapped, with some people chanting USA.

All in all, everyone knows a Politician always makes it Political, but I can say I’ve finally been in the same room with a man who would try his absolute best to revoke my rights since I’m queer so that’s interesting. What I know is this: Leftism isn’t this evil ideology that wants to ruin the world, leftism believes in basic human rights. Leftism believes in Equality, and leftism isn’t afraid to call out bigotry. We have our issues, and amongst our own circles, we have differences, but at the end of the day, we don’t disagree about the wellness and livelihood of human beings

I hope this kind of post is allowed here :3

For context:

This weekend in Austria, we had a national election and nearly 30% people (based on first projections) voted for an extreme right party that openly endorses the totalitarian regime of Viktor Orban, Covid and WHO conspiracies and is, of course since they are extremely conservative, for "traditional values" (e.g. they suggested a "stove" bonus for women who stayed at home instead of working a paid job). They also have a long list of so called "indiviudal cases" of members and people associated with their party in regards to criminal activity, especially Nazi related ones. Additionally, nearly 60% voted right-wing parties in general.

My first reaction was anger, because I simply couldn't understand why so many people would vote for that party. A major issue is migration, which in all honesty, Austria hasn't handled in the best possible way. Of course, there is agitation and populism in regards to hate against migrants and asylum seekers.

The question:

Now, that I had "some" time to think about it, I believe that some people atleast, are just caught by the anxiety inducing populism and could be pleaded with. Now, I'm not sure how to discuss those things with them. Unfortunately, logic and metric data doesn't seem to do the trick.

Another thing is, I don't know how and what to do about the state of the society here. I'm afraid that this is a major step towards a future and society that undoes all the progress that happened in the past and gerts more intolerant. I believe, I'm nto nearly enough educated on that topic to even try and make an impact. It's the most difficult thing to find sources to get a 'somewhat' unbiased explanation of things, especially in the area of educating myself. It's incredibly hard to get out of the echo chamber.

It’s a light talk!

I am basically a noob in terms of left leaning ideology, and recently have found out that nobody likes us. Religious people think we are all atheists, patriots think we are anti nationalists, conservatives think we are bringing down LGBTQ flags everywhere, liberals think we aren’t serious about politics, capitalists think… (well you know).

I am not saying that left has lots of internal conflicts, but we don’t agree on details of how to promote socialism (my personal experience).

My own reasoning to stick around with a monetary policy that’s left leaning is that among all the other ideologies, left has a humane nature, I feel like this is how a society should function to preserve its souls - like keeping the poor alive (for god’s sake).

But apparently, we are the bad guys! How’s everyone can be so cruel to unfortunates and call themselves ethical people?

(Note: I am from Bangladesh, and currently in US for study purposes. Please don’t assume stereotypes of western ideology with me)

Broad question but what is the most agreed upon energy solution? Nationalization of resources and renewable focuses, but on what scale? Any books/article recs would be awesome ❤️

Does anyone have recommendations for books on leftist views of judicial systems?

I, like many, have been fed up with the American judicial system and its long history of crumminess. I want to read up on alternate models of courts and judges but am coming up short. There’s plenty of literature of alternate leftist models of the legal system when it comes to criminal justice and policing, but I’m looking for something a little different. Most of what I can find that critiques the American judicial system offers histories of injustice but very little in the way of reform or remodel suggestions.

The closest I could find have been books by Roberto Unger on the Critical Legal Studies movement, which I’ve already got on hold at the library. Anything else I should seek out?

but do the petitions that I get from justice democrats, progress America, the juggernaut project, mercy corps, care2, etc. do they really do anything/go anywhere? I get over 100+ emails from organizations like these, and I’m just curious if there is something more impactful I could/should be doing?

(I know these list servs are more centrist/democrat vibes, but they talk about human rights issues, civil rights issues, especially polarizing subjects like liberation of Palestine, etc. but my interest is, as a leftist, do these really do anything or are there better newsletters and more impactful orgs that I should sign up to? are some of these orgs misleading?)

I live in a very small rural town and a man I used to work with has returned after a couple years gone. I found his social media and it’s really terrifying. He is full on a self professed nazi. Posting stuff about hitler, white power, lynching, etc. I want to post screenshots of these posts as well as a photo of him. But I was told this could be actionable, cause his social media is public but not easily findable or under his full name. But he’s also dangerous - and I feel that the community would shun him if they knew what he was saying online. I cannot describe how vile the stuff he is saying is. I am 20 years his junior, small, and I live alone. If I felt physically safe I would just post it and deal with the repercussions but I am actually concerned about him being a physical threat to people. I am also concerned for his ex girlfriend whom he stalked heavily before leaving town.

Are you pro-Israel?anti-Israel? or neutral?

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