/r/leftist
Leftist is a subreddit focused on various leftist ideologies, from socialism and communism to anarchism and eco-socialism. We're a space for discussion and learning about the breadth of leftism.
Leftist is a subreddit focused on various leftist ideologies, from socialism and communism to anarchism and eco-socialism. We're a space for discussion and learning about the breadth of leftism.
Rules:
/r/leftist
I noticed it when I was talking to somebody today at work, a MAGAt, and I realized I was searching for a synonym to the word research because I didn’t want him to think I meant research the same way he uses it. I ended up saying like “all the articles I’ve read on it” instead.
Hi there,
Last night I joined a TikTok live on racism in feminist issues. I’m a non-binary man and incredibly interested in feminist theory so I joined and got to chat. My original question was surrounding the fact that they had said all feminism is racist since the origin of the term and I found a lot of issue with it since I felt they were “throwing out the baby out with the bathwater” in regards to all activity that was still being done under feminism. I was then told that I should don off labels and the fact that I was still wanting to label myself as an intersectional feminist was a sign that i was still connecting myself to white supremacy. I was then called a misogynist for disagreeing with her and understanding more from a guy who was also on the call (which honestly might be some internalized misogyny). It felt strange, very strange. One of the most striking things was when they said that I was a radlib and wasn’t putting in the work, otherwise I would’ve dropped the term easily and would not insist on labeling myself a feminist.
Regardless, I think I might have become a radlib in the sense that I maybe stick too close to labels and maybe have trouble listening. I connect myself a lot with the labels that apply to me (non binary, leftist, intersectional feminist). I want to be a good leftist, I really do. I worked at a community center for a while before I’ve recently moved and I’ve been really active in local activism especially with queer, Palestinian and housing protests as of recently. Idk if others have any tips of help on the subject. I’d love to hear what people have in trying to move away from being a radlib. It might be good to mention that maybe I’m making this bigger in my head since I’ve been struggling mentally (check my post history but heavy trigger warning). Either way, would love to hear any tips or help on the subject.
TLDR: I had a conversation on a TikTok live which made me question if I’m a radlib and want to know how I can move away from becoming a radlib.
Before the genocide in Gaza, I loved these guys. But nowadays, they just come across as tribalist. They keep defending Biden and Harris in regard to Gaza. Heck, you would think that Biden has been actively FIGHTING the genocide this whole time with the way they talk.
Sure Trump will actively TRY to do worse than Biden, but right now there isn’t much left to do other than mop up the survivors, which Israel is currently doing. They just keep repeating that Trump is going to build hotels and golf courses in Gaza 🙄, but it seems they keep returning to that talking point because there isn’t much else they can accuse Trump of doing that Biden hasn’t already facilitated.
I swear, this must be where David Parkman’s entire audience hangs out.
If
With an uptick of Nazi's online as well as bigoted laws and no doubt progressive left leaning media, books specifically will be targeted in order to further spread bigoted ideas. Laws are already banning black American studies as well as other topics relating to learning about racism and other important topics about other minorities in the classroom. I predict that in the near future that these kind of books will be harder and harder to come across.
In case these books become permanently banned I have collected a number of books in PDF form.
If you have a hard drive I highly suggest downloading banned books, here is my collection of books I gathered.
Anti racist books
Anti-Racism: a Handbook for Adult Educators
Black Marxism - Cedric Robinson
The end of Policing - Alex S. Vitale [UPDATED]
Race After Technology- Ruha Benjamin
In defense Of Looting - Vicky Osterweil
Becoming Abolitionists - Derecka Purnell
Socialism/Leftist politics
23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism - Ha-Joon-Chang
The Communist Manisfesto - Karl Marx and Frederick Engels
How To Be Anti Capitalist In The 21st Century- Erik Olan Wright
Hammer and hoe Alabama Communists during the Great Depression - Robin D. G. Kelly
I will update this post when I gather more books
The world’s batshit crazy rn, I’m relatively new to leftist ideology and am getting tired of intellectualizing and want to get involved in a more specific way. I figured some of yall in here would be from the area and was hoping you could share what you do and where I could go/links/whatever. Love to all yall
Edit: I should’ve been more specific I guess, I’m really looking for anything from weekend volunteer opportunities, book clubs, general community building, etc. Just feeling sort of paralysis by analysis rn and seeking some pointers
Hi folks,
I am at a crossroads, hence my meme. I am trying to make a choice, but my severe OCD makes it hard to think clearly about my options sometimes.
First a little background: I was raised in an American middle class family, one that was heavily religious and evangelical. You know the type. My family was, and is against any LGBTQ+ issues, and consider Democrats of the devil (again you know the type). However, I feel my family was genuinely like that because of religion, and not out of racism or homophobia for the sake of it.
So, COVID was a big shift for the right. Many of the people hiding under the religious mask, the one that was actually real for my family, tore it off to reveal open fascism, racism, homophobia, and utter hatred. I was right wing at the time, and seeing these monsters in the light for the first time broke my ideology, religiously and politically.
Fast forward to the 2024 election, I was absolutely a leftist, but was still flirting with some liberal ideas. I am horrified by the clear genocide in Gaza, and was enraged at the Democratic party for supporting it, but was so against a second Trump presidency I was willing to angrily vote for Harris.
December 5th 2024, the last drops of liberalism were torn out of me. I have had it. I live in a small liberal town surrounded by frankly very scary racist, homophobic, and hateful people. Seriously, I moved here from a big city, and was shocked by the open hate. It's not even religiously coded. I work with secular people who hate minorities and use horrifying slurs. Seriously! Awful, and it's essentially 99% of my coworkers that talk like that.
I am done even remotely thinking "well they are good people with bad right wing beliefs" NO! Trans women are women. The homeless are human beings. Etc. Anyone who says otherwise is a FASCIST.
So, I am looking to put my money where my mouth is and start organizing. Not anything illegal or unethical. Something professional that I would stick my real name behind in public. However that's not what this post is about. I am at a crossroads of two ideologies.
With my OCD, I have a tendency to get really obsessed with something, then lose that after hyper focusing for a few weeks, and give up. When I make a big decision, I rationally decide and write that down, then ignore any further compulsive thoughts telling me to rethink my whole ideology. So I need help picking a path, then I will stick to that.
The options are: Marxist-Leninism, or Anarcho-Communism.
When I say Marxist-Leninism, I essentially mean joining PLA (Party for Liberation and Socialism). I just finished reading their book, Socialist Reconstruction, and really liked it. I see them as the only realistic leftist party in the USA.
However, I am aware of the tyranny that has arose in Marxist Leninist countries, for instance how there is a STRONG capitalist business class in China, and how the country is essentially centrally planned state capitalism. I don't understand how the PLA does not denounce that.
I would go Anarcho-Communist, but I love the idea of universal healthcare, and know that would require a government to orchestrate (unless we are talking about some theoretical future society where the hospitals are run by the staff and don't need to be a business)
What are your thoughts Reddit? I welcome any criticism or comments, but please read this in good faith. Thank you all.
Hey Y'all. I've been thinking of low risk collective action plans, particularly that would allow US workers to participate with ease and without much, if any, personal risk. I can't find this sentiment mentioned elsewhere, and I'm pretty ignorant to the intricacies of tax laws, so I thought I'd bounce it around here to get some insight and opinion.
Any time I look up "Tax strike" it's always about a solid "We won't pay at all, consequences be damned" sort of thing, but that would obviously be a desperate last measure for most people to even think of committing to, with all the personal legal and financial repercussions that would inevitably come from a total tax strike. And we are frogs being slowly brought up to a boil, many will not be willing to risk further hardships to do a true tax strike.
But what if we, as the workers, collectively stopped "paying as you go" towards our taxes, and just took the money that would usually be withheld from our bank accounts, placed it in a high interest rate savings account, and paid at the end of the year when the bill is actually due? I've been calling this a soft tax strike, as it's more of a inconvenient (for the government) way to play by the rules than an actual refusal to pay taxes. I see that the government really likes to "advise" people to pay as they go, trying to spin it as if it's in our own self-interest to do so, but obviously they are getting something out of it when we do. I highly doubt they just sit on all that money, not collecting any interest from it, not using a dime until tax season rolls around. If I am correct that they rely on the vast majority of us paying as we go, could we not bring the entire system to a screaming halt by just all agreed to put the money aside and pay at the end of the year?
What if at the start of the next tax cycle, we collectively told our employers not to withhold the estimated tax amount from our paychecks, and simply did so for ourselves? I'm assuming the money they withhold goes straight to the government, but I'm not knowledgeable enough to know for sure exactly where those tax withholdings fall and when.
But if the government is reliant on the masses unquestioningy paying as we go, couldn't we leverage simply choosing not to do this to our benefit? As far as I know, there is nothing illegal about doing this, and if you simply copy what you're employer typically withholds from you, you shouldn't owe more or less (at least in my tax-uneducated line of thinking.) If you place it in a high interest savings account, you'd actually make some money rather than losing it, and they couldn't come for us legally, as we would clearly be intending to pay our taxes, just in a way that is legal but far less convenient for the government.
Any thoughts are appreciated, especially from any tax experts out there. And if this is a viable option, where do we begin on getting the masses on board, and what and all should we demand to resume the monthly withholdings?
Hoping for answers by leftists, not liberals (no offense).
I want to make a post about a topic related to gender issues but I'm not sure it would be appropiate for this sub.
Most likely they'll do a little deportation and ban abortion
Least likely: banning porn "thanks to Elon"
Looking for queer-friendly, leftist-friendly gun safety courses and/or concealed carry courses in Colorado.
Coming here in good faith to learn.
How would you promote societal advancement in a world without any form of capitalism?
For example, what incentive would people have to develop technology, better medicine, or any number of societal improvement without the backdrop of personal gain?
Most everyone is feeling pretty burnt out and frustrated by the election. However, we want to keep up hope and also put the negative energy into something positive. What could we do to help the country and our community move forward in spite of recent events? How should we be planning for the midterms and 2028?
Our county voted 80% for Trump, the highest margin in our state. It's a blue state, so we have basic human protections, but the county is very conservative and our sheriff is one of those typical Republican political hacks.
We'd like to focus on voter education and combatting some of the misinformation that helps Republicans win. Our Democratic Party is largely non-existent. The chair hosts fundraisers with candidates in their home from time to time during elections, but that's about it. It's more of an elite social club than a political party here.
Open to ideas. We want to make ourselves useful. There's only about 8 to 12 of us but we'll try to grow it as well.
genuinely think that dem gatekeeping is destroying the party. republicans basically accept anyone you don't have to have a very specfic beliefs or virtue signaling. sorry if this isn't worded that well. I was just thinking about this
If someone says "Republicans scare me" and your first knee jerk reaction is "well the Demonrats also like money so they're basically the same" I'm going to assume you're uninformed and I'll write off what you have to say.
Yes, the democrats are corporate slugs. I hate them for it and I hate the party. But who is coming into power right now? The democrats didn't promise to deport every immigrant they see. They didn't threaten to destroy the economy and trade with 100% tarrifs, let Russia annex parts of Ukraine, and let Netanyahu "finish the job" however he sees fit.
Some of yall are so hung up on the Democrats handling of the atrocities in Gaza and their corporate suckling that you're missing the fact that it's about to get worse. I decry the genocide, but I should also be able to decry Republicans without psyop-ass posters coming in and saying "this means you like genocide" or "you're a fascist too".
I guess if you don't wet dream about Democrats suffering, I guess if you care that Republicans are about to make everything so much worse, then you're not a leftist. Because as well all know, a true leftist doesn't bother with nuanced takes. A true leftist just browbeats people in unrelated posts about their off topic opinions on the party that is about to leave power. Forget the fascism, I guess.
Well to some of yall they're both super fascists. Which, I mean, can't help that kind of ignorance.
Democrats: uncaring, cold corpo slugs who want money and to appease the masses just enough to maintain the status quo that works for them even if people get hurt.
Vs.
Republicans: let's kill (start with) deport(ing) everybody who isn't a WASP.
No difference, I guess. Then I would ask: so how is leftism gonna be easier under Republicans? Anyone have any answer for that? I bet not.
People love to lump groups in with the same people that group is speaking out against. Like remember when Antifa had a massive resurgence in 2016. The main negative opinion on them I saw was worded along the lines of “this anti-fascist group is actually fascist.” What? 😂😂😂 Is there not a name for this? What’s it called, shifting the burden or something?
Different people who are prejudice towards a marginalized group may have different reasons they became prejudice and different stories of what happened that made them prejudice. For instance some people are prejudice because growing up everyone around them hated the said marginalized group and so taught them to be prejudice, while others might be prejudice because as a child they were once abused or bullied by people who happened to be members of a certain marginalized group, and others are prejudice for religious reasons, while others may be prejudice because they just like having a group to bully and take advantage of. Do you think the reason and story behind someone being prejudice towards a particular marginalized group matters in terms of how to address the persons prejudice and whether to show sympathy to the person who is prejudiced?