What has your political journey been like?
Pic related is based on what I read a lot of: mainly Camus’s The Rebel, Stirner’s The Ego and Its Own, Bookchin’s Ecology of Freedom, Lenin’s State and Revolution, and Trotsky’s Revolution Betrayed. But I started with Marx’s Communist Manifesto.
where do you think your political journey will go beyond trotskyism?
>>2539937I do not just sit down to read Trotsky and do nothing. I guess I have to read more of the Situationists but I see that as a dead-end. But theory is not everything. There is still work to be done; we need a 21st century perspective based on the development of world history and technology. It is not just theory in the clouds. We must reckon with the looming threat of world war three, Trump’s fascism, NATO imperialist build up, and the rise of backlash to right-wing populism.
from what ive read in the revolution betrayed, trotsky's left-opposition formed in reaction to lenin's NEP which progressed into stalin's "socialist commodity production" due to a failure to collectivise the land of the peasants. bukharin is described as right-opposition while trotsky is left-opposition. the "old guard" is trotsky's enemy and so a new international is needed.
would you say this is accurate?
>>2539963That’s an oversimplification. Bukharin and Stalin still agreed on certain theoretical concepts like Socialism in One Country. The main difference between Trotsky and other Bolsheviks that he organised against, is that he viewed socialism as needing to be established internationally. It is not a deviation from Marxism, but rather the SiOC is a right-wing distortion of the writings of Marx, Engels and Lenin.
>>2539968SiOC was a historical necessity not a right wing deviation.
Vaguely communist, anarchist, anarco-communist, marxist, now for a few years been confused, could be described as libertarian marxist or something like that
I've always believed the same thing. I don't know how people can just change their core beliefs like that.
>fascism
>fascism
>fascism
>briefly pretended to be a “Leninist” whatever the fuck that is before reverting to fascism
Wow such a political journey
>>2540181>everything I don't agree or support is fascismthe absolute state of this citizen
I was anti-American from the time I heard about what America was and a communist from the time I heard what capitalism is. The ideological details are pretty gay and mostly amount to what flavor of ice cream you prefer because IRL orgs tend not to conform to historical models unless they are useless LARPers, since real life politics requires you to meet the material conditions as they are. Theory is very useful but it's just a toolset for how you can analyze the conditions you see in the present.
>>2540176Most of what people are describing ITT isn't core beliefs but just what kind of framework they were using. The problem is people tend to be too rigid in this because it's easier to be dogmatic and basically just replace one religion with another. Everyone from the time of Marx to now tends to struggle with this to some degree unless they're just plain schizo. It's a tough balance to strike because it feels insecure and unintuitive to recognize the things you consider to be "true" are all ultimately a contingency. It drives a lot of people insane and into the comforting arms of dogmatism where you never have to worry about being wrong lol
Got into New Atheism at like 14 (yeah I know), then had a sort of anti-SJW phase until like 18 (this was barely politics, just "lol look at this cringe feminist lmao"). Then I got into socialism. Been a socialist ever since, but I've never felt the need to adhere to a specific tendency. Although the closest would be ML. So I've basically been a socialist ever since I was old enough to understand politics.
>>2540184The first three are literally ideological precursors to fascism and Trotskyites actively collaborated with Japan, Britain, and Germany to destroy the Soviet Union. So yes they are all just fascism for quirked up cluster b art hoes
>>2540201how many weeks did this journey last?
Mostly just dealing with the general declining state of things and growing increasingly more radicalized 'cause of it. When I was a kid it was "Fuck Bush, he's a retard", then I genuinely thought Obama was gonna "fix" things, and after that it's just been "you can't fix this, you've got to build something new."
Somewhat progressive left-wing parents + cool group of friends that did drugs in school= anarchism was my first premature political awakening. Kropotkin's ideas seemed so natural, if only the right actions were undertaken, people would spontaneously become their true self in solidarity. Social and political practice, but mostly daily routine of studying in the ideological apparatus of the university while also having to work to vet by, taught me that nothing is going to happen spontaneously and without organization. But also, I still thought that there is a contradiction between the individual and the Party, mostly that it was cool to "bombard the headquarters", and also I liked the aesthetic of a red full-face and an AK-47. These criteria dominated because I was still overcome by some anti-communist feelings borne about from western anti-sovietism. I became Principally Maoist. That was a transitional stage.
When geopolitics and realpolitik started kicking in with the escalation of the imperialist war of our era, in order to avoid nihilism I turned fully revisionist for about a year, and cut off from my previous comrades. I turned to Dengism and campism.
For the last few years, I have recognised that China is an imperialist power and that our only hope is the independent struggle of the proletariat against all bourgeois powers. I studied the history of soviet union, without the dogmatic categories of "social imperialism" or "market socialism" and now I see that it has a lot to teach us, both the positive but mostly the negative experience. Also, collective study of the history of the communist movement has led me to reject the strategy of stages in revolution (that modern trotskyism paradoxically accepts in the form of transitional programmes in the ground of capitalism). Finally, I see imperialisms as an organic whole and a stage in the development of capitalism not as the policy of some states, or of a single state (the US). I have joined a Party that along with the KKE and others constitute the leninist pole in the international communist movement.
>not becoming a Stirnerian Stalinist that selfishly says fuck internationalism, I’m building all the socialism in one country for myself.
Cringe
After joining the work fore I realize how precarious is the workers condition, after saying that to a friend he called me a "commie", after that a read little of marx and agree with his ideas, but as of right now I cetical of marx economics theories, like those theories are old and not many serious economist agree with them as of right now, only fringe economist support marx economics theories, so I'm a in search for a modern economics based socialist theory
>>2539934The "my political journey" for anyone who's actualyl read Marx and the like will always be
non-marxist → Marxist-Leninist
fin
>>2539934>7-11 years oldNationalist Christian as I was raised
>12-15 years oldApolitical
>15-25 years oldMarxist-Leninist
>25-35 years oldLibertarian Socialist
>>2540232Essentially what they said.
Bourgeois politics was so distressing for me when I was younger that I never bothered to learn about anything political. I bsclly remained a good ol' liberal until about two years ago when I had a spiritual revelation that instead of making me some kind of evangelical retard or idealist I ended up reading stuff on diamat. At some point I started calling myself a Marxist since it makes more sense to me to focus on the points of analysis to evaluate theory on the merit of it's fitted-ness with actual material conditions
Roughly 12 to 17 years of age - Lib or Socdem, pro-NATO/West/Ukraine/Taiwan/independent Xizang and Xinjiang, anti authority and authoritarianism, anti-Putin and pro-breaking Russia and former East Block into occupation zones (They're not lib and porg enough)
17 to 20 - Lukewarm Nationalism and Panislamism.
20 to 24 - Chuderism and Huwhite Supremacy
24 and onwards - some kind of Communism, I think.
I was a liberal, then I watched Argo as a teenager and realized that America actually sucked because it was our fault Iran was the way it was in the first place, then I discovered the CPUSA and Maoist Rebel News thanks to some youtube buddies and I declared myself a communist, I remained that way being interested in Maoism until I discovered leftypol and soon after refined my beliefs into anarcho-communism, where they remain to this day
liberal > bernie bro > 4chan poisoned chud > anarchist > egoist > ML
People who were far-right white nationalists before and claim to be reformed leftists now are probably full of shit. Nobody changes their mind like that, unless they're just straight up fucking schizo.
>>2540673>>2540668i was 16 and vulnerable. having an easy out that I was just being put down by the jews was an easier pill to swallow
>>254067816 year old boys are too immature to have any real political views, nothing you believed at that age really counted, you were just a confused infant.
>Younger than 14
Apolitical or shitlib
>14-16
Baby socialist. Imagine someone who thinks that socdem policies are socialist and kind of likes the October Revolution, and that's what I was.
>16-18
"Trotskyist". I liked the USSR and revolution but thought that Stalin was scary, so Trotskyism is where I landed. Didn't read shit so I wasn't a committed Trotskyist
>18-25
I started reading shit and thought that Syndicalism sounded the best. Not Anarcho-syndicalism, mind you, but Syndicalism.
>25-27
MLs on leftypol helped me learn that communism is actually possible and that the socialist world wasn't "corrupted" or something like that. Bernie breaking the taboo on being a socialist made it so that I was no longer afraid to call myself a communist.
>28-today
Study and IRL experiences lead me to Marxism-Leninism-Maoism.
>Age 6
Dinosaurs
>Age 8
Dragon Ball Z
>Age 10
Pokemon
>Age 12
Skateboarding
>>2540695Totally tubular, dude.
I went from a progressive social democrat to a socialist.
>>2540339Have sex with me pls.
>>2540495Why the switch from ML to libertarian socialism?
>>2540728if MLs understood the importance of non state organizing in socialism they would be too
>>2540741Then elaborate on the importance for non-state organizing and how that would change someone‘s view from being ML to being a libertarian socialist.
most of you people just getting out of your 20s or are in your 20s. your beliefs when you were 15 weren't really anything concrete just vague vibe bullshit
>>2539934succdem → demsoc → syndicalist → councilist → marxist-leninist → nazbol → juche → paetelist → national socialist → ethnomaterialist → stopped believing in "ideologies" alltogether
>>2541993>marxist-leninist → nazboljust how
>>2541995massive authoritarianism phase
>>2541999vibes based? i mean how did you reconcile them, especially the nazbol's ultra-nationalist part if you're talking about limonovites/russian nazbols
>>2541995They're pretty much the same
>>2539934incel doomer -> Western Marxism (so Gramsci, Marcuse, Adorno and so on) -> Marxism-Leninism -> Lesbian Dengism -> Marxism-Leninism-Maoism (TWism) -> Western Marxism-Leninism-Maoism
I'm convinced that the principal contradiction in the imperial core is not the contradiction between workers and capitalist exploitation but is the contradiction between workers and the bourgeois superstructure.
>>2542024it was in-part due to my feeling that centralized social collectivization had to occur as a necessary precursor for economic collectivization, the likes of which i believed could only occur in partially-homogenous conditions, which made me go down such a rabbit hole. i tried applying materialism introspectively towards human biology and sub-composite groups to which i hypothesized some groups had more cumulative productive faculties than others (in relation to their cerebral faculties, etc)
>>2542226We need to industrialize domestic labor and develop the feminine productive forces. Gender is simply a remnant of feudalism. Also I thought we needed a kind of New Economic Policy for gender minorities. It was kind of silly to compare Lesbians with Black ghettos though. I do still think there needs to be an effort to socialize production to benefit certain lumpenized groups like the disabled though.
Semi-relevant
https://www.marxists.org/subject/women/authors/davis-angela/housework.htmI also liked Harry Braverman's "Labor and Monopoly Capital" which is related to the subject of women and housework.
Forgive me for how basic bitch this is, but honestly the only political book I ever read that really spoke to me was The Grapes of Wrath, which I later learned was likely plagiarized and John Steinbeck was probably a hack fraud, but regardless of that, the novel expressed the basic concepts of capitalism and economics and socialism and self-governance and collective organization in very direct common working man's language that made a lot more sense to me than stuff like Marx and Engels and a lot of it I personally related to from growing up in sort of a poor rural family and reading it in early grade school I think was very formative for me and my political views, probably more than anything else I've read.
>>2542241>i tried applying materialism introspectively towards human biology and sub-composite groups to which i hypothesized some groups had more cumulative productive faculties than others (in relation to their cerebral faculties, etc)did you manage to find relevant peer reviewed research in support of those theories, and broader scientific discussion (both critical and supportive)?
>the likes of which i believed could only occur in partially-homogenous conditionswhat lead you to believe that in particular, given that a commonly cited example of centralized social collectivization in action being the soviet union with dozens of ethnicties, most if not all indigenous to the territory?
Hey, Iran anon here.
My first ideological belief was a lack of it. I was a teen and mostly thought "killing people le bad" and that was it. Default setting socialism, basically.
Then i went through, as does anyone, my own edgy phase, characterized by a highlighted and noted book of mein kampf i had and still have (i have added much more criticism to it now).
Realizing i was not actually racist and did not feel hatred towards minorities, i started reading and expanded the scope of my media and literature consumption.
I always believed in God, and plato's idea of philosopher king rule seemed interesting and feasible to me, but it lacked any sort of divinity to back it up, which was a big deal for me as a semi-religious person at that stage.
I am now a Shia revolutionary, and it defines my ideological outlook.
I am still a nationalist, though no longer through a ethno-racial lens.
I am anti-imperialist, i reject western consumerism, capitalism and globalism.
Domestically, i do not trust much of either political party, traditionalist or the reformists. They are either incompetent, corrupt or otherwise untrustworthy (rare is the gem amidst the rubble). The only man to whom i hold great respect is my leader, those who fight to defend my nation and the opressed of the world and the prophet and the ahl al-bayt.
That wraps it up. Death to Isreal, Death to America, and have a nice day.
>>2539934Liberal - Technocrat - back to liberal - brief phase of left-libertarian confusion - today: anarcho-communism
Edgy Libertarian -> DemSoc -> French Marxist with Maoist sympathies
You are gay
Stalinist counter-revolutionary “Marxism-Leninism” → Marxist
>>2539952>Trump’s fascismShitlib retardation. Trump is as fascist as the previous administrations. Aesthetics blind libtards who are incapable of conceiving anything through a materialist lens.
>>2543405so by your own words you became retarded.
ŕight lolbert (until i became 14) >> democratic ""socialist"" bernie bro (reddit made me have a psychosis agaisnt tankies, aka newest astroturf) >> (knowing the existence of ian neves) >> ""marxism"" - ""leninism"" (dengist revisionism) >> anti revisionist hoxhaism (actual marxism)
>>2544724>""leninism"" (dengist revisionism) >> anti revisionist hoxhaism (actual marxism)what convinced you
>>2544946blood lies by grover furr, then eurocommunism is anti-communism. hoxha was right on those brezhnevite fascists and liberals like kosygin
soc dem
dem soc
maoist
you guys are way too impressionable
Apolitical>Anarchist>Lolbert>Socdem>Socialist>ML>Nazbol>Fascist
I went from a classical fascist, then i got disillusioned by rampant race autism in the right and became an ML, then i got disillusioned by Soviet nostalgia and how a lot of MLs went down the Dengist route and became a Socdem. I've tried getting into the Anarchist route by reading Graeber and although i find him a valuable insight ig my brain has been too deep fried by fascist metaphysics that i just cant bring myself to believe in these sorts of spontaneous anti-structure actions (same reason why i can't get into Workerism or even Magacom, surprising considering how a lot of people here considered Magacoms to be borderline Hitlerites, but in my eyes Haz and his clique operates almost indistinguishably from the autonomous leftists), so basically i'm stuck here hoping that the DSA will win and bring grand bourgs into a Nuremberg style trial
>>2543179Fascinating. I've had a Catholic Distributionist phase and i'm pleasantly surprised by the familiarities i encountered when i read Imam Khomeini's Islamic Government. Although i can't say that i still agree with my old self i consider the Iranian system to be a very sophisticated one and wishes the best for your homeland in the fight against American imperialism
>>2539934(11-13) years old
>fascist-islamist>fascist-arabnationalist(14-16)
>marxist, kinda trotskyist but with a reconcilatory position "why we should fight each other over history?">marxist-leninist>maoist(17-now)
>marxist-leninist (hoxhaist) does anyone have a political journey template
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