If we all didn't spend so much time on revleft...

[ellipsis]

Fill in the blank:If we all didn't spend so much time on revleft then___________.

...we would all have much better posture and maybe talk more to people about politics, face to face.

[bellyscratch]

... I'd be wasting my time somewhere else.

[Jimmie Higgins]

If I didn't spend so much time on rev-left, I'd have nothing to do when it gets slow at work.

Edit: except computer solitaire.

[Muzk]

... I wouldn't have any communists to ask for advice

[h0m0revolutionary]

If I didn't spend so much time on rev-left, i'd have much more faith in the revolutionary left ;)

[spiltteeth]

...I'd be inventing a new more powerful form of crystal meth for cats.

[kharacter]

If I hadn't spent so much time on revleft...I'd be much more sectarian, believe it or not.

[Black Sheep]

... i'd be actually helping out with thearmed struggle in my town's ongoing inssurectionary path

[FreeFocus]

We'd have a classless, stateless global society already.
















:lol:

[Pirate Utopian]

I'd wack off even more times a day.

[JimmyJazz]

and maybe talk more to people about politics, face to face.

I'm not sure this is preferable. Revleft has a ton of competing viewpoints, and no viewpoint ever gets put forward without being challenged. You sure won't get that in a party meeting.

And as far as "converting" people, I hardly think randomly choosing people to talk with face to face is a better medium for reaching the right (i.e., interested) people than having an active presence on the internet--where interested people can easily find you.

It seems that this whole "off the internet and into the streets!" thing that pops up from time to time on Revleft is a result of people not appreciating what a powerful tool the internet really is, and how much it has actually amplified the voices of people whose opinion mainstream society tends to marginalize.

Today, a kid in a conservative small town can find or stumble upon a site like Revleft and end up getting information about communism from actual communists. What do you think that kid's chances were of being exposed to such ideas if he had lived in the same small town in, say, 1955? Well, as good as the odds that there was a random communist living in his town, I guess.

[Comrade B]

The price of alcohol would rise due to capitalist market patterns of supply and demand.

[Manifesto]

If I didn't spend so much time on Revleft I would I dunno set more stuff on fire (controlled of course).

[Sam_b]

If I didn't spend so much time on revleft then I'd probably have respect for most of the admin team as they're 'just doing their jobs'.

I'd also be less of a prick. No, actually I wouldn't.

[Jimmie Higgins]

I'm not sure this is preferable. Revleft has a ton of competing viewpoints, and no viewpoint ever gets put forward without being challenged.Well, just to prove your point...


You sure won't get that in a party meeting.I think this depends on what's going on politically. When movements are buzzing and there are bigger and more urgent political questions, I think even within established groups (that have a decent level of debate and discussion) then questions take on a new urgency and relevance.

The political level (in the US at least) since the decline of the global justice and anti-war movements has gone way down which has meant that many groups and parties have had to be a little more inward. Discussion is not as dynamic because movements and events are not forcing new questions to the surface.


And as far as "converting" people, I hardly think randomly choosing people to talk with face to face is a better medium for reaching the right (i.e., interested) people than having an active presence on the internet--where interested people can easily find you.Why are these counter to eachother? I think both are important and if I could have only one, then meeting people on the streets and bringing our politics to the neighborhoods, schools, and workplaces would have to be it.

The internet is not too much different than the pamphlets and newspapers utilized by the left early in the last century. One of the things I like about Revleft is that it provides a space for debate among all the radical left which is something that hasn't really existed since some of the newsletters and newspapers of the New Left.


It seems that this whole "off the internet and into the streets!" thing that pops up from time to time on Revleft is a result of people not appreciating what a powerful tool the internet really is, and how much it has actually amplified the voices of people whose opinion mainstream society tends to marginalize.I agree that "off the internet and into the streets!" is kind of off the mark - but mostly because many people here are active in addition to posting here. If someone is only posting while also in a position of being able to organize, then yes, that person should probably "bring their politics to the street". If someone is only organizing and totally writing off radical publications and online forums, then they are probably just as mistaken.


Today, a kid in a conservative small town can find or stumble upon a site like Revleft and end up getting information about communism from actual communists. What do you think that kid's chances were of being exposed to such ideas if he had lived in the same small town in, say, 1955? Well, as good as the odds that there was a random communist living in his town, I guess.Well this has less to do with organizing methods and more to do with the relative strength of the left and how connected radical politics are to the working class.

In 1955, it would be very unlikely for someone in a small town in the US to run into a radical, but it would be likely for someone in a small midwestern town to run into a member of the IWW or the Socialist Party in 1915 because the left was organizing and building parties and organizing unions - as well as publishing papers of the broad Socialist left like "Appeal to Reason".

We need propaganda and debate but that does nothing without also organizing.

[Sam_b]

Gravedigger is one of my favourite Revleft users.:)

[NecroCommie]

What do you mean "not in Revleft"?!

[9]

I'd spend my "vegging out" time on some other website or forum. Or I'd smoke more pot during that time. Or, alternately, I'd start making art again... in fact, that is probably it. I've been in a creative rut for several months that corresponds exactly to my becoming more active on revleft. I guess this forum has a tendency to make me cynical, and cynicism tends to demotivate me in terms of creativity.
But with regard to the latter part of the original post, the time I spend on revleft is "free time", meaning free from structured activity (work, organizing or political events, etc.) and for the purpose of relaxation (or that was the intended purpose, but revleft isn't always conducive to relaxation). So no, my level of work in my community would not change as a consequence of spending less time on revleft.

[RHIZOMES]

I'm not sure this is preferable. Revleft has a ton of competing viewpoints, and no viewpoint ever gets put forward without being challenged. You sure won't get that in a party meeting.

And as far as "converting" people, I hardly think randomly choosing people to talk with face to face is a better medium for reaching the right (i.e., interested) people than having an active presence on the internet--where interested people can easily find you.

It seems that this whole "off the internet and into the streets!" thing that pops up from time to time on Revleft is a result of people not appreciating what a powerful tool the internet really is, and how much it has actually amplified the voices of people whose opinion mainstream society tends to marginalize.

Today, a kid in a conservative small town can find or stumble upon a site like Revleft and end up getting information about communism from actual communists. What do you think that kid's chances were of being exposed to such ideas if he had lived in the same small town in, say, 1955? Well, as good as the odds that there was a random communist living in his town, I guess.

Yup, I lived in a pretty conservative environment and I wouldn't have discovered communism if I didn't have the internet.

[ckaihatsu]

...I'd be back in the mid-'90s trying to drill my point home to liberals who just seem to be around politics for the socializing aspect, stubbornly refusing to comprehend the primacy of class.





Revleft has a ton of competing viewpoints, and no viewpoint ever gets put forward without being challenged. You sure won't get that in a party meeting.


I've been looking forward to something like RevLeft for years now -- there should *always* be (have been) an open forum for revolutionary leftist discussions for the membership (and beyond). But, that aside, this electronic medium is the *absolute best* medium in which to carry out careful, thorough, researched political conversations. It even beats one-on-one, face-to-face or small-group, imo.

And, isn't *this* the *very definition* of the hallowed tradition of democratic politics, as is invoked with every mention of the ancient Greek senate? Granted there's still the little matter of overthrowing the capitalist state in front of us, but let's focus here...! : )





And as far as "converting" people, I hardly think randomly choosing people to talk with face to face is a better medium for reaching the right (i.e., interested) people than having an active presence on the internet--where interested people can easily find you.


Yes! Bring them *here*! (Or serve as a go-between.)





It seems that this whole "off the internet and into the streets!" thing that pops up from time to time on Revleft is a result of people not appreciating what a powerful tool the internet really is, and how much it has actually amplified the voices of people whose opinion mainstream society tends to marginalize.


Yup, exactly -- to me this is the very *point* of having the Internet at all -- all the rest of what it does is certainly fun and titillating, but nothing on the planet at all quite speaks to the thoughtful, reflective condition of humanity the way RevLeft does....


Chris






--



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___

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[Killfacer]

I'd probably watch more TV and go to weatherspoons for lunch.

[ellipsis]

Uhh... this was kinda a joke thread. People who took it too seriously made good points. I know a lot a people who post on this forum do lots of great stuff off line. But seriously, if i spent half the time that I spend online in general, much of it on revleft, maybe I would have actually found some comrades with which to work in my area. Hey that's just me.

[thethinkingchimp]

I would spend more time studying and reading.... either way my posture is fucked:lol:

[Salabra]

Oh, to be able to spend more time on RevLeft!

:tongue_smilie:

[Comrade B]

Scratch the old one, I would still be drunk, I would just be watching Youtube videos of the Thermals and Avett Brothers while on facebook, talking about stupid shit.

[NecroCommie]

I'd propably wank on the forum of finnish communist youth like I used to.
...
...
They never knew I read their forums. :D I even infiltrated their demonstrations once in a while. I only shame on my laziness not to make nightly phone calls to their office and breathe in a pervy way.

[Lyev]

If I wasn't on RevLeft I'd indefinitely be wasting time somewhere else on the internet, somewhere like PornHub or maybe YouTube lol.


...Although I still need to learn lots about communism to be able implement it into activism and I can't learn properly without the help of all the lovely people on this forum. :)

[Jazzratt]

Porn.

[Velkas]

If I don't spend so much time on RevLeft, I'd have some time to sleep.

[Rusty Shackleford]

If we all didn't spend so much time on revleft then there would be an absence of mutual aid that can be supplied from here through helping each other understand fundamentals of communism/anarchism and a lack of an international forum for people of all nations to speak about a common subject.

[Il Medico]

Porn.
Probably this.

[Bright Banana Beard]

Porn too.

[ckaihatsu]

If we all didn't spend so much time on revleft then there would be an absence of mutual aid that can be supplied from here through helping each other understand fundamentals of communism/anarchism and a lack of an international forum for people of all nations to speak about a common subject.


A-greed.

( -- without greed -- )


: )

[mannetje]

[QUOTE = theredson; 1537744] Vul in het lege: Als we allemaal niet zoveel tijd besteden aan Revleft then___________.

... zouden we allemaal veel Betere houding en misschien meer praten met mensen over politiek, van aangezicht tot aangezicht. [/ QUOTE] er zijn te veel richt vleugelspelers en zware christenen in mijn omgeving. Ik kan 't bespreken linkse aangelegenheden met die ouderwetse mensen.

[ellipsis]

[QUOTE = theredson; 1537744] Vul in het lege: Als we allemaal niet zoveel tijd besteden aan Revleft then___________.

... zouden we allemaal veel Betere houding en misschien meer praten met mensen over politiek, van aangezicht tot aangezicht. [/ QUOTE] er zijn te veel richt vleugelspelers en zware christenen in mijn omgeving. Ik kan 't bespreken linkse aangelegenheden met die ouderwetse mensen.

Me too

[LOLseph Stalin]

If I spent less time on revleft I would be pretty much clueless.

Seriously. I have learned alot since joining this site. :lol:

[JimmyJazz]

<snipped>

I agree with a lot of this. It's just the really hardline "internet sucks, real life is the only place where anything valuable happens" thing that I reject. The internet is an extremely valuable tool, but just one valuable tool.

[Искра]

... I would be a better person. I would hug Bolsheviks and believe that with one strong hug you can save communism.

[Comrade Kaile]

i dont spend enough time on revleft because im busy discussing stuff with my comrades or im busy playing games.... or trolling /b/

hahahah... 4chan...

[Panda Tse Tung]

I wouldn't want revleft to spend less time on revleft. It would mean the end of the world.

[Pogue]

i would probably be on some other forum with 5200 posts

[Angry Young Man]

I'd put some effort into playing the guitar, form a band, get some music out there and (given I've been here for about 3 years) we'd probably be kings of the Earth by now