Are you, and your ideology, correct?

[Stephen Colbert]

Please explain why and how you have come to be a revolutionary and to what extent you believe your ideology is legitimate :cool:

[Broletariat]

Well I was an internet convert. I saw some bro on an online forum debating people and I was open minded and he consistently won out to the point where no one would respond to him. I never really understood his position entirely though so I contacted him on AIM and he redirected me to AFAQ and the rest is history.

Naturally having been linked to AFAQ as my starting document I'm partial to Anarchism, some form of Anarcho-Communism I suppose. Due to the fact I've never properly investigated the other viewpoint on the State and transition issue, I wouldn't exactly oppose a genuine Worker's State if it wasn't causing that many problems. I sort of understand the idea that the new State would just institute a new ruling class that would again need to be overthrown, but again if we're going from Capitalism and a State to merely a State, it's probably better off so I'll support that if no other tendency's are doing anything worthwhile.

[SeaSpeck]

I've had anarchist and communist sympathies all my life, but it wasn't until I talked to a socialist (who turned out to be a social democrat) that I really understood what the left was about.

I'd never say an ideology is completely irrefutable or legitimate. I've been wrong before, so I'd never claim to be the Ultimate Authority on Everything. I try not to tie myself down to one ideology because I can never agree with 100% of anything, so I use blanket terms.

[Stephen Colbert]

For me I started becoming politically active and literally figured out that we didn't live in a democracy at all. I was furious! Democracy(in America that I lived in) has an upper class bias.The establishment is rigged in favor of those who already have power. You wonder why the government is so demonized and denegrated-- it can't do anything revolutionary or truly in the favor of the majority interest of people.

And push came to shove... I've radicalized into a quazi-anarchist. Thanks Chomsky. Nice foot in the water literature you got there

[IllicitPopsicle]

I was 15 and my English class was doing a project to help people in the Darfur region. Next thing I knew, I was signing up for the Save Darfur organization, and then I was joining a music group's "peaceful insurgency," and then I was reading CrimethInc.... and you can see the general pathway from point a to point b pretty well, despite there being quite a bit left out. I'm an anarcho-communist, I suppose. In a few years, a lot has changed. I'd be naive to say more changes aren't possible.

[Taikand]

"There are no heroes and no ideas are sacred."
"no doctrine but the general doctrine of the liberation of the working class."
"no written word as gospel, no past position as eternally applicable."
This is my ideology, and I'd say it's pretty fail-safe.:thumbup1:

[ContrarianLemming]

liberty is good, equality is good. Absolute liberty is best, absolute equality is best.

[Urko]

I was born in 96, when all the former Yugoslavian federations were already independent capitalist states. But since always I've been hearing that life was better in Yugoslavia, so I've always been anti-capitalist. When I joined this site a few days ago, I realised what communism actually is. I'd say I'm a anarcho-communist, but I pretty much support every form of communism. I'm only 14 so I have a long way to go and much to read...

[Catillina]

My first "Communist" sentence was during religion class(I was 8!!!). The teatcher asked to set up laws.
Well I told that we should abolish money, everyone should get things for free^^ The teatcher told me this isnt possible, and I accepted it back then...

Later my father talked to me about Soviet Russia, and Marx an so on(he isnt leftist, rather right wing socialist), and I thought: Hey!!! Sounds good to me^^

[Tablo]

My first "Communist" sentence was during religion class(I was 8!!!). The teatcher asked to set up laws.
Well I told that we should abolish money, everyone should get things for free^^ The teatcher told me this isnt possible, and I accepted it back then...

Later my father talked to me about Soviet Russia, and Marx an so on(he isnt leftist, rather right wing socialist), and I thought: Hey!!! Sounds good to me^^
Please explain.

My ideology is based on me critically analyzing other ideologies and finding the one that seems most effective in achieving my ideal society. I still got a lot of reading though and hardly think any ideology, including my own, can be completely correct.

[Adil3tr]

I used to be a regular democrat. But became frustrated with the restrictions of capitalism. Then I saw the CRIMES. I realized that this system is rotten. When I started reading more Marx, I realized not only why, but how things could be better under a new form of existence. Socialism, Communism, Anarchism, the dream is the same. All people, truly free and equal.

[Blake's Baby]

Yes, I and my ideology are correct.

I've been a revolutionary since I was about 9 (at least, I've espoused revolution since I was about 9, I didn't actively start working for it until later). I became an anti-Stalinist at about 11, in my teens I watched the working class taking a battering due to their faith in the 'left' parties, so I became an Anarchist; then, about 15 years ago, much disillusioned I began to work 'inside the system' without actually giving up on my 'ideals'. About 10 years ago I came under the influence of Left Communism and Council Communism, which both made a lot of sense.

So as to validity, the fact that I believe the things I do means that I find them more believable than things I don't believe. I believe what I believe because it's coherent and accords with my view of the world. Can't get much more 'legitimate' than that.

[BeerShaman]

I am an anarcho-communist and anarcho-syndicalist. I have a special sensibility for natural production and the defending of nature.

I always hated corporations a bit instinctlly though, mostly because of some tiny knowledge I had as a child. I always hated the imposition of power (mostly because of my experiences in family, school etc... I was also a little bit misanthropist back then (I still do, a bit), however I always showed a respect to mercy. I felt a great need to join and startle insurrections and "burn" everything I hate "to the ground"! Now I am far more class-conscious and I prefer more clever methods (however some insurrections are practically great and I wholeheartidly support them).
I was a bit individiualist and isolationist in the past, mostly until my 13 years.
However, day by day, time by time I realised how necessary and how lovely and beneficial collectives and teams are. Thus I became a communist because I understood what I wanted was equality and total freedom.
It all came naturally from the inside of me. I always wanted to protect women and I hated their being oppressed. So I am a feminist too. I always felt more comfortable among them, so I adore most of them.
I had a good friend who was from a marxist family and they are members of KKE (CPG = com. party of Greece), so I quickly started to follow and support marxist theory. Though it's a fact that because of some factors I would rather not mention here for which I stand against KKE, I showed more support for KKE then generally marxists-leninists (I didn't even know a shit about acual marxism and political theory), they learned me to "work" this way, by being half ignorant. After a year when I had decided that I would become a member of the youth of the party (KNE). I said to this "best friend of mine", give me back my biography (a paper you write with some personnal stuff in oreder to get formally in the organisation an d so as to be judged if proper or not and blah blah blah). But he said I cannot postpone it, I can not cancel it blah blah blah, then I lost my trust to him and some stuff like that. (Until then I had become conscious of my feelings, I actually hated all these shit, some stuff they did on their marches and festivals, their type of organisation, what relations the guiders inside the party tried to keep with me, how they kept my gf who was inside the party back then out of stuff I did etc etc, I always had an interest in history and I understood how cheap some of their silly propaganda was sold and I soon tried to abstain and show a different way as an individual.
One anarchist had come to a meeting of the students of KKE and well (he always kept making them angry and saying some silly stuff just in order to break their nerves and disrupt their actions). Although some stuff he said fully expressed me and I felt that if he was alone sometime he would be serious and that I could talk to him, which happened in some sort of way... My actions after my actions and actions after actions and I became a well conscious anarchist communist acting inside and outside of anarchist and revolutionary organisations.
P.s. I am just expressing my sentiments thoughts and past. I do not want to start a flamewar nor to offend anyone. Hope you don't read half of my post when you read it.
Also there is one last shot, what anarchism gave to me as an ideology, marxism never did.
Now I can feel and express every idea and every thought coming straight and free out of my "heart and mind". Back then I pushed myself. The way anrchism communism expreeses me and comes out of me as a being, no other ideology can.
It seems so natural and I always can find a way. It seems to me the really right ideology, 'cause I never seem to get wrong. I always find a simple way to prove things. It is a puzzle solved by anarchism. Marxism and KKE never did that for me, nor my old individualism back then...:)

[Adi Shankara]

I grew up really poor after my parents came here as "refugees" when the Soyuz fell--my dad who was an agricultural scientist in a better life, was unemployable here due to his lack of english skills and dealing with a capitalist economy--so he became rather deadbeat, etc. and I grew up really poor.

that shaped my view the rest of my life, that, if I have to be so poor, why should anyone else have to suffer through this?

[Nolan]

Came to the left later than most others in this thread. Certainly one of the things that got me interested in leftism initially was the Bolivarian movement of Hugo Chavez, since my family is from Venezuela. Father usually hates Chavez, but sometimes he has a soft spot for him or some derisive remark for the opposition. So I ended up getting interested in leftism but hating Lenin, Castro, Chavez, etc. Eventually I got really interested in anarchy after doing a report on Sacco and Vanzetti, then forgot about it for a while. Then a while later I got into Marx, and I liked it even better. I considered myself just a Marxist "without adjectives" (now looking back on it I was some kind of council communist. demand for socialism from below, anti-sovietism, they were all state capitalist, Marxist-Leninists are a blood cult, etc.). Then I became sympathetic to Lenin, then Castro and Chavez. A while later after reading some ML literature, I softened on my hatred for Stalin, and it was eventually replaced by an understanding admiration. I became what I would now call a Castroite, since that was my ideal revolution. I got my current name during that time. Recently I've been gravitating toward anti-revisionist Marxism-Leninism, or Hoxhaism.

As for how legitimate it is: One thing I can say is that anyone who tells you they understand everything is lying.

But I feel Marxism-Leninism provides one with a solid, reliable view of history and the modern world. It best represents my thoughts on the world and life, and I've never felt more at home ideologically. It's always possible this might change in the future, but I'll always have to credit "stalinism" for teaching me to look past surface appearances and consider the complexity behind events.

[danyboy27]

the correctness of my ideology is subjective, and so is yours.