Convince parents!

[goldenboy2421]

hiya everyone. Ive been a socialist/communist for about 9 months now and im still kinda not 100% expert, not even close! but any ways im first generation mexican american and ofcourse my parents are all into hardwork making aliving but honestly, im a communist!! they kinda know but they hate it! i had a picture of che on my binder and my dad yelled at me..lamee. BUT i have been able to sneak some leftist books, like i was able to get my dad to buy me Capital by Marx but its hard!!! i tryed and im like huh!?!?!lol any ways what do your parents fill about it??

[Savage]

Im sure you can rid your parents of their ignorance if you just explain what leftism really is.

[Magón]

Did you tell your parents about the EZLN (Zapatistas) in Southern Mexico? They're a Communist group operating in Mexico, and if you look into them, they're not what your parents would see Communists as. (maybe.) But seeing as they've lived in Mexico, and you're a first gen mexi-american, they probably know the fighting that happened between them and the gov. so they might have an opinion on the EZLN.

[ExUnoDisceOmnes]

My parents are sort of scared of my politics. My dad was against it until he decided to "talk about it"... after 3 hours, he left my room with nothing else to say :-P and hasn't mentioned it since. Prove to your parents that you know what you're talking about, and around them use buzzwords like "equality" and "reach full potential" (they generally like that sort of thing). They'll leave you alone. Also, you can find most major communist texts at marxists.org if you aren't able to get your hands on the book itself.

[Ocean Seal]

hiya everyone. Ive been a socialist/communist for about 9 months now and im still kinda not 100% expert, not even close! but any ways im first generation mexican american and ofcourse my parents are all into hardwork making aliving but honestly, im a communist!! they kinda know but they hate it! i had a picture of che on my binder and my dad yelled at me..lamee. BUT i have been able to sneak some leftist books, like i was able to get my dad to buy me Capital by Marx but its hard!!! i tryed and im like huh!?!?!lol any ways what do your parents fill about it??
My advice, your parents probably don't really hate socialism or communism, they hate the stigma associated with it. They probably don't want you to get in trouble in school, and then have to deal with it at home. It's a fairly reasonable concern, but it shouldn't deter you from leftism. So lets see, start with an anti-capitalist argument, and use things that hit home. I'm first generation Peruvian-American so one thing that worked for me was anti-imperialism and it should apply to your situation as well.

Lets Start with a few offense arguments:
Against Imperialism
In order for capitalists to gain resources they must expand into the third world. To do so they have to pay off a few wealthy people in the country that they need resources from and exploit the workers of that nation sometimes forcing them to work in inhumane conditions. They pay them low wages such that they can barely live. But this is just qualitative stuff: 3 BILLION people live on less than $2 a day. That's shocking and its almost half the world. Who is to blame: the capitalists of course, they create these conditions. 15,000,000 children die a year from starvation, yet we produce 10X the amount of necessary food.
Against Capitalism on the Home Front
Nothing works like the L-curve
http://www.lcurve.org/
Nothing shows the class camps more clearly. 99% (proletarians) of Americans compose the horizontal portion, and 1% (bourgeoisie) composes the vertical portion. In fact the amount of money earned by hard-working people barely varies in the context of how much money the top one percent earns. How different are those who earn 100,000 as a family from those who earn 40,000 as a family when you have people earning billions. That's what the vertical portion signifies, that the amount of wealth that each bourgeoisie owns goes up thousands of times more quickly over 1/100 of the same statistical distribution.
On the Defensive
Socialism isn't for the lazy, capitalism is. In socialism workers earn more because the ruling class no longer controls the means of production. Tell me how the rich work any harder than people like you and I. Bill Gates made 50 billion dollars in one year. The average American family earns 40,000 dollars a year.
50,000,000,000
---------------
40,000

1,250,000.
The argument that capitalists make money according to how hard they work because it is physically impossible to outwork a family 1,250,000 times over regardless of how hard they work and how lazy the average person is. However, a capitalist counter is that they started the corporation and they deserve the profits from it. 200 of the 400 wealthiest men, were born into that status. J.P Getti, David Rockefeller, billionaires by birth. Did they work a day in their lives to achieve that wealth? I think not.

Anyway I would contribute more, but I'm kind of tired.

[L.A.P.]

i tryed and im like huh!?!?!lol any ways what do your parents fill about it??

My parents have increasingly become socialist sympathizing Liberals ever since I voiced my rhetoric to them. They were never the type of parents that got morally outraged about having pictures of Stalin anyways.

[renzo_novatore]

A good way to deal with them is to not talk about it with them. That's what I've done. I mean my parents are republicans ffs. Hardcore ones. Who like the Tea Party. I felt like I was coming out of the closet when I told them that not only am I an anarchist, but I'm also a socialist! We generally don't talk about theory and economics. My dad once asked me what socialistic books I could recommend - I recommended the coming insurrection lol. So yeah - they just think that I generally don't know what I'm talking about, that I'm a youth corrupted by the liberal media, just trying to fit in around the leftism you see at colleges and so on. Suits me fine. I don't need their permission to be an anarchist!

[TC]

It depends on whether your parents are reasonable people who can treat you like a person or if they're petty authoritarian types who treat you like a pet.

If its the former, then you should talk to them like you'd talk to anyone else, just explain your position, not with jargon or references to abstract ideas, but with what you actually think in terms of policies and values. And whether they agree or not, they will hopefully find it reasonable.

If its the later, than just avoid them and the topic and get the hell away when you have the chance.

Never let your parents or society make you think that they own you or that they can forbid anything to you. Take control of your life and be your own person.

[L.A.P.]

A good way to deal with them is to not talk about it with them. That's what I've done. I mean my parents are republicans ffs. Hardcore ones. Who like the Tea Party. I felt like I was coming out of the closet when I told them that not only am I an anarchist, but I'm also a socialist! We generally don't talk about theory and economics. My dad once asked me what socialistic books I could recommend - I recommended the coming insurrection lol. So yeah - they just think that I generally don't know what I'm talking about, that I'm a youth corrupted by the liberal media, just trying to fit in around the leftism you see at colleges and so on. Suits me fine. I don't need their permission to be an anarchist!

That must be some awkward shit when you sit at the dinner table with them.

[NoOneIsIllegal]

I recommended the coming insurrection lol.
FACEPALM!

I would go two ways about this situation:
1) Avoid political talk with parents. A very small minority of people have good political discussion with their parents, but it seems the majority, including me, can barely talk politics with one (or both) of their parents without a shitstorm happening. I know this is a terrible solution, but it's a unfortunate truth for many.

2) Ask them their opinions about the ELZN. I would obviously advise you to learn the basics about them before asking. But see how they react and their impression of them.

[TC]

I don't know why any of you assume that just because they are Mexican American they are going to be symathetic to the EZLN...who do you think it is who is repressing the Chiapas Natives in the first place? Other Mexicans!

[NoOneIsIllegal]

I don't know why any of you assume that just because they are Mexican American they are going to be symathetic to the EZLN...who do you think it is who is repressing the Chiapas Natives in the first place? Other Mexicans!
Nin and I asked him to ask his parents about ELZN and their feelings on them, not "they're from mexico so they must like them!"
if that's what you were referring to

[skizzy]

My parents are christian conservatives. They ignore my politics at all costs.

[Property Is Robbery]

I live with my mom and grandma both of whom are conservatives although my mom isn't hardcore about it at all and will never discuss it. My grandma can be pretty extreme but she is a lot more sympathetic to my beliefs then my liberal dad. He thinks I'm a fucking nut.

[Sitting Bull]

Argue with them, Why should youth repress their views.
Say I am a man and this is what I believe, I am dedicated to the equality and free treatment of all, but unlike the founder, I mean the Blacks Mexicans and Native americans aswell as white europeans.

[Bardo]

I still havent "come out" as a socialist to my parents. They're not the most political people in the world but I'm fairly sure that they lean conservative. On the other hand, my father was a unionized carpenter for decades, so who knows.

[ranksupmarketing]

Im sure you can rid your parents of their ignorance if you just explain what leftism really is.

I agree!!!

[Catmatic Leftist]

I would definitely set them straight. Repressing your innermost feelings will do more harm than good. Examine their most basic assumptions about society, wealth, class, etc. and phrase arguments in the form of questions. This demonstrates that you are listening to them and respect their opinion. It also proves your mastery of the fundamental ideas and exhibits a solid, well-formed belief rather than some adolescent emotional outburst. You'll find yourself using easily understandable vernacular, while at the same time putting forth a high level of discussion.

Good luck,

aFiretrUCKYOUth

[Left]

Parents... I live in Sweden and my dad is from Germany and mom from Sweden and even though my dad has lived as a poor student in France during the 60-70's and lived in the Soviet Union during the same time and was a marxist for a long time he still rants on about communism and worships USA as being liberators.

Whenever we get into a discussion he always supports America and whatever they do even though he votes for the Social Democratic Workers Party here in Sweden and considers himself a left-winger.

He can be a marxist one day and a capitalist the other, so sometimes I wonder what he really thinks.

[blake 3:17]

Don't bother trying to convince your parents. Do push them for the freedom to explore ideas and your individual self determination (that might not be the appropriate language but that's the idea).

My mother was fond of saying, "If you're not a socialist when you're 20, you have no heart. If you're a socialist when you're 30 you have no brains." I'm well past the "no brains" stage, but she and I still get on.

[smk]

Don't bother trying to convince your parents. Do push them for the freedom to explore ideas and your individual self determination (that might not be the appropriate language but that's the idea).

My mother was fond of saying, "If you're not a socialist when you're 20, you have no heart. If you're a socialist when you're 30 you have no brains." I'm well past the "no brains" stage, but she and I still get on.

I believe your mother stole that from Clemenceau. (roughly translated.)

[smk]

Also, I haven't told my parents either. My parents are quite old and there schema has been set by living in America during the Cold War as part of the bourgeoisie. I dont think that there is any hope for them as far as seeing where I stand in politics as an anarcho-communist.