Grenzer
11th October 2011, 03:06
Hello everyone. I've been lurking around here for a while so I thought I'd join.
I only began paying attention to politics a few years ago. At first, I considered myself a right-wing libertarian. I was taken in by their rhetoric of freedom. After the economic crisis of 2008, I rapidly became disillusioned with that ideology seeing that my future was quickly crumbling because of the actions of the wealthy. It became obvious that the "freedom" offered by libertarianism wasn't freedom at all, it's the freedom for the rich to do what they want while screwing everyone else over.
I became a neoliberal shortly after the election of President Obama, but it didn't take long to see that though his rhetoric differed sharply from Republican Presidents, in practice neoliberals and neoconservatives were just two sides of the same ugly coin: capitalism. By that point, I had started considering myself a social-democrat, but was slowly become disillusioned with that as well. I've probably been ripe for radicalization the past year.
About a year ago I interviewed a member of the CPUSA for part of a paper I was writing. Looking back on it, that is probably what started me down the road of seriously considering a revolutionary, even though the views of the CPUSA seem rather reactionary by my current standards.
A month ago I ran into some Trotskyists who gave me some literature. That was really the first exposure to Marxism I'd ever had, and after reading the Communist Manifesto I decided to take the leap and become a communist. I don't consider myself to be a Trotskyist though. I'm still going through and checking out all the literature I can get my hands on at this point. It's been mostly marxist so far, but I also want to consider anarchism. They both have the same end goal so I'm not really too concerned about reaching a decision yet. I am now fully convinced that now amount of reform can "fix" capitalism. What is needed is a complete revolution and zero compromise with the bourgeois. It seems like too many revolutionary scenarios go awry when the socialists decide to collaborate with the bourgeois...
Also, I found some site called the Socialist Phalanx, does anyone know anything about this? It describes itself as a site for "revolutionaries" and "nationalistic socialists." This sounds like reactionary bullshit, communism and nationalism are mutually exclusive.
Anyway, look forward to meeting you and learning.
I only began paying attention to politics a few years ago. At first, I considered myself a right-wing libertarian. I was taken in by their rhetoric of freedom. After the economic crisis of 2008, I rapidly became disillusioned with that ideology seeing that my future was quickly crumbling because of the actions of the wealthy. It became obvious that the "freedom" offered by libertarianism wasn't freedom at all, it's the freedom for the rich to do what they want while screwing everyone else over.
I became a neoliberal shortly after the election of President Obama, but it didn't take long to see that though his rhetoric differed sharply from Republican Presidents, in practice neoliberals and neoconservatives were just two sides of the same ugly coin: capitalism. By that point, I had started considering myself a social-democrat, but was slowly become disillusioned with that as well. I've probably been ripe for radicalization the past year.
About a year ago I interviewed a member of the CPUSA for part of a paper I was writing. Looking back on it, that is probably what started me down the road of seriously considering a revolutionary, even though the views of the CPUSA seem rather reactionary by my current standards.
A month ago I ran into some Trotskyists who gave me some literature. That was really the first exposure to Marxism I'd ever had, and after reading the Communist Manifesto I decided to take the leap and become a communist. I don't consider myself to be a Trotskyist though. I'm still going through and checking out all the literature I can get my hands on at this point. It's been mostly marxist so far, but I also want to consider anarchism. They both have the same end goal so I'm not really too concerned about reaching a decision yet. I am now fully convinced that now amount of reform can "fix" capitalism. What is needed is a complete revolution and zero compromise with the bourgeois. It seems like too many revolutionary scenarios go awry when the socialists decide to collaborate with the bourgeois...
Also, I found some site called the Socialist Phalanx, does anyone know anything about this? It describes itself as a site for "revolutionaries" and "nationalistic socialists." This sounds like reactionary bullshit, communism and nationalism are mutually exclusive.
Anyway, look forward to meeting you and learning.