Your political development

[Belleraphone]

So what was your political development? When you first started paying attention to politics?

Well I was still living in Venezuela for the Bush election but I remember seeing news about him. I always saw on my English TV channel that Gore would always lose so I felt bad and wanted Gore to win, but then I picked Bush (announced it to my parents) because I didn't want to be wrong.

Then later when I moved to USA and around 2003 elections, I asked what the difference was between to major parties. The answer was "The democrats want to raise taxes and spend money on schools and parks, the republicans want to lower taxes and spend less money on schools and parks." It was obviously a very juvenile explanation but I was only 10.

From there I just called myself a democrat without knowing anything about politics. In sixth grade I learned that being gay is okay (never really thought about it.) Ironically the person who showed me this was my eccentric theatre arts teacher who thought that kids were cussing so much today because of USSR infiltration into our major institutions, but she was really pro-gay, go figure.

In 8th grade our US history teacher talked about politics a lot because it was one year before election year so I had a somewhat better grasp on the issues like healthcare, I was still a democrat though. Then in 9nth grade I joined the debate club and a lot of them were very left. I think in my group of friends the least left-leaning person was a Nader supporter. I became a Marxist-Leninist but we all still thought Obama would improve the conditions of the country. This continued through 10nth grade and then in 11nth grade I just became a social democrat/Democratic socialist when I perceived Marxist-Leninsm to be BS. I didn't really focus on political theory but international relations and US misconduct in the middle east.

Then senior year I discovered what anarchy really was and now I'm a anarcho-syndicalist, it's kind of funny looking back to see how I developed.

[Marxaveli]

I started out as a normal Liberal Democrat around the late 90's, but I wasn't very interested in politics yet. I begin to slowly get into them a little more as time went on. For a few years, I considered myself an Independent as I became frustrated with both parties lack of ability to get anything done. As the economy worsened after Bush and Obama held office respectively, I knew something wasn't right. Because there were no jobs available (and still arent really) I went back to school to major in business. I was taking a philosophy class, and Marx was one of the theorists we examined. I was fascinated with him, but wasn't totally radicalized yet. I was still in reform mode, and became a Social Democrat. I changed my major to Political Science, and in one of my Poli Sci classes, we examined Marx again, this time in more detail, and I was officially converted into a full-blown Communist. Now, there is no looking back. I have achieved class consciousness and now understand the material conditions around me, and I am always seeking to understand more about Marxism and use it as a tool for analyzing the history of class conflict and what it means for the present and future.

[eyeheartlenin]

As far back as high school, I was opposed to the US war in Viet Nam and to nuclear weapons; I remember ordering some of those black and white peace buttons, with the strange CND symbol (which now appears everywhere, even on clothes and bags at Old Navy in the mall) and giving them out to other high schoolers that I knew. I was alienated enough not to dress up for the totally bogus "teacher appreciation day" in our very regimented high school, where administrators could search your locker whenever they pleased. My generation, from the sixties, was actually a well-behaved bunch of youth, until they tried sending us all to Viet Nam, to die in a pointless war, before we had even lived very much.

I was totally focused on the war in Viet Nam by the time I hit college, in DC, and I can still remember marching against the war for the first time, first semester, freshman year; at the rally after the march, a guy with a guitar sang a song, "No more Viet Nam for me," and there was an earnest young adult speaker who talked about "taking over the Democratic Party for peace," which was rich, since it was a Democratic pol, the Prez, LBJ, who had ordered a major escalation of US military intervention in Viet Nam and was bombing the hell out of one of the poorest countries on earth, invoking the completely BS "domino effect." So from my first real political experience, I have watched the US left orient to the pro-war Democrats, a trend that continues.

The next year, I attended a class series held by the YSA (the SWP's youth group), which I then joined. The first socialist article I ever read, was written by Peter Camejo, in opposition to supporting the Democrats. I remember selling the Militant on the streets of DC. We all worked very hard to build the antiwar movement, and I participated in monster-sized protests against the war in NYC and at the Pentagon, within walking distance of where I was living at the time. Though I drifted out of the YSA, I continued to march in antiwar demos.

As a Russian language major, I bought a lot of left-wing lit, from the USSR, at Kamkin's, a bookstore up on 14th Street, in DC.

I read some Lenin and Trotsky as an undergraduate, but I put off reading Marx for a long time, because the one person I knew who had read Capital was a philosophy major, and I thought it would be too difficult for me. Years later, when I finally opened the first volume of Capital, the text was not that hard at all. I wish I had read it when I was younger. I did get through What Is To Be Done, and State and Revolution in college, and I also remember reading part of Isaac Deutscher's trilogy on Trotsky's life then.

My years in college ended with the general student strike in the spring of 1970, where many, if not most, US colleges were shut down, to protest the shooting of students at Kent State, Ohio, and Jackson State, in Mississippi. Other than the massive antiwar demos I went to, the 1970 student strike was the biggest thing I had ever seen. I remember sitting on the lawn in front of my alma mater, during the strike, and being really convinced that revolution was a possibility in this country. It was an incredible time!

[Susurrus]

Kindergarden, as a liberal. I distinctly remember asking the other children why they liked Bush. Response: "Because the other guy is ugly."

Researched communism in 10th grade or so.

[ComradeGrant]

Started caring about 4th grade, when a friend ripped me out of apoliticalness and made me Democrat. That same year a girl told me god hated me for supporting gay marriage. That was a pretty big part in my religious development as a kid. I was a pretty radical Democrat, often expressing outright hatred for the United States, then reluctantly agreeing when my mom would say things like "it's just the Republican's fault." I fully supported Obama. I was in the eighth grade and rhetoric=action to me so it made sense. About that time I was ranting about the poor and my mom, who studied Marxism in college, jokingly called me a communist. I was offended and frightened at first, until she explained to me real communism. At that point I began my research, and a quick march away from the Democrats. I came first to Marxist-Leninism (my old Lenin shirt will speak to this) but was never particularly fond of Stalin. After about six months of more research and some lurking on revleft I drifted into Anarcho-Syndicalism, and I've been there ever since. My friends underwent similar changes, and my three best friends are Anarchists.

[the Leftâ„¢]

After having a brief period of disillusionment as a naive first time voter in 2008, i ventured into paleoconservative-ville and learned about such persons as Calvin Coolidge (:scared::scared::scared:) and Ayn Rand. I vomited and typed Revolutionary Leftism into google and then I mad an account here. Cool story bro i know right? I adopted anarcho-syndicalism after reading chomsky a decent amount and kropotkin later

[Искра]

I joined Croatian army back in 40's. Got ass kicked by some partisan guys, so I changed to Marxism-Leninism. In 1948 they said that Stalin was no good, so I changed quickly to Titosim. After that 90's came, so I'm now Croat again.

[Nox]

I've been an antifa ever since I reached the age where people begin to get interested in politics (for me it was age 13-14) and I became a Communist when I was 15, and became an Anarchist just before I turned 17.

[Aloysius]

Started listening to Rise Against and Anti-Flag when I was 10. Read 1984 in 8th grade, googled "crimethink' which brought me to CrimethInc. Later on, in the summer before 9th grade, a quick google search for anarchist slogans brought me here. After trolling the Learning forum for a while, I joined, and became an anarchist-communist.

I guess RevLeft is almost single-handedly responsible for turning me into me.

[Zealot]

- Read some Marx

- Read some Lenin

- Read about Anarchism but concluded it really had no revolutionary tactics other than fancy ideas

- Dabbled into Trotskyism for a little bit because I had believed all the bs about Stalin I was told in school

- Went to Viet Nam and developed a fascination for Ho Chi Minh and the Viet Minh

- Read some Stalin, watched some WWII docs and thought "he was actually a pretty cool guy"

- Became Marxist-Leninist

[thriller]

I was a liberal up until September 11th 2001. After that I started to research US foreign policy, I was about 12. After this I realized America was kind of a dick-bag. I was mainly anti-american/anti-capitalist for a while. I went overseas to Italy and Germany and watched demonstrations from communists and anarchists. I then realized that the left is alive and well in other countries, and the US school system kind of brainwashed me into thinking electoral politics was the only way to go. I went to the library, got the Manifesto, and pretty much became a communist after that (17ish). I continued to develop my learning, and still do to this day.

[Tomhet]

I basically realized I don't have the means nor ability to 'succeed' in capitalism, I support my own class interest...

[Art Vandelay]

I believe my start with political development came at a time when I began to seriously question religion. After that it was kind of a "aha" moment where I though, I wonder what else they are lying about. Got into revolutionary politics through Fidel and Che as I have family from south america who turned me on to them. Eventually stumbled into Trotskyism and now to Anarchism.

[Smyg]

Apolitical anti-fascist with a thing for rebels -> Vaguely socialist economically, very socialist in social issues -> Non-defined communist -> Vaguely Trotskyist -> Libertarian socialist -> Anarcho-Communist.

[Tim Finnegan]

A social democrat-style scepticism of contemporary capitalism ("Boo corporations! Yay cooperatively-owned grocery stores!") developed into a vaguely anarchistic rejection of capitalism as such during that little bout of everything-going-completely-fucking-wrong a couple of years back, followed by a gradual ramble through various forms of libertarian socialism. I've yet to settle into any definite position, but at the moment I'd probably fall under a rather broading heading of "left communist", although I shy away from using the term until I get a bit more understanding under my belt. My last political read was Bookchin's Post-Scarcity Anarchism, so I like to think that I maintain an open mind.

[El Louton]

Born political. All my family are Labourites or Socialists and my Grandad is a political writer and my is involved with Trade Unions while my Dad works for a trade union. My Mum is a socialist feminist so I was politically involved at birth. I always called my self Labour until I was about eleven when I watched then read the 'Motorcycle Diaries' about/ by Che Guevara. Since then I was a socialist and now I am a socialist/communist who is very anti-consumerism and a anti-capitialist.

This is a political thread why is it in non-political?

Thanks

[kitsune]

I've always been in favor of political equality, self-management, cooperation, and so on, but for a long while I thought in terms of fixing the system. It never even occurred to me to change the system; the system was simply an unquestioned assumption.

I don't think there was any specific event that changed this. It was just a process. Over time I came to realize that it was necessary in order to achieve any of those goals. At first I was very resistant to the idea, then a little less so, then even less, and finally it clicked.

[CommieTroll]

I was never really interested in politics as a kid. When I was 13/14 I met someone who was an Atheist. The concept of someone not believing in a god was alien to me, it seemed wrong, immoral and ''fucking stupid'' to my thirteen year old xenophobic self. I was in secondary school and I started acting out, ''fuck teh system maaannn!'':laugh: I started smoking weed and became very laid back. I eventually rejected organised religion as nothing but a lie. For the next few months I went around trying to convert everyone to Atheism (sometimes I still do with Marxism) and even making outlandish statements just to get a rise out of people, this was always funny to me. I wasn't brought up in a very political home. My parents always voted Fina Fail and are still to this day very centrist people, they are a perfect example of Lumpen Proletariat's. I was interested in Irish Nationalism in my early teens and was a strong supporter of the IRA, much to the dismay of many around me. I was interested in James Connolly and found out he was a Socialist. I had only a small basic understanding of Socialism so I started reading Wikipedia for hours on end. I considered myself a Republican Socialist. I stumbled across Marx and read The Communist Manifesto and small bits of Capital. I was fascinated with the theories of Marx and Engles and then went on to read the works of Lenin and later Stalin. I considered myself a Trotskyist for a small time but I now consider myself an Anti-Revisionist Marxist-Leninist

[ColonelCossack]

Age 7, first called myself a Communist- I reckon I was sort of a left-com, but what I thought was so vague.

Age 8, I became a soviet fetishist. :D

Age 11, I became a Marxist leninist.

Age 12, I became a trot.

Age 14, Became an M-L again.

I only really say I became a commie at 11 because before then I actually knew nothing about communism at all. I wasn't even a left-com, I just said that I was just now because I sort of believed in the very actual most basic things, but didn't know anything about Marxism or anything. I just said things like, "everyone should share their apples". I hear I was quite "cute" when I was 7...

[tir1944]

First i was a Stalinist and now i'm a Hoxhaist.:tt2:

[Tim Finnegan]

Age 7, first called myself a Communist- I reckon I was sort of a left-com, but what I thought was so vague.
http://forums.civfanatics.com/images/smilies/huh.gif

[His Dudeness]

I was born raised in a Marxist-Leninist family and enviroment. When I became 12, my father stopped telling me anything about his ideology and said to me that the best way for me to find my own ideology was by reading books and searching up the subject I was intersted in. I was a Kemalist at the time, but after seeing the Antifa in the Netherlands and reading about Anarchism I decided to be an Anarchist. But I also liked Ché Guevara a lot and read a book about him and I became interested in Communism. I read books and talked with a lot of people about this subject and for a short period I became a Trotskyist. When I was 15 years old, there was a concert of Grup Yorum in my town and there I met some Turkish Marxist-Leninist revolutionaires and became good friends with them. After hanging out with them I choose to be a part of them. The only subject that I disliked about them was that they were Stalin supporters and I was not. But after reading some books about Stalin (some were pro-Stalin and some anti-Stalin books), I chose to be a Marxist-Leninist.

[thefinalmarch]

"wikipedia communist" (14 yo) --> "wikipedia trotskyist" (anti-stalinism lol) --> anarchist --> marxist (present; 16 yo) --> left communist?

[Pioneers_Violin]

My political development is probably best described as "stunted" :crying:

Was born and raised into a "conservative" family in a "liberal" area.

Gained a deep distrust of teachers and school at an early age.

Never really liked the conservative point of view as it seems too heartless.

Made the difficult leap into helping organize a Union - it went completely against the "principles" drilled into me from an early age... but my fellow workers needed my help and I could not decline.

Grew to appreciate the liberal policies of my area, especially after having benefitted from them.

Decided to study politics more carefully and then Marx.

Having found myself in total agreement with Marx, re-studied the history I thought I knew.

Came to the conclusion that the best leader to date was Stalin.

I am still studying but am fairly certain of my conclusions so far.



I feel deprived that honest and complete texts on Marx and Engels at a minimum were not freely available when I was in school.
"Manifesto" if nothing else, should have been / should be required reading! :mad:
What we had at our disposal was mostly anti-Soviet propaganda. I perceived something wasn't right about "Social Science" class, and thus gained my lifelong distrust of school.
It was an unfortunate era.

[Tim Finnegan]

I feel deprived that honest and complete texts on Marx and Engels at a minimum were not freely available when I was in school.
"Manifesto" if nothing else, should have been / should be required reading! :mad:
Why? Was your library in the habit of stocking political texts that didn't relate to anything that the school actually taught?

[Jose Gracchus]

A social democrat-style scepticism of contemporary capitalism ("Boo corporations! Yay cooperatively-owned grocery stores!") developed into a vaguely anarchistic rejection of capitalism as such during that little bout of everything-going-completely-fucking-wrong a couple of years back, followed by a gradual ramble through various forms of libertarian socialism. I've yet to settle into any definite position, but at the moment I'd probably fall under a rather broading heading of "left communist", although I shy away from using the term until I get a bit more understanding under my belt. My last political read was Bookchin's Post-Scarcity Anarchism, so I like to think that I maintain an open mind.

You should really read Bookchin's Ecology of Freedom, along side Banaji's work and Engels' work on the emergence of class society and gender and other social realities. Really brought my impressions of class society more up-to-date. The Radical Anthropologist Group is another good supplement.

[black magick hustla]

i always felt extremely alienated at the world and its misery and injustice.

[Os Cangaceiros]

I've thought about this before, and I've narrowed it down to two real defining political moments, looking back on it:

1) 1999 Seattle WTO protests - I remember watching this on TV (when I was in middle school) and thinking that it was cool as hell. I wasn't even politically aware back then, I only had a very vague idea about what the protests were even about, but the imagery really appealed to me...people dressed in black, fighting with police, destroying things etc. It wasn't even only anarchists, either...I later learned that a couple guys from the area I live in had participated in the chaos. And these guys, they're TOTAL dude-bros...they're favorite topics of conversation are beer, weed and girls. They are not really political at all, but they were on the front lines, man, throwing bottles at the police and getting shot with rubber bullets, because they happened to be in Seattle at the time and were pissed at what they were seeing. I was really proud of my little backwoods community when I heard that, we were fucking represented. :cool:

2002 strike - My parents and a lot of other people in our business (fishing and processing) struck over fish prices in 2002. My home port is probably the biggest fishing port in the country, with the possible exception of Glouchester Massachusets, so it was a big deal. The processing companies didn't even attempt to justify droping prices...they literally came out and admitted that they were doing it to bring in more money for themselves (I shit you not). The body that organizes fishermen declared a strike, which was honored for a while (a successful strike had occured only a few years earlier). Then some of the "highliners" (really wealthy boats) started to break it. Action was taken against a couple of them, but let me tell you, fishermen are some of the most selfish, greedy assholes you'll ever meet (I can say it, I'm one of them). The most pathetic thing was that every one of the smaller boats with crews who were really struggling to get by held the line, and the rich quota-share scumbags scabbed.

The strike was broken, and fishermen started getting paid 50 cents a pound for fish that was getting marked up 40x that amount at market. I remember hearing this news, I was 14 or some shit, in our house, and being really upset. I wasn't politically aware at this time, but man, I wanted to wage a fucking war against processing companies and scabs at that moment.

other political experiences: the Exxon Valdez oil spill court battle (only recently settled; subject of many threats from my mother of going on guerrilla bombing campaigns against Exxon), Sept. 11 attacks, ummmm...think that's it.

Besides that, I mostly considered myself a moderate libertarian I guess, as in I didn't like people telling me what to do, actually I still don't. I kind of came to communism through the internet, though. Just reading about it and stuff, and realizing that it kind of fit in with some of the experiences and opinions I'd formed. First anarchism, then now just communism.

[roy]

- Looked up commumisn, bought into the "great in theory, horrible in practice" bullshit
- Realised aforementioned bullshit was, in fact, bullshit
- Came to identify as some kinda commie

[socialistjustin]

Mostly a lifestyle anarchist with anarchist communism and anarchist syndicalism as the theories I bought into. The past couple of years or so I have been more into anarchist syndicalism or Parecon. Left communism is also interesting.

[A Revolutionary Tool]

I was completely apolitical until 3rd grade when 9/11 happened. Obviously it was very shocking as a kid, why would someone do that to us? Sadly the only response I heard at that point was that they attacked us because they "hated our freedom" and because "we are Christian and Muslims want to kill all the Christians". So I was the type of kid who was like "Let's nuke the Middle East they want to KILL US ALL!!!!" So the only thing I was ever really political about was war, I wanted the U.S. to go to war with all the Islamic countries. So I was a Republican but that's basically the only reason why.

Other than wanting to total destroy the Middle East I can't ever remember trusting authority figures like cops, I have always hated them with a passion. Ever since the 3rd grade I've been militantly anti-racist because I really had to be. I started to actually get into politics a little around 6th or 7th grade when people would call me out for supporting the wars. I actually started reading about what we were doing and felt sympathetic to the Iraq/Afghan resistance movements even though I realized they were mostly completely backwards.

I never really read any books about philosophy or economics but I just started wondering how my family could be poor when my mom and dad worked so hard almost every day of the week and some of the kids at school talked about their dirt bikes and shit and how their parents barely worked. So I started thinking that was total bs how my dad would come home with a backache everyday and how we couldn't even afford to live in a place that fit our family, and I started thinking wealth should be distributed equally.

Then one day my sister and I were arguing about gun control(which I wasn't for) and she said there is no excuse to ever own a gun because it just leads to murders. I told her that maybe if we were all equal, instead of having so many people barely scraping by, we wouldn't have so many murders in the first place. She responded in a negative tone "But ART, that's communism!" I was sort of taken aback, I had no idea what that meant but she said it so negatively that I assumed it was something horrible. But it got me thinking what it was so I searched up "communism" at the library and the Communist Manifesto popped up. I checked it out and realized this Marx guy was exactly what I was looking for and was a more mature way of looking at it. That was in 9th grade, I graduated high school last year and haven't really labeled myself anything but Marxist since I discovered Marx. At first I labeled myself a M-L because I looked it up and M-L seemed to be the most popular tendency but I soon decided that was pretty fallacious thinking.

[Olentzero]

I was totally focused on the war in Viet Nam by the time I hit college, in DCSorry to derail the thread, but I gotta ask - G'town, AU, GWU, or UDC?
As a Russian language majorI think this narrows it down quite a bit, but I'll wait for an answer.
I bought a lot of left-wing lit, from the USSR, at Kamkin's, a bookstore up on 14th Street, in DC.Oh man, Kamkin's. By the mid-90s they were in a warehouse way out in suburban MD, and I think they may have closed up shop sometime after 2000. A pity; they had a lot of great stuff.

[LeftAtheist]

Have had a contempt for authority for as long as I can remember, first became politically aware at around 13. More or less a liberal/social-democrat which I was for a few years. Always anti-war and anti American foreign policy. Started reading a lot of stuff by George Orwell (who I still love) and decided I was a democratic socialist. Realised fairly quickly that democratic socialism, while well intentioned, is ultimately ineffective. Read some more and decided that I was a libertarian socialist, which I still am. Unsure of what specific path to go down though; Left Communism, Luxemburgism, Council Communism, Anarcho-Syndicalism? Decisions, Decisions...

[Die Rote Fahne]

I can remember being anti-communist and anti-fascist as a child. Didn't know much about either haha.

Then, as I got older, I began witnessing George Bush's presidency, 9/11, Afghanistan, Iraq and I sort of just started listening to my oldest brother who was a liberal at the time. I read up some, and was your generic liberal up until 15ish.

From there, I started thinking more about economy, class, etc. My brother at this point was an anti-capitalist who was into Chomsky and such. I considered myself a democratic socialist/social democrat, like Michael Moore. Who I seen as my idle, politically, at the time.

From there, I became more radical, my brother was a Marxist when I started to read up on Marx, and look into soviet and communist history. I considered myself an anarcho-communist, then a left com, then a generic communist, then I actually read into a specific tendency deeply. i.e. Luxemburg.

Here I am.

[Kamos]

I was raised in a left liberal-ish family (my parents voted for the socdems and the liberal party, respectively, then the liberals stopped existing so they're now both socdem voters). Still, while I have always had a contempt for the right, I was mostly apolitical for a long time, and even had some rather reactionary viewpoints. I don't know why I looked up communism on Wikipedia on one fateful day, but I did - it was probably because I was called a commie, or because I was reading something about commies and never really understood what they were. I liked what I saw, and after thinking about the issue for a few weeks I began reading up on it a bit more. I considered myself a communist already around my 17th birthday, but at that point, my ideas were rather vague. Still, as I read up more on it, I knew that I found what I really am. Interestingly, I didn't actually read the Manifesto for a long time after first considering myself a commie. Initially I was a M-L, which I consider natural since I live in Hungary after all - in fact, a few months ago I still considered myself a Leninist of sorts, despite my dislike of Stalin. Now that I know all about left communism and their theorists, I think I can safely say I've found THE tendency I can subscribe to.

[Bronco]

I think I first took an interest in politics when I was about 14, my friend got me into it was he was very Liberal and I pretty much took on a Devils Advocate role to oppose him and aligned myself with Conservatism, it was during the 08 Presidential election and he was a big Obama fan so I supported McCain :rolleyes: Although I wasn't strongly political then, as I became more and more interested I still remained a Conservative but became attracted to the Libertarian side of it, I even thought that Anarcho-Capitalism might be a good idea until I was reading Murray Rothbard's "For a New Liberty" and he started going on about how instead of going to school it might be better for children to be productive and get a job and I just had a moment where I thought "what the fuck am I reading here". I gradually grew more and more disillusioned with Libertarianism/Conservatism because I didn't really see why poverty had to be inevitable as I had considered it before, as well as inequality and hierachy. I started being drawn to a more left-Libertarian outlook becoming interested in Mutualism but it didn't really seem right to me that a free market would somehow naturally lead to equality were it not for the State and that's when I started reading Marx and some Anarchist literature. It was about the time I joined this site that I started looking into revolutionary leftism so I've only really been an Anarchist for 8 months or so and I'd still consider myself in the learning stage for now

[Luc]

Started listening to Bertolt Brecht at age 13 (via Rammstein's Links 2 3 4) and that led me to listen to Hanns Eisler and Ernst Busch.

Then started Wikipedia reading about Socialism, Communism (subliminal messages doesn't come close to the above:lol:), and Anarchism. Before I was apolitical cause I thought the world was doomed but got some hope and out of semi-depression. Communism gave me hope, lol chessy

Then I read the manifesto; thought it was okay. Read it 3 more times and now I love it; declared myself a Commie.

Only went to anarchism because I was anti-state (after reading The State and Revolution) but just now getting into the more anarchist stuff (anti-democracy, free-association etc.) and finding it to my liking so I say I'm an anarchist.

[Comrade Samuel]

For much of my early life I really dident care about politics (for obvious reasons) I guess 6th grade I really began to listen to the news and form opinions on people in congress and the president at which point I began to call myself a republican. I was dumb and young, I thought the republican dream was everyone had a gun, men acted like men and we all had jobs and nice houses. I studied into being some kind of ultra right nut for a while I guess it all came down when the financial crisis hit me and my family hard, friends left me, mother went insane and lifes been real tough since. It was then I truely rellised that capitalism is a big casino and we were the losers. That's when I became a communist and an atheist, I knew then if there would ever be happiness you make it yourself and to stop thanking a magic man in the sky every time something good happens. Ive studied hard about communism and since I went atheist my grades in school are near top of the class. That's how much I have changed politicaly over my life, I'm still no exspert on communism but I have read a lot and hope to learn more here.

[ColonelCossack]

http://forums.civfanatics.com/images/smilies/huh.gif

I know right

It's hard to explain because i wasn't really any tendency, i was just some kind of communist going on about sharing apples. Probably wasn't a left-com; how would you label it?

[OHumanista]

Commie (trotskyist) parents inevitably made me share some of it's ideas since birth. But I had my "rebel" phase during my early adolescence (14 to 16 mainly) where I dabbled on most extreme right ideas (never really subscribing to any). Then stopped being a jerk(acting like a nerdy "badboy") decided to check communism again and became a trotskyist.

[Bronco]

I know right

It's hard to explain because i wasn't really any tendency, i was just some kind of communist going on about sharing apples. Probably wasn't a left-com; how would you label it?

Did you actually identify yourself as a Communist though, and understand what it was? Hell, I didn't know what it really was when I was 17, never mind 7

[ColonelCossack]

Did you actually identify yourself as a Communist though, and understand what it was? Hell, I didn't know what it really was when I was 17, never mind 7

I skipped around saying, I'm a communist, I'M A COMMUNIST! In my local park. All the other kids on the climbing frame, not to mention their parents, gave me really weird looks. Although I didn't use the vocabulary I do now, I understood that it was a huge redistribution of wealth, with everyone being equal, and getting what they needed. That's parental indoctrination for ya. :p

I was a pretty fucked up kid- I also went around, skipping, saying "i'm schizophrenic, I'M SCHIZOPHRENIC!". Come to think about it, I'm still pretty fucked up.

[Madvillainy]

well growing up in Northern Ireland it was hard not to get sucked into nationalism/republicanism. For most of my childhood my dad was in jail as a political prisoner and he was a pivotal reason I got interested in politics, specifically republicanism. Like many young people where i live i had a very romantic vision of national liberation, I mean for a 16 year old the idea of fighting the british state was very attractive. basically my attraction to it was more emotionally fueled than politically.

well fast forward a few years and after reading a lot more about socialism, I became disillusioned with republicanism. It was at this point I started reading about Anarchism, specifically platformism, and it answered a lot of the questions I had regarding politics. i got in contact with an anarchist group where i lived (wsm) and went to a few meetings and whatnot. but i got put off it pretty fast because the wsm have shit politics. nothin to do with anarchism tbh.

at this point I had never even heard of left communism, although unknowingly I already shared most of their political positions. It wasn't until I joined revleft and libcom that I got my first intro into the ideas of the communist left. which is one of the reasons the internet is such a great tool for spreading our ideas. Anyway after a while and mostly due to the posts of people like devrim, black magick hustla, stagger lee etc etc, I started reading about left communism and blah blah blah thats kinda were i am now. watever.

[Tim Finnegan]

I know right

It's hard to explain because i wasn't really any tendency, i was just some kind of communist going on about sharing apples. Probably wasn't a left-com; how would you label it?
I wouldn't.

[hatzel]

Largely apolitical upbringing. Flirted with politics. Discarded it. And now we're here.

[ColonelCossack]

I wouldn't.

Indeed, that would probably be best.

[Sam Varriano]

I've been interested in politics since the 1st grade. I'd always try to read whatever I could find.

Prehighschool and 9th grade: Liberal Democrat

10th Grade: Libertarian

11th Grade: Anarchist-communist but then left communist

Everything during and after 12th grade: ML

[Smyg]

11th Grade: Anarchist-communist but then left communist

Everything during and after 12th grade: ML


I love how people just go BAM authoritarian or BAM libertarian. :D

[Panda Tse Tung]

I love how people just go BAM authoritarian or BAM libertarian. :D
I think thats an age issue. When i was in my puberty i changed opinions every other day.

In any case: I started out a social-democrat in light of family tradition. Had some traditionalist and conservative views (still do on some subjects, but now cause they make sense to me). Well i was raised in accordance to the hate AmeriKKKa beat, so when i learned in my history lessons that the Soviet Union was America's biggest opponent it ever met i became slightly intruiged. This however did not go past anything but being intruiged for quite some while since i cared frag all about politics.
Which changed roughly around the age of 15, after which i started studying political alternatives. Since i had an extreme dislike of the established political order i started studying less conventional political idea's and Communism in specific. Since the Communist ideology basically brought into words and solutions a lot of things i already thought when i was even younger i figured it was a great idea. I started out as a Trotskyist, mostly because Stalin was a jerk according to our history books and this was the easiest way to distance myself from the existing socialist states. Intellectual lazyness i would call it in hindsight. In any case i started checking out the forum of the Communist Youth Movement, but some people there professed pro-Stalin views and almost everybody professed a dislike of Trotsky. So i started reading the literature they recommended and felt myself agreeing.
Shortly afterwards i joined the Communist Youth Movement, got active. Somewhere along those lines i joined this forum as well. But mostly for the Dutch sections, since those we're the only boards i'd rarely get into trouble over (mostly due to me formulating things in a pretty brutal way when i type things in English, though sometimes i'm a jerk in Dutch as well). Oh and then i joined the Party itself somewhere in there as well.

[Ele'ill]

- Read about Anarchism but concluded it really had no revolutionary tactics other than fancy ideas



Maybe if you were reading crimethInc posters...

[bricolage]

I think most of what people describe here is indicative of young age where every change of opinion seems more important than it will later on life, additionally what people tend to be talking about is just that, opinion or ideas not particular activity or organisation. This isn't me trying to make an ageist remark (I still consider myself pretty young anyway) but that, as happened to me, things that I thought were of great importance before now seem insignificant. I have never been a member of a formal organisation, when I was around 16-17 I used to go the big demos and read SWP papers, when I was around 20-22 I was involved in an informal anarchisty activisty direct actiony group. At the moment I wouldn't say I am active or involved in much, I go along to picket lines to chat with workers, I was on strike the other day, I have been involved in 'assemblies' for rather spectacular days of action and such, I sometimes hand out propoganda material of a local anarcho-syndicalist group. I think it would be disingenuous to say I am politically anything at the moment or that I belong to a tendency.

[X5N]

When I was a young child, I would parrot my father's distaste of George W. Bush. He once got a call from my elementary school principal, because I had told her that WWIII would occur if Bush were elected. And then I supported John Kerry in 2004.

I remember, I was also a moralist in elementary school. I refused to watch South Park or play GTA.

Then I went a bit batshit, and became some kind of Stalinist for a while, or something. I can't remember too well.

Then around the 2008 presidential election, I became a libertarian. First I was a "progressive" libertarian, but then I went full-on Paulite libertarian.

Then a few months ago, I became some kind of left-anarchist or something. Prior to that, my mind was slowly creeping into anarchist and radical leftist philosophy.

Also, until very recently I was very uninformed, politically.

[Arm Cathartha na hÉireann]

Wasnt really political until I was about 19 or so just got on with life, caring really only about football and pissing about with mates, Politics never really seemed to change anthing, no matter who was in charge everything seemed to remain the same. Actually studied Business at Univeristy, as at the time of choosing my career I didnt really have a clue what to do and choose business, but never had any real pro capitalist opinions just didnt really see any future for myself in manufactoring and choose something that i though would get me a job. Then researching my family tree I read about a member who died fighting for the ICA, which lead me to reading Connolly. Became Increasing dissolutioned with my course at uni and with the coalition goverment and weak opporsition my 'Labour' and began looking for alternative. My current views arent very well formed but I found i agree with the basic principles of Marxism and leaning towards Leninism as I read more.

[StoneFrog]

I'd say i started out really thinking about communism and socialism in high school, but i think most of my life i identified with the economic outlook of communism. In high school in social studies they do this bit about political ideology, looking at the spectrum of ideologies. When they discussed communism is was just a white wash of liberal take on communism, the whole "nice idea, but wouldn't work" and "Marx's theories were flawed.."; i decided to do my own research into communism and at that point i guess i became a communist, in my final year in high school i became deterred from communism more as influenced by anti-commie propaganda. I was an Anarchist for a while, but moved back into communism and Council Communism.

With Council Communism i became confused at how to organize, not really know what i could do to help the movement. After a while i joined a Trotskyist group which was starting up in my area, believing that Trotskyism had a better environment for organizing and building a way forward. I started getting a bad taste, i like being able to work with comrades and such, but there seemed to be a lot of under the surface tension with other groups. Plus they openly slander other communist tendencies without thought, and for me which still held some Council Communist influences i felt more and more isolated from them.

After that i guess i would say i fit into the Left Communist camp more or less, still very mush influenced by Council Communism; but with my own take. I'm in a sort of limbo now since my views on organization don't seem to fit into any existing groups(its actually the rejection of how most communist groups seem to organize).

[NoOneIsIllegal]

My friend got me interested in politics in high school, mostly based on social-issues like universal healthcare, LGBT rights, the wars, green issues, etc. I had to start somewhere, and I was essentially a social-democrat. My friend had me take a few online quizzes and they deemed both of us as "socialists." I became fascinated by the term and researched it more over the years. I started drifting more towards the left, while he drifted towards the right.

Over time, a lot of reading made me start transforming into a vague democratic socialist. I admired Eugene Debs and Big Bill Haywood a lot, and had a very elementary understanding of unions but I knew they were an instrument of change.

The more I was exposed to the world and being in the workforce, along with the knowledge I was gaining, I transformed into an anarchist (the syndicalist kind). I didn't necessarily wake up one day and say "that's it, I'm an anarchist!" It was more of a gradual transformation, as I started learning of new ideas and seeing them applied in the world, such as decentralization, revolutionary unions, direct action, the unnecessary use of the state; it was becoming more and more apparent that I was flirting with anarchism, although I always considered myself a socialist first and foremost.

I think what's made the biggest impact on me is just living in the world and seeing the cruel reality of being a wage-slave in capitalism. I read piles and piles of books, but you can only gain so much knowledge before reality gives you a slap in the face. It blows my mind sometimes, and I know another world is possible. Being in the workforce and working shitty jobs, I see anarcho-syndicalism as the most relevant and practical revolutionary idea for our situation.

I want a wageless, classless, stateless society.

[Connolly16ir.net]

Started off as an traditional Irish Republican when I was around 9, my grandfather was a member of the IRA up untill the 80's. Discovered socialism at 10 or 11 through my grandfather. When I was 13 I began posting on irishrepublican.net, most of the posters on the site were either trot or M-L, very few were just pro-unification bar the Sinn Féin supporters. Around six months before my 15th birthday I became a Marxist Leninist. I got involved with a Soviet type group called the Citizens Defence Committee. Today I am joining Éirígí, a socialist republican group that are revolutionary socialists that take some of their theory from Trotsky but are more Left Commie/Luxemburgist. Now I support international stateless communism, I was vehemently opposed to it when I first got into politics, I saw state socialism as the way forward.


So I've changed fairly vastly, I'm now much more reflective and far more interested in politics than I was. The only thing that hasn't changed is my support for the idea of armed revolution!

Political compass at 14: Economic Left/Right : -6.5
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.2

Political Compass now (At 16): Economic Left/Right: -9.8
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -8.6 :D

[Bad Grrrl Agro]

I always looked up to my mom who was a feminist. I ended up being the opposite of her in other ways but what she taught me shaped my response when dealing with a world built by rich white men. But it goes back farther than that, my grandfather fled the red scare and headed south to Mexico where he met mi abuelita.

[Iraultzaile Ezkerreko]

I was a Democrat from seventh grade until junior year of college. I was an executive board member for college dems in the state and a paid member of staff for the state party. I flirted with radical politics and was definitely much to the left of the Democrats the whole time I was with them, but never broke with reformism until 2010. Up to 2010 I had read up on Syndicalism and radical labor history, as well as Luxemburgists and Council Communists.

I started getting realy disenchanted with the Democratic Party after BO was elected and became the biggest flop in history. I realized I was having more and more arguments with my friends and co-workers in regards to Obama and reform. I saw a flyer for a "Case for Socialism" meeting at my school and decided to go and from there, there was no turning back. I went almost a whole year-and-a-half without missing a meeting until I got sick this semester. Anyway, it finally clicked for me when I watched the election returns come in for 2010, after working my ass off for a good friend of mine who was a left-liberal Democrat running for state house. Watching him get whooped by a person with a proven history of corruption and fraud, and then seeing the trend across the country as the penduluum inevitably swung to the right and the steam-valve opened up, I realized I didn't want any part in perpetuating or fixing this system, I wanted it destroyed. A coworker texted me to ask what I was going to do the next day, I responded "Start building for the revolution. I'm done with this shit." The next day I joined the ISO.

[Philosophis Pony]

It all started when I was 12 XD
I went from uninformed
to Anarcho-Capitalist
to Anarcho-Individualist
to Leftist Anarchist
to Marxist
to plain anarchist
to Philosophical Anarchist
to Romantic Anarcho-Marxism, when I realized how ridiculous it was to have to fit into any political identity existing in this point in time so I made a single term which combined all of my beliefs.
And this all happened in the process of 2 years, I'm 14 now :D

[Crux]

I read some Marx and I liked it.

[PhoenixAsh]

I started out as Marxist Leninist. Then became desillusioned by the lack of answers to some important issues and the unwillingness to be flexible and adaptive to new situations in several parties.

I continued activism but refocussed for a while on anti-fascism describing myself simply as Marxist.

Then I shifted towards Anarchism a few years back.

[Jimmie Higgins]

Parents are union members and Democrats - my dad was drafted in Vietnam, participated in anti-war activism when he got back and both my parents were in college during the San Francisco State College strike though I don't think they were directly involved.

I was in High School when Bill Clinton was elected and I was excited by his election because I had only been aware of Presidents during Regan and Bush. The LA riots were a big thing for me but so were early 90s hip hop and Grunge so I saw things through sort of a cultural lens. The high school I went to had a lot of racial tension and a lot of pissed off white right-winger ditto-heads who claimed not to be racist, while also driving trucks with confederate flags and joking about shooting immigrant farmworkers with beebee guns and saying things like "jew you down". There were some "wannabe" gangs in my area but the real thugs were the skinhead gangs and when I was in middle school people in the neighborhood would walk around without shirts on to expose their nazi tatoos. Anyway my enthusiasm for Clinton was broken pretty quickly as I was often the only one defending him against all the crazy right-wing bullshit people regurgitated from Limbaugh or their parents (who were also just parroting Limbaugh). His triangulation and right-wing policies (while also being attacked by all the right-wingers in school) made me quickly realize that I was more angry that he "didn't go far enough". But rather than radicalize, I just had the "they're all corrupt" attitude and ignored official politics and was more into youth cultural rebellion and punk rock etc. I did vote when I turned 18 though - I went in there thinking I was going to vote Clinton but wasn't happy about it - at the last minute I voted for Nader even though I barely knew anything about him.

1999 was the turning point for me and reading about the WTO protests re-engaged me in politics and I began reading about neoliberalism and I began to consider myself an anarchist and I was particularly drawn to syndicalism and I also read some left-com stuff though I didn't know it at the time. In 2000 I went to the DNC protests as my first large demonstration. I was great but also chaotic and I was turned-off by some of the organizing beforehand that I participated in because it felt really clique-ish and the way you "participated" was by showing up and having people train you in civil disobedience, but I wanted to understand politics and tactics. Some of my friends were arrested and being an individual or part of a small group when the LAPD is charging you makes you feel like you're holding onto a life-vest in the middle of the ocean. So after that experience I began taking political organization more seriously and began seeking out radical groups. I went to several different meetings (even gave my number to a LaRouche nut but after the first voice mail message they left - and a discussion about how they felt that Vietnam was a "patriotic" war - I almost changed my phone number) and read various publications to try and figure out what made sense to me. I went to some ISO meetings at that time and after a couple months I ended up joining - a few weeks before September 11.

[Ostrinski]

Came out of a year-long battle with despair and anxiety not knowing who the hell I was. So I began reading philosophy. So eventually I read the Communist Manifesto and it made sense.

[RedAnarchist]

My parents were mostly apolitical, although both had their own political views on some things, and both voted Labour, and my family have been Labour voters for quite a few generations now (no idea who they supported before Labour, but as a relative was named after Lloyd George, I'm guessing at least some of them were Liberal voters. When my mother was alive, she tended to be more centrist/apolitical, although I recall her voicing some opposition to the war in Iraq. My father is slightly further to the left, being a union (Communication Workers Union) member and generally holding centre-left beliefs - he tends to be more "live and let live" than political in any structured sense. Both were moderately religious - my mother was from an Anglican background although she was more a believer in a general idea of god, plus she believed in ghosts etc. My dad had a Catholic upbringing, being a choirboy at one point, but he's very much lapsed.

My sister is apolitical, but tends to vote Labour and doesn't have a lot of political views. My youngest brother is quite similar. My other two brothers are quite different - one is a very ardent atheist and sees himself as fairly leftist, although he does tend to be quite bourgeois in his mentality sometimes. His twin is a rather typical left-leaning liberal.

In my early teens, I was somewhere in the centre, although I don't recall ever being outwardly homophobic, and I've never been a racist. I certainly didn't have any real views on many specific political issues. I gradually moved leftwards, and it was in the first few years of the last decade that I really became political, eventually considering myself Trotskyist, although in reality I was just a general Marxist. I eventually became an anarchist-communist a few years ago.

[ColonelCossack]

I read some Marx and I liked it.

That sounds like lyrics to a song.

[Crux]

That sounds like lyrics to a song.
Indeed.
wyqJ9wxZ9L

[Madvillainy]

Today I am joining Éirígí, a socialist republican group that are revolutionary socialists that take some of their theory from Trotsky but are more Left Commie/Luxemburgist.

hahahahahahahahhahaha sure thing

[Ismail]

I was a generic liberal/"progressive" at first. Moved leftwards in 2005 but had an interest in communism since 2001. I always sided with "Stalinists" in debates, and began seriously reading various works from Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin and Hoxha in 2006. I liked them so yeah.

[Madvillainy]

My parents were mostly apolitical, although both had their own political views on some things, and both voted Labour, and my family have been Labour voters for quite a few generations now (no idea who they supported before Labour, but as a relative was named after Lloyd George, I'm guessing at least some of them were Liberal voters. When my mother was alive, she tended to be more centrist/apolitical, although I recall her voicing some opposition to the war in Iraq. My father is slightly further to the left, being a union (Communication Workers Union) member and generally holding centre-left beliefs - he tends to be more "live and let live" than political in any structured sense. Both were moderately religious - my mother was from an Anglican background although she was more a believer in a general idea of god, plus she believed in ghosts etc. My dad had a Catholic upbringing, being a choirboy at one point, but he's very much lapsed.

My sister is apolitical, but tends to vote Labour and doesn't have a lot of political views. My youngest brother is quite similar. My other two brothers are quite different - one is a very ardent atheist and sees himself as fairly leftist, although he does tend to be quite bourgeois in his mentality sometimes. His twin is a rather typical left-leaning liberal.

In my early teens, I was somewhere in the centre, although I don't recall ever being outwardly homophobic, and I've never been a racist. I certainly didn't have any real views on many specific political issues. I gradually moved leftwards, and it was in the first few years of the last decade that I really became political, eventually considering myself Trotskyist, although in reality I was just a general Marxist. I eventually became an anarchist-communist a few years ago.

haha u have no politics bruh.

[Agent Ducky]

My parents are hardcore liberals, and I had always been political from a young age, coming out on the side of the Democratic party... I even called people and told them to vote for Obama in 2008. Then in 2010 I developed a fascination with communism after an online friend encouraged me to make a Communist Party of Runescape as a joke... And after I joined revleft and read into it I was convinced... At that point I was a pan-leftist... but then I had some really shitty experiences with MLism and gravitated towards anarchism. Yeah.

[Omsk]

Well,at first i was just interested in history (I was always leaning to the left though),and during some reading (A book about the period after Napoleon to the start of WWII) I learned more about the revolution,socialism and communism,(In depth) soon,one thing led to the other,and i was reading Lenin,Marx,various books about the revolution,the bolsheviks,and before i knew it,i was turning into a revolutionary leftist.
I dont remember everything that got to my atention,but i did have and i still have a huge number of books mostly covering the period of the 20th century,so through reading and informing myself about the history of the left,i formed my opinions.Of course,i am still in the process of learning and studying,and that is a process that should never end.

[TheGodlessUtopian]

My political development began in the seventh grade when I began watching news channels simply because I was so board.I remember watching Glenn Beck and saying,"this guy makes sense." (this was back when he was on CNN and he wasn't anywhere as near as megalonmical as he is now).As I watched him throughout the years I continued to become more and more conservative and reactionary.At one point there was a time where I think Beck didn't go far enough and I thought that America needed to form an "Imperial Party" and invade and subjugate North America and parts of Europe while nuking most of the other parts.

This attitude did not change until a guy I was debating with linked me to Rev-Left.At the time I only came on to learn a bit so I could go back to him and say that his ideology was bullshit for real but as I read more I eventually abandoned my fascistic views and embraced socialism.

As it turned out the guy that recommended me here eventually turned libertarian but in terms of development I have become much more radical than him.

There is so much more to the story than this but this is the quick version.

[ellipsis]

Went from generic radical/progressive to marxist to lib soc. I have always had my libertarian tendencies. I got a lot more radicalized and educated politically in college. San Fran has also radicalized and educated me in organizing IRL, street protests, etc.

[Tovarisch]

I was merely a Democrat for most of my life, and one who was taught by the school that communist is evil and produces people like Ceausescu and Stalin and Mao. However in ninth grade I took interest in Marx and started reading about him, and since then I have been growing in Socialism