To what extent are yr. politics part of yr. identity?

[ed miliband]

That shit thread about anarchism and the punk subculture got me thinking: how is punk, or "hipster" (I don't think that properly counts as a subculture in the traditional sense any), or whatever else any more alienating than being the type of person who never shuts up about being an anarchist or Marxist-Leninist or whatever else?

Most of the people I live with and hang out with don't really know my politics other than I'm probably pretty left-wing or whatever. There have been moments when I've been pretty vocal (like around the time of the Dale Farm evictions when every other fucker was banging on about evil gypsies), but otherwise I don't feel the need to introduce myself as an anarchist or communist, etc. Actually, I think I offended someone by just flat-out telling her we'd have nothing in common politically without expanding on it, not cos I'm ashamed - I just don't feel the need.

I think others do though, and I can understand. When I was 14 and just becoming an "anarchist" I never shut up about it, despite having shit views that I couldn't really express at all.

Who else?

[bcbm]

if politics comes up i don't pull any punches but i don't generally make it a part of my everyday conversations or label myself

[NewLeft]

I grew out of it.. I never went around saying I'm an anarchist/Marxist/socialist cause I don't want to be social alienated either.. But it showed in my work, in assignments that had little to do about ideology/politics, I would go on and on about it and my teacher would just be like OK. Any opportunity to express my views, I would've. If I could go back, I'd smack that smugness out of me. Now I could careless and am just doing it for the lulz.

[Nox]

if politics comes up i don't pull any punches but i don't generally make it a part of my everyday conversations or label myself

This.

[Ele'ill]

My identity is who I am and my political beliefs are part of my identity. I can't help that and I don't think anybody can but my days aren't spent going to 'anarcho-punk shows' or 'making anarcho-hipster zines'.

Today I looked at stuff by Brian Andreas, read some Stephen King, Watched a horrible free movie on youtube, watched various interviews with writers on youtube, worked on some poems, talked to friends on the phone and am probably going to buy beer and drink and play video games or write some more. This is my day off. I did all of this wearing Khaki work pants and a brown sleeveless shirt.

In between these activities I would check revleft (or leave it open in the background) and check leftist news sources. I did watch riot porn earlier for about five minutes because I was trying to figure out what I was going to do next.

did this answer the question?

[ColonelCossack]

It's important, but it's in the background. Not a usual topic for conversation, though I punched my best friend once unnecessarily hard for calling me a "communist c***". I regret it.

[Robespierre Richard]

That shit thread about anarchism and the punk subculture got me thinking: how is punk, or "hipster" (I don't think that properly counts as a subculture in the traditional sense any), or whatever else any more alienating than being the type of person who never shuts up about being an anarchist or Marxist-Leninist or whatever else?

Most of the people I live with and hang out with don't really know my politics other than I'm probably pretty left-wing or whatever. There have been moments when I've been pretty vocal (like around the time of the Dale Farm evictions when every other fucker was banging on about evil gypsies), but otherwise I don't feel the need to introduce myself as an anarchist or communist, etc. Actually, I think I offended someone by just flat-out telling her we'd have nothing in common politically without expanding on it, not cos I'm ashamed - I just don't feel the need.

I think others do though, and I can understand. When I was 14 and just becoming an "anarchist" I never shut up about it, despite having shit views that I couldn't really express at all.

Who else?

Well, I usually talk about stuff like anti-terrorism and how the government in the US is paranoid of its own people. Also war and stuff. I imagine talking about anti-revisionism or Capital, Ch. 16 would be pretty alienating to most people. Also I have one Jewish friend who I piss off by telling him that Israel is collapsing from the inside and how. Otherwise though, I don't have anything in mind for why I need to broadcast my views or how this would help anyone. I'm thinking of actually starting doing activist stuff with LGBT/environment/immigration/etc advocates on campus this coming semester, so maybe it will come up then.

But yeah, friends who want to stay friends don't talk about religion or politics.

[Rusty Shackleford]

its almost the only other thing i do right now besides work and relaxing at home. partly because im very pressed for time during the day sometimes. that and moving around a lot really made it hard to have any strong social groups/connections outside of a few people.
at work though, i really have to be tactful about what i talk about. just getting the job, only yesterday, after 2 months, did i let one person know i was a communist. even then it was on the condition that it wasnt to be talked about at work. i have this slight paranoia of being fired by my shift manager (ex-marine, wears a "vote no union" pin all the time, though there is no union trying to organize the place right now, has a demilled grenade on his desk)

tomorrow should be a good break from it all though. going airsofting with a few dozen people out at a levee.

[Agent Ducky]

It's pretty important to me. I'm notorious as "that one communist chick with the red hair" not necessarily because I bring it up constantly but because I'm pretty open about it and it's something I'm really into. It's kind of more of a casual thing I joke about as opposed to constantly trying to explain my beliefs and coming off preachy. Some people might find it obnoxious, but they don't mess with me and I find a lot of people respect me for being comfortable with being out there in the open...

[A Revolutionary Tool]

I think it really depends on the person. For example, when I was going to the "bad" school where people go when they get expelled I was the only one who knew a thing about politics and it was election year. So politics would come up all the time in class for some reason and I'd basically always be the guy who would finish off the conversation with everybody either agreeing with me or totally stumped not knowing how to respond. My nickname was "the President". So there I guess it was kind of important for my identity there.

But with my regular friends politics almost never come up and when they do I think they see me as some overzealous liberal or something except for the few people I've actually told I was a commie. So with them my politics are almost irrelevant. But I also have some friends where that's basically the only thing we talk about. So around those few people a commie is all I am to them probably.

[Quail]

They're part of my identity in that they affect the way that I see the world and interact with other people. For example, I usually call people out on sexism/racism (although that's kind of awkward because I don't always want to be constantly calling people out because I imagine it's quite annoying). I try not to get into political debates with people when I don't want to bore people or when I don't want to be too harsh to people (e.g. a family dinner), but if pushed I'll defend my position.

[Robespierre Richard]

Wow I'm actually a lot more 'open' about my views than most people huh. I mean a lot of people know that I'm a communist, and that I'm pro-Stalin, but there is really no need to bring it up not because it's unpopular but because people have no idea what the fuck Marxism-Leninism even means, much less say Anarchism or Trotskyism. The main reason I don't talk about it is because the language is really alienating to most people. Dictatorship of the Proletariat is probably the biggest one. I guess the weirdest thing was having a Russian nationalist who is like 30 scream at me for like 2 hours and then break down emotionally when I wouldn't renounce communism. That episode kind of taught me that the overwhelming majority of people rely on emotion rather than logic or fact when talking about politics and that arguments have to be based on that rather than any sort of logic. I'm a pretty dispassionate person though so this will have to require some talent.

[Luc]

[QUOTE=aufkleben;2333159]When I was 14 and just becoming an "anarchist" I never shut up about it, despite having shit views that I couldn't really express at all.
[QUOTE]

Thats me:( especially in civics...

workin' on it though!