why are you a communist?

[nihilust]

im sure this has been asked but im curious to learn the basis of why you are a communist or for that matter why are you not? because i know not everyone here is

[ВАЛТЕР]

I'm only here for the violence.




Seriously though, It is in my class interest to be anti-capitalist and communist. It is in my personal interest to be anti-capitalist and communist. Me and my family are in no position to support any form of capitalist hegemony. I don't own any industries, capitalism offers me no hope for the future. What am I gonna do? Get a degree and work in some office paying off debt for the rest of my life? That is my future as of now, and as far as I'm concerned that is not a future I want. I don't want to work and have nothing to show for it. Maybe these are selfish reasons, but I don't want the future I am forced to accept under capitalism.

EDIT:

I'd like to add that I have seen my father work tirelessly for me and my family. It pains me to even think about him laboring to such an extent to try and support us. What is worse is that I know that he is not the only one working that hard, and that he is not even in the worst position in the world. It pains me to think others suffer so much for so little, while there are some who have everything and still demand more.

[TheGodlessUtopian]

The short answer: Social-justice and equality.

The Long answer: http://thequeerproject.wordpress.com/2012/03/25/glenn-to-lenin-my-transformation/

[Flying Purple People Eater]

An annoying 'yellow socialist', and a trip to Laos.

[Slavoj Zizek's Balls]

I'm neutral not because I'm apathetic or indecisive, but because I wish to learn as much as I can about both sides in order to fully understand. Binding yourself to one "teaching" is like enslaving yourself to that teaching in my opinion. It is far better to walk both paths to see the truth. Here, my questions are on the left side of things and this allows me to learn as much as I can about that view point. Plus I haven't hit the workplace so I do not need to take a stance as of this moment. Maybe in the future I'll truly investigate the right, but for now I will simply remain open but not conduct any serious research in that area.

[Yuppie Grinder]

I'm neutral not because I'm apathetic or indecisive, but because I wish to learn as much as I can about both sides in order to fully understand. Binding yourself to one "teaching" is like enslaving yourself to that teaching in my opinion. It is far better to walk both paths to see the truth. Here, my questions are on the left side of things and this allows me to learn as much as I can about that view point. Plus I haven't hit the workplace so I do not need to take a stance as of this moment. Maybe in the future I'll truly investigate the right, but for now I will simply remain open but not conduct any serious research in that area.

I don't think you'll find much that'll interest you in the liberal right, or especially the illebral right. Both are wholly anti-intellectual and base their arguments on appeals to nationalism and emotion.
If you have an understanding of both sides of the capitalism argument, what's wrong with sticking to the one that isn't fucking stupid?

[Let's Get Free]

All my friends were doing it.

[ComingUpForAir]

I'm from a petty-bourgeois background. My father should be very wealthy.. I mean like millionaires.. but unfortunately he's not much of a businessman. Over the years I've watched him get ripped off by scummy greedy people and watched him come home after 12 hour days.. make a lot of money but not be as happy as he could be. I grew up somewhat sheltered in a conservative bubble and experienced a subtle, kind of cryptic racism in the world around me. I noticed how some people did better with less work and had to put up with less. I am one of those people who looks white but is not so I also pick up on subtle cues from people and how they treat people who don't look like them (Capitalism is the root problem, I later realized).

I had terrible problems with prostatitis over the years due to my going through with the process of foreskin restoration, after realizing that circumcision is done for religious reasons. Because when I started there was so little information available, I essentially caused myself problems I could otherwise have done without. I began to realize that we lived in a society where people don't have much support beyond their nuclear families and people who look act and think like them. As an atheist I didn't have a church to go to.. I was forced to interact mostly with people of my own cultural group (middle eastern).. which was limiting..

In my college years I hated the greek system, which essentially was capitalism in college.. groups of people who excluded others and divided them into tribes. I hated tribalism and also noticed the nihilistic hedonism and group-think that was being bred into college students.

When I graduated, I never realized how important it was to have connections just for the sake of getting work. Now I can't get a decent job to move to a city after years of living in suburbs.. I feel like I'm suffocating and my natural talents are withering. I'm surrounded by people who I feel are limiting my potential.

Beyond these personal reasons and many others, it comes down to wanting to understand society and it's suffering and ills. After a trip to East Germany and a long history of moving towards progressive politics, I finally took the plunge and bouht das kapital. I've been studying no stop since.. I used to be an objectivist but fond my way through my anger out of that.. I also used to be a huge Christopher Hitchens fan till I realized that he became a 'realist' later in life.. still admire him but understand why he justifies the Iraq War now..(he's a former trot w/ Terry Eagleton).

I've always despised advertising because it's commodifying art.. I hate how every job you want to get that pays well demands that you basically join some kind of tribe.. I.E. even academia is just one big tribe of people who have to pay $$$ to find their way into some tribe... and I know plenty of people who are 'smart' enough to become professors but would never teach marxian economics..

Anyway that's my rant. I'm a marxist but for me it was more a way to understand the world.. I don't come from a poor background but I care deeply about freeing humanity and myself from slavery.

[Delenda Carthago]

Because I have no other choice.

[l'Enfermé]

An insatiable thirst for bourgeois-parasite blood. Also because the Stalinists genocide'd a bunch of my family members; since communism is antagonistic towards Stalinism, I find it a very appropriate thing to be. I guess I'm just too fond of family.

[Rafiq]

Because I'm a Marxist. It is a logical conclusion.

[Marxaveli]

Capitalism is not in my objective class interests. I don't own any private property or the means to production - and therefore being a supporter of capitalism would be antithetical to my class position.

That of course, is the objective reason. But I have plenty of subjective and ethical/value judgements as well. I'm sick of wars, poverty, racism, sexism, and nation-states and empires. I'm sick of religious dogma and the ruling class thinking they are somehow better than everyone else, and I'm sick of their anti-intellectualism. Capitalism is an evil, anti-human system, and it must be destroyed by any and all means necessary.

[Jesus Saves Gretzky Scores]

It's the tops!

[Yuppie Grinder]

Because it is rad.

[Soomie]

I've always been interested in politics. I wanted to belong to a party back when I was first learning, so I sat down and compared the beliefs of republicans and democrats to see which I related more to. I decided to become a liberal democrat. That went on throughout high school. When I moved to college, I began watching Michael Moore's documentary where I learned more about what goes on in the country, and what capitalism does. At that point, I became a democratic socialist. I was only a democratic socialist for a few months when I noticed a boy in my math class who wore hammer and sickle t-shirts and has communist backgrounds on his laptop. We became fast friends. I was sitting on campus one night, speaking with him about politics when he mentioned communism. Growing up in America, I had always been taught that communism was bad and that it killed people. Honestly, I knew nothing about it, but I've always been open to new ideas and learning about new things, so I asked him about it. We sat there for an hour and a half while he taught me things, and I asked questions. That night, I went home and researched communism, socialism, marx, etc for many days. By the end of that week, I had purchased the Manifesto and declared myself a communist. I lost many friends, and was called bad names that I won't repeat due to the ignorance and hate behind them.

Why am I a communist? Hmmm...
My family has always been working class, but over the last few years we've fallen far. I've watched my family slip from low middle class to very low poor class. We moved cities in search of jobs, lived in hotels with all of our furniture in storage, and ultimately lost everything when we couldn't continue to pay for storage and when my parents filed for bankruptcy. Last summer, we were homeless. Luckily, we're doing a bit better. I'm off at college and my parents have a furnished apartment. Both work two jobs and live pay check to pay check with loan debt stacked on their shoulders. Everything that they own amounts to mere personal documents and clothes, all of which can fit in a middle sized plastic container. Neither of my parents have dental or health insurance, and my mother's teeth are broken down to the nerves because she can't afford to see a dentist. I try not to think about it, because I will cry if I do. I am a communist because I know the struggle. I was born into it and will always relate to it even if my situation improves. I care nothing for money or material things. I care about things that I can take with me when I die: memories, kindness, compassion, joy, human contact. I dream of a better future, where everyone is equal, everyone knows of peace and nonviolence, and no one goes hungry or without proper healthcare. I fight the fight every day by educating people, whether willing to learn or not, and by standing in solidarity with my fellow comrades. That's why I'm a communist.

[Ocean Seal]

Because the world is fucked up. I'm not a communist because I discovered the science of historical materialism, I discovered the science of historical materialism because I am a communist. I am not a communist because I read Marx and Lenin, I read Marx and Lenin because I am a communist. But to contrast with that, I care for my fellow worker not because I am a communist, but I am a communist because I care for my fellow worker. I'm not one to compromise, I'm not one to mock the poor, and I'm not one to love my master's for offering me food scraps. I found out that there were people like me, and that they were called communists, and these communists said fuck the bosses, and I'll help you fuck your's if you help me fuck mine. Motto to live by.

[Workers-Control-Over-Prod]

im sure this has been asked but im curious to learn the basis of why you are a communist or for that matter why are you not? because i know not everyone here is

If there is one thing i would point to that is responsible for making me a communist, I would say Capitalist societal alienation.
I don't have much of a family, my mother was always working, was very liberal towards raising me, and when I became a teenager I noticed constantly that friends spent their social lives with their family and making good friends was difficult for me. I remember distinctly being 11 years old and my best friend's parents not allowing more than 1 friend over. I got quite insulted at this restriction and blamed my friend, who in turn was very hurt that I was mad at him.

I became increasingly aware that people lived in different social situations that were wrong. It always bothered me that Families would set "rules" for the kids I wanted to play with because it seemed to me that the kids (10-18) were being restricted while life could be a lot more happy collectively. This was constantly reoccurring. I think of myself as quite a social person, would call friends to see if they wanted to play, and then maybe one of half a dozen persons I called had time.

To put it shortly, the disintegrating bourgeois family was the material basis for my alienation from capitalist society and for me becoming an overall contemplative and critical person.
I remember sitting at the dinner table one night, my dad's girlfriend saying that i should maybe study business economics (in one of those annoying conversations, 'What do you want to do for the rest of your life?'..), and my father responding "What? He's a Socialist!". I was quite shocked. I asked my father why he would call me a Socialist! And he responded "Well, you are against the Classes, or?". With the crisis of Capitalism in 2008, it was only a matter of time until I picked up the book that was selling out at the time to get a critical explanation to Capitalism, "Das Kapital". After reading the first chapter I was very excited that i finally had gained a scientific understanding of why I was against "the Classes", and immediately called myself a Marxist. Three years later I finished the book and called myself a Communist.

[Soomie]

Because the world is fucked up. I'm not a communist because I discovered the science of historical materialism, I discovered the science of historical materialism because I am a communist. I am not a communist because I read Marx and Lenin, I read Marx and Lenin because I am a communist. But to contrast with that, I care for my fellow worker not because I am a communist, but I am a communist because I care for my fellow worker. I'm not one to compromise, I'm not one to mock the poor, and I'm not one to love my master's for offering me food scraps. I found out that there were people like me, and that they were called communists, and these communists said fuck the bosses, and I'll help you fuck your's if you help me fuck mine. Motto to live by.

Is that a quote of yours Ocean Seal? If so, I would love to use it.

[Ocean Seal]

Is that a quote of yours Ocean Seal? If so, I would love to use it.
Yep it is my quote, and I would be honored if you used it.

[Marxaveli]

Because the world is fucked up. I'm not a communist because I discovered the science of historical materialism, I discovered the science of historical materialism because I am a communist. I am not a communist because I read Marx and Lenin, I read Marx and Lenin because I am a communist. But to contrast with that, I care for my fellow worker not because I am a communist, but I am a communist because I care for my fellow worker. I'm not one to compromise, I'm not one to mock the poor, and I'm not one to love my master's for offering me food scraps. I found out that there were people like me, and that they were called communists, and these communists said fuck the bosses, and I'll help you fuck your's if you help me fuck mine. Motto to live by.

Beautifully put, comrade. I don't subscribe to great man theories but goddamn it this post is as quotable as anything Marx himself ever penned. Kudos. :thumbup1:

[Marxaveli]

If there is one thing i would point to that is responsible for making me a communist, I would say Capitalist societal alienation.
I don't have much of a family, my mother was always working, was very liberal towards raising me, and when I became a teenager I noticed constantly that friends spent their social lives with their family and making good friends was difficult for me. I remember distinctly being 11 years old and my best friend's parents not allowing more than 1 friend over. I got quite insulted at this restriction and blamed my friend, who in turn was very hurt that I was mad at him.

I became increasingly aware that people lived in different social situations that were wrong. It always bothered me that Families would set "rules" for the kids I wanted to play with because it seemed to me that the kids (10-18) were being restricted while life could be a lot more happy collectively. This was constantly reoccurring. I think of myself as quite a social person, would call friends to see if they wanted to play, and then maybe one of half a dozen persons I called had time.

To put it shortly, the disintegrating bourgeois family was the material basis for my alienation from capitalist society and for me becoming an overall contemplative and critical person.
I remember sitting at the dinner table one night, my dad's girlfriend saying that i should maybe study business economics (in one of those annoying conversations, 'What do you want to do for the rest of your life?'..), and my father responding "What? He's a Socialist!". I was quite shocked. I asked my father why he would call me a Socialist! And he responded "Well, you are against the Classes, or?". With the crisis of Capitalism in 2008, it was only a matter of time until I picked up the book that was selling out at the time to get a critical explanation to Capitalism, "Das Kapital". After reading the first chapter I was very excited that i finally had gained a scientific understanding of why I was against "the Classes", and immediately called myself a Marxist. Three years later I finished the book and called myself a Communist.

Grats on finishing Kapital man, lol. I've only read part of the first chapter, NOT an easy read at all. I can't believe you read the whole thing, haha that's just sick!

[Workers-Control-Over-Prod]

Grats on finishing Kapital man, lol. I've only read part of the first chapter, NOT an easy read at all. I can't believe you read the whole thing, haha that's just sick!

Thanks comrade! I am going to be reading Volume 2 once l'Enferme' finishes the first as well, I find it a lot easier reading a book in conversation with other people. Been trying to finish the German Ideologie so far, but Philosophy is not my strong suit. Certainly before reading Das Kapital one should read some shorter essay's Marx wrote, maybe I would have been more motivated to finish it faster before.

[Danielle Ni Dhighe]

im sure this has been asked but im curious to learn the basis of why you are a communist or for that matter why are you not? because i know not everyone here is
Because I'm working class and I don't accept an endless future of my class being exploited by capitalists.

[human strike]

Because communists have more fun.

[thriller]

For the lulz

No but seriously? Here is my short answer: Private property, Queer discrimination, racism, and imperialism are my biggest problems with the world, and I see communism as the best way to destroy them. Also come from a union family, so it was easier to go more left than further right.

[Jimmie Higgins]

I guess in general because I grew up with two parents in unions during a time of declining social services, and mobility, and trade union struggle. Before High School I had only been aware of Republican presidents in my lifetime and so I also had inhereted hopes in Bill Clinton - who then convinced me that faith in the Democrats is misplaced. There was also a lot of racism at my High School (and actual neo-nazi gangs in the neighborhood around my Jr. High... which is also the time when the LA riots happened) so I think I was initially more of an anti-racist progressive than anything else by the time I graduated. I also had a freind from Colombia whose parents had been Maoists there.

So I was basically a dillilusioned liberal/progressive who was angry at the Democrats, angry at the growing acceptance of non-explicit racism (i.e. reverse-racism claims and demonization people by the media - "Cops" and all the rest) who was also not opposed to Marxism - I just "didn't think that communism could work (as an alternative distinctly better than capitalism)". At least not the kind of Cuba-style communism that my friend supported.

Then the anti-globalization movement happened, I got inspired, started checking out marxist and syndicalist ideas and then went to some meetings of some groups and then joined the ISO about a month before 9/11 because the politics made sense to me for the most part and comrades made some convincing arguments around things I didn't agree with - specifically that I didn't think state-wars had any use (for our rulers) in imperialism in the globalization era. A month later when the US was prepping for Afganistan, marxist ideas gained a whole lot of credibility for me as understanding the system better than some of the generic progressive "anti-corporate" ideas or reformist union ideas I had previously because people had made these sorts of arguments with me.

So in a way Clinton and Bush both made me a marxist.:lol:

[Philosophos]

Capitalism doesn't work for the majority of the people and the capitalists that take all the profits are doing it in the worst way, plus they think that we are stupid and that drives me crazy. Communism is the best anti-capitalist front until something better comes out (or not I don't know) and it has many interesting theories so it's a oneway for me

[Strannik]

Because there's nothing else to be if you're a methodical rationalist. And I hate self-satisfied smugness of this degenerating social formation.

[Art Vandelay]

I am truly free only when all human beings, men and women, are equally free. The freedom of other men, far from negating or limiting my freedom, is, on the contrary, its necessary premise and confirmation. It is the slavery of other men that sets up a barrier to my freedom, or what amounts to the same thing, it is their bestiality which is the negation of my humanity. For my dignity as a man, my human right which consists of refusing to obey any other man, and to determine my own acts in conformity with my convictions is reflected by the equally free conscience of all and confirmed by the consent of all humanity. My personal freedom, confirmed by the liberty of all, extends to infinity.

[nihilust]

thanks guys/girls! been enjoying reading your personal stories and thoughts

[Sea]

When I was in high school, the teacher tried to explain communism something like this:

1. Proletariat gets fed up with the evils of capital.
2. Revolution ensues, bosses get fired.
3. ?????
4. Horrible dictatorship!

The rest of the class seemed to accept this, but I was special. While the teacher was bullshitting away on step 3, I had a vision where the spirit of Leon Trotsky explained it all.

I had become enlightened.

I had become a man.

[the Left™]

Classes are dumb. thats why

[Trap Queen Voxxy]

im sure this has been asked but im curious to learn the basis of why you are a communist or for that matter why are you not? because i know not everyone here is

Because I hate children and I hate life.

[Ostrinski]

Studying history mainly.

[Drowzy_Shooter]

It's entirely due to the fact that I feel that it is the most moral means of production, as well as just the right thing to do. I also feel as though it is necessary to make sure all people are done right by the environment they live in. It completely goes against my class interests (upper middle class), and would probably make my immediate life worse from a selfish standpoint.

[Yuppie Grinder]

I first became interested in Marxism through a lot of left-leaning literature and music I was into, specifically the band Refused and the Mexican Trotskyist writer Roberto Bolano. At first it was just a curiosity, but after reading a bit of Marx and Bakunin and deciding the former made much more sense, I was convinced.





I had terrible problems with prostatitis over the years due to my going through with the process of foreskin restoration, after realizing that circumcision is done for religious reasons.



THIS EXISTS

[freethinker]

When I was in high school, the teacher tried to explain communism something like this:

1. Proletariat gets fed up with the evils of capital.
2. Revolution ensues, bosses get fired.
3. ?????
4. Horrible dictatorship!

The rest of the class seemed to accept this, but I was special. While the teacher was bullshitting away on step 3, I had a vision where the spirit of Leon Trotsky explained it all.

I had become enlightened.

I had become a man.

I have been through my years from childhood to present a book worm, and I can understand the point from where you are coming from. I have been in love with history my whole life, being mainly self taught I developed my perceptions on my own at first they were mainly "moderate" conclusions but I began to understand imperialism and the history of the classes. I was once two years ago an Obama supporter until I started realizing the inherent destructiveness of capitalism in it's self.

[o well this is ok I guess]

Cuz it was 2.50 a drink at the anarchist bookfair

[sixdollarchampagne]

There were more or less three reasons: When I was first on my own, I had a difficult time finding suitable housing that I could afford. I lived in New England, where, in my experience, at least, housing is incredibly expensive – rents in and around Boston were obscene when I was living there – and if friends had not helped me, I could imagine situations in which I would have ended up homeless. All of which tells me that the social order we live under is really, truly, messed up, that profits for the owning class are way more important than meeting human needs for people who work.

Another thing was my growing awareness that the US bombs and invades only countries that cannot fight back. I think I read recently, on a Canadian left-liberal webpage, that the US military bombed Yemen within the last week or so. The country I live in is ever eager to negotiate with anyone with any nuclear capability at all, like the starvation/periodic planned famine regime in North Korea, but as for countries without nuclear capabilities, they get bombed or attacked with deadly US drones, so that US military activity looks an awful lot like bullying, which repels me.

The third reason is that I read in the bourgeois press that, under capitalist restoration, most children in the former Soviet Union are now malnourished, which surely means that capitalism is not a progressive system.

And the clincher is that there is no road to real, fundamental change in this country, through the big bourgeois parties. Working people have to do it for ourselves; no one else is going to liberate us. The Democrats are a pro-war, imperialist party, just like the GOP. The political "choice" involved in any US presidential election is a joke. If elections in the current US political system were capable of emancipating working people from wage slavery – which sucks royally BTW, – then voting would be illegal. Voting just gives us more of the same, being wage slaves for life under the rule of the owning class. The only way forward lies in rejecting the entire rotten system and organizing ourselves to put an end to that system.

[Althusser]

Because I'm just so damn jealous of the people that extract surplus value from me and my family... I mean the people that work harder.

[Decommissioner]

Because a life of wage slavery is no life at all.

Because I believe capitalism suppresses our full human potential, the profit motive stifles innovation as quickly as it encourages it, I want to live in a society without class where everyone strives to make the world better and where individuals are able to reach their full creative human potential.

And of course, because communism makes basic logical sense to me. I don't necessarily believe individuals should be more altruistic as a prerequisite for making communism possible, they merely need to realize that what is theirs (the product of their labor, their money, the society they live in) is being stolen from them. It only makes sense that it should be taken back and that society should be set up to where ones personal greed cant affect society as a whole, where the means of production are democratically held in common.

[Taboo Tongue]

Because I'm a worker.

The manufacturing plant where my father worked at for years and years in California shut down and we moved to Arkansas, when I was 14.
No 14 year-old Californian wants to move to Arkansas. So for me communism started out as "if this shit was reality, then I wouldn't have to move to Arkansas."

[Quail]

I want a better world for myself, my loved ones and everyone else. Capitalism causes so much misery. There are enough resources in this world for everyone to live comfortably without destroying the planet, but the way that they're distributed means that a handful of people live fantastically while the rest of the world lives in wage slavery to maintain that handful's luxurious lifestyle. Everyone should be able to enjoy the full fruits of their labour, and be free to develop themselves as people. If you're stuck working a soul-destroying job all of your life, you can't live up to your full potential. Capitalism also allows (and facilitates) discrimination against various groups of people. Women, LGBT, disabled people, people who aren't white, etc., all deserve to live in a society where they are truly equal and matter just as much as anyone else, but under capitalism that just isn't going to happen.

Bit of a ramble, but yeah.

[Ostrinski]

Guess I can answer this more seriously.

The most concise answer I would give to someone if they asked me this question would be that I believe all people have the right to a dignified existence.

[Tenka]

Because the bourgeoisie suck and need to stop making life miserable for people by being bourgeois, and this necessitates communist revolution and probably some guillotines. Also no other body of socio-economic theory makes a lick of sense when I think about it.

Edit: Also I hate work and want free things. But I understand the initial phases of the revolution will not immediately appease these sentiments.

[TheOther]

I am leftist because of my yellow teeths and an eye-lid problem in my right eye. Because in this neoliberal system we have in USA doctors consultations, and treatments for the eyes and teeths are too expensive. And because of world hunger, poverty misery and worst of all. That capitalism are expansionist economic systems, which forces nations to wage wars. The only way to see a whole world without weapons and wars is 100% marxist governments in the whole world. And then a world communist system without borders, without governments, but that's after the socialism phase





im sure this has been asked but im curious to learn the basis of why you are a communist or for that matter why are you not? because i know not everyone here is

[A Revolutionary Tool]

Just growing up poor, the neighborhoods I lived in, nothing made any sense. There was one bedroom in my house to fit my sisters and I with my parents sleeping in the living room. My dad worked very hard manual labor that gave him health problems, my mom worked two jobs. So why do the kids at school have such nice things. I remember going to a kids birthday party. He had a three story house, two quads and two dirt bikes. I was in shock so I asked him what his parents did. His mom didn't work and his dad took care of other peoples money, which meant his dad worked 3-4 days a week. I remember hearing that and wondering how the hell that could be true. My mom and dad are killing themselves working and we barely have anything, but this motherfucker doesn't do shit and they're living fat! I think that's the first time it hit me that you don't get paid for the work you do.

But it's stuff like that that made me go "wtf how can that be" which made me want to look for answers. None of this world made any logical sense to me at all. Then one day my sister and I were arguing gun regulation and I told her that maybe if we didn't have so much poverty, if we were equal, crimes with weapons would go down. My sister replied with "But Ryan, that's COMMUNISM!" in a really alert way like it was bad. So I went to the library and picked up the Manifesto. It was crazy, eye-opening, couldn't believe it, finally someone who understands me! It was like all my confused thoughts were all perfectly put in what writers like Marx, Trotsky, Engels, etc, were saying and they helped mature my opinions on other matters.

All in all I'm a communist mostly because capitalism never made any sense to me before I got to really looking into it from a historically materialist viewpoint. I mean how the fuck did I live how I used to or how I do now when someone is living comfortably for looking out for other rich people's money? It just makes no sense. Then you learn stuff like people make millions by simply putting money into a stock. I couldn't make any sense of it before I came to the conclusion that our economic system was just stupid and worthless.

[Avanti]

communism is a tool

to create universal oneness

to solve all human contradictions

to create universal love

to explore remote star systems

[Grenzer]

I was heading out to get lunch one day after classes at the University and I noticed these people with a kiosk set up with slogans such as "For free abortions on demand!" Being a hardcore libertarian at the time, I thought it was good to see people with pro-choice slogans for a change since there is usually a bunch of pro-life shit around campus, so I went over to talk to them. It turns out they were Trotskyists, and they gave me some pamphlets to read about Marxism and communism. I usually read even the things that I disagree with so long as it's well written, so I read them that night. The Marxist analysis of society and history seemed to me the most eminently logical and rational thing I had ever read, and I've been a Marxist ever since. Marxian analysis gave me the tools to see the world as it existed rather the world bourgeois ideology insists exists.

My first exposure to communism had actually been a few years before that when I encountered some Maoists, including the famous Raymond Lotta. They struck me as psychopaths and fanatics, so I didn't listen to what they had to say.

[nihilust]

what was it that you read? das kapital? ive been looking for more quick reads of such stuff as marxist analytics. any suggestions?

[GanjaFallout]

To put it simply, with all that i know, once i found socialism.
i truly believe that socialism is the way to a better future for all

:reda::hammersickle:

[TheOther]

However, the big catch-22 problem I see is really not that we are socialists. But how the 95% of the US adult voting population can become socialists, or at least can file a divorce from the traditional political parties The Democratic Party and The Republican Party, and vote for a third party in 2016. Because according to pre-election polls less than 2% of the voting population were in favor of The Green Party and the other third parties. Americans are just too in love with Democrats and Republicans. But, however maybe when gasoline prices rise to 10 dollars, and when food prices get real expensive and when things get real bad to point of american families under-eating because of not enough money for grocery shopping. Then we might see a paradigm shift toward third parties and marxist parties in the 2016 or 2020 elections







Just growing up poor, the neighborhoods I lived in, nothing made any sense. There was one bedroom in my house to fit my sisters and I with my parents sleeping in the living room. My dad worked very hard manual labor that gave him health problems, my mom worked two jobs. So why do the kids at school have such nice things. I remember going to a kids birthday party. He had a three story house, two quads and two dirt bikes. I was in shock so I asked him what his parents did. His mom didn't work and his dad took care of other peoples money, which meant his dad worked 3-4 days a week. I remember hearing that and wondering how the hell that could be true. My mom and dad are killing themselves working and we barely have anything, but this motherfucker doesn't do shit and they're living fat! I think that's the first time it hit me that you don't get paid for the work you do.

But it's stuff like that that made me go "wtf how can that be" which made me want to look for answers. None of this world made any logical sense to me at all. Then one day my sister and I were arguing gun regulation and I told her that maybe if we didn't have so much poverty, if we were equal, crimes with weapons would go down. My sister replied with "But Ryan, that's COMMUNISM!" in a really alert way like it was bad. So I went to the library and picked up the Manifesto. It was crazy, eye-opening, couldn't believe it, finally someone who understands me! It was like all my confused thoughts were all perfectly put in what writers like Marx, Trotsky, Engels, etc, were saying and they helped mature my opinions on other matters.

All in all I'm a communist mostly because capitalism never made any sense to me before I got to really looking into it from a historically materialist viewpoint. I mean how the fuck did I live how I used to or how I do now when someone is living comfortably for looking out for other rich people's money? It just makes no sense. Then you learn stuff like people make millions by simply putting money into a stock. I couldn't make any sense of it before I came to the conclusion that our economic system was just stupid and worthless.

[Permanent Revolutionary]

Because we deserve better. It also helps to study history.

[RedMaterialist]

After reading Karl Marx for 20 yrs. how can you be anything but a communist?

[RedMaterialist]

You might start with Kamenka's edition on Marx, Sweezy and Baran's Monopoly Capital, Lenin's State and Revolution, Reading Capital, by David Harvey, but I don't think it's possible to get a "quick" read on Marx. I swear, it took me 10 yrs, on my own, to get through the first four chapters of Capital. Also, unless you live in ideological wasteland, like me, you could sign up for a few courses on Marx.

[RedMaterialist]

communism is a tool

to create universal oneness

to solve all human contradictions

to create universal love

to explore remote star systems

Well, I must say that I don't believe I have ever seen communism exprressed in poetry.

[bad ideas actualised by alcohol]

I don't thinkt there really is a “why?”.
For me there were many things that drove me to communism.
I used to be a supporter of Obama and social-democracy, but seeing that neither of those had really helped me at all I got a rather big distrust of politicians.
I got intrested in Anonymous and was quite into that, I also, around the same time, got into militant atheism, a thing I can't stand nowadays.
Whatever the flaws of both of those may be, they did get me started on thinking more critically.
I started questioning more and more.
I remember one they we had history class and the teacher started about Marx and stuff.
Fortunately for me it wasn't about the “crimes”, instead I got something of a summary of what Marxism is. The explanation was not completely right but it was way more accurate than a lot of the “big government”-stories others get.
I remembered that it had stuff about the wealth getting in the hands of a small minority while the majority of propertyless workers got bigger and bigger.
Being into Anonymous at the time, I was wuite into the whole 99% slogan as well.
I started to see that Marxism had solutions for the things that I was worried about.
A few weeks later I got less and less interested in Anonymous and started searching around for information about Marxism.
My knowledge was of course limited, some argue it still is.
I found RevLeft and there I suddenly found so many people who knew much more than I did. Thank you guys for that.
A few months later I signed up and started reading the manifesto and other stuff.

Tldr, Why I got into marxism was seeing that normal politics can't bring you anywhere.
Why I am a Marxist now is because I recognize that it has answers to my questions people before didn't have.

[black magick hustla]

nobody is a communist because of only self-interest, it takes more than that.

[Comrade Jandar]

According to Avanti there is a going to be shitload of orgies under communism so that sealed the deal along with it being in my class interests, etc.

[hatzel]

Mainly because when I'm feeling hopeful commies are great people to hang with, and when I lose hope I decide that commies are all clowns, but I quite like the circus, so it's all good :)

[ComradeOfJoplin]

I became a communist because as humans we should have rights to a job, heathcare, food and shelter.

[Yuppie Grinder]

Communism has nothing to do with "jobs", though. In post-scarcity economy necessities are distributed according to need, nobody has to toil to sustain their existence. Full communism also has no division of labor.

[DVRA]

The fact that communism is a practical necessity for the working class, that I want to live in a society which allows for the free development of each person as a human being; a real human community.