magicshoemonkey
19th March 2013, 23:19
I have been lurking around for a few days since joining, trying to get a feel for the culture here, and I decided to finally introduce myself.
So, just to go down the list of the suggested things to say, I live in the US, the part of the US that is probably least ideal for a leftist (or vehement anti-racist), to be more specific. There are, technically, leftists around (I met one once), but they are sparse and unincorporated.
I grew up a fundamentalist Christian and (by default) Republican. I went to a fundamentalist university where the most "left wing" exposure I had was the small group of Libertarians I eventually befriended. I never could stomach the full Libertarian spiel, though. Eventually, in a history class, I read some of the testimony from the reports on the treatment of factory laborers in 19th century England, and the anger and sadness those reports invoked led me down the road to becoming a socialist (with much more reading along the way; I'm now an atheist, by the way).
At this point, I would hesitate to label myself; I have a lot of affinity for anarchism, having been deeply inspired by Emma Goldman and the IWW. But I don't really think that I'm an anarchist, as I think a state is ultimately necessary for at least some things. Having lurked and read a bit, I found myself identifying most with Tendencies like Pan-Leftism, Non-doctrinaire Communism, or just plain Marxism.
So, just to go down the list of the suggested things to say, I live in the US, the part of the US that is probably least ideal for a leftist (or vehement anti-racist), to be more specific. There are, technically, leftists around (I met one once), but they are sparse and unincorporated.
I grew up a fundamentalist Christian and (by default) Republican. I went to a fundamentalist university where the most "left wing" exposure I had was the small group of Libertarians I eventually befriended. I never could stomach the full Libertarian spiel, though. Eventually, in a history class, I read some of the testimony from the reports on the treatment of factory laborers in 19th century England, and the anger and sadness those reports invoked led me down the road to becoming a socialist (with much more reading along the way; I'm now an atheist, by the way).
At this point, I would hesitate to label myself; I have a lot of affinity for anarchism, having been deeply inspired by Emma Goldman and the IWW. But I don't really think that I'm an anarchist, as I think a state is ultimately necessary for at least some things. Having lurked and read a bit, I found myself identifying most with Tendencies like Pan-Leftism, Non-doctrinaire Communism, or just plain Marxism.