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...ransformation/

[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.