Why do you read theory?

And I wouldn't have it any other way.

Not falling for that one.

You fell for the opposite meme, which is a far worse fate

I don't because it's mostly mansplaining, I read fan fiction mostly. fuck you not everyone can be a dull nerd.

I browsed 4chan since 09. I was always left leaning and disliked that no counter to pol existed but just lived with it. I had a mild interest in gamergate and /g/'s earlier exodus here and I decided to check out leftypol.

I never liked reddit and not for meme reasons, I just don't like the format of the site I never liked fark or Digg either. I hate regular internet forums beyond those because of cliques and a lack of anonymity.

I started reading Marxist and red anarchist stuff about seven/eight years ago when I was still an ancap partly out of curiosity and also to develop arguments against them. Eventually environmental issues and Occupy Wall Street got me to veer left.

haha me too

You're joking, right?

I came here because the world is a fuck, mainstream leftists and the reaction against them are both horrible, and I've sympathy for things I've heard anarchists say, as the very short very condensed version of it
I dont read theory yet.

what asian shithole is that OP?

I'm a nerd who likes history and politics so I eventually stumbled into Marx, Lenin etc.

Pretty sure it's Japan. The letters look like moon runes and Tokyu is a Japanese Rail company.

I used to be a Libertarian but then I read Atlas Shrugged. Like 3 or 4 times and seriously thought about it and realized the whole concept of capitalism is completely insane.

Much of the book is dedicated to demonstrating that moochers and looters are lobbying the government to do stupid shit in their favor. And she's not talking about welfare queens and ordinary criminals here; the moochers and looters are the antagonist corporate overlords.

If the corporate overlords are infested with moochers and looters who are corrupting the government then that *also* mean they're moochers and looters who exploit their workers and defraud their customers. And the fact that moochers and looters are running corporations proves that meritocracy is a lie in the first place.

And then in the 30 something page monologue she talks about how a steel worker is only 'entitled' to the value of their labor outside the company, the single bar of steel a day they can make on their own. But that bar of steel was massively devalued by the creation of the steelmill. The massive increase in productivity from technology devalues people outside that, while the sheer amount of capital necessary to access that tech means no worker can ever hope to compete with the corporate overlords. I reject primitivism, the problem isn't that we got good at making shit, but that we have a system that refuses to let anybody benefit from that advancement if it can be helped. The answer then is in pushing through capitalism to something different, or just forcing capital to share profits with workers.

thx

What?
If it proves anything about meritocracy it is that we don't have one. Not that the concept is wrong.

I mean that the claim we have meritocracy is a lie.

Those are nearly opposites of each other.
The latter simply incentivizes the lazy criminal scum you hate to put on a show and exploit more.
The former is realistic if you can channel the profits of capitalism to empower people. The internet is one such tool. That is why there is so much psyop warfare for our anonymous discussion and our internet activity privacy.

Anyone making that claim is my enemy.
Statism is a cancer.
To make a government and to say that to have it persist is ideal and to create antidemocratic structures within it……. this is evil.

Why the hate mayne?

The internet seems to be a shit tool actually.

Having refined my ideas rather a lot since then, I've looked at what's happened over the past. Originally capitalism was purely exploitative, less money for the workers (deflation adjusted) the more the economy grew. This slowly reverse by the end of the 19th century and we got a system where workers did benefit. In fact at nearly 1:1 with growth. Capital kept 60% of the profit but it was consistently 60%, if a company did better workers probably did better, and if a country did better the country's workers certainly did better.

But forty years ago that changed, capital has slowly been taking a larger and larger share of the pie again. The advent of the internet hasn't helped reverse this, we're still stuck in the same morass of ever greater wealth for the top 8% or so and ever rising cost of living for everybody else.

All according to plan.
That is how you have people that barely classify at the bottom of the "middle class" supporting corporate bailouts. Exploitation by unions etc.

The internet gives you access to any knowledge humanity has if you look for it. It is a great tool.

True, and while I haven't seen it as much use for overcoming the problems of the recent decades, I wouldn't be able to understand them properly without out it, so at least we're up shit creek with a paddle.

You must use the tool, of course.
There are just now people growing through their teen/early adult years that have grown up without experiencing a single week without access to the internet.

I read one book because I wanted to understand the failures of Soviet Union so I can construct an unbeatable argument when trying to persuade people about socialism and countering 50 years of propaganda.

I read another book because the origin and function of debt is just really interesting.

You've only read two specific books?
You nee to broaden your horizons.

Also the food is the most japanese food you could possibly get

This, sadly.

I became disgusted with my own (and my family's) porky lifestyle. I used to be convinced that it was all only natural. Rulers and the ruled. But modern capitalism really is just a festering cancer unto this world and it's going to kill us all if someone doesn't jam the machine before it's too late.

Western society is a Huxlian canopy of lies. A giant make-pretend scheme to cover up the complete rape of the planet. Most porky lifestyles can be summed up as endless hedonism and frivolous consumption. And people pretending they work hard leeching on the poor and working class and then claiming they aren't working hard enough.
Meritocracy, freedom, justice… it's all a myth. It's just 90% corruption, nepotism and perversion at the top. There is no equal opportunity, it's not about working hard. It's about who can fuck over the gullible fool below you the hardest and fastest.

While there are definitely accomplished and caring people among the top, most are just insufferable scum. The whole randroid myth of the upper class being some elite cadre of ubermenschen is ridiculous. Rather it is just a majority clique of manipulative sociopaths and narcissists - most who's only merit is having crawled out of the right vagina - squeezing their way to the top.

And don't think anyone cares either how this system is going to completely destroy the planet. Almost everyone is convinced things are going just great and they can't for the life of it imagine why anyone could think there's anything wrong with the way things are going. In fact, thinking otherwise just means you're a dumb prole and probably lazy too!

Right now I'm planning to emigrate (flag related) and probably won't return for a long time, possible ever. My family doesn't know.
The only redeeming feature here is that I have resources and connections to be of some value.

Besides it being fun, honestly in the back of my head I feel like maybe one day I'll be in a position where my knowledge of theory and politics might come useful - not something like the leader of a revolution, though I think most people on /leftypol. like to fantasize about that, but I just mean maybe when capitalism goes to shit and we start taking to the streets, having knowledge of theory will help a lot, because you'll actually be able to apply it.

That is, assuming that time ever comes.

I want to understand the socioeconomic forces that shape the world better

Loneliness and isolation. My family leans left but they're pretty normie.

I hate the rich.

Because I'm unemployed

TIGHT M E M E S
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Pretty much

I read because I enjoy learning esoteric bullshit; there's a thing I don't know, and I want to know it. There's not much utility as motivation, for better and for worse. It ends up being useful, but I'm arguably just reading for bourgeois leisure reasons to be honest :)

To prove planning retards that they are wrong and dumb

4 years of being a Holla Forums idiot made me realize how dumb they are also thanks to Max Stirner I killed those spooks I used to believe in.

helps me see things easier. cut through the ideological trash and all that
Loneliness was a big factor. Had nothin else to do a lot of the time. So I ended up in online antifem groups and /r9k/. I was just a lib who didn't like all the double standards I saw in libfem so eventually when it started getting really nazi over there I started looking for some more liberal online communities that weren't pro feminist. Found Holla Forums by accident. was generally confused by everything here. Dropped outta politics for a couple months.
I realized a little while ago that everything I thought was a load of shit. I was pretty deep into sargon-liberalism and hadn't read a single thing outside of class. all the shit I read in school (especially the Transcendentalists) I thought I understood really well. But whenever I tried to think through what I believed all I had left were these vague notions of "Freedom," "Equality," "Rights" and some retarded incoherent philosophy I tried to come up with to fit all that. I was also a christian in name, but basically just believed to piss of nu-atheists and because I wanted to "reclaim it" from conservatives by downplaying all the bits that sounded more conservative and emphasizing parts that sounded liberal.

Looking back on it, I'm surprised I didn't end up going alt-right in the end. I was really fucking stupid.

Because when capitalism crashes again, and it will, I want to help push the revolution forward. What we do could be make or break in regard to how we progress forward, or divert back into some authoritarian fascist nightmare

No I talked with leftists on other chans. Have been on reddit but leftypol is somewhat taboo there. Discovered leftypol randomly on Holla Forums because I came here sometimes.

Always been left leaning. But became truly leftist because recent events have made it abundantly clear meaningful change will not happen through available channels. This shit needs to be ushered in from the working class, nobody is going to give us a break because they think we deserve it. The ruling class's livelihood is built off our backs.

to be reminded of why and how the proletariat is such a cognitive waste and that no - they dont really deserve the extermination that awaits them

my parents are trots, and i'm secretly a revisionist, rest is history

how long have you been changed?

and eastern philosophy is for people who worship the spirits in their socks. What's your point?

...

I hope we're all of the understanding here that meritocracy can only work in a socialist society in which all members of society are provided with the same, basic chances of free education and free housing and so on

...

The amount of requisite reading behind leftism is both a blessing and a curse
It means it's much harder to gain wide appeal like Holla Forums, but at the same time the discussion that can be had is much better than any of the mindless garbage Holla Forums pumps out