How old is Holla Forums, for how long have you been a leftist and how are your views changing as you get older?

See? This is why they succeed.

Eight hours of your day goes into working, another eight hours sleeping, and among the remaining 8 you have basic necessities (eating, hygiene, cooking) mundane shit (transit, paying your taxes) and social necessities (love, friends, family). There's no time left to daydream about storming the palace.

23

When I started getting interested in politics at around 15, I've found some anarchist text and was pretty shocked that there were people who felt the same way I did. I've been an anarchist ever since.

30.

Non-caring socdem to about 17. Apathetic leftist to about 19. Started hating my leftist friends because they were arrogant dicks. Met more leftist arrogant dicks. Back to socdem until about age 25. Frustrated because all leftists I meet are either unconditionally love everything about all so called socialists regimes ever, or see idpol as more important than class struggle, or are tin-foil-hat-wearing faggots, or are extremely arrogant petite bourgeoisie cunts and hate the working class and jews while fetishizing muslims. I stay with my views and look for somewhat normal lefties. Believe it or not, Holla Forums is one of the places (considering both intardnet and real life) with the least amounts of arrogance and autism. I'd say I lean mostly towards M-L at this point.

I'm 27, so I was pretty much fucked when the economy collapsed, shortly after I graduated high school. I worked my ass off full-time for years just to make ends meet. Then I eventually decided to try to get a degree, and started taking courses (mostly at night or online). Two or three years ago, I started reading seriously about leftism, starting with a book on anarchism that I checked out of my college library. Like most Americans, I had no clue what the terms "socialism," "anarchism," "capitalism," and "private property" meant, so it was pretty eye-opening. I read Tocqueville and Proudhon, then decided I wasn't an anarchist. I read some Marx and decided I wasn't a Marxist (or even a communist). I eventually settled on non-Marxian libertarian market socialism, which is just a long way of saying "worker cooperatives instead of private property." I'm studying finance now, and after graduation I intend to help organize and finance as many worker cooperatives as I can. If I'm really lucky, I hope to also organize a common credit union that only works with worker cooperatives. Basically I want to help create an American Mondragon.

I thought of myself as a liberal/libertarian when i was a teenager but left the movement when i actually started to read socialist lit and saw that all the government tyranny propaganda was bullshit.
there is a very fine line between lolberts and sanity.

You think that you're going to "end up" in academia because you "hate wage labor"? Do you think that wage-laborers like it any more than you do?

Was a soc-dem at around 16. Before that I was a right winger, seriously considering fascism because muh heritage, muh immigrunts, muh reverse racism.

Became a Trot at 17. Largely because I joined SPEW. Just turned 21 a few days ago. Have become more hard line over the years.

Was a generic apathetic teenage liberal until reading Hegel, Marx and Rousseau made me understand the revolutionary horizon for the marginal of society. Still a communist today, but never quite bought into Marxism or anarchism exclusively and don't see any reason why I will in the future.

What made you switch to leftism after your right wing period?

Not sure in particular. I was already down with certain vaguely left principles like public (ie state) ownership, free healthcare and education. Though I had never given much thought to that kind of thing. I was much more preoccupied with spooky nationalism, bitching about political correctness and lazy people taking mah welfare. Mostly because my first exposure to politics came from reading a bunch of Jeremy Clarkson's books.

I first gave serious consideration to where my politics lay around the time of the 2010 elections. I took a politics and a sociology course in school and started reading about politics, economics and sociology in my spare time, It wasn't long before I dropped my social conservatism and spookiness and became a Soc-Dem. Then after more reading and thinking I eventually drew more and more left wing conclusions until I came to Marxism and revolutionary socialism.

This must be ironic to you, then.

I'm 24.
I used to be quite lolbertian in my teens, then I sort of drifter torwards centrism/socdem. Then I saw RDW on Bill Maher's show and had my mind blown when I realized socialism=/=state. That's why I believe getting that fact across is the most important message we have to convey.

I honestly think libertarians are leftists who take 'capitalism is g(o)od' on faith.

If you're talking about American "libertarians," most of them are well-meaning enough, but–like nearly all Americans–they think that "capitalism" is synonymous with "markets." So, to them, when someone talks about doing away with capitalism, they think that the anti-capitalist is actually saying, "Do away with markets," and they make the (understandable) leap to thinking that the anti-capitalist is instead proposing central planning. Americans, having an anti-authoritarian streak, don't take well to the idea of a government telling them what to produce and consume. When I talk with people about socialism, I deliberately avoid using terms like "capitalism" and "socialism," and they're frequently in agreement with the things I'm saying, about economic democracy and "to each based on his contribution." It's a problem of the history of certain words, and the ideology that has grown up to taint those words.

Fucking this

So they are not leftists.

I think a good way to introduce Americans to capitalism is to talk about serfdom first, the idea that the lords took the serfs' product based on the fact that they owned the land, etc. Then substitute "land" for "capital" and explain it that way. It's a little more complicated than that, but the analogy is close enough that I think it can get the message across simply.

t. American socialist

Agreed. I think most people, even extremely right-wing people have tremendous respect for work, so we have the same values underneath. They have just been sold the idea that being a capitalist is somehow work, and that capitalism somehow rewards work best.

t. Finnish socialist who feels awkward when people use "t."

20

big-time liberal political nerd up until age 17 (new deal liberal type, never liked idpol) who canvassed for obama in the 2012 election, started to get disillusioned with obama after the NSA leaks in 2013, read marx, then became a trot, but started to feel like the leninist party model had inherent flaws and trots themselves were fucking insufferable

now over the past few months i've started to see the (limited) value in bourgeois democracy as opposed to dictatorship, and having read bernstein i've basically accepted a form of reformist marxism, at least in western liberal democracies, as the best way forward despite the failures of reformism in the 20th century

so barring the Holla Forums and /liberty/ shitters i'm probably one of the more right-wing posters here, but everywhere else i'm treated as a fringe left nutter

Have you read Rosa yet?

yes i've read her critique

the 20th century proves bernstein was right (as was later marx, who was more open to parliamentary tactics)

been a leftist for many years, currently 34.

my views started as merely transhumanist, then studied technological determinism. i started to read more and more marx and i don't consider myself anything other than a marxist.

my views on religion and lbgt have change over time as has my view of the soviet union, which i am no now an unapologetic apologist for Stalin.

i think the jews/1% are basically the same thing and that capitalism is the cause degeneracy in society. until the 1%/jew/bourgeois are overthrown we will live in degeneracy and filth.

Ya blew it.

When did you found out K-ON?

Damn, bitch got far from pizza hut

"Jews," "the 1%" and "the bourgeoisie" are very different things, even though they frequently overlap. Conflating them is always a mistake, because doing so also conflates too many different motivations that seek to create different, mutually exclusive societies.

If you actually did read Marx, it's clear that you didn't understand what you were reading.

30yo Leninist since 15.
(though got the meaning of it later on).
And by Leninist, I also mean anti-Stalinist and so on, cause the greatest danger is loss of individuality, but Anarchism cannot be applied in current society, so the only way out is Leninism.

t. Greek Leninist.

What party do you support?

23.

I wouldn't say I'm a leftist yet, since my views will fluctuate between the left and right depending on the subject, so I guess I'm a centrist for now.

I was pretty much your garden variety brogresib librel :DDD when I was in my teens though, so I wasn't even a real leftist then.

...

I'm 16. I actually never went through a lolbert phase if by that we're talking about fiscally conservative. I did start calling myself that at one point about 3 years ago because I started to reject the concept of authority in general especially after a traumatic experience with some POs. I could probably claim PTSD and get some gibsmedats from the court or the government or both now that I think of it. Before that I was basically a fundie and during that you could see me as a socdem, I started thinking about abolishing Congress and such. This board opening solidified me as a socdem but at one point fairly suddenly I realized how important the workplace was, I had this idea of a private business without a boss that I didn't realize was called a cooperative and that spiraled into me becoming a pragmatic libertarian socialist. I have some ideas on how things should be done and believe strongly in social conditions theory but mostly I'll settle for what works at the time and place, especially due to social conditions theory.
I spend all my time and energy at school (whoever invented homework deserves to be hanged) and my summers usually get filled up with something else like a college-level summer school program I'll be taking the third year of (I already know the material, its for my resume and scholarships) so when I have free time I end up wasting it shitposting or on Tumblr or sometimes phonebanking which is at least productive but I always blow off vidya and the like because it takes initiative to start doing which I don't have and is more demanding on time which I also don't have. What this means is I haven't really read theory, though I would like to and I think I understand it ok. One more year of school (this one's near out) and I'll be done which will give me more free time.
This is a leftist board. :^)

That's because most leftists are full of themselves. On chans you leave your ego at the door with anonymity (inb4 >tripfag) and with it begin to open your mind and reject what Zizek calls ideology. So, you become more critical of ideas and break them up into pieces and analyze each piece. If a piece stands up OK on its own you keep it to include in your own ideology and you throw the rest out.

What do you not like about Marxism, brother? I'm not really here or there on it, I just take concepts I see as useful from it such as historical materialism and dialectical materialism and LTV.

Seconded on Trots being generally cuntish, as is best displayed in places like Woozworld and FULLCOMMUNISM.

Elaborate on that full of shit thing.

Synaspismos -> Syriza (same thing) -> Popular Unity -> ????

As long as its not KKE, and not Anarchism (though most of my friends are Ancoms), and has any chance of making a difference, I'm with it.

The labor theory of value; I think it's been pretty demonstrably proven wrong, and correctly superseded by marginalism. (Though I agree more with the early marginalists, who treated utility as a subjective quality that is impossible to reliably abstract and quantify. Later marginalists, and everyone after them, just use money as a measure of marginal utility, which I think is a mistake.) I also dislike central planning and state control, even as "temporary" or "transitional" states.
That said, there's a lot about Marx's ideas that I do agree with, especially base and superstructure, and capitalism's inevitable, recurring crises of overproduction and underconsumption. I haven't read enough about historical materialism to really have an informed opinion on it, but from what little I know, it seems reasonable. History and economics are inseparable, after all.
I think any dialectical method, and in fact continental philosophy in general, is usually quite useless. And I'm skeptical in general of "scientific socialism." You didn't need an economics degree to oppose slavery in the 1860s, and you don't need an entire system of economic thought to oppose capitalism today. Economics as a tool of advocacy (even if you're just advocating the status quo) is worse than useless. Economics as a genuine investigation of production, distribution, and consumption, on the other hand, can be quite useful; but it's descriptive rather than normative, and shouldn't (in fact, I'd argue, can't) serve as the basis of any mass social movement.

i'm not sure that you actually read marx, first thing about marxism is that it's a conservative movement according to marx.

i clearly understood that material conditions dictate society. what is more of a material condition i.e. physics limitation of society other than genetics?

Half the point of Marx's writing was that social relations constitute a part of material reality, and that these relations are forces that act utterly independently of the individuals with which they are engaged.

You're probably right. I see LTV as an ideal to be reached when capital and land and demand become irrelevant because productivity is so high. Like I said I'm a mere plodding peasant in theory. I can tell you about calculus or physics or trigonometry though. Fuck trig.

LTV isn't really that vital to Marxism anyway, it still works as a coherent philosophy without it.
I would disagree that economics aren't useful for advocacy, though, because wealth plays a much more direct role in politics than ever.

You've posted this like three times. Post source, because I am extremely skeptical that it is "conservative" in any modern sense.

You're not alone comr8.

I don't know about that. Marx saw communism as a way of escaping value, which he viewed as a social construct that wasn't in society's best interests anymore.

There's a decent argument that it's impossible to ever reach that state, since the world is finite. But I guess I'm undecided. I do think we'll eventually reach a point where the production of basic necessities (by whatever cultural standard we use at the time) is trivial and automated. When we reach that point, capitalism will necessarily be superseded by something else, something better. I just hope we can achieve a better model before technological progress forces us to. I want us to be better than the material forces that propel us.

Agreed.

I know. I just think it's wrong, and so much has been written about it–more than it deserves, I think.

So? The French Revolution didn't happen because Adam Smith correctly grasped the nature of early capitalism; it happened because, partly due to capitalism, the existing structure of society was no longer capable of doing the most good for the most people. Serfdom didn't collapse because of an economic treatise, and capitalism won't be abolished by any number of academics writing any number of papers.

To clarify, what I mean is that economics-as-advocacy doesn't work. It doesn't produce social change. It's little more than masturbation, and it definitely isn't science.

Oh, I'll also take your side regarding state control (fuck that). Diamat isn't as useful as a lot of people on here claim but I think it's a good way of explaining the fundamental flaws of capitalism and such.

Maybe I'm wrong but I'm pretty sure he also saw it as a fairly distant end goal and the conditions weren't there yet.
Nanomachines, son. We already have 3d printers and the like, eventually you'll be able to print anything with the right molecules and even further than that the right atoms, and even further than that subatomic particles. Once we have nanomachines that rearrange subatomic particles capitalism is finished and we'll have FALC, and researching towards said nanomachines is one of the things I'm seriously considering doing with my life. FALC may be painful at first since the conditions aren't there but we'll stop beating each other up eventually and it'll be breddy goude.

It's interesting to think about how we have a generation that was radicalized by events, but it also makes me worry bit.

People reaching adulthood today might simply think of this as the way things are because they don't have the frame of reference of the past.

No, Marx thought that the value of commodities was determined by the amount of (abstract) labor-power that was used to produce them. He talked about potentially using labor vouchers as a transition toward establishing communism, but one of communism's purposes was the end the law of value and production for exchange.

Yeah, although then the question becomes, "Who controls the raw materials?" It would be ironic if we ended up reverting to a new type of feudalism, where control of land became the most important factor in production and led to a new, dominant social class and I will kill myself if that happens.

What is that?

I think a lot of young people now, like me, realize that things are more fucked than they were in the past. We just have to look at our parents, and hear them talk about magical fairy-land things like pensions and dental plans.

im not sure why you are disregarding genetics as part of the material condition, and thats rather misleading. he was studying the social relations people enter into as they acquire and use the means of production. i don't understand why that is so confusing for you.

20.

I was more or less raised into radical left, since there is heritage in my family of father to son starting form great-grandfather(died in 1918 after the Finnish civil war [officers like him were mostly executed]) to me who have been members of communist party or radical left.

Age 20

About a year or two ago I was a raving "rebel without a clue" type anarchist, and before that I was a bleeding heart liberal. Nowadays I've settled comfortably into the self given tag of anti market socialist, and it's been good times ever since.

I knew there was a reason why all your posts were insufferable.

10 years old - Republican (because my parents are conservative christians and decided to shove republicanisn down my throat)
14 years old - Libertarian
15 years old - Anarcho-capitalist
17 years old - I start to move left because I realize the capitalism doesn't work, but I don't want dirty socialism because thats when the government takes your money and I hate the government.
18 years old - Friend introduces me to Holla Forums, leftist concepts are explained to be and I stop believing bourgeois propaganda. Become Anarcho-syndicalyst.
19 years old - Still an Anarcho-syndicalyst

That's the point of being able to pull subatomic particles out of thin air, it removes the necessity of raw materials. Effectively, materialism would be over. Land is a bit trickier but in this scenario all we would need is land to live and do business on anyway, no need for crops or materials. Someone could try to claim a bunch of land but because the nanomachines aren't even MAD and more like inevitable stalemate I doubt that will last very long, it'd be more trouble than it was worth and you wouldn't be holding on to the claim for long enough for it to matter.
Fully automated luxury communism.

Fug that sounds great.

And now I wish someone could cryogenically feeze me so that I can live there.

I think we all do, user…

Well, you could go with me into nanoresearch. ;)

24 (Britfag)

Trostkyist but i've started to read mutal aid and find i agree with alot of anarchist theory

Been interested in politics for as long as i can remember, my family never strayed from the topic

Father is a Hardcore Irish Unionist with family invilved with the orange order

Mother is a leftist but like many she says she doesnt know who she can support since many parties dont embody any sense of wanting to make radical changes

Was actually right wing in my thinking when i was a teenager but just didt know it.

Respect for authority organisations, upholding of traditional gender roles, protection of nation and identity paramount

Then i went to college at 18 and studied social science where i learned about Marxism and it just made sense to me that society is unfair due to the economic structures inplace

Unless capitalism is removed, the human race can never be free from exploitation and suffering IMO fam

To try and find your penis?

REMOVE PORKY

What did I do wrong this time.

Nothing, he's just a cunt and probably a revisionist.

I'm 14

1.conservative

Slowly indoctrinated by my mom->

2.liberal

Shit changed. Became poor and homeless; I started to pay attention to political discourse ->

3.anarchist (I needed to get my anger out)

Things change more (in a semi-stable household), I read a good amount of theory (quite recently) ->

4. guess I'm a left-com/council communist, and I agree with Debord. I think parties are necessary.

I wish I could, but I'm pretty shit at science and math. Topped out at intro chem and precalculus. Like I said in I'm going for finance, to help worker cooperatives get started up. But godspeed to you.

Now or at the start of your political awareness?

That's pretty young to have to worry about this kind of shit. Even more young to have been homeless. I hope things are better for you, user.

I think he means now.

Слава той расе, которая может сидеть на карточках правильно!

i cannot be the only Russian hete, who was a Soviet

Why the hell are you fretting over politics? Not that you're incapable of getting them but your teenage years shouldn't be spent so dismally.

16 here. Come spank me too.
I'd put this at the back of my mind but everywhere I look there's something bad as a consequence of capitalism. My homeland Puerto Rico has seen some of the worst of it, and Sanders' campaign is my chance to liberate her.

>>>/cuteboys/

His campaign is basically over now, unfortunately. Which means Hillary is basically guaranteed to be the next President. Which means business as usual. Maybe some weird shit will happen in Congress now that the Republicans are imploding, but I don't think that whatever happens there will benefit socialists.

I don't know. There are probably some others here. There were a few old Yugoslav guys who posted here a few months ago, but I was away from the board for a long time and I don't know if they're still here or not.

REEEEEE YOU FUCKING NORMIE, BERNIE IS WINNING BY 125 PERCENTAGE POINTS! GET OUUUUUUUUUUUUUT!!
I'm betting on some weird shit, or an indictment, or a small miracle. He's already set to win every state and territory from here out, the question is if he pulls ahead and what the superdelegates will do.

All of it is very likely. This election season is the biggest happening in some time.

31 communist since 15.

Getting more jaded and less energetic as I get older.

Value of Commodities is determined by abstract labour-TIME. Labour-power is a capacity to work, a formal, pseudo-commodity whose presence on the market due to reproduced alienation from the conditions of labor ensures the reproduction of capital as a social relation.

For all these people out there who don't think the LTV is central to Marx–you are hopelessly wrong. But Marx doesn't say that the value of individual commodities is determined linearly within firms. It's not that a laptop's value is determined by the amount of labour-time that directly went into its production.

Value is a quantitative identity for the total social product: C + V + S. Prices are determined by value but in such a way that first, firms don't enjoy the surplus-value they directly appropriate but rather the average for total social capital and secondly, that market conditions can cause fluctuations from market value (costs of production + average profit).

Youngin' at 19.

At about 15 or 16, I think, I found out about SOPA/PIPA then anonymous on youtube. Some of the anonymous channels had conspiracy stuff so I guess I got into that. I grew out of it I think in a couple of fortnights, I don't remember clearly.

I had some traditionalist/religious sympathies till I become a Sargonite during #gamergate. I became politically interested thanks to it but wanted some image-board to talk about politics that wasn't full stormfront, cue here or whatever. Eventually I got sick of Sargon (and complaining about 'sjw's and internet feminism).

I still have yet to do any reading, though. Except for that audio book of a Bob Black essay I listened to.

:^)

When I first got into politics in middleschool I was full cringy reactionary, probably due to ultra religious family.
In my late teens I got REALLY into political theory, although I considered myself neutral or moderate all I really cared about was muh fedora tipping anti-religous "we need to be rid of these people" (in the safty of my own thoughts of course :^) ) attitude.
In my mid 20's I got into the free software movement and was exposed to yet more leftist ideas in a more practical and applied form.
31 now and full Leninist. I think more than anything the experience of having all those shitty jobs I wasn't paid enough for pushed me over. Still only very subtle about my political views even to my closest friends. I accidentally converted a friend of mine and she was more reactionary than me. Now that shit feels great.

20
Been a leftist all my life. Questioned nationality, race and why communism was bad. Then became a classical marxist, with a stirnerite tinge.

underageb& GET OUT!

How did your forehead affect your ability to explore leftist ideologies?
Did it literally block out the books you were reading?
Did it obstruct the sun making it difficult to recognize what a book even was?
Where you reading a box of saltine crackers all this time?
Pls write "kill porky" on it and post digital image.

Dude, this isn't 4chan. I think the only place that enforces any sort of age ban is Holla Forums. Even if you wanted to be like that this board is SFW.

All I know is I hate the white man

Damn I need to study more

...

20. I started as a eurocommunist, afterwards I became a tankie and now I am a luxemburgist.

If they understand that socialism means the abolition of markets then they have a better understanding of socialist theory than you do.

This is why I can't stand Communists.

...

~16 dropped Catholicism and God, sort of 'new atheist', liberal
~19 some sort of left-libertarian
~21 some sort of Marxist

So I've been a leftist for like only two years now. I've also re-found spirituality, but getting rid of God was, I think, incredibly important. The only reason I read Marx was because I was sick of hearing about cultural Marxism, I had to read the fucker for myself.

I wonder if there are as many twinks on Holla Forums as on Holla Forums

I'm overweight and hairy, tovarisch.

:3

I'm tired of hearing about this, too. It doesn't exist, and the only people who use that term are people who don't actually know anything about Marx.

55
12-13
no

Holla Forums is all twinks user. =3

18.
15 = elitistic reactionary
16 = Libertarian
17 = Proudhonnian anarchist
18 = pragmatic socialist

Hello, fellow pragsoc.

...

25, currently socialist who really likes the idea of syndicalism. Used to be a classic liberal but due to further reading and certain realisations about the future of the world I became anti-capitalist.

I'm 18

Since 15, I think.

I live in Portland (like most of the other posters here) and I've gone from green socialism to just political centricism now mostly because everyone around me thinks stupid stunts (like having a sit-in on railroad tracks to protest oil) is worthwhile.

One thing I have learned: there is no group collectively stupider than environmentalists. It's astounding that a group of otherwise often educated people (ie programmers, nurses, etc) could be so downright fucking retarded when it comes to trying to promote green energy.

I bring this up in particular because here in the US states have the right to require railroad electrification, and there's various ways states can use loopholes to toll highways. These things are capital projects that cost money. But nobody is interested in building green things because that requires effort and throwing a tantrum is easier.

I doubt that most posters here are from Portland.

I would literally bet $200 that most Holla Forums users are from the pacfic northwest and new england.

This is a pretty international board. You're a retard.

...

...

We had a "where you at" thread some time ago, I don't think any posters were from that area

Well he already said he's a centrist :^))

in the words of the pope: a dying old woman on her last legs while the new world overtakes her

in seriousness, it's a politically dead place full of eurocrats that will never deviate from the path they are currently on

I'm voting for sanders but seriously it's not like he ever had a chance. Hilary at least can beat trump.

Sanders would beat Trump by even larger margins, all the polls show so. But yeah, his campaign is pretty much over. Despite this, the Nevada Democratic Convention excluded the vote of a bunch of Sanders delegates (who probably would have given him a win, had they been counted) and then, literally on the spot, changed the rules so that those excluded delegates wouldn't be counted. It caused a shitshow and some violence, look it up.

and it was done by barbara boxer, from california (who again did this in nevada)

really just goes to show how utterly fucked the DNC politburo is, it's going to be fun in two years when the GOP obtain a supermajority and are allowed to go full retard

wew
lad

Is every Portlander as braindead as you? Is it the weed?

18, leftist since birth, views have only been refining as I get older.

Gay post, normie.

25,since I was 15

19
I was interested in philosophy at 16 and read my way to Žižek.

27.

Since, I don't really know. I was just another dumb escapism junkie until 2-3 years ago.

Today, I feel as though most of my life has been wasted on bread and circuses. Despite this realization, despite knowing that something is wrong, I still don't know where the circus ends.

A new government and a lot of firing squads.

18 now

got into politics when I was about 14 because of my interest in history. Considered myself a socdem at first, flirted with titoism for a while.
Then about 3-4 years ago I started to study leftist political theory more seriously, flirting with anarchism. Got myself Bakunin's God and State and read it a bit but I was quickly disappointed by him. He didn't really answer my questions. So I slowly shifted more towards marxism, reading more and more work done by marxists and Marx himself.
At that time I was some sort of softcore antigerman so I excessively studied the history of the middle east and the pathology of antisemitism. Simultaneously I got into marxist economy and started to read more about the LTV and value criticism (Wertkritik). Reading Robert Kurz removed some of the antigerman brainrot I swallowed.
Relatively recently, probably a year ago, I started to read more about left communism. First I was very skeptical of this current, especially of Bordiga, as I considered myself a "democratic" marxist.
Fast forward a year and here I am. Somewhere floating around Bordiga, Lenin and post-leftcom.

29

Grew up in a somewhat conservative petite-bourgeois catholic family and became a social democrat largely as a reaction to the politics of those that surrounded me.

Left home to go to university, experienced drastically lowered living standards, reacted to my change in social circumstance by becoming a fascist over time.

Dropped out of university and moved in with my then girlfriend, found myself unable to get work and remained in poverty for years.

Became disaffected by right wing politics and started reading leftist literature. Got treatment for mental health issues that probably prevented me from being objective about my situation (it's hard to develop class consciousness when paranoia is making blame immigrants/globalist neo-marxist conspiracy for everything).

Once I started getting my shit together my politics drifted progressively leftward, first as a "market socialist", then a stalinist and then a trot.

Became disillusioned by trotskyism due to both their effective reformism and their constant courting of bourgeois or even outright reactionary groups. Came to see unions for what they really are after being a member of one and having witnessed them do absolutely nothing for us (one of our union reps was one of our supervisors ffs).

As a result of this I started reading leftcom material and subsequently became a leftcom sympathiser (not politically active because there's no fucking leftcom orgs in my area).

15. Been a leftist since late 13. I lean twords libertarian socialism but I havent had time to read into it more.

27