What made you a socialist?

You misspelled "social democrat"

I have no idea. Anarchism was the first political thing I've considered seriously but it felt like meeting an old friend rather than discovering something new.

I'd never experienced poverty so close before. I live in a city without much public transit, so essentially all people who ride the bus are those who can't afford to drive.

test

You should use >>>/test/ next time.

I was a socdem because (ironically) I thought capitalism looked good on paper, but didn't work in practice and didn't quite fit with human nature.
I still believe that except it doesn't look good on paper anymore.
Then I saw RDW somewhere and realized that there are more options than just 'more government' and 'less government' and things in between.

Holy shit, nice.

When i was younger, in my early teenage years i was a neo-nazi skin head with an irrational hatred and fear of black people. then i realized blacks weren't the problem, it was the system around us, so i because i right wing libertarian with nationalists tendency's. I decide i wanted to became a cop or a soldier, so i got myself into child police programs from the local city and the state police. they lied through their teeth at every possible moment and treated teenager like brain dead idiots, that was at the ok camps, at the state police camps it was much different. Their method of creating disciple was to make you shit yourselves in fear, they would go into the cabins you were sleeping in and throw all your belonging's in the mud if they didn't like how you prepared things.They stole our shoes and threw them in a artificial lake and made us run barefoot across the camp grounds to retrieve them. If you complained, they had a large wooden circle for you to stand in where they would throw light medicine balls at you until you either cried or were injured. And then their were he flags. You had best treat those pieces of dyed cloth like they were your first born children with glass fucking bones or they made you run in circles till you vomited on yourself. This was to children ranging between 10 and 15 years of age. They would lie to parents about what they did at the camp, in the local police camps they would make up stories and have the press come and take pictures of the kids and the cops with fake news stories that said they had found a large amount of drugs in a middle school, and they would take pictures of us in front of drug dogs and cops after we were told to line up and look sad. I never trusted anyone in a potion of power again.

I started leaning towards the left and liked the idea of communism, but didn't think it could work with a governing body dictating things and thus i created a crude understand of my own ideal type of society i called "non-government communism". I began to take the ideas more seriously, started doing research and discovered anarchism existed and it was basically what i already though and believed, but more refined and with more theories and actual history behind it and i have been an anarchist-communist ever since, in one form or another, always attempting to expand on what i know.

Funny how cappy classcucks talk about delusional shit like capitalism gives more choice and freedom, but they can only ever think in binaries like liberal/conservative, more/less government as you say, etc.

Can you name some things that convinced you?

Was dumbshit royalist from Thailand, had some opposition to my Singaporean government without actually reading into why (opposed to authority). Brainwashed by parents and American teacher in private international school cos I'm bourgy scum.

Then I slid left after the age of 12, became liberal (Fukuyama-style). Of all things it was from supporting LGBT rights, then believing in large government, ie public housing/education/facilities/etc.

After 15 I turned Fabianist and believed in a gradual shift towards vague socialism/communism/anarchism.

Next year, I read secondary/abridged Marxist literature and talked to friend about communism. Learnt about diamat and Engel's expounding on it, ditched Fabianism and became full-on Marxist.

I also used to be a Holla Forumsack, but I lived a double-life politically because I was also a homosexual. There aren't many right-wing ideologies that would openly embrace homosexuality, so I began to deify Milo Yiannopoulos.

I became a Classical Liberal when I was introduced to Sargon of Akkad, because I viewed this as "reasonable" Liberalism. I studied people like Hayek, and genuinely agreed with what they were saying.

I then came to lefty/pol/ and was BTFO.

I realized that all of the things that I believed about Communism and Socialism were complete strawmen drilled into me by my Conservative peers. I realized that I didn't know shit about Leftist theory beyond memes.

So, I started questioning my own ideology. I made a thread here asking for reading material that would convince me of Leftism as a Classical Liberal, and I got a few great .pdfs.

Now, I consider myself a Marxist, but I'm not even close to being finished studying. I plan on moving on to the other "branches" of Socialist and Communist thought when I'm finished with Marx & Engels.

I got a fucking job.

this

Former Nationalist here (even though in my context nationalism is left-wing, but you know, spooks). It takes time, but reading helps a lot. I reccomend you Lenin and Zizek.

when i was like 16 i realized the Venus project was just communism with computers

I got very interested in the Soviet Union sometime in middle school. I knew the basic ideas behind Communism and Socialism since then, but I didn't really take it to heart and seriously try to develop a thorough understanding of the theory until fairly recently.

...

Either that quote is taken out of context or Nietzche is an idiot.

Nietzsche was the father of all SJWs, and Nazis.

Mainly becoming a musician and learning more about that all. Mainly through listening and reading about punk rock and my town's local scene (which is very noteworthy). The ideas of going against the music industry (sorta anti-capitalist), nonconformity to traditional artistic norms, and especially the DIY ethic is something I will defend with my entire soul. And of course listening to that type of music made me interested in the ideas typically sung about, so I actually decided to (and still am) reading fucking books.

I mean before I was sorta you standard liberal before, though I never felt strongly towards any concrete political philosophy. Now I'd say I am an anarchist, and as I get older I have began to firmly take a stand on various issues.

Additionally personality has a part of it. For example I feel more "respect" and love for the homeless and the artist that I will ever for petite-bourgeois person, let alone the politicians and the capitalistic. I've interacted with the homeless to a level were I feel confident in that belief.

Working a part-time minimum wage job while living with three other people and my fucking landlord still took well over half of my monthly did a number to my faith in capitalism and the holy will of Lord Market.

Having to do what seemed like half the work at minimum wage as the front end cashier while my superiors would take hour long breaks, go out to eat and chat it up in the office did a got to the rest.

Fucking responsibilities drive me up the wall. Fuck them. I want to do what ever the fuck I want. I'll provide to society the way I want. I don't want capitalism telling me how to live! Wasting my time of doing fucking pointless crap all day long so that I can feed myself. But then you realise about all the fucking waste, everything is wasted, your time is other people's money. You see them buy 200 dollar underwear, you see them buy 1000 dollar shoes, you think fuck, fuck them and their waste. They spend what is relative to them, but who decided their crappy career is better or more productive than yours? Tax is supposed to help the people and it just gets wasted. Money can fuck off, time is the only other measurement that should be taken into consideration. Then how do you measure your time to others? You don't, all you have to do is ANYTHING, anything you fucking want because people choose to follow their own projects all the time. If you are bored you pick something up. Who are they to tell you how worthless you are!? You think their fucking shit is just as stupid. That's why if the government/state is the provider then everyone will be happy and FREE, that's all I want.

The whole "Cultural Marxism" meme

Funnily enough taking the bus to and from work is what really sunk me into my Marxism. Helped that I head half of Volume 1 on those commutes.

Also helped that it made me realize the complete need to fucking negate a world that has me spending more than 10 hours a week on a bus to get to and from a job that pays shit and has no upwards mobility and leaves me feeling entirely hopeless because having to stay a few minutes past normal work hours means I lose out on 30 minutes of my day waiting for the next bus.

Yo, I've been there. It makes me sad that some people have to live like that. I felt like a slave at my job. I felt that I only lived to seriously take shit from customers over the phone. I could go on, but I felt I only ever moved around during the day just to work and prepare for work.

9/11. When people were willing to kill themselves to make a point, I began theorizing about forms of government that can exist without conflict.

I looked up what socialism actually means. Turns out it makes a lot of sense.

I can guarantee that for every hundred thousand Americans that speak badly of Marx, one has actually read his works.

The fluoride in my tap water.

Also, wage labor.

Did you ever see the Buddhists who self-immolated way back when? Way more horrific and point-making.

Feds here. So, we need to further obfuscate Marx? Got it, thanks for the feedback. But seriously expect, in the near future, for Marx to be buried more by the twin forces of liberal academia and general slander than he already is. I doubt the bourgeoisie will just 'erase' him from history.

To reply to OP, you could just say it's my compassion I got from Catholic conditioning (and taking it seriously, that is). I always admired the saints and giving to the poor. I believed in nationalizing important social functions, but wondered why fundamental changes to institutions were always stymied. Eventually after hearing how Obama is a Marxist and muh cultural Marxism, I had to read the guy for myself.

This. I was never sure what I was, everything felt wrong until I was introduced to anarchism properly.

Against that positivism which stops before phenomena, saying "there are only facts," I should say: no, it is precisely facts that do not exist, only interpretations…

switched back and forth between lolbertarian and libtardianism. browsed Holla Forums for a bit and did believe some of their race memes, until i actually sat down and thought about it seriously, decided it was bullshit and went to Holla Forums instead.

I'm still undecided on my political ideology. I'm window shopping, that's why I'm here.

Authors, journals, videos. Any suggestions anyone has here I'm completely open to.

Same here OP.

Pic related.

Turned after reading Marx, though I was already essentially a "progressive liberal" before then.

Went SocDem for a while there after because I wanted "workable solutions to immediate problems under capitalism." Fell in with the Holla Forums lot for a while and temporarily found agreement in some of their assertions, though never really identifying with the right wing. As fun as the memes were, I eventually had a moment where I had to take a hard look at what I was actually enabling, and couldn't justify continuing. Went back to the basics, hit up a few books, and built back up from there. Realized the futility of reformist politics somewhere in the mix and went back to considering myself a revolutionary socialist. Further reading drew me more into anarchist/libertarian tendencies as a means to those ends.

theanarchistlibrary.org/library/larry-law-revolutionary-self-theory

I spent some time working for hertz rent a car where my boss was the son of the man who owned the particular branch. I worked six days straight when I realized I wasn't going to be paid overtime cause they split the pay period in the middle of those six days. My job was car "detailer." Everybody else sat in the office and made more than me when they wouldn't have a job if it weren't for the work I did and realized that there was no qualitative difference between me owning the cars and the short old man. I eventually accused the son of being a beneficiary of nepotism, but he didn't know what the word meant. I got fired that day.

It was around this time that I also found leftypol

wow

Having 2 of my best friends become homeless at different times, putting them both up and trying to help them out as best I can with limited resources and wondering why society is happy to let people rot

Could you expand on this? You aren't the only one to say this, and I am curious. Did you believe in the Cultural Marxism meme at first but then you did research and found out it's bullshit? Or were you skeptical of it to begin with?

The hard way.

I always try to keep calm but sometimes I just want to set this world on fire, but a bullet in every reactionary/capitalist/bourgeois/nazi and destroy all nations.

Nietzsche BTFO's Enlightenment bullshit from beyond the grave. Classic N-man.

I hope you're joking.

I came to Socialism while I was in prison. I didn't particularly feel victimized by the system, but I definitely met men on the inside who certainly were victims.

Not to say that all prisoners are saints, of course.

I used to be a liberal/soc-dem.
Spent time looking at the right wing because I couldn't believe people were being stupid.
Got some roughly "make sense" answers, but they were still very primitive in reasoning and right wingers were very cancerous and emotional and full of rhetoric.
Had a look at an-caps. Even worse.

Finally decided to see if leftists who were educated had any answers, I had assumed they didn't.
Came to leftypol.
They did.
Became commie.

...

cont.

cont'd.

and that's basically my story.

*unemployment rate is 35% here.

I hate wage labour. I hate money. I hate illegitimate authority and power. I hate hierarchy, dominance and control. I hate force, coercion and threat. Frankly, I hate society. Socialism is the only spectrum of political thought that deals with such issues; or, at least, the only one with a real following.

I guess it started with Napster and DC++ scene, and when music and movie industry reacted to it like it was literal terrorism or something, getting the FBI involved and shit, I realized how money rules the world and how those rich assholes who exploit their artists, are the ones crying about their rights when bunch of kids share music from computer to computer. It got me thinking about the system, and somewhere along the line I stumbled upon marxism, and reading the works of Marx and Pietr Kropotkin and others, made me realize that these are my thoughts exactly, only thought through in a way that the then-15year-old me hadn't. It was exciting and enlightening, and the class consciousness and passion for (anarcho)socialism has been burning inside me ever since.

DID YOU READ ENGELS THOUGH?

Did he edit or cowrite books like Das Capital? I always just credit Marx for that and Communist manifesto, dunno why but yeah, Engels deserves some love too.

read Socialism from Utopia to science, I consider it a must-read of marxism. It is written I think almost entirely by Engels.