How do you recognise a comrade in the wild?
What's something low profile comrades say that communicate immediately that they know which side they fight for in the class struggle?
Example: if anyone in the wild speaks "material conditions", or "bourgeois state", out loud, I'm listening.
Gotta try. :D
Lmao, this guy doesn't know the codeword.
Nice try, fed
When i ride the bus and i here people say "Another krakkka down, endless genocide to the white race" i feel like there might be some leftism going on.
I was at a local bookstore/clothing consignment/vinyl shop with a friend because he collects vinyl. I was looking through the books and spotted "A People's History of the United States" by Zinn and ended up picking it up for another friend. I started talking to the owner as I was ringing up about the few leftist texts that he had and how it's kind of cool to see that sort of thing in the TX panhandle since there aren't really many leftists here and he simply replied "yeah, we're out there."
I now call that place the "Commie Record Store" lol.
Last time I was there he had a 4th print edition of State and Revolution from 1935, that is now in my possession. The book is super old and the spine is brittle and I don't know what to do with it, but I feel like it's somehow special now.
He now acts as my source for physical books. I mostly read digital but I would like a small collection of "the classics" so to speak.
And similar to comrade Queerecommie, I have a hat with several buttons that anyone here would recognize but the average lib won't. I also use the big nerdy Marx words like dialectics, material conditions, praxis, bourgeois, etc.
What buttons do you have on your hat? I'd like to do something similar.
I wear hammer and sickle earrings pretty often, but I've never really had comments.
I have a black flag, an AnCom(like my banner), and Anarcha Feminism(purple and black) one. Then I have a trans rights one, a smash the patriarchy one, and one that says All Cats Are Beautiful(ACAB). I also have Black Fist and Pride Flag/Inclusive one. I stay away from Hammer and Sickle just because it's so known. The earnings sound cute though lol. A lot of these can be marked up as like just being progressive I guess.
I want a DSA rose eventually.
Overall, it's sort of all over the place but each sort of represents the stages I have gone through along my leftist journey.
It may be possible for you to get the book rebound or at least partially restored. I know in my city there are a few artisan bookbinder shops that do this.
I need to look into it. The book might even be a reprint. It's old and in poor condition but the last date states 1935 so I am going off of that. I can look into getting it rebound. I'm afraid to really even touch it because the spine creaks when I open it like it's begging to fall apart.
the stench of failure
I have to finish playing it, don't I?
indeed you do. it's a work of art
When I met my former coworker for the first time, she said material conditions and that's when I knew.
I was at a wedding once and some random cool dude who sat next to me used the term "historical materialism" so that seemed pretty obvious.
I know only one person who is conscious about politics and he is a weird libertarian.
Someone at the park asked me if I listened to blowback. That helped
Someone doing organizing or even clipboard warrior stuff I'll assume the best of them. Like even if they're not actually a comrade it's whatever most of the time. Maybe it'll end up with an annoying conversation about how the USSR wasn't actually communist or something, but you've gotta assume the best imo. A lot of people just wanna 'make the world better' without doing theory and you can just give them books when you're done with them.
When my co-workers recognize who Thomas Sankara, Malcolm X, Ronnie Kasrils, Nelson Mandela, Muammar Gaddaffi, Fidel Castro, etc. are and generally have positive views of them, even though it's suppressed since I am in that one country V ::: spoiler spoiler made up of beet and onion slop eaters who polished the cocks of german horses for 1,000 years before being elevated to sapience by the USSR. :::
I quote lenin casually enough that my coworkers know me as the communist
Honestly itโs difficult to tell. My friend is a huge China Stan and straight up told me that heโs a communist but Iโm still not 100% positive.
I used the word "use-value" in the presence of a group of progressives today. They were pretty unanimous that housing should first and foremost be a provision for living, rather than a financial investment.
Ive gotten my mom to use commie words when talking to her progressive dem friends (accidentally, but itโs not a problem).
They usually say 'Would you like to join my vanguard party, Stalin's Angels?'
Seriously, though, I don't think there's a way to tell. The number of 'decolonisers' that cross picket linesโฆ or the number of 'Marxists' who turn out to be post-third gen Frankfurt Schoolโฆ disappointing.
I'll let you know when I meet one.
I'll usually try to float rhetoric about workers/bosses, mention class and see if the person responds to it. Generally libs and chuds don't care about class because their perspectives preclude it as a meaningful category.
My only experiences are with "leftists" who are social progressive, economically variable, geopolitically completely co-opted. Best I have gotten to date was an unlabeled leftist who said she felt NATO had it's part to play in the conflict. 99% the only people I've talked to with positive views (or willing to listen to positive views) of China, Russia, NK etc. are people in weird post-alt right/apolitical/center right spaces. If I ever met a real not-bigoted not-Andrew Tate-ified ML in real life at random and not some half-assed Maoist, Trot, leftcom, Russiaphobe etc. I would probably scream in joy. My expectations are not that high.
Wait, you have positive views of North Korea?
Do you not?
Communists might on first glance appear like wizards or sorcerers when they hold wands adorned with crimson cloth or when they don caps inscribed with the carmesin pentagram, and they certainly share their love of physical tomes to carry with them, however they differ from those classes in that they like to flock together, and it is not uncommon to encounter a whole party comprised entirely of communists
Trans people that have come out. It isn't anywhere near 100%, but they generally tend much farther left than the average person. I also have yet to meet a conservative trans person in real life (perhaps I've met some closeted ones, but I would have no way to know).
I'm closeted to most but I still quote Lenin and say commie shit all the time. So anyone worth knowing would eventually learn I'm trans
Pretty much only out myself to good friends and other trans people at this rate
Favorite time when I outted myself was to this really nice girl at work that I'd eat with all the time and she looked like her brain was melting when I told her I was trans. Did make me feel powerful
I often say at work, "I'm selling my labor for less than it is worth" and I gotta imagine anyone with a shred of leftist understanding is catching on to that
It implies LtoV which nowadays usually signifies Marxism of some strain, at least in the US.
But also rings true to apolitical working people, so a good all-rounder.
When they unironically say โbasedโ or use โMarxistโ or positively (multiple of my teachers have done this, Iโm super lucky to live in a relatively non hell hole part of the US). Also when they say โcommunistโ positively or talk about how they like Cuba (my peers have done these). A more subtle way is if they talk about dialectics or โpeopleโs history.โ
Also, the way youโd pick me out is my โtoadal commieโ shirt, my โdeath to amerikkkaโ shirt, my baret with a red star on it, or my Lenin pin on my backpack. Thatโs by looks, assuming you havenโt heard how I always talk about communism whenever I get the chance.
Edit: almost forgot the pro-union/Sankara/antifa stickers and patches.
I would say people of all political persuasions say "based," and unfortunately neither "Marxist," "communist," nor "Cuba" seems to guarantee they aren't just a leftcom or similar adjacent variant.
If I say someone with a "death to amerikkka" shirt, I would push old grannies over to talk to them.
The one who said โbasedโ also made clear his favorite streamer is Hasan. He also complimented my Mao computer background. The one who mentioned Marxism and peopleโs history has a Sankara sticker among others. The one who positively mentioned communism im not 100% sure about. Last year someone complimented my baret and said they were reminded of Che (whoโs great and I should learn about him if I didnโt already). We talked about music and the daily show and stuff. I wish i talked with him more before he graduated. I almost forgot, one of my teachers made an assignment specifically about Marxism and didnโt flinch when I praised Stalin.
I made the shirt this 4th of July and wore it to the independence potluck thing. No one mentioned it except my momโs based friend who I talked about books with.
When you say โbaretโ what kind are we talking? The military kind or pancake? Because Iโve got a bunch of pancake ones but none with stars on them.
Thereโs not much a difference, I just know I donโt have a little button or whatever at the top of mine. My star is either felt which I pin or a pin of baby Lenin (you can buy it from Etsy, thank you Lady Izdihar).
Maybe if they talk about "Unequal Exchange" and the Global South, and I'm pretty sure you've got a potential tongzhi
I'll drop a very dry, matter of fact "There is no ethical consumption under capitalism".
Yeah but I remember vividly at a party two libs saying that but then immediately after "but communism doesn't work". Both are die hard "socialists not communists" centrists and one's the pastiest gusano I've ever seen.
Start speaking to them in standard maoist english
/j
Lol โif the commie says that they are a commie who frequently commies with fellow commies, he MAY be a commieโ
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
Unless I see a Che shirt or something I have literally no clue. There isnโt a Commie haircut or facial hair type thatโs seen as communist here in the USA at least. Canโt speak for the rest of the world, or even for the rest of the US now that I think of it. When it comes to the MidWestern comrades idk tbh, I wear Commie Soccer Jerseys (mostly bc they look cool, partly bc theyโre lefty) and a Deprogram hat sometimes but I doubt that everyone knows Iโm a commie when I wear a Motรถrhead cutoff or my Jordan UCLA shirt. TL;DR You have no real way of knowing if someone is a Lib or an anarchist or anything just based on how they look, especially when capitalism sorta makes some people feel uncomfortable displaying their beliefs in public. I definitely think there are a decent amount of people who are too scared of the word โCOMMUNISMโ to call themselves Commies, but hold beliefs similar to us in many ways. And those people DEFINITELY arenโt dressing in commie clothes
Notice I didn't specifically ask about how they look. My example was about something they/we say.
What's something someone would do/say that would have you think "one of us", about them?
Ohhhh, my bad I kinda skim fast, got ahead of myself. The only in-person convos with a lefty Iโve had started because we were talking about Geography. Actually caring about the struggles of the people around the world makes you more likely to learn about the rest of the world. Thereโs a reason why righties all cling to stereotypes: they donโt care enough to challenge that notion in their mind.
I disagree, the only ushanka Iโve seen irl is on a bourgeois larper, I know multiple petite bourgeois people who wear barets and Iโm the only baret wearer that I know Iโve met thatโs a commie.
I'll put mine out in the game, to increase those 50:50 odds.
Usually for me it's if they don't point at me and make a loud screeching sound when I mention unions are good and maybe socialist countries aren't as bad as the US media makes them out to be.
I also just remembered of "contradiction".
Yeah, one of my Marxist teachers was trying to explain something dialectically (though unfortunately in the Fichteian way).
Speech 100! Hahaha
Well, yeah. I know some of that stuff indirectly. Haven't been here for long, but there's a few of the concepts that appear over and over again, and are useful in actual conversation, even if sometimes not perfectly precise.
I'll start using "the material conditions of this codebase won't allow for the unfolding of such feature". Or something.
It's really hard to dig deeper into all/most of the concepts.
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
I know this doesn't answer your question, but if you are looking to meet comrades, find your local communist party. If one doesn't exist, there may be a pre-branch starting, and you should get in contact with a party like PSL to find out if there is one near you or even help start one. I contacted PSL and luckily found a pre-branch near me, and now I am helping with building it to become an official branch. I have met some pretty cool people this way. We come in all shapes and colors, and we each have our own mannerisms and come from different stages in our journey towards ML.
If you are not from the US, I hope the same advice still applies.
In Brazil I recognized one by listening to a rap song by Racionais MC's about Marighella and he complimented me lol
You say PSPSPSPSPSPSPS because we're all cute catboy/catgirls
pass them the boof
Ask them to browse linkedin for 10min and watch their facial expression.
The DemSocs are the dominant party in my region so most of the people I come across could be potential comrades.
I live in a place that is pretty left and almost everyone I hang out with is queer. Marxist/leftist is basically the expectation when I meet a lesbian in my area. There are libs but their vibes stand out so much to me that its a pretty avoidable situation.
I can, pretty accurately, guess political affiliations without talking about politics. Vibes, culture, speech patterns, it makes things obvious most of the time.
My ANTIFA hat is pretty good at making me friends and enemies alike.
Usually it's the breath. We all have the same breath because we all use the same toothbrush.
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