"No, i wouldn't exactly call myself a SocDem, but a lot of political thinkers that have influenced me hugely used to be members of social democratic parties." :lenin-sure: :rosa-shining:
Yeah I say "I lean left a little" and "I liked Bernie Sanders" IRL, but even saying :xi-plz: :posad: kind of feels like hiding my power level behind a facade of moderatecy.
I'm a moderate leftist. To the left of Stalin, but to the right of Trotzki.
That classic photo of a Soviet soldier replacing the Nazi standard as Berlin fell, but with partisans raising the flag of the new Communist state after removing the old US flag in DC instead
Every American will regard you as insane, confused, or joking. If you do convince them you're authentic, they'll instantly start talking like they know more about the subject than you do and they can convince you to change in a few sentences. Except they're just going to say 100 million deaths, Venezuela, Stalin bad, China bad, equally distributed poverty, doesn't work , human nature. Some combination of that stuff and they'll think you've never heard any of it or you'll have no response.
If you're still a communist after they say their stuff they'll call you brainwashed and dismiss you entirely, possibly forgetting you exist if they can avoid you.
Depends on the where and to who you say it but most at least would dismiss you as atleast insane to say that.
I would be treated better by my coworkers if I were suspected of beating my wife than if I were suspected of being a communist. I know this because at my last job I was fired shortly after that got out while an old coworker, who was convicted on domestic violence charges a few years ago, just got promoted.
In my country egypt (who also had an extensive red scare campaign) you would basically become a social pariah Political literacy is so bad that people think communism = anti islam, atheist, russia, everyone poor, authoritarian, dictatorship, oligarchy.
i'm being a little tongue in cheek, but iirc party membership is still illegal by a 1954 statute
and if you are murdered in the street for being a communist your killers will walk
On April 15, 1984, all nine defendants were acquitted. The jury rejected the government's argument that the defendants were motivated in the shootings by racial hatred. The CWP believed that the indictment was drawn too narrowly, giving the defense an opportunity to argue that political opposition to Communism and patriotic fervor, rather than racial motivations, prompted the confrontation. Neither trial "investigated the actions of Federal agents or the Greensboro police."
Ironically, Americans were put you in metaphorical :gulag: for being communist
If you’re a good enough communist you’ll be put in a literal gulag or more likely just be shot
It's the worst thing in america. Everything can be forgiven for the right price, except only killing a cop and being a commie.
Very much depends but usually it’s bad. I thankfully exist in a bubble between work and friends that “Voted for Bernie but is sympathetic to libertarians” is pretty much the right wing extreme, so even when I tell coworkers and classmates I’m a communist the answers vary from “Oh hey me too!” to “I don’t know much about that but it’s very interesting!”
I do it, but I'm a big :lmayo: guy so I'm a lot more likely to get into arguments and a lot less likely to be attacked by fashos. I also have a :gun-hubris: in case they come to my house.
It varies a lot depending on who you're talking to. Obviously AmeriKKKans' brains are very warped and propagandized, and most aren't going to react well to it, but that's far from universal. There was a poll a few years ago that said like 30-something percent of Millennials support communism, for example. And the most recent Pew poll of Zoomers that I read showed that a majority are both opposed to capitalism and support socialism. Now what that really constitutes is going to vary, but IME people tend to be more receptive than a lot of people here are assuming or have experienced themselves. Demographics are important; age, class, and marginalization are each factors that influence attitudes towards radical politics. I don't generally bother with white, well-off boomer petty bourg, for example, and so I get a lot more cynicism or apathy than hostility.
I try to suss out how receptive someone might be before I decide how/whether to address anything political. Although I almost always start with "socialism" and only say "communism" down the line when they're already partly on board.
I usually say "I dunno I don't really like either party that much" and then do a lot of dogwhistle stuff like talk about George Carlin's "it's a big club and you're not in it"
I've done that but more often than not I get a "I'm a :libertarian-approaching: too!" response. :doomer:
Then you just say "Nah I don't mind payin taxes if it goes to libraries and schools and stuff, but I don't like it when it goes to blowing up weddings and hospitals so defense contractors get richer"
libraries and schools and stuff
Some bazinga brains get mad if you say that. Personal experience. They would prefer more weapons because military treats look epic.
"You really wanna raise taxes so we can send more Americans overseas to get their limbs blown off in forever wars?" is basically a truism that hits all points on the political spectrum.
If someone whips out a more sophisticated argument, like a neocon who thirsts for empire or a technocrat who understands the purpose of it, you have to rise to the occasion, but it's pretty rare that you have to make more of a point than that.
“You really wanna raise taxes so we can send more Americans overseas to get their limbs blown off in forever wars?” is basically a truism that hits all points on the political spectrum.
I've tried that one too! Some seriously say "war is good for the economy! Look what happened after WW2!" and don't give the slightest fuck about mutilated/dead veterans.
Then you just wrankle your nose and call them a fuckin sicko and tell em they ought to support the troops
Combine this with David Feldman’s “I’m a lefty from way back” bit
The ones you got to look out for are the ones that say something about being a leftist, then add a :butt: to it. :sus-soviet:
I'm as lefty as they come, :butt: I also refuse to acknowledge that any material conditions exist besides those that have directly impacted me at some point. Therefore civil rights are over, defund the police is a bad slogan, and i believe everything the US state department tells me.
I used to lean right but then I moved my massive weighty penis to the left.
Funny enough my meme sharing mad one friend think I was a trump supporter (I hid my power level way too damn low), had to correct that quick and be like "no, he deserves a firing squad homie, I'm a fucking communist and hate this god damned country" got a great reaction from that.
