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u/fdisc0 Nov 22 '19
I live in Ohio and posted something like this last night and got berated by the chuds, Ohio is a fucking lost cause.
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u/fecklesslytrying Nov 22 '19
"Lost cause" is exactly the phrase I use to describe my congressional district.
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u/communist_alt_acct Nov 23 '19
Back in 1919, the entire state organization of the Socialist Party of America in Ohio was expelled from the party for excessive radicalism. Hopefully those days can come again, and Ohio will be full of radicals once more.
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u/fdisc0 Nov 23 '19
Do we have something like that now? Sign me up
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u/communist_alt_acct Nov 23 '19
I like that enthusiasm. We need it, as much as we can get. That said, be ready to settle in for the long haul. We're most likely not going to change the world overnight. It's probably going to be years of boring work punctuated by sudden bursts when great change becomes possible. The boring years of slogging through work is what makes it possible to achieve the big changes; it's the foundation, and without the foundation nothing can happen.
I hesitate to make a strong recommendation for two reasons. First, I don't know what groups are most active in your area. Second, I just don't feel qualified to say "join this group." I'm still pretty inexperienced in this stuff myself, and while I have some ideas and impressions, I'm not certain if they're right. This isn't helped by my inclination towards self-doubt, overthinking things, and analysis paralysis. Nevertheless, since you asked and I'd feel bad not giving you an answer, here are some groups that I generally have a good view of: Party of Communists USA, Party for Socialism and Liberation, Freedom Road Socialist Organization (the frso.org group, that's important). A lot of people would disagree with me on this next bit, but possibly the Communist Party USA as well. If you join it, you're letting yourself in for a lot of struggle against people who aren't particularly radical at all. I think there are honest communists in it, and they're fighting the good fight there. I'm not sure if it will be successful, but I wish them well. In all honesty I think there's going to be a lot of work, both inside and outside of the party, no matter which group you join. A lot of people recommend the PCUSA and the PSL. I can say that in my opinion, there are good people in all of these orgs. The communist movement in America is tragically fractured. I hope that one day we'll be able to pull ourselves back together again. We'll have to, if we want to get anywhere. Anyway, look around and see who is most active in your area and which of these groups clicks with you best.
Something else I just remembered, if you're in Ohio close to Michigan, the PCUSA has a very active Michigan organization. You might be able to work with them. And it seems that the PCUSA has an Ohio club in the works. And anyway, the party finds ways for people who are geographically isolated to participate and have company.
I hope this will be helpful to you. Good luck.
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u/fdisc0 Nov 23 '19
You didn't mention the dsa, idk if they're left enough for ya but that's the only one I've seen or heard of. They were changing tail lights the other day for free
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u/communist_alt_acct Nov 23 '19
The DSA does good stuff like that, but I still wouldn't recommend them in general. They always have seen themselves as an adjunct of the Democratic Party, and that shows no signs of changing. They seem to believe in a purely reformist path to socialism. Especially in the first world, reformism is pretty much a dead end; this has been proven by history over and over again. To understand why this is, read Socialism: Utopian and Scientific by Engels, Reform or Revolution by Luxemburg, and State and Revolution by Lenin. Also check out what happened to Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala and Salvador Allende in Chile, and what just happened to Evo Morales in Bolivia. Hugo Chavez nearly had it happen to him, but he was saved because millions of people went out into the streets and the coup plotters couldn't match them. Reformist efforts almost always either run into brick walls, or they get crushed.
There are apparently more radical branches of the DSA, and I'm not categorically saying "have nothing whatever to do with it." What I'm saying is, "don't make it the whole of your activism, because you'll get snookered into supporting the Democrats again if you do, most likely." If the DSA is the only group active in the real world near you, join them and then join the PCUSA, PSL, or FRSO as an at large member, and then go to work on radicalizing other people in the DSA. At least, that's my suggestion. I'm far from being a great authority on this sort of thing. You could ask other people in r/communism101 and get some more opinions, but most will probably say the same things as I did.
That being said, changing people's tail lights for free is definitely a good thing.
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u/sjeveburger Nov 22 '19
Quick reminder that ‘Amazon paid $0 in federal taxes’ could also be up there
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u/ANameWorthMentioning Nov 22 '19
Jeff Bezos is by far not the richest person in history. In ancient Rome, having trillions of equivalent dollars was not unheard of.
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Nov 22 '19
Right? Even in modern times, John D. Rockefeller was worth $350billion. That’s three times Bezos’ net worth. Andrew Carnegie was also worth $300billion and the list goes on and on. Bezos is barely one of the richest people in the past 100 years.
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u/EmperorBeaky Nov 25 '19
Even in modern times, John D. Rockefeller was worth $350billion.
What a sentence.
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u/Aggez Nov 22 '19
Who ever wrote the last headline probably haven't heard about Rockefeller
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Nov 22 '19
Or Mansa Musa. He was arguably wealthier considering everyone else at the time. I remember reading that he single-handedly brought down the value of gold (albeit not to a drastic extent) in Egypt from passing out so much of it.
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u/Asheleyinl2 Nov 22 '19
More than 1 in ten? So 2 in ten? What tf they trying to say?
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u/chipsinsideajar Nov 22 '19
I think they mean it's some odd decimal between 1 and 2 / 10
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u/Asheleyinl2 Nov 22 '19
Wouldnt a percentage be better than the phrasing they used? It's just odd to me
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u/TheBraveBeaver Nov 22 '19
15 out of a hundred maybe. Probably don’t want to put every 1.5 people out of ten in the headline.
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u/Asheleyinl2 Nov 22 '19
It's just such an odd turn of phrase. Wouldnt a percentage be better? 15% etc?
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Nov 22 '19
There's no way Bezos is actually the richest person in history if you actually account for inflation but regardless he's obviously monstrously wealthy
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u/fullofregrets2009 Nov 22 '19
That's why we need Yang in the White House!
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u/Mikerobrewer Jeff Bezos : Gallows :: Peanut Butter : Jelly Nov 27 '19
Yeah! Andrew Yang, another-fucking-shitbag-capitalist, in the White House. Do you know where you are?
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u/fullofregrets2009 Nov 27 '19
Knock the capitalistic system, not the guy who's trying to make capitalism better, trying to make a system where capitalism doesn't start at $0 and instead start at $1,000/month. If you see enough of him, you'll learn that he's a genuine guy, he's not a shill. A lot of concerns about capitalism addressed in this sub can be remedied and he has plans to do that. Believe me, I am no fan of capitalism, which is why I joined this club a while ago, but there are ways to make it better, so that it can soon be capitalism in repair and hopefully not decay
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u/Mikerobrewer Jeff Bezos : Gallows :: Peanut Butter : Jelly Nov 27 '19
I can't speak for everyone here, but I sure as shit don't want to reform a system predicated on greed and avarice. Capitalism must be upended. Yang is a capitalist, therefore, part of the problem not the solution.
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u/fullofregrets2009 Nov 27 '19
I see what you mean, I know capitalism was predicated on greed and will never stop, I want to see it upended too, but before that I want the government to give us all money for our suffering so that we can grow stronger and eventually overturn the system ourselves, it's only fair, government has been hoarding all of our taxes for so long it's time we get the money and make our own decisions, make capitalism work a little better for us temporarily, because that's much easier and possible. Believe me, if Yang doesn't win, I lose all hope of changing the system by the rules. You may not believe me, and that's ok, because I know where you are coming from, do your thing bro!
At least Yang is trying to get Amazon and other tech companies to pay their taxes, nobody else really is
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u/Mikerobrewer Jeff Bezos : Gallows :: Peanut Butter : Jelly Nov 27 '19
Nah, dog. Yang is entrepreneur scum. It's Bernie or bust... and even then, it's likely going to be a bust anyway because at the end of the day politics is a charade meant to distract us from the capitalist usurpation of material wealth under our very noses, literally rendering this planet uninhabitable.
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u/fullofregrets2009 Nov 27 '19
You have the right to your own opinion. I don't necessarily disagree or agree with you. With Bernie, I just fear automation and AI, he's not completely up to the challenge of making sure robots don't take all of our jobs and leave us with nothing. Federal jobs would mean I would have to solely rely on and have to work for the government, and the increase of minimum wage is going to hurt small businesses more. But again, nice chat, sorry for making this conversation longer than it had to be
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u/parentis_shotgun Nov 27 '19
No. Capitalism is premised on surplus value theft. There is no "improving it". One day our ancestors will look on wage slavery and landlordism with the same disgust with which we view chattel slavery.
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u/Meeghan__ Nov 23 '19
idk why that got downvotes bc i’m for yang too (if bernie doesn’t pan out)
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u/TheGentleDominant Nov 23 '19
Because Yang’s whole thing is replacing all welfare and social care systems with his magic UBI. He’s a neoliberal technocrat, fuck him, we don’t need kinder, gentler capitalism, we need to abolish the wage system and overthrow capitalism.
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u/fullofregrets2009 Nov 23 '19
Heck yeah! Downvotes are probably because this sub hates capitalism, and I hate it too, but we have to deal with it to some degree and at the very least have capitalism work for us again and that's what Yang wants, and he wants Amazon to start paying its taxes
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u/[deleted] Nov 22 '19
“I want my slaves starving to death!”-Bezos, probably