My own experience with local organizing in the Imperial Corps is similar but different in important ways.

The local communist group is trying to be active in impactful wats, especially around Palestine, which is awesome. At the end of the day, we work with a ton of people that are not communists, which is great! We’re trying to bring people in, and after all, the group that we are directly participating in is a pro-Palestine group, not communist directly.

But many of the core members seem to have a lot more emphasis on building “us”, instead of helping Palestine. And that has rubbed a bunch of people, including me, the wrong way. In fact, they aren’t necessarily ultra-communists that are armchair theorists, but unfortunately they just aren’t seemingly doing the work that the public actually wants.

To be fair, organizing around my area is really tough. There’s a ton of anarchists who would rather just light fires and walk away than do what we would call principled work, communist or not.

Don’t feel bad about not wanting to participate in the purists or the ones that maybe don’t have their heart in the right place. It’s totally fine, and it doesn’t make you a liberal, and I don’t think anybody on here is gonna think less of you for it.

Western communists have this weird obsession with purity. You must be the Perfect Communist at all times, or else you aren’t a real communist. Org work is still “work” and we can get burnt out, or not have the energy, or have other things going on in our lives.

We all have different limits and struggles. Someone failing to understand the most basic core concept of community outreach is the one failing to be a “real life communist” not someone who needs a break. You’re not the PLA on the Long March, you can take time to deal with your own mental and physical health.

Nothing but a ventpost. I’ve been touching grass and really doing heavy org shit within the empire for a while now and while some comrades are incredible and synthesize theory + human empathy perfectly, others seem to just grandstand as these “scientific beings” that really are just emotionally bankrupt and care zero about anything but “resolving the next contradiction” which is just fucking ridiculous and cult-like.

Even in the 1800s, “vulgar materialism” was discussed as a problematic vanity for this very reason and I wholeheartedly agree.

You’ve done what you could and that’s all a leftist cause can really ask of anyone.

Reading theory is for nerds, and sometimes us nerds are… yeah. We all gotta put in the work to be comradely in our orgs and spaces.

Be kind to people, cruel to systems. Some communists have been so busy reading theory they forget to read the room.

I’m sorry to hear about how you’re struggling. Don’t let some individual obnoxious people compromise your values. As long as you’re an ally to the working class, you’re plenty fine.

TrueAnon rule: Be normal.

While I agree entirely, a part of me wishes I didn’t.

Not all people are my “fellow” humans, at most they’re “humans” (and they are) but that’s the most I can give them. And here in the imperial core the bar is so low, and yet so many people fail to meet it. And I’m still kind (unless someone is a ghoul I’ll be kind unless given a reason not to be) but I feel nothing positive from it towards such people (not that that’s the point), rather I feel silenced, and it eats at me when I have to see the results of the “unjust peace” (not that what’s going on in the world or even within the cores can be remotely described as “peace”) and live in it, particularly with the Sinophobic sword of Damocles hanging over my head (ethnic Chinese myself), or with literal industrial genocide going on and the west goosestepping towards WW3 and open fascism.

I don’t have the emotional availability to deal with all the… microaggressions (that may not even necessarily mean anything or be intended), or the “western-isms” or just plain liberalism. I can be kind and will be (unless given proper reason not to be- it would be so much easier if it were just simple that way) but I only feel I lose something from it. Honestly I feel I need to just insulate myself within (or rather, from) this society and live, or get the hell out (which may be a necessity if things get bad enough).

Sounds depressing, but it’s more of a flip of a coin or something (and if politics and all the demagoguery landmines present in the current cultural context don’t get brought up it’s probably going to be fine). Sometimes there are decent people and I’m reminded of why I like people, other times I’m reminded of just why I’m so utterly repulsed, disgusted, and alienated with this society (even if perhaps my issue is more with the system and context than necessarily individuals who may or may not be so offensive- I can hold my ground if nothing else). Helps that I don’t speak too much with just anyone (and intend to become more selective yet, for my own mental health’s sake), I suppose.

others seem to just grandstand as these “scientific beings” that really are just emotionally bankrupt and care zero about anything but “resolving the next contradiction” which is just fucking ridiculous and cult-like.

These types of nerds are so annoying, they’re like 2006 reddit atheists but communist.

No I understand. The people I organize with won’t ever be my friends I think. They don’t have to be, I have a perfect set of friends myself. It’s not that I dislike them but I guess I just tolerate them and we strive for the same thing, which is nice. We just don’t share the same interests, humour, whatever.

There are cliques within the party, nepotism, smugness, you make it, we have it. There are also very friendly people though so I guess it just boils down to who you organize with and who is close to you.

At the end of the day I am organizing though. And so are they. And we are getting successes. We just need to keep finding ways to co-operate.

You aren’t a liberal for being human. It is something to remember that some of us are not the best “people person” types and either need to work on that more, or need to find others who can better do those roles. Using myself as an example, I’m good at being diplomatic, but chatting up strangers has never been one of my strengths; it’s possible I could make it one with enough time and motivation, but right now, it’s not. Not having that strength will cut off capabilities for me that people who can do that, have. I also have an easier time getting into meta, deep concepts than some, but it does little if I can’t present it to others in a way that communicates its value effectively and contributes to the advancement of liberation and the advancement of more compassionate and stable conditions for people.

We have different strengths, in other words, and no matter what an individual works on, they will still lack in some areas. That’s one of the reasons organizing together and complementing each other, in both strengths and struggles, is so important.

I literally cannot function anymore without analyzing and dissecting almost everything I see or hear about in Marxist perspective, I cannot hear about any politician or person into that stuff without immediately looking into his/her entire history with anything to do with politics. I cannot enjoy media or random shit on TV without overanalyzing it or getting mad if it has even the slightest bit of liberalism or yankee propaganda, not to mention shitting on almost every country which isn’t communist in every possible way unless it’s an ally of AES.

tl;dr are we stupid?

leftists are the vegans of the political world; they’re right but they’re so annoying that a majority will have a double cheeseburger out of pure spite, even if it’s harmful.

It is not unproletarian to feel something.