Comradeship // Freechat

You have time, the most important and valuable resource any person can have. At your age my politics were entirely incoherent and it would take me about 20 years to figure things out. While I (hope to) have a lot more time left on earth, now that I’m in the 40s time does feel more dear to me. I have this feeling that I don’t have enough time. How much organizing will I actually be able to do? How much theory reading and understanding (which I genuinely enjoy) will I get to do?

I don’t have a specific answer for how to stay optimistic. But I can point out that you have your whole life ahead of you to be able to figure it out, and that’s something I think many here would love to have. I have found in my life that developing gratitude helps clear a lot of things up, fwiw.

Vijay Prishad inspires with his response to the question "What should I do?"

maybe?

i saw this somewhere else on lemmy and i think it applies here: people lived rich and fulfilling lives despite the roman empire actively collapsing all around them.

we're getting more farcical for a myriad of reasons, but chief among them are the cool aide drinking and the willful ignorance against learning why things are fucked.

it takes time and effort to read and understand something like theory and that guarantees that the people who don't bother will vastly outnumber everyone else, so asshatery like you're seeing is a part of life (for now). the stuff that they wrote down over 100 years is still 100% relevant and also still helps identify what's going to roll down the hill next.

trying to understand why things are fucked has helped me immensely in coping with all the asshatery; it seems like you've already started your own work by posting here so maybe it'll help you too.

You have time to learn Chinese and go to China

Hey there, first off I wanna say that you being a highschooler having found this place and being interested in communism at all is fucking fantastic. I was an ignorant jerk in highschool so you're miles ahead of where I was. That said, being more politically inclined makes it so much harder to cope sometimes, I feel.

My only advice is to try and become invested in your own community. There is so little we can do individually to effect change on a large scale. Being constantly bombarded with the news and fear mongering makes me want to hide in a cave. I do also get anxious about Trump. I know ultimately the machine will grind people down the same, Democrat or republican...but the reality of it right now just feels horrible. BUT, we do have the ability to make a difference in our own communities and that can make things feel a little less bleak when you're around people who care.

Are there any opportunities in your community to volunteer? Feeding or handing out cold weather gear to the homeless, trash pick up, communist reading groups, even a punk community? Often in punk communities there is a political element. May lean more anarchist but you might find comrades; a lot of all ages shows are thrown around my town and there are often benefit shows and people who do cool things for the larger community.

It's terrifying right now, I know, but you'll figure out what you need to do. Love & solidarity