I’ve been languishing in my comfort zone. Continuing to do so will have terrible effects for me. To quote Marx, I “[have] become a monster, a huge mass of flesh and fat, and [am] barely capable of walking any more.” Ever since the pandemic started I’ve become a terminally online antisocial weirdo who barely ever leaves my room, let alone the house.
Of course, in addition to the damage this does to my personal life, it also makes me non - potentially even counter - revolutionary. As someone who wants to be a communist instead of just some internet poisoned middle class dilettante, I don’t know how I can be expected to jeopardize the comfort of my parasitic labor aristocratic class position when I can’t even get out of my comfort zone enough to go outside, eat real food, and do even the barest minimum of light exercise.
start engaging with your community -> take your dog for a long walk around your neighborhood and greet your neighbors, make small talk with other dog owners, etc…
join a club -> it can be anything, a musical instrument class, a language class, any group sport activity, even the gym. it has to be a presencial activity tho.
these 2 things have helped me a lot these past years, i am still very online but my mental health is much better and i actually feel my improvement as a person. you have to put in the effort, in the current society if you don’t do it yourself no one will do it for you. we communists have to be strong so we can help others in worse conditions.
@CannotSleep420@lemmygrad.ml Also besides language classes, a lot of even smaller colleges (or just random community centers) will have art classes, stuff like painting, pottery, ravelry, smithing, etc. I had a lot of fun doing a painting one in my last city, and hung out with people after class a lot too.
Community centers will also potentially have things like adult sports leagues (soccer, frisbee, etc), yoga classes, zumba, etc. Def worth going to one and checking out what programs they have.
Bigger cities will have various hipstery-adjacent-activities like roller-skating clubs too which can be fun, and at least have younger people.
I’ve also been stagnating since covid and really need to find more social outlets. My main interest is music (i play piano) but I haven’t found a good way to find people to jam with outside of work.
Are there more-social avenues for this? I’ve been receiving instruction in an instrument for a little bit because circumstances mean it’s pretty cheap for me, but it’s also only barely social and I wish I had other novices to do a terrible job of playing alongside.
There is a app I’ve used to find band mates; https://apps.apple.com/us/app/vampr-find-artists-gigs/id1069819177
Its sort of like tinder but instead of trying to date you’re looking for a drummer lol.
Alright, but what if I completely suck?
Find other people who completely suck, plenty of people on there do.
Quickest way to stop sucking is to play with at least one other person, it forces you to play in time to someone else and teaches you what live music is all about, playing off each other. Also for motivation you will actually have some tangible goals for practice (learn these songs)
The “Find other people who completely suck [and want to play with other people who suck]” is my sticking point here. I understand that I want people near my level and that actually playing with musicians is very helpful (I had a brief period where I could do this and it’s the best I’ve been). The finding them is the part I don’t get.
Hit them up on that app or join a discord for your local area and ask around in it. Let people know your expectations and skill level, there will always be someone out there looking for the exact same thing as you.