I don’t really put myself out there to educate since I got burnt last time and decided to stop.

I stopped online, but IRL, it seems worth it and I’ve made progress with people. It’s a slog. Such an unforgiving, slow process. Online, I don’t usually make serious posts or comments because it’s just a place to relieve stress and hang out with comrades. I don’t know many IRL and while the DSA is active in my area, most of them are not ML and have negative opinions of AES countries.

I had to struggle for years and hit rock bottom multiple times before I saw the truth: nobody is coming to save me. Or us.

True. I think there are a lot of people recognizing this, but they end up nihilistic because they feel powerless. That’s where I think there is room to make inroads exposing people to leftist theory. Not that I don’t feel helpless sometimes, but learning ML theory took me from hopeless to determined because I saw a path to change, even if it’s a long, hard road.