It depends how close they are to a Marxist understanding of the world… I can talk with my twin sister pretty easily about even the spicy stuff, but propaganda has made it difficult to express my views with the average person. People will flip their shit if you even mention Stalin, Mao, or the others, much less suggest that they weren’t literally Hitler.

There’s also the reality that being a communist is a bit like being an atheist or a vegan. These beliefs aren’t compatible with current liberal society, and consequently even encountering a communist as a liberal can feel like an attack. That obviously doesn’t hold true for everyone, but it does happen. I hold my tongue most of the time.

Yes. I do not have friends.

I put on Democracy Now! so I have plausible deniability for myself when Jeffrey Sachs or Richard Wolff start talking shit about the US Empire. “Huh, I don’t know, that’s a good point actually, never thought about it that way” I say outloud after Sachs suggests that Ukraine war is feeding US empire and sacrificing US toadies in Europe. “Wow! I never knew that” I say as Wolff describes the way in which the Dems and Republicans both serve the exact same political agenda. I also turn up sections that are about Palestine. Democracy Now! is mostly socdem but they have heavy support for Palestinians. Other than that, my political conversations with family are just Lib-centric antiTrump/gaetz/MTG/Boebert stuff

Yes. It is very important in my eyes. Class consciousness doesn’t spread on its own, yes yes, material conditions EVENTUALLY will bring everyone to it, but we do not have that time. We must take the risk of being “annoying” to people who aren’t as politically engaged.

Think about if you were never exposed to someone spreading these ideas. You could be very far behind in your political journey and education. As much as we can’t “force” the conditions for them to understand, we can certainly try to bring others to our side earlier than they would on their own.

I try my best not to bring it up ALL the time, but any time something comes up that can be tied to capitalism and it’s failures and how we could fix them, I connect it.

That is how I interpret the Sankara “we must never stop explaining” quote. No matter how tired or little engagement we get, we can not afford to just let them “agree to disagree” or let them stay “apolitical” or whatever. Don’t be super obnoxious, but be persistent and strategic long term. Really try to shoot for areas that resonate with the person you’re talking to.

What do you guys think? Am I insufferable? Lol

Yes, but I’m not fully out as an ML, although I want to get there soon

I do, I’ve been emailing my grandpa often and I think he’s at least anti-imperialist now, though anti-communist propaganda is hard to root out, he recently bought a copy of blackshirts and the reds, so hopefully that will help. With my parents I sometimes talk about it, they’re social democrats, I got my mom to start reading state and revolution, but she doesn’t like using words like “bourgeoisie.” I’ve talked with my brother about politics a few times, and he kinda makes a joke of it. With my friends a few I’ve got to be slightly closer to ml, but most are “apolitical” and make a joke of it, or think of “being randomly political” as my personality trait. I also have some really lib friends. For example one is pro Israel, and claimed multiple new variants were coming out of China, and zero-Covid had peoples doors literally welded shut.

Constantly.I think it’s becoming easier as inequality increases and we can see liberalism start to fail, but it’s still difficult as it’s so ingrained.

Also most people I know, know I am commie.

Yes, on occasion with my mother. She, I feel, is the only person that is both willing to listen, and willing to attempt to understand my views. It is a very slow process, but is seemingly actually causing some change. Regardless, I won’t consider it a victory until I stop hearing the likes of Jordan Peterson and Ben Shapiro from her room as I pass by.

Yes. Actually it goes reasonably well.

I had a small argument with a friend when I found out he is an ultra. This was my fault because I was too hot headed too quickly. I changed my stance and behaviour since then and we started talking about politics again. I still don’t see eye too eye with him but he seems to understand and approach my point of view more than before (he is still off though).

I turned another friend from “I don’t care about politics because I am too well off.” to "Sure things are getting worse currently but soon they will be better again. Besides, things are still great for me " So I am just waiting for the coin for him to drop and realise that they won’t. Recently he became very interested in understanding capitalism better. I am hopeful that he will be radicalised eventually.

I can also say what I believe when I am around my mother but I don’t think she really believes the same things I do. She watches a lot of western MSM and I believe she doesn’t oppose me on things like the war in Ukraine, Stalin, the DPRK or China not because she agrees with me but because she doesn’t want to argue.

Yes absolutely and they are well aware of me being a communist. It was a slow start, but they are now getting to the point where they start agreeing with me on a lot of things. My family consists of working class people, my gf’s family consits of left leaning intellectuals (read libs/socdems) and my group of friends is pretty mixed.

I’ve found that discussing my POVs on things gets me some very good support, but the whole ‘we uphold Stalin here sir’ thing is not going well yet. Discussions about the Soviet Union, China, Stalin, Russia etc. still get heated, but they share the same vision on the things our party and I want to achieve.

Is that necessarily bad? Don’t know yet.

Yes! I would argue that there is great importance in doing so, especially to those younger friends and family members and to those most impacted by the state of things currently. A very short read on this is “Combat Liberalism” by Mao Zedong

a bit. my family are good on anti-imperialism because we are from a developing and post-colonial country (not always consistent about that either) but absolutely crap on anything else. i don’t even try to have political discussions anymore because of that but they always end up happening somehow.

Yes

Occasionally. They’re the type to hardline stick-in-the-mud at certain discourse points no matter how often they tell me they get something I’ve talked on before. Feels like I’m wasting my time. Feels like I’m wasting my breath. Feels like the garden-variety Amerikan is unsalvagable. Feels like within the next three years, I’ll have been denounced to somebody for ‘sedition’.

I discuss politics with both friends and family regularly.