My family are mostly Democrat voting liberals and I identified as one for years. When I was in 5th grade I spent more time with my Fox News-watching grandparents and became a Republican for like a year or 2 and became an apolitical lib for a while. From like 2015-2019 I was a Bernie bro who had some objectively shit takes. The biggest 180 I did was probably on the sex trade. I used to be for it as a horny teen like “huh? Did someone say SeX?? Well it’s all ConSeNsUAL so why cockblock someone from getting some PuSsY?” Obviously now I realize that’s a disgusting sentiment and that most people in the industry are not happy and would rather do anything else. Just because a few are happy with their line of work, it doesn’t make it right to force so many others into a position where they feel abused and humiliated or threatened. “Legitimacy of industry” in terms of prostitution always means lining the pockets of abusive pimps (physical or anything else) who will use the opportunity to get rich and usually fund illegal markets (source: Look at Nevada). Enough about me, what topics have become more clear to yall after becoming a communist? I could probably list a few others but I’m interested in seeing what yall say.
Hmm for me a pretty recent 180 i took was on Deng Xiaoping. I was a commie but I really wasn’t super educated on the state of AES(even though i am part of the chinese diaspora) and was always under the impression that it was capitalism. That deng xiaoping turned china capitalist. Probably not really as big of an 180 as some other people here but really learning about china was really inspiring and restored my hope in the world ig. I feel way more patriotic towards china right than amerikkka.
Thinking of possibly doing my master’s in china after my undergrad.
The European Union. I used to think it was a somewhat flawed but reformable stepping stone to a more just and strong European (liberal) democracy. After becoming a Marxist it seems obvious now it is a neoliberal power structure with some pro’s for the common people (Schengen Area), but so many more ways for the ruling class to get their way (that same Schengen Area facilitating cheap labor and trade).
While a socialist pan-European organization would be amazing, it is laughable to think the EU is just slightly flawed or even reformable into this. Like parliamentary politics itself, the EU has some limited uses as a platform to us socialists and anti imperialists (Clare Daly, Mick Wallace), but limited they truly are due to its inherent neoliberal nature. State and Revolution was a great book that really put me into the ML view on Marxism, and taught me that existing power structures like the EU can not be reformed to serve the working class.
I’d have to say the same. The EU is nothing but an institution by and for capital. Ironically I remember my first real encounter with “EU bad actually” came from a Brexit leaver perspective, but that doesn’t mean they’re not wrong.
Since then I have come to the conclusion that the EU has successfully achieved with the pen what the Nazis failed to achieve with the sword, namely intra-European imperialist relations.
Same, i though it’s the run of the mill succdem org but the one that ultimately work for the members benefits and posing some hope for multipolar world, especially when it was closing to Russia and China some years ago. Reading Marx and Lenin make me seriously doubt its purpose. Year 2022 moved me to “EU delenda est”.
Around 2019, on China. I was like “not real socialism and it opress minorities”. Holy shit thanks Chapo.
I used to be a heavy meat eater who said that ‘I could never abandon meat’. Until I actually tried abandoning meat and I haven’t gone back since. It’s easy, cheap, healthy and I learned to cook many different things now.
I don’t eat them that much. Many of the recipes I use don’t include them and they oftentimes are more expensive than lentils, beans, mushrooms, chickpeas, whatever.
They did get better in the past few years though. A lot of them now taste pretty good. I don’t mind them but I always give starting vegans/vegetarians the advice to not buy them too often and instead look for other culture’s recipes. You will save money and it will probably be better quality of food.
The idea that the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were a horrific but sadly necessary evil to end the war. Endless propaganda got to me and I never put to much thought into it.
I learned the history and found out that it was all a lie. Japan was ready to surrender, they were finished, the attack was senseless evil power projection.
I respect all sex workers But the economy of sex work is something I’ve had a complete 180 on. It’s not an industry that should be enabled under the current capitalist parameters.
Same. I used to think this is simply, “sex workers are the ones carrying all the risk and harm, so only their opinion matters. sex worker organisations call for full decriminalisation. /thread”
Until I learned decriminalisation of sex work in the first world leads to increased human trafficking from the Global South: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X12001453#s0045
To put it bluntly, brown women who would otherwise lead their normal lives, are kindapped and smuggled to be raped by white men, in large numbers, whenever a first world country decriminalises prostitution.
This works both ways - criminalising prostitution reduces human trafficking, as shown above in the case study.
People trafficked from the Global South are completely marginalised and poweless, they don’t have a voice. The voices we hear, calling for decriminalisation, are mostly from self employed Westerners. And while I genuinely do care about their right to safer work conditions, for me it doesn’t trump the right of brown women to not be kidnapped and raped by white men.
I think the policy under capitalism should be complete decriminalization of the actual workers but harsh punishment for Johns and pimps.
I couldn’t agree more. It reminds me of a liberal take I saw where they suggested making weed fully illegal and prostitution legal. They posited that weed dealers are worse for society because you can just avoid a prostitute but friends may offer to sell weed. The weed dealers certainly aren’t GOOD. But at least they don’t exploit a person for money and they don’t usually siphon that profit into skeevier and more dangerous black markets. Pimps do BOTH of those things and somehow someway libs and even misguided lefties try to make prostitution into a good societal practice. I’ve also heard the argument that “it’s one of the oldest professions on Earth” and so is monarchy, so are mercenaries. That doesn’t make these professions more honorable or less. It’s what the institution stands for as a whole and prostitution takes vulnerable people in any given society, exploits their lack of opportunities and resources and forces them into an environment that is not good for their health in any ways. Sorry for the rant, Ik we’re all on the same side here but the mere EXISTENCE of that industry, let alone the concept of people outside of that industry defending it just enrages me to no end.
I dated someone back home in Central America very briefly and she told me about the sex tourism and how they use minors to cater to pedo $.
Most of these man start by offering to fly them back to their country, that’s a pedophile power dynamic, where you take a young child out of their home country and somewhere they don’t know nothing of, they solely have to rely on this pedo.
I do believe sex workers at the end of the day will be the ones to decide what happens outside of capitalist parameters, but the sex work industry right now under capitalism is filled with sex trafficking, because they’re really one in the same.
I agree comrade, I just don’t wanna offend any SWers amongst our ranks. I don’t think there is anything ethical about it.
I dated an ex SW… And it was around the time I was very pro sex work because of the leftbook environment that I was in at the time. But she opened my eyes, the topic requires a lot more nuance, and we can’t fall victim to romanticizing the economy of SW. Really one can argue that whether voluntary or not the industry of SW preys on young people, especially minors.
The girl I dated said, it happened so fast, she thought it was all on her terms, until years later when she realized how powerless she was. She was into deep, and unfortunately the experience had a very negative effect on her mental health. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.
I agree, even if it sex work were legal it would lead still bring a lot of harm towards minors, and women. Because of the sex trafficking dynamic laced into the industry of it
I would say legalizing drugs and sex work are two different concepts, as someone who smokes weed and had their life changed by psychedelics I wouldn’t want people criminalized for recreational, religious, or spiritual drug use. That being said, crack, heroin, and cocaine are drugs that are only lead to self harm, and should be outlawed.
I’m somewhere in this process but cannot fathom how to go about that without a big change in policing.
It’s easy to identify and arrest prostitutes. They have to put it out there to find business. And they get arrested in scores, and it never ever changes anything.
The ones who perpetuate the industry are the johns. If there’s any enforcement, it should be there, then pimps, then, if any officer hours or resources are left over, any prostitute cheating their customers. Then, after, the sex workers themselves.
Until then, leave it all alone and police for violence (pimp/johns represent the vast majority of that here).
