When the root cause is systemic, the solution also needs to be systemic, like for example, a high security facility to keep them while they recover wouldn’t be the end all, but there could be more outside work as well, such as investigating the conditions that drove them to the crime, and helping them form and follow through on a plan to change those conditions, with state support in what ways are needed to change those conditions. It needs to be treated as a whole and everything relevant integrated into the process of making sure a repeat incident is unlikely, with more serious crimes having a higher bar of thoroughness, though at the same time, their life is not more important than that of others, and what one does affects the system just as the system affects them, so a persons recovery cannot come at greater expense to the rest of society then that of the life of the person that did the crime compared to those that did not, if someone murders someone, the bar for insuring that they will never murder again needs to be no less then on the moon.

I have believed since childhood that prisons should be places of healing and recovery rather then of “punishment”, as it was obvious to me that people being “bad” was the result of the conditions that made a person who they are, not of some kind of “magical” “evil” or so called “free will”, each of which is just a label but it is treated like an explanation, that to my view, a “bad” person was the same as someone who is injured and in need of help, since I’ve been learning ML I’ve also come to see the need for practicality, so I don’t expect it to be perfect or it’s just trash anymore, if the resources are lacking but people are still destructive, even non healing prisons may simply be needed until they aren’t, as it is all very complex you can advocate for a better system and work towards that, but it isn’t the end all be all if it isn’t perfect. Of course that’s all a moot point if Revolution isn’t achieved as in Capitalism only cares about profit and control, so prisons are there for slave labor, not even “punishment” let alone healing.

Using “licking balls” as an insult is misogynist and/or homophobic, don’t do that.

Exercise, firing ranges, organizations, on bravery specifically, baby steps, find small scary things that you can handle and work your way up. The point is that these are all skills or similar, and skills can be developed, people aren’t just masters at things, it takes time and work, and what you do is what you get better at, if you sit around, you get better at sitting around, if you break the mold, you get better at breaking the mold, an example for me recently, I started participating in this sort of “Socialist Summer School” type dealy, and during the first class they did this thing called a “breakout” where zoom threw me into a room with 3 random strangers, I have crippling social anxiety but I still managed to talk with them, it was scary but exhilarating and I’m excited for the next class.

“Put on a fake smile as you die inside, that is how you become an adult!” -my parents if they were more honest about what they’ve been taught to think.

When you’ve been trained to treat the word “politics” like a dirty word not to be spoken in polite company, then you limit yourself to a level of political literary equivalent of what ever gets past your rejection of the topic like a trojan horse, like for example, “entertainment” out of liberal CIAwood. A liberal that doesn’t treat the word as dirty and that does actually learn about it, has there own CIA provided words, and CIA provided fictions, only they believe those fictions real, and their words as the height of the science of politics. The willfully ignorant liberals have less that needs correcting because they know less in general, but are more resistant to even listening, while the miseducated liberals have more that needs correcting but aren’t as resistant to listening, getting them to actually change their viewpoint and stop defending the system is another story.

I’m fortunate enough to have therapy covered by medicaid/medicare (I have both, I forget which one covers it), but on that topic I need to cut the conversation here, I feel uncomfortably close to bringing up something that I’m only prepared to bring up during therapy, where I can use EMDR to process what comes up, thank you for sharing, but also let’s leave it here.

I’ve told my own parents that, almost word for word, especially with my mom, who was thrown out of a moving car by one of her parents in childhood, and it’s stuff like that that reminds me, for all the pain I had in my own childhood, they did an amazing job at not being like their own parents, and doing what little they know how to do to deal with a broken child carrying a horrible trauma nobody at the time knew about, the ways Capitalism, and the tools they use against us, such as religion under Capitalism, torture, kill and under-develop us (and SA, but that is a difficult topic for me) are many in variation and intensity.

I’d think of it a bit like, teaching mathematics, so, provide examples, walk them through them, basically show them how to think in a Dialectical and Historical Materialist way, and encourage them to practice using it to better understand reality, and maybe throw in bits about history, philosophy, political economy ETC. You could give them some books to read (at their level) and then provide encouragement, maybe they get a special treat if they can demonstrate they understand the books content, and if you talk about such regularly at, you might encourage them to want to know more on their own so they can discus at a higher level with you, or even to show off what they’ve learned or something, what ever keeps them learning.

Edit: “regularly at home”

I think you need both, like you said, if you are not kind and patient with them they may rebel against you and what you tell them, but at the same time they would benefit from a solid Theoretical Foundation, make fewer unnecessary mistake, spend less time re-inventing the wheel.

It is kind of like the Dialectic between Theory and Practice, where as you need Practice to develop correct Theory, you need correct Theory to engage in higher quality Practice, which can also enable the development of more advanced Theory, leading to more advanced Practice, point is they need to be put together, and I think raising a child correctly is the same way, they need love and support, but also to learn the important things that school is setup to teach the opposite of.

Your environment is not neutral, if you live in a Capitalist country, they will be dragged along the Liberal path without even being aware of it, in order to actually “have a choice” they’d need to be taught Communism (Marxism Leninism specifically because it is scientific, Communism is not a religion), or they would even have the ability to “choose” in the first place.

Additionally, this question is a bit like “should I teach my kid about the deadly snakes hiding under that rock over there or should I let them find out for themselves?” This stuff isn’t like choosing what color you want your car, there are objectively correct and incorrect answers, and the consequences are deadly serious.

Edit: “wouldn’t even have the ability”

I am not aware of how I am treating it like gospel (perhaps because my childhood trauma had to do with religion and set me like a fire against it, I don’t understand “gospel” in the first place), my fears and paranoia are not related to Theory in that way, thanks to the conditions of my mental health and trauma and life difficulties and so on, all before I ever read anything, so that error had more to do with my fear and paranoia mental patterns popping up and taking over without me realizing I was, and so became primary and attempts to make sure I wasn’t messing up in some way by remember Theory I’ve read, secondary, other comments were more helpful.

This thread has made me realize, while my main thinking for trying to actually talk to people online was to fight social anxiety so I could do more in real life too, it seems it also gives opportunity to practice self improvement as a Communist as well, thanks.

Edit: and also to realize that overcoming my childhood trauma isn’t just something to do for my own sake, but actually necessary for the path of being a Communist, as it is that trauma that drives my paranoia so high and makes me so inclined to listen to it, I must finish addressing it to remove the biggest part of me still clinging to liberalism, so maybe that key that I’m looking for simply can’t be found in Theory alone, but needs something like talking in this community to find. I was thinking of Practice as only this thing that happens in the streets, but that may have been far to much of a mechanical and narrow understanding of Practice, I already knew I needed Practice to go with Theory but thinking it had to be in the streets created a “chicken and egg” sort of scenario as I can’t yet bring myself to do that, so I need to find it here first, like training wheels when learning to ride a bike.

I thought I was avoiding that by focusing on just the icon and banner, but I realize now that I may have been ingauging in another form of liberalism by trying to treat the icon and banner in isolation in the first place, as things only make sense within the context of how they interrelate with other things, not taken in isolation.

Thank you for your criticism, I will try to learn from this.

Maybe, sometimes my paranoia can get the best of me, so I must remain careful of that about myself, even so, every time I look at that symbol my “fight or flight” response goes crazy, sometimes ones instincts protects oneself, sometimes it gets in the way.

Edit: I think I figured something out about it, rather than it being the use of fascist symbols it might be the other way around, that fascists are co opting nature symbols as a part of their reactionary thinking, as reactionary thinking is that which is in support of going backwards, of stopping the new thing, that they would cling to old symbolism, but Native Americans are still behind the oppressive wall of colonialism in the US, so what is reactionary for a fascist, may actually be progressive for a Native American.

I haven’t read much about US colonialism and Native Americans yet (the result of my bad coping mechanism that makes me want to run away from horrors close to home, and preference to learn about nicer things far away, like China), or else I might have known sooner.

Notice anything funny about the channels icon and banner? It looks like someone tried to shove as many Fascist/Nazi symbols into one spot as possible, but also obscure their nature as well, sort of crypto fascists style. So even before looking any deeper I already don’t trust anything about it. The lightning bolt (and the wing looks like another), the sort of “black sun” jagged triangles on the left, the iron crosses, the rain clouds (IE stormfront), even the flowers (anarchist rose), and rainbow (CIA uses minority rights as an excuse to invade), and finally the bird (like the use of the eagle), makes me think there is no way it is accidental.

Edit: I don’t actually know anything about the group, I only didn’t want to engage in the liberalism of saying nothing when noticing something suspicious, I’d been re reading Combat Liberalism recently and I’ve been worried it was something I’d be doing

Get her to read “Left wing Communism an Infantile Disorder” by Lenin

Ooof, this thread sure got spicy, sometimes it is important to remind ourselves we all want a better world. Peace and love, friends, allies, and Comrades! 🐱 💖

Please, take a deep breath in and slowly breath it out, non of us are enemies, it isn’t worth getting so heated over some podcasters, Comrade.

Edit: just noticed this post was 7 hours ago, might have been pointless to post this, whatevs.

I agree with you and did mean to come off as saying revolution was totally guaranteed, I might have been caught up in the need to demonstrate optimism such that I didn’t make it fully clear, the same conditions that disillusion and make it easier for us to reach people and not just get ignored, also serves reaction and help them make new fascists, so we can’t afford to slow in our own efforts, we need to reach as many as can be reached before things get too bad, for the best chances.

Edit: “didn’t mean”, typo