Thanks for responding, reading your other comment, I can see there is likely a lot of agreement. I do tend to harp on “the way we define people in society” because I think it is fundamental to leftist theory of change. Education is prob the largest part of what I’ve worked on, when compared to other comrades I tend to be very pedagogical rather than political. Def the biggest challenge is getting people out of their heads and thinking critically, about themselves and their conditions, then taking that critical thought and turning it into critical action.

However I’ve def encountered lots of funny behavior from “leaders” of movements, some especially nasty cases in progressive groups, but even in good leftist groups there can be a very “my way is the right way” emphasis. Fortunately, its basically always possible to struggle for more and better democratic input from members. The way in which we go about it matters, and I’ve seen that wielded cynically as well, but if an org is truly democratic if people can speak up and share their experiences, it has a balancing, instructing effect on the discourse. And on the other side, bureaucracy is death.

I’ve also met lots of people who will walk up to us in a protest like “I totally support what you’re doing” but if you ask them about their own politics they have a hard time describing it. But the fact that there is so much agreement that “the vibe is off” that it is moving people to action, putting hours lives into situations where we can act and learn. The people who are leaders today were baby leftists in 2020, each iteration we keep creating more and more engagement with socialism and social transformation. Its exciting, but the more these ideas move from idealism to, basically the only way we can protect the people we love and care about, the more there is to do.

Glad you’re out here with us!