Don't worry I am not going to argue for communism and why you should be a communist, if you want to discuss it in a civilized manner then I would be more than happy to, privately. I was intrigued when I first learned about communism in high school. The entire concept seemed to make such perfect sense to me and I just could not understand why anyone was against it throughout history. Looking at it in its entirety, I know that it is a flawless and completely achievable reality under the right conditions and I feel that capitalism is self-destructive, as it is a monster that feeds on itself: and so I find the need to label myself as a communist.
Although I do not practice communism, I still consider myself a communist.
I feel that it is important to recognize the current society that we are living in and adapt to it and make the most out of it as we have a limited amount of time on this earth. However, I also find that it is very important to keep in touch with your values and acknowledge what they are even if you can't practice them. If I ever do get the chance to live in a communist country, or even a developing communist country, then I will gladly practice my ideology and do my part as a citizen and influence people through education and knowledge. I also want to make it clear that, of course, although I am a communist, it does not mean that I condone all of the acts committed in the name of communism in the past (I am not going to discuss the exaggerated high death counts that were guessed and rumored by anti-communist historians). I also do not hate all capitalists, but I would find it extremely hard to get along with one just because political views reflect a lot about a person and their mentality.
When I was in high school I knew that people did not fully grasp what communism is
as most people almost immediately rejected it the moment that the topic was brought up and enjoyed their ignorance, or tried to argue with me about it, making their arrogance apparent. When I first told my parents they brushed it off as their young teen just trying to be rebellious, they did not realize that I was serious about it. My parents both vaguely know what communism is but because it has accumulated such a stigma over the years, they immediately rejected it and tried to convince me to not be so vocal about it in social settings. By the age of 16, I read both the Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital by Karl Marx. I was encouraged to educate myself on the topic in my free time by a fellow history student in my class. This was good because I felt like I was understood in an ideological sense, furthermore, I had a stronger understanding of both history and current politics. This also pushed me ahead of most of my peers in university as we learned about social thought and politics. I was criticized by a lot of people when I first told them that this is the ideology that best represents me, however, it seemed to make my relationships with some of my like-minded friends stronger. We seemed to come to a different and more intellectual level of understanding.
Although it might surprise you, I have been both publicly and privately bashed for being a communist.
I have previously gotten hate messages on my Instagram because I put the hammer and sickle emoji in my bio, and I have also been publicly shamed for it in person. I do not understand why some people feel the need to do this, but I know that it did not make me less of a communist in any way so their effort was pointless. Eventually, you get to a point in life where whatever someone says, whoever they may be, does not really have an impact on you to the extent of you changing yourself for them. If it does then it may mean that you consider whatever they have said to be true. You have to learn how to distinguish the haters from people who actually care about you and what the best for you, but also keep in mind what I said about people not always knowing what is the best for you in my "-Exhibitionist" post.
I decided that I want to join a communist community at my university.
Throughout my years at my university, I was never really the socialite and focused more on my grades. But this past year, I realized that socializing can help with your grades as long as your surround yourself with the right kind of people, so I encourage you to do so too whenever you feel that you are ready for it. Even though this is the opposite of being discreet about my views, as my parents have told me to be... I feel that although it is important to surround yourself with people from diverse or even opposing views, it is also important to have some sort of connection to people who share and support the same or a similar ideology. So, I have recently reached out to a friend who directed me to the coordinator of the communist group in my university and I am so excited to be a part of something and see what I can offer to this social circle. I hope that it will mature and flourish my perspective as a communist and an individual as a whole.
Sincerely,
Ed the bedhead