I first got into socialism through the DPRK. I got into the DPRK through Boy Boy’s video “We Went to North Korea to get a Haircut” The video made me realize exactly what the US is all about, what it has done, and what it continues to do. As an American, you understand that the US has done bad stuff, but you never actually think about it in terms of the US being the pure evil it actually is.

And from there I really branched out and got where I am today. I went from being a pseudo-conservative that was indoctrinated by SJW videos and other bullshit, to a self-described “centrist” liberal, and finally into a communist. I don’t think I ever actually believed in that bigotry shit; I’ve always been socially intelligent and empathetic. Liberalism was understanding things were bad, but not having the proper analysis viewpoint on the issues to think of actual solutions or change.

Although I was into socialism for around a year, the true death of my liberalism was the 2024 election. I was of course rooting for Kamala, and was upset she didn’t win and that he’d be back, but, I just sort of realized that it was all a sham and, Kamala or Trump, the neoliberal system would be maintained.

I do think that’s an important part to a potentially successful socialist experiment: having a “capitalist,” or industrialization, phase. Marx wrote about the socialist revolution beginning in an industrialized, capitalist(?) country like Germany, the UK, or the US because these people were at the heart of the capitalist, imperialist core and had felt the exploitation.

But, it seems that socialism has mainly arisen within countries that were exploited by those industrialized, capitalist countries through colonialism. I think it’s because the people in the imperial-capitalist nations are just comfortable enough to not revolt; while the people being exploited through colonialism live through hell each waking moment. Sure, work’s hard and you don’t own the means of production, but, you have a house you can go home and relax in. The people in those colonial countries don’t have any of that, making the revolution almost inevitable.

Can anyone direct me to sources on how China’s government works. Like elections or processes of moving stuff around.

I understand how the DPRK’s elections and processes work, but I don’t think I’ve ever looked into China.

I think that quote perfectly sums things up.

Another thing, though. The word socialist is casually used to refer to countries with socialist intent who are working towards it, similar to communist, but socialism literally means a state where the proletariat dictate the means of production and the political system. Does that truly create multiple definitions of the word? To my knowledge, there hasn’t been a state that has met the literary definition, same with communism, but we still use it.

Do anti-Deng people dislike him for the reason of not building a literal socialist state, or do they genuinely think that he was trying to move China away from even working towards it? From everything I’ve seen, Deng was a Marxist.

I’m wondering, why do some people really dislike Deng and his reforms? I can get being disappointed in him moving away from what Mao built and more traditional Marxism/M-Lism, but it does seem like he’s made real material good within China and the people who have come after him have kept that good. I don’t know all too much about him, so, from an outside perspective, it seems like he’s done decent and his market reforms, while not 100% Marxist, have lead to decent living in the modern day. But, I could be wrong.

Also, is that what Ultras are? Those really insane people who freak out on you for stepping out of their line? Those people who take themselves and their “mission/ideology” way too seriously. I’ve met a few genuine freaks but I never had a word for them.

Let me know if there’s an even better place to put this

I think everyone should know how to download webpages from the internet to keep as a mirror on their devices. Even if there’s nothing coming, it’s always good to have a backup of important information.

Wget is a tool on your computer which can download entire webpages onto your computer. It downloads and all links into files. Here’s a video on installing and using it, as well as a place to download it if you’re on Windows.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oe40pxcjPpM&list=PLCkxwA9NkiYcaldUslJPmRiVyaWLXrJ4K&index=47 https://eternallybored.org/misc/wget/

I have personally downloaded Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il, Mao, Lenin, Stalin, and the Black Panther’s entire Marxist Internet Archive pages. Everything from them on that site.

Has anyone gotten their friends into communism?

I’ve seemingly started a chain reaction within my online friendgroup of people turning into leftists and getting into communism. I first got my friend into it by just talking about politics and stuff, he even used to argue with me about “communism’s never worked” or “doesn’t North Korea do [thing].” Eventually he switched up and I actually got him to read theory like Marx. Then, me and the first guy got another friend into it and now he’s beginning his journey into theory and understanding. Today, I’ve just seen that 2nd guy sending another guy Principles of Communism.

It’s really cool seeing people start out, how they grow and change with it.

All of these people were liberals/left-aligned/not even really interested in politics before, so, it goes to show that liberals and the such aren’t always a lost cause and with some effort you can get them into it.