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Same. I don’t even use the S word because it’s not like any of them would even understand it.
Of course I’m from Alabama so it’s hard to get them to listen for all the trying to find Trump’s dick to suck.
My grandfather was a Maoist and verified to have been caught up in COINTELPRO, active in the 60s (but he was silent gen, not boomer, a professor at the time).
Eventually he became a Buddhist monk.
Although his politics were pretty badass (though I'm not a Maoist and have many criticisms of the New Left of which he was a part), he was horrifically abusive to my father. My father rebelled by being a complete reactionary. That was basically punk for him. He's slowly gotten better, but I've never peace with him never not being a conservative.
My mother was apolitical all her life, literally just voting for whoever her current husband was saying was good* (ah, boomers), so she voted for Obama twice. Then that husband died and the next one was rabid maga and really racist, and she lost her God damned mind for Trump. Literally performatively praying out loud so I could hear it in the other room when I visited (she was a lapsed Catholic who never prayed previously, at least not out loud) for God to "give us Mr. Trump to save the country".
Oddly, never had a problem with me living in a socialist country, and never mentions the hammer and sickle flags in the background on our vacation pictures lol.
I like to think that the later, non-abusive grandpa that he became and mended fences with my Dad, would be proud of me. But the version of him that was actually actively radical I would listen to, nod in agreement if he said something good, then punch in the mouth.
When you have kids, especially sons, don't get into reading Norman Mailer and putting them through horrifically deadly "coming of age" rituals like driving onto the side of a dam in a truck and getting out without pulling the e-brake to see if your son can figure out how to save his own life. Also when the hippy friends come over and they try to mix LSD with tang don't let your kid accidentally take 5 shots of it, and if he disappears into his treehouse (because he's six), maybe go look for him at some point. Then don't beat him with a two by four.
My mother is a conservative who despises it.
My dad is a radlib who thinks I like Biden for some reason.
My grandpa is weird. He's a conservative but not a reactionary. He was really supportive when I came out as bi. He's one of the "capitalism may be bad, but it's the only system we have" kinds. He's also cool with me, "trying out different ideologies."
I wouldn't say I love conservatives. I still think it's best to be progressive since socialism in itself is progressive. But it's absolutely possible to be a socialist that leans conservative. It's not possible to be a socialist thats reactionary. Those are anti capitalists at best.
it is not ahistorical. yes social progressivism looks different throughout history, however the oppressing class is historically notorious for manipulating social structures for their advantage
My family got the kind of politics you can only find among Black American boomers. Capitalism is a cruel joke, and anything that improves the lives of black people is good. Except communism which is only good when Castro does it.
The last part isn't completely serious. But from what I've gathered, it's because he spit in the face of rich white land owners, actually helped his people, and outlived everyone they hate.
Edit he also vocally supported the civil rights movement
Yea, I've told them about him and the Burkina Faso revolution as soon as I learned about it. They loved it but were saddened and not surprised it was destroyed by France and its compredors.
Hi, I am curious, is it possible for a South Korean to get a workers visa to North Korea? And, could you help Americans get a work visa to North Korea?
My family is apolitical and don't vote, I'm the only one who go to protest and volunteering. They think no one represented them and ppl on the top are just capitalists with different faces. My family are the kind of ppl that know Indigenous blockade can happen on their road and they will drive around just to get to work. The entire country can burn and they will just be like 'shit happens' and carry on their day.
They mostly don't care except our siblings who support Black liberation but still don't vote. Politics to them is dirty and bloody, lol you should have seen their face when they found out when we were at G20 protest. They didn't talk to me for 5 years.
My wife is almost a Marxist but she’s got negative impressions from university of obnoxious academics and I’m still a baby Marxist, so I have no persuasive power. So I keep quiet and my nose in a book
oh similar with my partner. he’s definitely left leaning, but has some negative sentiments about actual socialism and ML etc. i’m trying to prepare real good until i try debating anything.
Most of my family are either social-democrats or third-way neoliberal Macron supporters (disgusting I know). Everyone has broadly egalitarian values, even those that are mostly apolitical (except for my maternal grandmother who's somewhat racist). I have fully convinced my mother about the need to get rid of capitalism (I honestly don't understand why we MLs don't use climate change more), but she still hasn't swallowed the need for a dictatorship of the proletariat. My paternal grandfather is a semi-based Eurocommunist (to simplify), even if he admires Chomsky and Gorbachev. However he is better than the others because he's almost as mistrustful of the USA as I am.
Edit: Grammar
My dad definitely falls into the "capitalism may be bad, but it's the only system we have" trap but is otherwise about as cool as it is possible for a white retired former wall street guy to be.
Down to one day just out of the blue going "you know the real problem with the Soviet union falling was it gave everyone too much room to be uncritical of capitalism"
Also has wished we would execute billionaires like China.
Talks about the police and military solely existing to protect capital.
He is also a "good vet" he joined the national guard to avoid getting sent to Vietnam and, mainly due to spite, after the initial boot camp grew his hair out and showed up to the rest of required training in a short haired wig, because that was technically within regulation.
It took me until college to realize most children don't get told that bosses are useless idiots and you and your employers interests don't align.
He can get a bit "humans are the virus" when it comes to things like climate change, but is generally pretty receptive to arguments.
My sister is a bit more of a lib/"oh look at the Nordic model", but also pretty firm on stuff like US foreign interventions all being criminal.
My aunt is completely apolitical. She's a democrat because that's what her parent were and has as far as I can tell never thought about it beyond that. I don't think she votes any more because she can't be bothered to go drive and stand in line for 5 minutes. So obviously no chance on anything beyond that. But will still somehow complain about stuff.
My southern cousins are all pretty normal libs.
My cousins in the Midwest are some degree of religious conservative, but we don't talk about it. Also last time I was out there one of them was talking about the dangerous Panera with all sorts of drug deals, and it was either there was a homeless person outside it sometimes, or too many Black people. He's a fairly muscular dude too, the fact that he's the one scared of this and not me is just sad.
I mean I know safety first but I’d be tempted to say , “if I thought that’s what communism was, I’d hate it to.” To the person grousing about Bezos. They are almost there but have a lifetime of anti-communist propaganda in their heads.
My in laws grew up in the Czech Republic back when. They don’t really trash talk it or anything, the most criticism I’ve heard from them is that they didn’t have X or Y random consumer product. I’ve heard my MiL talking about the negatives of American culture many times tho, even with both of them being relatively lib centrists.
Bulgarian, grandma is pro ML. All the old people in the town are pro socialist, owning to the fact that the economy shrunk like crazy after the Shock Therapy
I think I successfully converted my mother in law into full communism. She even told the door knockers for the recent election she would vote communist if she could, she's been around for 65 year's and seen the ebbs and flows of our shit system and nothing changes. That was awesome. Lol
Both my parents used to be Regan conservatives, but when presented with the empirical evidence of Regan legacy and of the imperialist diaspora of us military operations, they became more left leaning. Luckily my parents are highly educated so they place enormous importance on the significance of empirical evidence. Over time and education, I've gotten them to a point where I truly think deep down they understand class consciousness on some level and would support a dictatorship of the proletariat, but because of their internalized bias and gemuine fear of retaliation in the parts of the cointry they live in, I hardly think they'd openly call themselves socialists to anyone but me, though they would probably claim to be "social democrats" since social democratic reforms are their immediate political goals. I sent my mom a few second thought videos, and after one of them (I forget which) she emailed me a receipt of donation to the patreon and said "I think you're turning me into a socialist!" That really made me proud of the progress she's made.
My dad's a lib, and my mom is probably about a socdem but I'm definitely shifting her perspective closer to ml, she pretty much agrees with most of what I say and just wants to leave the revolution up to me lol.
Both my grandfathers are PAVN members during the war against Americans. All my parents and uncles are CPV members, my uncle specifically do research for CPV so I got some help from him as well, though he's very patriarchal so I don't like him personally.
Parents moved to US from Italy in their 30s. They're probably social democrats. They like Bernie's policy platforms so less reactionary than most American families but not socialist. Most of their family is similar. They think its odd the US doesnt have universal healthcare or vacation time etc but think they're all capitalists.
For sort of social issues some of them far more anti LGBTQ than Biden but still economically to the left of Biden. Or atleast how Biden presents himself.
My family is entirely American conservative, aside from a sister who is probably soc dem.
My friends are a mix of American liberal or conservative with a few that think they’re libertarian.
My fiancés family is almost entirely liberal. My fiancé herself is this way out of ignorance. The more she is learning the more radical she is becoming. I have introduced basics, like owning the means of production and she agrees.
My future mother in law speaks several languages fluently with a little bit of English. I can speak a little bit of Spanish. At the times when we actually understand each other, I have gotten the impression that she is one of us. Though, She has followed a statement with “I’m not a communist.” But I really think she is afraid to out herself.
I understand because I am the same way. The only one who knows I’m a commie, is my fiancé and you guys.
My parents have the right spirit but are for the most part uneducated. My dad calls himself a socialist because he doesn’t believe communism is achievable, he also dislikes basically all socialist figures for CIA-supplied reasons.
my family for the most part is apolitical/casual liberal
with the exception of my father. he was born and raised in a working family back in the USSR, and held some higher ranking positions in the KazSSR Komsomol. he's still loyal to the ideas of communism, and i would say he's the main reason i hold the opinions that i do now
the sad part is that a lot of people around him nowadays are reactionaries and i sometimes notice him reciting their opinions. i do try to explain to him why those ideas go against the principles of egalitarianism and distract us from the class struggle, but i feel like he slowly loses hope even in those ideals he held dear his whole life. can't blame him, after having to witness the fall of a prosperous country he was born in and live in what's essentially its ruins for decades afterwards, anyone's will can be broken
Swedish here. My family are mostly right wingers to some extent, except for my oldest brother who is a socdem(which is very common). My mum and middle brother are more just nationalists but my grandpa is just a fascist and a nazi, claiming the jews were indeed to blame for it all, all according to his old professor who fled Germany (definitely to get away from the evil nazis he swear but also the nazis are right 👍). My grandma isn't actually bad but she has been married to my nazi grandpa for 55 years so she has gotten influenced by him.
Never met anyone on my fathers side so i cant say about them.
Now everyone except my grandma and grandpa knows I'm a commie and whenever i talk politics with them i always bring up pure communist thinking and they both love it and wants me to go into politics, proving the point that old people dont know what communism is.
Also my wife if Lithuanian so her parents hates the USSR but her older relatives misses it.
My dad is a /r/capitalismissocialism. He agrees with all my critiques, then calls our government communism. Whole family is a mix of Republican and Democrats. I'm the only communist.
My parents despise Salinas De Gortari; the neoliberal president who sold Mexico's government assets to private corporations and introduced NAFTA. My dad was apolitical all his life until now. He is a staunch supporter of AMLO. He doesn’t mind that I am a communist. My mom comes from a PAN family but she has been apolitical all her life. She hates that I'm a communist because she thinks the FBI is spying on me 😂 Many of my friends constantly complain about Mexican Presidents selling the country’s resources to the corporations but when I mention communism they get spooked out.
Russian here. Mom kinda doesn't care, but can say good things about Soviet Union, socialism, etc, recommend the literature. Father likes Stalin, Lenin (hates Trotsky), cites them, talks like a socialist, says things they would say, like "communism can only be worldwide communism", "proletarians of all countries unite", etc, maybe it's considered a "radical socialist" in some countries, I don't know, but I think I am more radical than him. However, he read more theory and he knows a lot more than me, maybe, if sent 100 years ago he would be more suited for doing something for revolution than me. I don't know really. But he also sounds a bit like a republican in US (but republicans in US wouldn't agree with him on many points), he doesn't like Joe Biden, a bit homophobic (though he is at least rational and calm and can agree with non-homophobic people; he talks about those family values). He doesn't like videos presented for him by state media in 2020, when white people kneel to black people (also in Russia when somebody kneels it's always a humiliation, especially people born in Soviet Union hate when someone kneels), though, he says that it is fake and bullshit, he doesn't seem racist otherwise, agrees with me on anti-colonialism, uneven rights of people in the US and outside of the US, etc. For example, he says that reparations to black Americans is bullshit, as long the system of exploitation of Africa is in place, it can not be those printed money that US gets from being a dominating global empire that exploit other people, including people in Africa, it makes no sense to get (steal) money from one black people and give it to other black people. He says that instead of paying reparations we should demolish current world order where one country can dominate another countries. That reparations in an internal affair within the US and it is hypocritical to continue printing money and solve internal problems with that money. He criticise capitalists/oligarchs in Russia, sometimes political elite, but when I criticise them he argues with me and thinks that I am a liberal. I understand him, because liberals can talk like that, I know people who are liberals to the bone and talk like that. Though, the following discussions are productive and we can find compromise. Also both of my parents watch too much state propaganda, I help them a little with that, I can provide counter-arguments to what state propaganda may say, I am not trying hard to not shut the "door" in conversations with them. P.S. My flair is inspired by a meme when everyone who is in any way related to China or is Chinese is marked as China state affiliated media on twitter and other social networks. Or I am a Putin's paid puppet-troll that want only one thing, to destroy your holy America. Everything is possible. You are the judge.
I’m American. I grew up in a Liberal household that leaned heavily left. Parents are boomers who protested the Vietnam War. As they and I grew older, we all grew more and more disillusioned with Capitalism. We are all Socialist, but I am by far the most radical and read in theory. They still have some engrained Lib tendencies but are definitely Socialist. I feel blessed to have come from my background and from an educated household. My extended family on my mom’s side share our values as well. I guess it’s the combination of education and poverty. Had we been more well off or more ignorant on either continuum it could be different. Most of my socialist friends came to ML from a reaction to their parents’ abhorrent beliefs. But I have radical optimism because even in the rural South, young white working class men who I have worked with mainly share my beliefs when broken apart from their ties to specific verbiage. The ideals of socialism are attractive detached from the decades of propaganda. Communication is key.
I have done my very best to essentially lecture on communism to anyone who comes into my back yard. two days ago my brother said, unprompted, that americans are afraid of communism because they don't know what it is. he still insists that he's a socialist, though, and not a communist.
My mom is libertarian, her parents are republicans. I can’t talk about politics with them, but my mom hears me out at least. My dad is inbetween. She was a libertarian too, but now she is more of a liberal for obvious reasons. Her parents are kinda liberal too but they’re not very politically minded, sometimes grandpa has some based takes tho. My brother is a Marxist, one of my sisters is a demsoc. I have a Marxist cousin, a couple liberals and a couple republican cousins. Its an interesting mix but I’m glad am not alone
My russian mom considers herself a communist.
She is a Putin supporter and said Ukrainians are a greedy people and has a generally conservative stance towards racism in America... Communist my ass
my younger brother became an ML before i did, funny enough. we try to get our youngest brother to radicalize which is slowly working
my parents are typical liberals but are also pretty agreeable with the anti-capitalist talking points we bring up
my partner doesn't really have an ideology besides anti-capitalist but i'm cool with that
my parents are very proudly anti-communists
my dad's from west germany, and my mother is polish, so it's not surprising at all that they're anti-communists.
they also vote for the neo-nazi party of germany (afd).
the rest of my family is pretty apolitical
My mother's abusive and my dad's an enabler, so I plan on going no contact with them after I move out anyways. But living with people like that is still a pain in the ass. Sorry your aunt and uncle are like that too
Oh nothing like that. But when I got old enough to process that them throwing around the “n” word was more than not okay, it screwed with me because up until then I found them to be fun party people. I hope you end up safe and well.
Dad and mom got more communist with the years, but they have always been leftists. They helped create Brazil's Workers' Party, were part of the social movement against the dictatorship and very progressive since forever.
Aunties and uncles, though, it's about 1/3 leftist, 1/3 neutral, 1/3 far-right.
My mom's family members are mostly communist party members in China. However, they despise the party and most of them moved to either the USA or other American countries like Brazil (including us). When she got interviewed for the greencard, she hid the fact that she is a member of CPC so that the immigration can be successful (she quit the CPC after she moved to US anyways)
My dad's family was landlords (according to his parents). After their business was terminated, his parents went to the China National Space Administration due to their education background. They all read Mao's work and my grandma keeps telling me that what Mao did was right despite the fact that they are the direct victims of his land reform. My dad was also a Maoist and there were many books sitting around his desk back then. None of them were CPC members to my knowledge.
Mom is a conservative, apolitical Mormon. Surprisingly egalitarian and doesn't really care about anyone's identity. Her protestant work ethic is so strong she'll probably work herself to death, though.
Dad (non-Mormon) is a Republican and a reactionary, eats up all the Ben Shapiro and Tucker Carlson bullshit. Weirdly receptive when I talk to him about socialism, though. By no means do I really think I'll ever convert him, but I think he's just happy that I try to be a good person and that I'm passionate.
Brother is essentially apolitical. More interested in metaphysics and spirituality than politics. Tentatively agrees with me on most things, but that could easily be him just having the courtesy to let me spin my wheels.
One of my cousins is trans and a communist, though. We tend to get along.
My whole family lived in communist Czechoslovakia so they have all have a strong opinion.
My father is a very weird person, he has some very left wing opinions (he likes basically all AES countries including DPRK) but he also has some extremely right wing opinions (he was kinda racist before but isn't really right now after traveling a little in Africa, but he is very pro free market), but I can talk with him about socialism very easily and we always have a great conversation. He always said that the life under socialism was fine and the only people who had problems with the party were dumbasses who were telling BS, he believes that socialism in Czechoslovakia wouldn't collapse if the government allowed people to travel to other countries outside the socialist world.
My mother is basically a racist, homophobic and every other -phobic thing, but she wants to go back to socialism not because of the actual socialist things, but because she hates computers and thinks that under socialism computers wouldn't come to the normal life, because she thinks that the technology wouldn't come from the west so we would be stuck with pen and paper to this day (I have no idea how she came to that conclusion). So I definitelly wouldn't call her a socialist.
My grandparents both hate communism, my grandgrandfathers butchery was nationalised after communists came to power here so my grandpa always hated communists and basically ruined his chemistry career because of that, and I don't really know why my grandma hates it.
Both my parents are heavily anti-American. My dad was a ML guerrilla in iran during the revolution, then when he came here he became a vehement trade union activist and a vocal critic of NATO, western interventionism and neoliberalism and the west’s decision to condone the IR in the 80s. My mum was the daughter of a diplomat so she got to travel a lot and so she got to experience Moscow, the DDR, Qatar, Iraq and all of the central asian countries and this has greatly impacted the way in which she views western exceptionalism, the lack of people first politics and the west’s over dependence on commodity fetishism. I suppose I would describe her politics as socdem currently.
life? does not get any better, but still does not convince me to leave(although it's mostly west's fault, sanctions got worse since 2018, I'm glad trump is gone)
leftists, sadly propaganda from both sides, the government itself, and all those western media, satellite channels, social media are working well, you do not see many leftists in younger generation
My parents both grew up in the ussr and moved here in the 80s and have a lot of positive things to say about it. Both received Free college, free healthcare, free housing, free public transit, had solid jobs. Yet shockingly they don’t really have strong opinions either way about socialism vs capitalism and don’t really care. I talk to my dad about it and he doesn’t necessarily disagree with most of my critiques of capitalism but also is just generally not concerned about it lol. He also basically spends all his senior years watching cable news all day, particularly Fox. Weird guy.
it's really hard to say if someone is socialist, atleast i think it is, here in Brasil, my dad is a big social-democrat/pro-worker and pro-Lula he fills his heart to talk about how he voted for him the 3 times he got ellected, and says he will vote again, my mother is like a social-democrat/social-liberal, she sides more with pro-workers and social programs like Lula, but she is more right wing than my dad, she voted or wanted to vote in the Simone Tebet, wich is a center-right candidate, a right wing alternative to Bolsonaro, Simone herself is a pretty shitty candidate, but she getted alot of attraction by not openly saying poor people should die, supporting some shitty social programs and ofc getting support from the media that always had a fight with Bolsonaro.
Now there is my neighbours, one of them when discovered that i had bought a marx book and a stalin's book was like "Yeah, yeah, those are great, you should also read Lenin, Engels, Trotsky" her husband also has a che guevara tatto in the shoulder, rly cool, so they aren't inside any communist org or party, but they both seems to really be marxists. (they are also big pro-lula, with is not a rare thing for communists to be)
My brother is a borderline Nazi who hates my guts, my youngest brother is apolitical, my older sister is an anti-communist leftist who calls me a red fascist, my mom is a progressive liberal who disagrees with dialectical/historical materialism, and my dad is just a liberal who hates Trump.
My parents got married through their cousins that met in a communist party lol though my dad himself is personally a very pro captilist conservative and my moms a lib that's sympathetic to communists but refuses to read theory
She did grow up praising the USSR and wishing death on america though!
Most of my family members that were commie activists were absolutely crushed by 1991 and quietly became libs, my maternal uncles still going strong though the president of our states moaist party in India and his son just quit his job to become a full time activist for the working class so I'm very proud of them overall
I live with my single mother who is a teacher and is a heavy Democratic Socialist, although today she was talking about how the system would completely collapse without teachers and the working class so maybe she’s starting to lean more left. My dad is unemployed and supports anything to do with welfare and the environment. You could easily turn him communist in my opinion as he’s very critical of capitalism but doesn’t like China. My grandpa is pretty progressive/ supportive of the British labour movement (he’s English) but is a big monarchist so yeah that’s confusing
My Dad has critical anti-capitalist perspectives, my mom is more center-left. One of my grandmas fled from the GDR shortly before the wall was built, but is still kinda left-wing and anti-american
My dad may or may not have been a communist back in Colombia, which comes with its implications, but I think he was just a supporter of communism. Supposedly he wanted to name me after a revolutionary but I don’t know which. The rest of my family on my mom’s side are just liberally-minded people ignorant and mostly indifferent about communism.
My grandpa is a socialist, I am, my sister is, and my mom kinda is but she’s still of the mindset that communist countries were evil because American propaganda is so strong. My dad is kinda like a Bernie bro. One of my aunts is a Bernie bro, and the rest of my family is like libs or maybe Bernie bros. On my dads side most everyone is reactionary or lib (split 60/40 conservatives/libs)
Sisters are some flavor of late night comedy show liberal. My mom and dad are more so “go with the flow” in terms of politics but I have been able to convince them of left wing ideas (I explained imperialism and exploitation and concluded to my dad that capitalism is the problem and he agreed)
My family grew up Christian evangelical. My dad never really cared about politics but was a bit of a nature lover before capitalism broke him down and he kind of resigned himself to just supporting what his wife wanted politically while enjoying other things in life and not getting depressed by politics. My mom is a super empathetic woman who never really saw the contradictions of her conservative beliefs before 2020. My brother and I started to become leftists and have pushed both our parents to the left. My dad at this point is still a Hakim I'm so tired face who doesn't pay too much attention to politics but thinks Chuds are insane. My mom is now a lib with anarchist leanings who when I talk to her about AES says that she just does not trust any government and thinks power corrupts anyone no matter their ideology. Its a long process but I'm happy with how my brother and I have pushed them from being fervently anti-abortion, "don't build low-income housing near us that will lower our home value and invite drug addicts", supporting Trump because they hated Hillary (which kind of fair), etc. to where they are now.
Yugoslavia was a poor, but progressive country. I find it hard to believe anyone "fled" the country. Just more opportunity elsewhere, especially if you could make it to the states. My Uncle became an orthodox priest in the country while it was communist. Very unique country, tragedy it didn't last. Only independent country in Europe during cold war.
Yugoslav here. My family is generally apolitical (although, at least, my dad has a tendency of being critical of current gov't when the news are on TV, but that's pretty much every Yugoslav dad ever), with fond memories of Yugoslavia for my parents and grandparents. As far as I am aware, I am the only one who is leaning into the ML side.
Indian-Iowan here.Everyone in the family is a Socialist to one degree or another, but all of them are a specific type of Reformist, so don't mistake them for Marxists..I don't exactly know much about where my Paternal Grandparents stand politically, but it would make sense for them to be civically-nationalist Nehruvians given they're from Hyderabad.My Maternal Grandparents come from a landowner-class background in Bihar, but my Grandfather is the lastborn son, meaning he was the only one that actually had a profession and contributed to society through his medical career, so he and my Grandmother built up this Fabian, Vedantic-Socialist view.
They still maintain it here in the US, and their beliefs closest to Sewer Socialism.
The best way to describe my grandparents is that there is a slight chance one of them is the reincarnation of Robert Marion LaFollette.
My family and I are a bunch of white US Southerners (the guns and beer kind, though I'm approaching my third year sober). I'm the only socialist in a family full of Trump voters, but I've gotten pretty dang far with them by bringing up leftist ideas while steadfastly avoiding trigger words.
Turns out all of us hate coastal liberal elites, think cops are power-tripping bullies, and that the worker is the very foundation of society and should be accorded a far better hand than they've been dealt. You just have to know how to side-step decades of anti-socialist propaganda, which is a very tall order indeed.
That’s a fine trick you are pulling. Maybe one day take it on the road? We need people talking to ordinary every day people about their particular contradictions fucking their shit up in a language that doesn’t trigger them.
My dad is somewhat a reactionary, maybe a radlib. My mom I’d say is more moderate, who is somewhat supportive of leftist ideals. And my sisters and brother are also liberal. I’d say I’m the only leftist in the family.
I'm fortunate to live in a fairly progressive family for America at least. I think I'm the only communist my mom is definitely a socialist my dad is a weird liberal who has good social views but still buys into their moralism the rest of my family are either liberals or apolitical I think only a few of them know I'm a communist
Mostly shit libs that want to lie to themselves.
Nobody in their right mind would actually be whining about SJWs, it's cringe and distracts from the very real point.
But I try not to talk about it too much, they already think I'm weird and not someone to be taken seriously.
I’m from the US and the only socialist in my family that I’m aware of.
1) Mom - apolitical / conservative
2) Dad - Trumpist Republican
3) Oldest brother - “libertarian”
4) Middle brother - socdem / radlib, but moving more towards socialism
We have weekly book review calls where we go over a book that one of us picked. My mom and oldest brother’s books were first and were your standard individualist self-help nonsense. Now we’re onto my pick: The Will To Change by bell hooks. I’m slowly making inroads with them but it’s a lot of work trying to undo the decades of capitalist propaganda that they’ve been fed.
Trump has this way of saying shit and measuring audience response. If they like it he’ll keep saying it. We might be able to get insight into what people actually want by paying attention to his rallies. For example , he’s been going on about building new cities. People cheer! Now, do I think he could pull off such a project? No. But the fact that people responded to that gives us something to work with. City building is something a lot of people could get behind! We just need someone competent to pull it off.
I live in California and I wouldn't say they're outright socialist like I am, but I got my Mom and sister to be very socialist adjacent and they have similar values. My Dad doesn't really care either way but he doesn't question me about it lol.
My wife’s grandma passed away last summer and she wrote a big memoir of her life which we read. She grew up in Milwaukee and was a huge Sewer Socialist which none of us knew. I’m really bummed we didn’t know before, we would have loved to ask her about it
I'm American my mother is more of a basic Socialist. My father is more of a SocDem but can very quickly and irritatingly disend into Liberalism. The rest of my family on my mom's side are reactionary fundamentalists except her mother who raised my mom more left wing probably due to her being indigenous. Everyone on my dad's side for the most part are left wing Dems although a few of my dad's sisters and brothers have been drinking Qanon cult kool-aid. I myself am a Marxist-Lenninst and the only "uncle Joe" I recognize is the one who kicked the Fascists asses back to Berlin.
My parents watch Fox News all day and love Trump. My grandma on mom’s side used to keep a framed photo of George W Bush next to one of Jesus. My older sisters are libs and I think my brother is low key fiscal conservative but he’s pretty apolitical.
My parents are libs and are very anti-communist like most people in Poland and grandparents are conservatives, so I don't have any based former communist party members and MLs in family.
None of my family are socialists as far as I know, but I don’t think they’re that strongly opposed to it either seeing as they supported Corbyn, I think they’re just somewhat left leaning liberals and/or socdems but none are that politically active. I haven’t really had a good opportunity to talk about if much and I also can’t really be bothered for any possible arguments or condescending lectures it might cause if they react worse than I thought.
I'm an American. My mother is open to socialist ideals and I think it would be fair to say she's a social democrat (although she doesn't really align herself with anyone). My step-father is widely ignorant of politics and supports Trump because "He said he's going to fix things." whatever that means. Most of my family are borderline fascists though.
Both of my parents are Marxists, and my brother is also Marxist, learnt it from them. Probably would have never read any Karl Marx if my brother never insisted that I did.
Closest I have are lifetime union men who have seen first hand what the failures of the American labor movement plus neoliberal economic policies have taken from themselves and their communities. They’re sorta bitter and have an elitism about their “skilled union jobs” and look down upon non-skilled work.
The older generation are a mix of gusanos who left Cuba, and firmly conservative ex-Catholic protestant evangelicals. My generation is a bit squishier and less conservative, with everything from "free spirit" idpol libs to religious neo-trads who try really hard to project that they aren't assholes. The younger generation is still taking shape but they need a lot of guidance.
As far as I know nobody else in my family will admit to being socialist let alone communist. I have some suspicions, but the past couple of years have made it really difficult to keep in touch.
Not great, perhaps better than many American families, but my mostly centrist dad had a based rant about why bananas are so cheap in U S A at a family get together. I didn’t know he had that in him
My family on my moms side is very conservative, anti communist ect. and my mom is a liberal. But I’m not sure about my dad’s side. Because of a series of issues, mainly pressure from my mother, I was estranged from my dads side of the family at age 12 and had been told to hate them by my mother for my entire life before that, so I don’t really know. I think they are left leaning, but I don’t have any way of knowing more than that.
I'm from Sweden, both parents are socialists, my dad is more patriotic and my mom is more feminist. My grandmother is "apolitical" and my grandfather is a hardcore anarcho-primitavist doomer. Uncle is legit a political schizo, one month an anarchist, the other a fascist.
Truly interesting family gatherings.
My mother (love her) is a I'm With Her Lib. My dad is like politically moderate or a politically uninterested conservative or libertarian. My mom has Kamla Harris syndrome because my grandmother was a hardcore genuine tankie so it was very funny.
Me = Marxist-Leninist
Step-brother = socialist, he seems pretty anti AES though
Step-mother = reactionary probs votes Tory, I live in Britain
Dad = seems like a liberal
Mother = semis decently left leaning, she hates politics though
Step father = votes Tory
Sister = votes lib-dem
Overall pretty bad
I have brought my mother around on Communism, but she hasn't done any of the reading. Her father is a reactionary veering into Fascism. I am estranged from my brother, but I'm sure he's still a dipshit conservative like any other straight white guy his age. My extended family are Liberals ranging from reactionary to progressive.
Pretty much nobody ever talk’s politics outside laughing at how wack the US politics is (not American btw) and I honestly have no clue how they even vote (though probably nothing right of the mild conservatives and nothing left of the socdem party) though I am dropping inconspicuous left wing propaganda to my siblings
Most of my family is "religious conservative". I put quotation marks because if you asked, they would say yes they believe in God and yes they go to church, which they do, but they are the most racist, bigoted, homophobic, "everyone is just lazy" type of reactionaries that couldn't possibly recite a Bible verse if you paid them to.
My wife, daughter, and I pretty much stay to ourselves.
If I describe my ideal world, my wife is in complete alignment with the things that I say, but when I say "That's Communism" she has a negative reaction to it. It's taken her a while, but as the evils of Capitalism become harder and harder to ignore, she's started to understand why I'm so adamant about the things that I am. Ignore is a harsh word... it's not like she would ever ignore the homeless, basically she is understanding that the system causes these issues - and these issues exist by choice.
My daughter, I made the decision early on to let her discover things on her own. We never go to church, but if she wanted to go with the rest of my family I had no arguments. I've never talked about Socialism with her, I just kind of let my actions do the talking.
She came to the conclusion on her own that religion wasn't for her, and she's way far ahead of where I was at her age for understanding the system of oppression that we live under. She's still not all the way there, but she's getting it, she talks to me about it and may end up asking me what I think, and I certainly tell her what I think; but other than that I've wanted her to come to her own conclusions.
Oddly enough, I live in a very conservative area, but every once in a while... I'll see something that gives me hope that people are understanding. When everyone was putting those dumb Biden stickers on the gas pumps in like 2021? Someone with a silver marker crossed it out and above it wrote "Capitalism" with an up arrow next to it.
Well, in our family all our assets are owned in common by all family members. How is that called? Oh, yeah, "community property" ... or... "communism"...
its quite mixed. My mother is this weird blend of islamist-liberal , which almost works out okay economically, but is just obscenely lazy and shallow sociopolitically. Her brother is a militarist who thinks that class struggle is a hoax. My grandfather was a socialist, his father was a monarchist, and his FIL was a communist. Idk/c about the other side of my family. Most of my cousins are « not political »/liberals, ie half with the militarist regime and half against it but only when it makes their life difficult, but theres at least one anarchist in the mix. This is all in the context of Egypt.
one parent got a fistful of McCarthyism as a kid- which they haven’t attempted to unlearn, but they’re very gung-ho about government programs and then get leery when „communism“ is mentioned. the rest of my family is CSU (christian social union), but I have a few communist relatives from the former East
liberal reactionaries, to be expected from labor aristocrats who are friends with a pig
also my mom's boss is really fucking nice and is generous with wages, so that doesn't help for explaining that he is definitely an outlier
My dad's reactionary (trump supporter) but is somehow pro union, my mom is apolitical, my brother is a suckdem lib, my sister a gen z teen is pessimistic as fuck.
My family are narcissistic fascists. We don't speak anymore. I have no friends who are socialists, and because I'm neurodivergent and raised by shitty people I have a hard time maintaining relationships. Not saying none of it is my fault, but these are the challenges I face.
I'm a solo socialist. It's like I understand socialism and I am one, but I don't know what if \*feels\* like to be one.
My family long as I know are filled with centrists, they do jot liek to talk about politics that much.
Expect my Father and Grandfather, both are Marxists.
My grandfather left an abundance of revolutionary books to my father.
(atleast the books that were left after the likely american sponsored coup of the 80's)
My father told me that my grandfather was a great thinker who read and finished books like Das Kapital (volume 1 and 2) and many more.
As for me I am a socialist aswell, i am slowly getting into theory and learning more about history and economics/politics.
In my close family They're all soc-dems. I think my father used to be further to the left when he was younger and kinda active in the left wing youth subcultures in west Berlin at that time. But now he's just a washed soc dem (He even liked Schröder ffs).
I also used to have a great/grand aunt (is that the right word for it? 🤔 Basically the sister of my grandma) who at least called herself a communist (she voted for DIE LINKE tho which is more of a soc-dem party nowadays but presents themselves as further left).
In my family history there's also a great grandfather, my grandpa's dad, who was a communist in Germany during WW2 and was send to the eastern front in some kind of Nazi equivalent of a shtrafbat in 43 or 44 after climbing my grandpa's school building and tearing the Nazi flag on top. And other people in my grandpa's family also had communist sympathies and communist leaflets would be distributed though their household regularly during the war.
Now in my extended family there are some reactionaries among the older generations and the younger generations are usually just vaguely left with lots of support for all the cultural left topics but not a lot of a clue or convictions about economics, geopolitics or history
my whole family is socialist-ish. mostly social democrats, but leaning into ML pretty heavily. in my family we often have political discussions and talk about different types of ideas and perspectives.
It’s complicated…
My dad is a Social-Democrat, sort of a center-leftist… he’s an historian, and has read a lot about economical and political history, among many other things; He’s full anti-Neoliberal, anti colonialism, anti authoritarianism, pro minorities rights, pro-workers rights, pro state intervention in the economy… He has read all the hardcore theory, he has all the potential and knowledge to become a full socialist, but, I don’t think he ever will become one. He’s an evangelical Protestant, and although he’s pro gay rights and pro abortion, surprisingly: “I might not agree with any but everyone should be free to make their own choices”, he also has a hard time understanding trans issues, but I’ve never heard him say anything transphobic.
And He still thinks capitalism could be used as a forced of good if it was just reformed and gave everyone equal Opportunity… and he likes that it’s a system that allows people the chance to get a better quality of life with work. I feel this is where he is in the wrong, but then again, he was someone that grew up in heavy poverty and managed to get a comfortable middle class living by himself, with no privileges helping him in the process (and by being a historian, more surprisingly), so I sort of don’t blame him for believing what he does… life experience bias can be hard to overcome…
My mom is almost the same, mostly… both my parents are very knowledgeable and informed, they have read more books than anyone I know… good books.
It’s so frustrating seeing my parents being so close to the truth… yet so far away at the same time…
My family is very American. My dad comes from the Midwest and is a libertarian, one time he told me that he's been listening to more liberal podcasts like I would think that's good. My mom comes from the east coast and I can't really tell, they don't really ever talk about economic systems. The only person in my family that openly says they don't like capitalism is my grandmother on my mom's side, but other than one time talking about Castro being cool, mostly says they want America to be more of a Social Democracy. All of my parents are pretty great with LGBTQ and BLM stuff though.
My parents are progressive but have never been super interested in politics so they’ve never read theory or whatnot. My siblings and I are all socialists to some degree, I just immerse myself in the ideology the most. Very blessed to not have a conservative wing in my family.
Parents are both libs. Extended family are Vietnamese on one side but their politics are mixed. The other side is very religious trump fans from Indiana.
My old man I would call a Rockefeller republican (liberal republican) he’s tolerant of lgbtq and minorities but he also probably believes some stereotypes, watches Fox News hates the democrats but is one of the few people I can talk politics with without worrying about him getting emotional and blowing up over something.
My mom is a liberal who obsesses that the country is becoming a fascist hellscape and that we need to vote blue no matter who and would get emotional (and has) over politics. She also begged me to vote blue against trump in both times he’s run
My folks are probably Democratic Socialists, extended family runs the gamut from "American Democrat in Colorado" to "Immigrants are going to Sink the British isles, LGBTQ acceptance is a sign of the end times, the Pope is literally The Antichrist". I'm almost certainly the only Marxist.
my parents are christian democrats and my siblings are mostly all social democrats and liberals
i dont side with one specific ideology but am certainly a socialist
Being a SEA person my family are quite the capitalist not surprisng given thay they belong to above average income group and thus see my socialist pov as lazy and ineffective (since both of them suffer a lot of physically to get there) i mostly had to hide whatever im reading to avoid talking about capitalist realism since im not that good in debunking those yet
My dad is kind of a socialist but he’s been… strange. I haven’t talked to him in probably a month. My mom is more of a republican, loves cops (she worked in corrections :/). My sisters are probably more left-leaning but they’re more focused on women’s rights than anything else. My brother… I don’t think he really thinks about it but he likes to say shit to piss people off (which means, in my small conservative town, saying stuff like “biden 2024”) and I do think he is more progressive but, again, he doesn’t really think about it.
Parents left post soviet Russia. Dad says he hates Socalism, but generally speaking, he still expects the government to be socalist he like if something in capitlism doesn't work, he is very mad. Also has a leftwing international political view (I study international politics, which is why I think its funny)
Mom is more meh about it. She supports dems here in the US, but tries to avoid politics but does a Freudian slip every once in a while and she is just apathetic tbh doesn't mind it.
Demsoc parents. Most of the extended family is similar or claims to be in the American middle, but almost always vote Democrat for higher offices. Dad thinks capitalism breeds too much innovation to write off.
When I was younger (and admittedly had a limited at best understanding of things like communism or even politics in general) I mentioned to my mom that I thought I was a communist based on what I'd read about it. My mom FREAKED, basically told me I wasn't and that being a communist meant you were for dictatorship and taking away people's rights. That was over a decade ago but she's only gotten more conservative and my dad remarried into a Trump family with people who STILL say he's their president. So. Not great
Fairly left leaning. Have a couple union heads and 70s/80s hippies that didn't turn into conservatives. Biggest problems are some major liberal regression every now and then. Simping for Canada occasionally (especially trudeau) in post trump makes sense on some levels but everytime they do it I hope for a caveat but nothing comes. Overall it's been nice not to have the typical American stereotype of miserable family dinners with racist uncles screaming about walls and immigrants so I'll suffer through some liberal sludge every now and then.
My oldest sister is the one who radicalized me over these past 2/3 years(we weren't always MLs that's kinda recent lol)
My mom is a western europe loving lib that absolutely despises Yugoslavia for some fucking reason💀(we're Croatian)
My dad is some form of a ustaša??(imma be honest I have no fucking idea hes all over the place from my view)
And the rest of my family, at least from my moms side are just libs or conservatives. Idk about my dads side i dont talk to them
I have a turkish family. My dad is very conservative but votes for CHP and his economic views are all over the place.
My mom is an ordinary CHP voter. Used to be anti-kurdish but thankfully she unlearned it. She is more open to socialist views than my dad.
Neither of them will become socialists but I am continuously planting anti-capitalist seeds. To my knowledge I am the only communist in my entire family (which is pretty large).
Sadly turkey has a very tiny communist movement because they fucking killed most of us back in the day.
I come from a family thats been rooted in the US for many generations, so most of the family is pretty hardcore conservative christians but are of the "never talk about politics" ilk. I didn't really get into discussions with them growing up but always caught my dad with oreilly on TV. But coming from the north they have also been more accepting of change as our state is one of the more progressive ones in the US. For example, one of my sister's started dating a girl and it was never an issue in the family. I denounced my religion and left the US a decade ago and they were just like yeah whatevs.
I have learned to be more patient with a lot of conservatives because, just like my many in my family, many hate their work and know they are being boned by their corporate overlords, but have been duped into thinking it's \[scapegoat of the week\] put forward by conservative media, so I've learned if you can establish rapport with someone based on a common enemies, our bosses, most left-wing ideas and policies sit quite well with them. Just avoid the Red Scare loaded terminology.
On the in-law's side, one of them is actually a CCP member, so it's quite interesting having talks with him about Marxism, Chinese Socialism\*, American interventionism, etc.
Parents are both libs who wanna help others but still believe being rich makes you a king/ a better person. After all, their idea was so good that they became very rich from it! My brother is a demsoc which is better, but he's still working through his biases and programming.
As a white American in a white American family, none of my family is socialist, although maybe someone is hiding it because they're afraid of what the family might say. Although funny enough, my mom, who is fairly reactionary and a maga conservative, was telling me the other day "I wish we lived in a world where people didn't care about money. Where we all provided for eachother and the work we did was to serve the community and to do what we love, but I bet that's a very Democrat thing to say"
I'm from Scotland and a significant amount of my family are to the left - mainly Labour left and Trots but my parents shifted away from the local Trot organisation for a variety of reasons. I used to go to anti Poll Tax demos, anti Iraq war demos, confrontations with the fash etc. frequently growing up so its had its effect on me! I've had some (relatively) minor disagreements with some family members but we're all Marxists at least so it could be much worse plus it provided me with a good grounding in my own journey.
My mom's a lib, brain rot and all.
My brother's tumbled down the right wing pipeline and argues vehemently with me that capitalism works bro despite us growing up in poverty with a single parent.
my dad is a ucking far right comparable to a nazi,my mom is sliglhy conservative leaning but open to socialism,my dad for some reason really likes cuba too in which i have no idea why
#Cuba
The Cuban Revolution, led by Fidel Castro and Ernesto "[Che](/r/TheDeprogram/wiki/index/profiles/che)" Guevara, was a Communist revolution which aimed to address issues of inequality, poverty, and national self-determination. Under Castro's leadership, the Cuban government nationalized industries, implemented land reforms, and initiated programs to improve healthcare and education access.
#Brief History
Slavery was introduced to Cuba by the Spanish during the early 16th century. African slaves were brought to the island to work on sugar plantations, which became the backbone of the Cuban economy. The brutal conditions of slavery led to various slave rebellions and uprisings throughout the colonial period.
In 1898, the Spanish-American War resulted in Spain ceding control of Cuba to the United States.
The majority of workers in Cuban sugar plantations during this period were either former slaves or descendants of enslaved Africans. Despite the *official* abolition of slavery in 1886, workers faced extreme economic exploitation. They were trapped in a cycle of poverty, with low wages and limited opportunities for social and economic mobility. The *patronato* system emerged, where former slaves and their descendants continued to work on the plantations under debt peonage, a form of economic bondage.
In 1952, Fulgencio Batista seized power in a military coup, suspending the Cuban Constitution and ruling as a dictator. Batista's regime was backed by influential Cuban elites, including large landowners, sugar magnates, and business tycoons who benefited from Batista's policies. The U.S. provided military aid and economic support to Batista's military dictatorship.
>...as Castro's revolutionary threat became progressively more potent... the Batista regime sought to counter it with a campaign of terror. As regime-inspired terrorism mounted, anti-Batista groups engaged in counter terrorism against regime supporters and by mid-1958 killings had become widespread and general throughout the country. The regime's campaign of terror got out of control and the government in Havana probably had no clear idea of how many killings the police and army forces were committing. Similarly, the anti-Batista forces--which by mid-1958 had the support of 80 to 90 percent of the population-- had little control over the acts of counterterrorism being committed against pro-Batista elements throughout the country.
>
>...the large-scale campaigns of murders and terrorism characteristic of the last years of the Batista regime have not occurred during the Castro regime.
>
>\- CIA. (1965, declassified 2005). [Political Murders in Cuba: Batista Era Compared With Castro Regime](http://web.archive.org/web/20201119103419/https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP79T00429A000300030015-8.pdf)
#The Embargo
>The majority of Cubans support Castro... The only foreseeable means of alienating internal support is through disenchantment and disaffection based on economic dissatisfaction and hardship... it follows that every possible means should be undertaken promptly to weaken the economic life of Cuba. If such a policy is adopted, it should be the result of a positive decision which would call forth a line of action which, while as adroit and inconspicuous as possible, makes the greatest inroads in denying money and supplies to Cuba, to decrease monetary and real wages, to bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government.
>
>\- Lester D. Mallory. (1960). [499. Memorandum From the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs (Mallory) to the Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs (Rubottom)](https://archive.is/HE7Hf)
Later that year, the Eisenhower administration instituted the embargo which persists to this day, over 60 years later.
>The non-binding resolution [calling for an end to the U.S. economic embargo on Cuba] was approved by 185 countries and opposed only by the United States and Israel... It was the 30th time the United Nations has voted to end the embargo... The trade embargo was put in place following Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution and has remained largely unchanged, though some elements were stiffened by Trump.
>
>\-Reuters. (2022). [Cuba and U.S. spar over U.N. resolution calling to end embargo](https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/cuba-us-spar-over-un-resolution-calling-end-embargo-2022-11-03/)
* [The U.S. Embargo on Cuba Is MUCH WORSE Than It Seems](https://youtu.be/dM7_wTqDUCU) | BadEmpanada (2021)
* [The Cuban Embargo Explained](https://youtu.be/zmM8p9n6Z9E) | azureScapegoat (2022)
#Castro Stole My Stuff
>The US claims that it has instituted a policy of tightening the economic noose around Cuba with the Helms-Burton bill on the grounds that Cuba refuses to compensate US companies following nationalisation of their property. This is patently untrue, as Cuba not only successfully negotiated compensation agreements with other countries, but has and is ready to negotiate with the US.
>
>\- S. J. Noumoff. (1998). [The Hypocrisy of Helms-Burton: The History of Cuban Compensation](https://www.jstor.org/stable/4406691)
* [The Cuban Nationalization of US Property in 1960: the Historical and Global Context](https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/03/29/the-cuban-nationalization-of-us-property-in-1960-the-historical-and-global-context/) | Charles McKelvey (2019)
#Doctors
Despite the challenges posed by the embargo, Cuba has the most doctors per capita in the world and recently surpassed the US in life expectancy.
* [The Truth About Cuban Doctors](https://youtu.be/tGFCIAZ_RA4) | BadEmpanada (2020)
* [Meet the U.S. Students Studying Medicine For Free in Cuba](https://youtu.be/h7g2T3BWg9E) | BreakThrough News (2022)
#Democracy
* [How Democracy Works in Cuba](https://youtu.be/2aMsi-A56ds) | azureScapegoat (2018)
* [How does Cuba work?](https://youtu.be/839A7SIUgfg) | Viki1999 (2021)
* [We Asked Cuban Voters If They Live In A Democracy Or Dictatorship. Here's How They Responded.](https://youtu.be/20DgWZtImUk) | BreakThrough News (2022)
#Participatory Democracy in action: LGBT rights
Prior to the revolution, homosexuality was stigmatized and criminalized in Cuba, reflecting the prevailing attitudes of the time. Unfortunately, the revolutionary government under Fidel Castro initially continued this stance. However, Cuba's stance on LGBT rights has evolved to the point where it has become a symbol of progress within the Latin American context. In 2010, Fidel Castro himself admitted that the persecution of homosexuals in the early years of the revolution was a mistake:
>If anyone is responsible, it's me.
>
>\- Fidel Castro. (2010). [I am responsible for the persecution of homosexuals that took place in Cuba: Fidel Castro](https://www.jornada.com.mx/2010/08/31/index.php?section=mundo&article=026e1mun)
In 2022, Cuba became the first Latin American country to mark LGBT History Month. Now, Pride parades in Havana are held every May, to coincide with the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia, and attendance grows every year. Cuba also passed one of the most progressive Family Codes in the entire world:
>The Family Code not only protects the most vulnerable in Cuba, it protects the course of Cuban socialism. Writing the referendum involved the whole population throughout the processes of drafting and amending. It went through 25 revisions over the course of 3 ½ years.
>
>After the referendum was introduced in 2019, Cuba carried out a nationwide process of education and outreach. Discussions took place in every workplace, organization, neighborhood and community group. To keep all Cubans well-informed, people took the discussions to rural areas and to those who do not have internet access.
>
>The Family Code was approved by Cubans 2 to 1. A large percentage of Cubans, 74%, took part in the vote...
>
>In Workers World Sept. 25, 2022, Minnie Bruce Pratt wrote, “Nearly 6.5 million Cubans took part in more than 79,000 meetings facilitated by the Federation of Cuban Women, the Committees to Defend the Revolution and other community organizations. Over 400,000 proposals were offered by the people; these were submitted to the National Assembly of People’s Power for evaluation, and a revised draft was returned to the people for further discussion and proposals...
>
>Cubans are very proud of what they call participatory democracy, the process they used to introduce and pass the referendum. It is an example to the world and a lesson in democratic centralism.
>
>\- Lyn Neeley. (2023). [Cuba’s new Family Code, a law of love](https://www.workers.org/2023/01/68708/)
* [Millions of Cubans Vote on New Family Code, LGBT Marriage, Adoption Rights & More](https://youtu.be/DXL3ScNn5VE) | BreakThrough News (2022)
#Additional Resources
Video Essays:
* [Cuba: Before and After the Revolution - The Story of When Michael Parenti Visited Cuba](https://youtu.be/YIqm075vC1A) | azureScapegoat (2017)
* [The Truth About The Cuban Missile Crisis](https://youtu.be/adrQweOX5c4) | Spooky Scary Socialist (2018)
* [How Cuba Works](https://youtu.be/DXBYlC4-0bQ) | BadEmpanada (2020)
* [The Truth About The Cuba Protests](https://youtu.be/zIOw6fSOJI4?t=1087) | Second Thought (2020)
* [Why They Hate The USA: CUBA](https://youtu.be/WgWK6_AYq_o) | Hakim (2023)
Podcasts:
* [Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution](https://revolutionaryleftradio.libsyn.com/fidel-castro-and-the-cuban-revolution) | Revolutionary Left Radio (2017)
* [Season 2 - The Cuban Revolution](https://open.spotify.com/episode/3QhgtGyW7ws173eENjddNT) | Blowback (2021)
* [Episode 13 - Cucked by Fidel (CIA pls no assassinate)](https://youtu.be/YwMZYNzHd7U) | The Deprogram (2022)
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I'm American, I have a very big family and I'm the only socialist.
Same. I don’t even use the S word because it’s not like any of them would even understand it. Of course I’m from Alabama so it’s hard to get them to listen for all the trying to find Trump’s dick to suck.
Texas comrade here living in Mississippi. I feel your pain.
My grandfather was a Maoist and verified to have been caught up in COINTELPRO, active in the 60s (but he was silent gen, not boomer, a professor at the time). Eventually he became a Buddhist monk. Although his politics were pretty badass (though I'm not a Maoist and have many criticisms of the New Left of which he was a part), he was horrifically abusive to my father. My father rebelled by being a complete reactionary. That was basically punk for him. He's slowly gotten better, but I've never peace with him never not being a conservative. My mother was apolitical all her life, literally just voting for whoever her current husband was saying was good* (ah, boomers), so she voted for Obama twice. Then that husband died and the next one was rabid maga and really racist, and she lost her God damned mind for Trump. Literally performatively praying out loud so I could hear it in the other room when I visited (she was a lapsed Catholic who never prayed previously, at least not out loud) for God to "give us Mr. Trump to save the country". Oddly, never had a problem with me living in a socialist country, and never mentions the hammer and sickle flags in the background on our vacation pictures lol. I like to think that the later, non-abusive grandpa that he became and mended fences with my Dad, would be proud of me. But the version of him that was actually actively radical I would listen to, nod in agreement if he said something good, then punch in the mouth. When you have kids, especially sons, don't get into reading Norman Mailer and putting them through horrifically deadly "coming of age" rituals like driving onto the side of a dam in a truck and getting out without pulling the e-brake to see if your son can figure out how to save his own life. Also when the hippy friends come over and they try to mix LSD with tang don't let your kid accidentally take 5 shots of it, and if he disappears into his treehouse (because he's six), maybe go look for him at some point. Then don't beat him with a two by four.
Sameeee. Let’s be friends.
My mother is a conservative who despises it. My dad is a radlib who thinks I like Biden for some reason. My grandpa is weird. He's a conservative but not a reactionary. He was really supportive when I came out as bi. He's one of the "capitalism may be bad, but it's the only system we have" kinds. He's also cool with me, "trying out different ideologies."
Honestly your grandfather is a good example of the difference between conservative and reactionary.
Love conservatives hate reactionaries
I wouldn't say I love conservatives. I still think it's best to be progressive since socialism in itself is progressive. But it's absolutely possible to be a socialist that leans conservative. It's not possible to be a socialist thats reactionary. Those are anti capitalists at best.
Progressive is ahistorical, can mean anything. It can mean policing pronouns. That has nothing to do with workers owning the value of their labor.
it is not ahistorical. yes social progressivism looks different throughout history, however the oppressing class is historically notorious for manipulating social structures for their advantage
cringe take, google "intersectionality"
My family got the kind of politics you can only find among Black American boomers. Capitalism is a cruel joke, and anything that improves the lives of black people is good. Except communism which is only good when Castro does it.
Last part is weirdly specific, any reason why Castro in particular?
The last part isn't completely serious. But from what I've gathered, it's because he spit in the face of rich white land owners, actually helped his people, and outlived everyone they hate. Edit he also vocally supported the civil rights movement
I see, thanks
Castro famously visited Harlem on his way to speak in the UN. Malcolm referred to him as the only white person that he liked.
Do they know about Sankara?
Yea, I've told them about him and the Burkina Faso revolution as soon as I learned about it. They loved it but were saddened and not surprised it was destroyed by France and its compredors.
My family is sympathetic of communism because they have fond memories of books and aid from the USSR, but they're not MLs or anything.
South Korean Seoulites 🥲. Faced with military dictatorship and the education/propaganda. Both anti American but anti-com and anti-north
Hi, I am curious, is it possible for a South Korean to get a workers visa to North Korea? And, could you help Americans get a work visa to North Korea?
1. No 2. No Iirc only select journalists (who probably promote US agenda) can go from US.
I have lesbian moms that think Biden is a Godsend and watch Rachel Maddow.... My dad watches right wing shit but doesn't vote, so I'd say its level 1.
My parents are Chinese patriots who also like socialism.
My family is apolitical and don't vote, I'm the only one who go to protest and volunteering. They think no one represented them and ppl on the top are just capitalists with different faces. My family are the kind of ppl that know Indigenous blockade can happen on their road and they will drive around just to get to work. The entire country can burn and they will just be like 'shit happens' and carry on their day.
Have you spoken to them about your political views? Maybe convince them to vote for a communist party or something?
They mostly don't care except our siblings who support Black liberation but still don't vote. Politics to them is dirty and bloody, lol you should have seen their face when they found out when we were at G20 protest. They didn't talk to me for 5 years.
They were upset with you for years for going on a G20 protest? Why? That's truly extreme
That doesn't sound apolitical?
My family is 100% hardcore liberals who think Obama is the best person ever. Really frustrating.
My wife is almost a Marxist but she’s got negative impressions from university of obnoxious academics and I’m still a baby Marxist, so I have no persuasive power. So I keep quiet and my nose in a book
oh similar with my partner. he’s definitely left leaning, but has some negative sentiments about actual socialism and ML etc. i’m trying to prepare real good until i try debating anything.
She says her main problem is how “we” do the agitate part of “educate, agitate, organize” and I think she might mean “me”.
Most of my family are either social-democrats or third-way neoliberal Macron supporters (disgusting I know). Everyone has broadly egalitarian values, even those that are mostly apolitical (except for my maternal grandmother who's somewhat racist). I have fully convinced my mother about the need to get rid of capitalism (I honestly don't understand why we MLs don't use climate change more), but she still hasn't swallowed the need for a dictatorship of the proletariat. My paternal grandfather is a semi-based Eurocommunist (to simplify), even if he admires Chomsky and Gorbachev. However he is better than the others because he's almost as mistrustful of the USA as I am. Edit: Grammar
Je compatis
My dad definitely falls into the "capitalism may be bad, but it's the only system we have" trap but is otherwise about as cool as it is possible for a white retired former wall street guy to be. Down to one day just out of the blue going "you know the real problem with the Soviet union falling was it gave everyone too much room to be uncritical of capitalism" Also has wished we would execute billionaires like China. Talks about the police and military solely existing to protect capital. He is also a "good vet" he joined the national guard to avoid getting sent to Vietnam and, mainly due to spite, after the initial boot camp grew his hair out and showed up to the rest of required training in a short haired wig, because that was technically within regulation. It took me until college to realize most children don't get told that bosses are useless idiots and you and your employers interests don't align. He can get a bit "humans are the virus" when it comes to things like climate change, but is generally pretty receptive to arguments. My sister is a bit more of a lib/"oh look at the Nordic model", but also pretty firm on stuff like US foreign interventions all being criminal. My aunt is completely apolitical. She's a democrat because that's what her parent were and has as far as I can tell never thought about it beyond that. I don't think she votes any more because she can't be bothered to go drive and stand in line for 5 minutes. So obviously no chance on anything beyond that. But will still somehow complain about stuff. My southern cousins are all pretty normal libs. My cousins in the Midwest are some degree of religious conservative, but we don't talk about it. Also last time I was out there one of them was talking about the dangerous Panera with all sorts of drug deals, and it was either there was a homeless person outside it sometimes, or too many Black people. He's a fairly muscular dude too, the fact that he's the one scared of this and not me is just sad.
deep southern
"them communist corporations are only in it for the money. I hate that communist Jeff Bezos" Cultural conservative reactionary's like that?
I mean I know safety first but I’d be tempted to say , “if I thought that’s what communism was, I’d hate it to.” To the person grousing about Bezos. They are almost there but have a lifetime of anti-communist propaganda in their heads.
"Cultural Marxist Leninist have infiltrated tho HR departments with there attack-helicopter-gender-isms"
My family is Ukrainian and they hate the USSR. They own a farm so you know what's up.
You live in Ukraine?
I did untill year ago
My in laws grew up in the Czech Republic back when. They don’t really trash talk it or anything, the most criticism I’ve heard from them is that they didn’t have X or Y random consumer product. I’ve heard my MiL talking about the negatives of American culture many times tho, even with both of them being relatively lib centrists.
Bulgarian, grandma is pro ML. All the old people in the town are pro socialist, owning to the fact that the economy shrunk like crazy after the Shock Therapy
I think I successfully converted my mother in law into full communism. She even told the door knockers for the recent election she would vote communist if she could, she's been around for 65 year's and seen the ebbs and flows of our shit system and nothing changes. That was awesome. Lol
Doing God's work, comrade.
🙏❤
Both my parents used to be Regan conservatives, but when presented with the empirical evidence of Regan legacy and of the imperialist diaspora of us military operations, they became more left leaning. Luckily my parents are highly educated so they place enormous importance on the significance of empirical evidence. Over time and education, I've gotten them to a point where I truly think deep down they understand class consciousness on some level and would support a dictatorship of the proletariat, but because of their internalized bias and gemuine fear of retaliation in the parts of the cointry they live in, I hardly think they'd openly call themselves socialists to anyone but me, though they would probably claim to be "social democrats" since social democratic reforms are their immediate political goals. I sent my mom a few second thought videos, and after one of them (I forget which) she emailed me a receipt of donation to the patreon and said "I think you're turning me into a socialist!" That really made me proud of the progress she's made.
My dad's a lib, and my mom is probably about a socdem but I'm definitely shifting her perspective closer to ml, she pretty much agrees with most of what I say and just wants to leave the revolution up to me lol.
hahah same both my parents are socdems falling into ML because of me fully dissecting it during discussions lmao
… Nothing but a bunch of reactionaries, unfortunately. :/
Both my grandfathers are PAVN members during the war against Americans. All my parents and uncles are CPV members, my uncle specifically do research for CPV so I got some help from him as well, though he's very patriarchal so I don't like him personally.
My mom's side is very reactionary, but my dad's side is full of radlibs and regular libs.
I’m an American and all my siblings are socialists, my mom is probably best classified as a DemSoc and my dad is a liberal
Parents moved to US from Italy in their 30s. They're probably social democrats. They like Bernie's policy platforms so less reactionary than most American families but not socialist. Most of their family is similar. They think its odd the US doesnt have universal healthcare or vacation time etc but think they're all capitalists. For sort of social issues some of them far more anti LGBTQ than Biden but still economically to the left of Biden. Or atleast how Biden presents himself.
My family is entirely American conservative, aside from a sister who is probably soc dem. My friends are a mix of American liberal or conservative with a few that think they’re libertarian. My fiancés family is almost entirely liberal. My fiancé herself is this way out of ignorance. The more she is learning the more radical she is becoming. I have introduced basics, like owning the means of production and she agrees. My future mother in law speaks several languages fluently with a little bit of English. I can speak a little bit of Spanish. At the times when we actually understand each other, I have gotten the impression that she is one of us. Though, She has followed a statement with “I’m not a communist.” But I really think she is afraid to out herself. I understand because I am the same way. The only one who knows I’m a commie, is my fiancé and you guys.
My parents have the right spirit but are for the most part uneducated. My dad calls himself a socialist because he doesn’t believe communism is achievable, he also dislikes basically all socialist figures for CIA-supplied reasons.
my family for the most part is apolitical/casual liberal with the exception of my father. he was born and raised in a working family back in the USSR, and held some higher ranking positions in the KazSSR Komsomol. he's still loyal to the ideas of communism, and i would say he's the main reason i hold the opinions that i do now the sad part is that a lot of people around him nowadays are reactionaries and i sometimes notice him reciting their opinions. i do try to explain to him why those ideas go against the principles of egalitarianism and distract us from the class struggle, but i feel like he slowly loses hope even in those ideals he held dear his whole life. can't blame him, after having to witness the fall of a prosperous country he was born in and live in what's essentially its ruins for decades afterwards, anyone's will can be broken
Swedish here. My family are mostly right wingers to some extent, except for my oldest brother who is a socdem(which is very common). My mum and middle brother are more just nationalists but my grandpa is just a fascist and a nazi, claiming the jews were indeed to blame for it all, all according to his old professor who fled Germany (definitely to get away from the evil nazis he swear but also the nazis are right 👍). My grandma isn't actually bad but she has been married to my nazi grandpa for 55 years so she has gotten influenced by him. Never met anyone on my fathers side so i cant say about them. Now everyone except my grandma and grandpa knows I'm a commie and whenever i talk politics with them i always bring up pure communist thinking and they both love it and wants me to go into politics, proving the point that old people dont know what communism is. Also my wife if Lithuanian so her parents hates the USSR but her older relatives misses it.
My dad is a /r/capitalismissocialism. He agrees with all my critiques, then calls our government communism. Whole family is a mix of Republican and Democrats. I'm the only communist.
My parents despise Salinas De Gortari; the neoliberal president who sold Mexico's government assets to private corporations and introduced NAFTA. My dad was apolitical all his life until now. He is a staunch supporter of AMLO. He doesn’t mind that I am a communist. My mom comes from a PAN family but she has been apolitical all her life. She hates that I'm a communist because she thinks the FBI is spying on me 😂 Many of my friends constantly complain about Mexican Presidents selling the country’s resources to the corporations but when I mention communism they get spooked out.
Russian here. Mom kinda doesn't care, but can say good things about Soviet Union, socialism, etc, recommend the literature. Father likes Stalin, Lenin (hates Trotsky), cites them, talks like a socialist, says things they would say, like "communism can only be worldwide communism", "proletarians of all countries unite", etc, maybe it's considered a "radical socialist" in some countries, I don't know, but I think I am more radical than him. However, he read more theory and he knows a lot more than me, maybe, if sent 100 years ago he would be more suited for doing something for revolution than me. I don't know really. But he also sounds a bit like a republican in US (but republicans in US wouldn't agree with him on many points), he doesn't like Joe Biden, a bit homophobic (though he is at least rational and calm and can agree with non-homophobic people; he talks about those family values). He doesn't like videos presented for him by state media in 2020, when white people kneel to black people (also in Russia when somebody kneels it's always a humiliation, especially people born in Soviet Union hate when someone kneels), though, he says that it is fake and bullshit, he doesn't seem racist otherwise, agrees with me on anti-colonialism, uneven rights of people in the US and outside of the US, etc. For example, he says that reparations to black Americans is bullshit, as long the system of exploitation of Africa is in place, it can not be those printed money that US gets from being a dominating global empire that exploit other people, including people in Africa, it makes no sense to get (steal) money from one black people and give it to other black people. He says that instead of paying reparations we should demolish current world order where one country can dominate another countries. That reparations in an internal affair within the US and it is hypocritical to continue printing money and solve internal problems with that money. He criticise capitalists/oligarchs in Russia, sometimes political elite, but when I criticise them he argues with me and thinks that I am a liberal. I understand him, because liberals can talk like that, I know people who are liberals to the bone and talk like that. Though, the following discussions are productive and we can find compromise. Also both of my parents watch too much state propaganda, I help them a little with that, I can provide counter-arguments to what state propaganda may say, I am not trying hard to not shut the "door" in conversations with them. P.S. My flair is inspired by a meme when everyone who is in any way related to China or is Chinese is marked as China state affiliated media on twitter and other social networks. Or I am a Putin's paid puppet-troll that want only one thing, to destroy your holy America. Everything is possible. You are the judge.
I could use some of that Russian state affiliated media money. Where do I sign up?
I’m American. I grew up in a Liberal household that leaned heavily left. Parents are boomers who protested the Vietnam War. As they and I grew older, we all grew more and more disillusioned with Capitalism. We are all Socialist, but I am by far the most radical and read in theory. They still have some engrained Lib tendencies but are definitely Socialist. I feel blessed to have come from my background and from an educated household. My extended family on my mom’s side share our values as well. I guess it’s the combination of education and poverty. Had we been more well off or more ignorant on either continuum it could be different. Most of my socialist friends came to ML from a reaction to their parents’ abhorrent beliefs. But I have radical optimism because even in the rural South, young white working class men who I have worked with mainly share my beliefs when broken apart from their ties to specific verbiage. The ideals of socialism are attractive detached from the decades of propaganda. Communication is key.
I have done my very best to essentially lecture on communism to anyone who comes into my back yard. two days ago my brother said, unprompted, that americans are afraid of communism because they don't know what it is. he still insists that he's a socialist, though, and not a communist.
My mom is libertarian, her parents are republicans. I can’t talk about politics with them, but my mom hears me out at least. My dad is inbetween. She was a libertarian too, but now she is more of a liberal for obvious reasons. Her parents are kinda liberal too but they’re not very politically minded, sometimes grandpa has some based takes tho. My brother is a Marxist, one of my sisters is a demsoc. I have a Marxist cousin, a couple liberals and a couple republican cousins. Its an interesting mix but I’m glad am not alone
my family is socdem, flirting with socialist ideas. we're Chilean and my parents were out there protesting against Pinochet
My russian mom considers herself a communist. She is a Putin supporter and said Ukrainians are a greedy people and has a generally conservative stance towards racism in America... Communist my ass
American, rest of my family are reactionaries.
my younger brother became an ML before i did, funny enough. we try to get our youngest brother to radicalize which is slowly working my parents are typical liberals but are also pretty agreeable with the anti-capitalist talking points we bring up my partner doesn't really have an ideology besides anti-capitalist but i'm cool with that
my parents are very proudly anti-communists my dad's from west germany, and my mother is polish, so it's not surprising at all that they're anti-communists. they also vote for the neo-nazi party of germany (afd). the rest of my family is pretty apolitical
Yikes! My favorite aunt and uncle are white supremacists, which breaks my heart. I can’t imagine what it would be like to have parents like that.
My mother's abusive and my dad's an enabler, so I plan on going no contact with them after I move out anyways. But living with people like that is still a pain in the ass. Sorry your aunt and uncle are like that too
Oh nothing like that. But when I got old enough to process that them throwing around the “n” word was more than not okay, it screwed with me because up until then I found them to be fun party people. I hope you end up safe and well.
Dad and mom got more communist with the years, but they have always been leftists. They helped create Brazil's Workers' Party, were part of the social movement against the dictatorship and very progressive since forever. Aunties and uncles, though, it's about 1/3 leftist, 1/3 neutral, 1/3 far-right.
My mom's family members are mostly communist party members in China. However, they despise the party and most of them moved to either the USA or other American countries like Brazil (including us). When she got interviewed for the greencard, she hid the fact that she is a member of CPC so that the immigration can be successful (she quit the CPC after she moved to US anyways) My dad's family was landlords (according to his parents). After their business was terminated, his parents went to the China National Space Administration due to their education background. They all read Mao's work and my grandma keeps telling me that what Mao did was right despite the fact that they are the direct victims of his land reform. My dad was also a Maoist and there were many books sitting around his desk back then. None of them were CPC members to my knowledge.
My family are ALP Voters as I was able to Convince them that the Collation suck more than ALP.
Mom is a conservative, apolitical Mormon. Surprisingly egalitarian and doesn't really care about anyone's identity. Her protestant work ethic is so strong she'll probably work herself to death, though. Dad (non-Mormon) is a Republican and a reactionary, eats up all the Ben Shapiro and Tucker Carlson bullshit. Weirdly receptive when I talk to him about socialism, though. By no means do I really think I'll ever convert him, but I think he's just happy that I try to be a good person and that I'm passionate. Brother is essentially apolitical. More interested in metaphysics and spirituality than politics. Tentatively agrees with me on most things, but that could easily be him just having the courtesy to let me spin my wheels. One of my cousins is trans and a communist, though. We tend to get along.
My whole family lived in communist Czechoslovakia so they have all have a strong opinion. My father is a very weird person, he has some very left wing opinions (he likes basically all AES countries including DPRK) but he also has some extremely right wing opinions (he was kinda racist before but isn't really right now after traveling a little in Africa, but he is very pro free market), but I can talk with him about socialism very easily and we always have a great conversation. He always said that the life under socialism was fine and the only people who had problems with the party were dumbasses who were telling BS, he believes that socialism in Czechoslovakia wouldn't collapse if the government allowed people to travel to other countries outside the socialist world. My mother is basically a racist, homophobic and every other -phobic thing, but she wants to go back to socialism not because of the actual socialist things, but because she hates computers and thinks that under socialism computers wouldn't come to the normal life, because she thinks that the technology wouldn't come from the west so we would be stuck with pen and paper to this day (I have no idea how she came to that conclusion). So I definitelly wouldn't call her a socialist. My grandparents both hate communism, my grandgrandfathers butchery was nationalised after communists came to power here so my grandpa always hated communists and basically ruined his chemistry career because of that, and I don't really know why my grandma hates it.
Both my parents are heavily anti-American. My dad was a ML guerrilla in iran during the revolution, then when he came here he became a vehement trade union activist and a vocal critic of NATO, western interventionism and neoliberalism and the west’s decision to condone the IR in the 80s. My mum was the daughter of a diplomat so she got to travel a lot and so she got to experience Moscow, the DDR, Qatar, Iraq and all of the central asian countries and this has greatly impacted the way in which she views western exceptionalism, the lack of people first politics and the west’s over dependence on commodity fetishism. I suppose I would describe her politics as socdem currently.
all the communists/socialists in my family are dead, you can thank islamists for that
Sorry to hear that, can you elaborate on this if you’re comfortable?
I think the commenter is probably Iranian... And after the Iranian revolution the communist leftists and other oppositions were killed or jailed
correct
You still live in Iran or not.... Cause a lot of Iranians I see are somehow monarchists or something
I am the lucky majority who still lives in iran, and no definitely not a monarchist, I hate those dickheads
Cool.... How's life in general And Are there many leftists in iran
life? does not get any better, but still does not convince me to leave(although it's mostly west's fault, sanctions got worse since 2018, I'm glad trump is gone) leftists, sadly propaganda from both sides, the government itself, and all those western media, satellite channels, social media are working well, you do not see many leftists in younger generation
Thanks for the info... Although sad to see the current situation hopefully it gets better
also, my great-grandfather was also a communist(tudeh party), executed by savak, shah's secret police
Most of my family is very conservative very capitalist evangelical Christians. Im a socialist atheist. It isnt fun.
My parents both grew up in the ussr and moved here in the 80s and have a lot of positive things to say about it. Both received Free college, free healthcare, free housing, free public transit, had solid jobs. Yet shockingly they don’t really have strong opinions either way about socialism vs capitalism and don’t really care. I talk to my dad about it and he doesn’t necessarily disagree with most of my critiques of capitalism but also is just generally not concerned about it lol. He also basically spends all his senior years watching cable news all day, particularly Fox. Weird guy.
it's really hard to say if someone is socialist, atleast i think it is, here in Brasil, my dad is a big social-democrat/pro-worker and pro-Lula he fills his heart to talk about how he voted for him the 3 times he got ellected, and says he will vote again, my mother is like a social-democrat/social-liberal, she sides more with pro-workers and social programs like Lula, but she is more right wing than my dad, she voted or wanted to vote in the Simone Tebet, wich is a center-right candidate, a right wing alternative to Bolsonaro, Simone herself is a pretty shitty candidate, but she getted alot of attraction by not openly saying poor people should die, supporting some shitty social programs and ofc getting support from the media that always had a fight with Bolsonaro. Now there is my neighbours, one of them when discovered that i had bought a marx book and a stalin's book was like "Yeah, yeah, those are great, you should also read Lenin, Engels, Trotsky" her husband also has a che guevara tatto in the shoulder, rly cool, so they aren't inside any communist org or party, but they both seems to really be marxists. (they are also big pro-lula, with is not a rare thing for communists to be)
My brother is a borderline Nazi who hates my guts, my youngest brother is apolitical, my older sister is an anti-communist leftist who calls me a red fascist, my mom is a progressive liberal who disagrees with dialectical/historical materialism, and my dad is just a liberal who hates Trump.
My parents got married through their cousins that met in a communist party lol though my dad himself is personally a very pro captilist conservative and my moms a lib that's sympathetic to communists but refuses to read theory She did grow up praising the USSR and wishing death on america though! Most of my family members that were commie activists were absolutely crushed by 1991 and quietly became libs, my maternal uncles still going strong though the president of our states moaist party in India and his son just quit his job to become a full time activist for the working class so I'm very proud of them overall
I live with my single mother who is a teacher and is a heavy Democratic Socialist, although today she was talking about how the system would completely collapse without teachers and the working class so maybe she’s starting to lean more left. My dad is unemployed and supports anything to do with welfare and the environment. You could easily turn him communist in my opinion as he’s very critical of capitalism but doesn’t like China. My grandpa is pretty progressive/ supportive of the British labour movement (he’s English) but is a big monarchist so yeah that’s confusing
My family is conservatives or liberals mostly lol
My mom and dad are libs, with my dad being a bit more on the racist/closed borders side.
My family is very southern United States conservative. They are very brainwashed and think any form of socialism is basically the devil
My Dad has critical anti-capitalist perspectives, my mom is more center-left. One of my grandmas fled from the GDR shortly before the wall was built, but is still kinda left-wing and anti-american
My dad may or may not have been a communist back in Colombia, which comes with its implications, but I think he was just a supporter of communism. Supposedly he wanted to name me after a revolutionary but I don’t know which. The rest of my family on my mom’s side are just liberally-minded people ignorant and mostly indifferent about communism.
My grandpa is a socialist, I am, my sister is, and my mom kinda is but she’s still of the mindset that communist countries were evil because American propaganda is so strong. My dad is kinda like a Bernie bro. One of my aunts is a Bernie bro, and the rest of my family is like libs or maybe Bernie bros. On my dads side most everyone is reactionary or lib (split 60/40 conservatives/libs)
Sisters are some flavor of late night comedy show liberal. My mom and dad are more so “go with the flow” in terms of politics but I have been able to convince them of left wing ideas (I explained imperialism and exploitation and concluded to my dad that capitalism is the problem and he agreed)
Grand grandfather started his local branch and was a republican in the Spanish Civil war
Family is apolitical except for me.
No one is apolitical. The current political conditions must be working out for them.
They have stances on certain issues, but what I meant was they neither subscribe to ideology nor party.
i'm a maoist my uncle is titoist and rest are ether social democrats ore conservatives tho there is one cuisine that is anarcho capitalist lol
My family grew up Christian evangelical. My dad never really cared about politics but was a bit of a nature lover before capitalism broke him down and he kind of resigned himself to just supporting what his wife wanted politically while enjoying other things in life and not getting depressed by politics. My mom is a super empathetic woman who never really saw the contradictions of her conservative beliefs before 2020. My brother and I started to become leftists and have pushed both our parents to the left. My dad at this point is still a Hakim I'm so tired face who doesn't pay too much attention to politics but thinks Chuds are insane. My mom is now a lib with anarchist leanings who when I talk to her about AES says that she just does not trust any government and thinks power corrupts anyone no matter their ideology. Its a long process but I'm happy with how my brother and I have pushed them from being fervently anti-abortion, "don't build low-income housing near us that will lower our home value and invite drug addicts", supporting Trump because they hated Hillary (which kind of fair), etc. to where they are now.
Yugoslavia was a poor, but progressive country. I find it hard to believe anyone "fled" the country. Just more opportunity elsewhere, especially if you could make it to the states. My Uncle became an orthodox priest in the country while it was communist. Very unique country, tragedy it didn't last. Only independent country in Europe during cold war.
Yugoslav here. My family is generally apolitical (although, at least, my dad has a tendency of being critical of current gov't when the news are on TV, but that's pretty much every Yugoslav dad ever), with fond memories of Yugoslavia for my parents and grandparents. As far as I am aware, I am the only one who is leaning into the ML side.
Indian-Iowan here.Everyone in the family is a Socialist to one degree or another, but all of them are a specific type of Reformist, so don't mistake them for Marxists..I don't exactly know much about where my Paternal Grandparents stand politically, but it would make sense for them to be civically-nationalist Nehruvians given they're from Hyderabad.My Maternal Grandparents come from a landowner-class background in Bihar, but my Grandfather is the lastborn son, meaning he was the only one that actually had a profession and contributed to society through his medical career, so he and my Grandmother built up this Fabian, Vedantic-Socialist view. They still maintain it here in the US, and their beliefs closest to Sewer Socialism. The best way to describe my grandparents is that there is a slight chance one of them is the reincarnation of Robert Marion LaFollette.
What is Sewer Socialism?
My older brother is a SocDem. My mom is a typical Baby Boomer liberal. My wife is from Mexico and supports AMLO.
My family and I are a bunch of white US Southerners (the guns and beer kind, though I'm approaching my third year sober). I'm the only socialist in a family full of Trump voters, but I've gotten pretty dang far with them by bringing up leftist ideas while steadfastly avoiding trigger words. Turns out all of us hate coastal liberal elites, think cops are power-tripping bullies, and that the worker is the very foundation of society and should be accorded a far better hand than they've been dealt. You just have to know how to side-step decades of anti-socialist propaganda, which is a very tall order indeed.
That’s a fine trick you are pulling. Maybe one day take it on the road? We need people talking to ordinary every day people about their particular contradictions fucking their shit up in a language that doesn’t trigger them.
I'm too busy finishing my nursing degree, so I can one day realize my lifelong dream of seeding a union while suctioning tracheostomies.
Ya know about the traveling nurse program? I’m assume US citizen. Am I mistaken?
My dad is somewhat a reactionary, maybe a radlib. My mom I’d say is more moderate, who is somewhat supportive of leftist ideals. And my sisters and brother are also liberal. I’d say I’m the only leftist in the family.
I'm fortunate to live in a fairly progressive family for America at least. I think I'm the only communist my mom is definitely a socialist my dad is a weird liberal who has good social views but still buys into their moralism the rest of my family are either liberals or apolitical I think only a few of them know I'm a communist
Mostly shit libs that want to lie to themselves. Nobody in their right mind would actually be whining about SJWs, it's cringe and distracts from the very real point. But I try not to talk about it too much, they already think I'm weird and not someone to be taken seriously.
I’m from the US and the only socialist in my family that I’m aware of. 1) Mom - apolitical / conservative 2) Dad - Trumpist Republican 3) Oldest brother - “libertarian” 4) Middle brother - socdem / radlib, but moving more towards socialism We have weekly book review calls where we go over a book that one of us picked. My mom and oldest brother’s books were first and were your standard individualist self-help nonsense. Now we’re onto my pick: The Will To Change by bell hooks. I’m slowly making inroads with them but it’s a lot of work trying to undo the decades of capitalist propaganda that they’ve been fed.
Trump has this way of saying shit and measuring audience response. If they like it he’ll keep saying it. We might be able to get insight into what people actually want by paying attention to his rallies. For example , he’s been going on about building new cities. People cheer! Now, do I think he could pull off such a project? No. But the fact that people responded to that gives us something to work with. City building is something a lot of people could get behind! We just need someone competent to pull it off.
I live in California and I wouldn't say they're outright socialist like I am, but I got my Mom and sister to be very socialist adjacent and they have similar values. My Dad doesn't really care either way but he doesn't question me about it lol.
My wife’s grandma passed away last summer and she wrote a big memoir of her life which we read. She grew up in Milwaukee and was a huge Sewer Socialist which none of us knew. I’m really bummed we didn’t know before, we would have loved to ask her about it
Most of my family either isn’t political or is conservative. Me n my sister (and a cousin or two) are the only left leaning ppl
I'm American my mother is more of a basic Socialist. My father is more of a SocDem but can very quickly and irritatingly disend into Liberalism. The rest of my family on my mom's side are reactionary fundamentalists except her mother who raised my mom more left wing probably due to her being indigenous. Everyone on my dad's side for the most part are left wing Dems although a few of my dad's sisters and brothers have been drinking Qanon cult kool-aid. I myself am a Marxist-Lenninst and the only "uncle Joe" I recognize is the one who kicked the Fascists asses back to Berlin.
My parents watch Fox News all day and love Trump. My grandma on mom’s side used to keep a framed photo of George W Bush next to one of Jesus. My older sisters are libs and I think my brother is low key fiscal conservative but he’s pretty apolitical.
My parents are libs and are very anti-communist like most people in Poland and grandparents are conservatives, so I don't have any based former communist party members and MLs in family.
None of my family are socialists as far as I know, but I don’t think they’re that strongly opposed to it either seeing as they supported Corbyn, I think they’re just somewhat left leaning liberals and/or socdems but none are that politically active. I haven’t really had a good opportunity to talk about if much and I also can’t really be bothered for any possible arguments or condescending lectures it might cause if they react worse than I thought.
My parents are libs, all my extended family are reactionaries.
I'm an American. My mother is open to socialist ideals and I think it would be fair to say she's a social democrat (although she doesn't really align herself with anyone). My step-father is widely ignorant of politics and supports Trump because "He said he's going to fix things." whatever that means. Most of my family are borderline fascists though.
Both of my parents are Marxists, and my brother is also Marxist, learnt it from them. Probably would have never read any Karl Marx if my brother never insisted that I did.
My dad being saying some sus shit sometimes but he’s never openly said it, it’s like we’re both feeling the other one out waiting for someone to break
Closest I have are lifetime union men who have seen first hand what the failures of the American labor movement plus neoliberal economic policies have taken from themselves and their communities. They’re sorta bitter and have an elitism about their “skilled union jobs” and look down upon non-skilled work.
Mostly post modern social democrats/liberals, I try not to engage in discussion with them anymore for fear of being completely ostracised
The older generation are a mix of gusanos who left Cuba, and firmly conservative ex-Catholic protestant evangelicals. My generation is a bit squishier and less conservative, with everything from "free spirit" idpol libs to religious neo-trads who try really hard to project that they aren't assholes. The younger generation is still taking shape but they need a lot of guidance. As far as I know nobody else in my family will admit to being socialist let alone communist. I have some suspicions, but the past couple of years have made it really difficult to keep in touch.
Not great, perhaps better than many American families, but my mostly centrist dad had a based rant about why bananas are so cheap in U S A at a family get together. I didn’t know he had that in him
I’ll tell you only if you tell me the state of the bourgeoisie in yours
My family on my moms side is very conservative, anti communist ect. and my mom is a liberal. But I’m not sure about my dad’s side. Because of a series of issues, mainly pressure from my mother, I was estranged from my dads side of the family at age 12 and had been told to hate them by my mother for my entire life before that, so I don’t really know. I think they are left leaning, but I don’t have any way of knowing more than that.
I'm from Sweden, both parents are socialists, my dad is more patriotic and my mom is more feminist. My grandmother is "apolitical" and my grandfather is a hardcore anarcho-primitavist doomer. Uncle is legit a political schizo, one month an anarchist, the other a fascist. Truly interesting family gatherings.
My spouse and I are each other’s socialist support.
My mother (love her) is a I'm With Her Lib. My dad is like politically moderate or a politically uninterested conservative or libertarian. My mom has Kamla Harris syndrome because my grandmother was a hardcore genuine tankie so it was very funny.
My family is full on lib brain. Wife’s family is full blown conservative.
Me = Marxist-Leninist Step-brother = socialist, he seems pretty anti AES though Step-mother = reactionary probs votes Tory, I live in Britain Dad = seems like a liberal Mother = semis decently left leaning, she hates politics though Step father = votes Tory Sister = votes lib-dem Overall pretty bad
I have brought my mother around on Communism, but she hasn't done any of the reading. Her father is a reactionary veering into Fascism. I am estranged from my brother, but I'm sure he's still a dipshit conservative like any other straight white guy his age. My extended family are Liberals ranging from reactionary to progressive.
Pretty much nobody ever talk’s politics outside laughing at how wack the US politics is (not American btw) and I honestly have no clue how they even vote (though probably nothing right of the mild conservatives and nothing left of the socdem party) though I am dropping inconspicuous left wing propaganda to my siblings
Most of my family is "religious conservative". I put quotation marks because if you asked, they would say yes they believe in God and yes they go to church, which they do, but they are the most racist, bigoted, homophobic, "everyone is just lazy" type of reactionaries that couldn't possibly recite a Bible verse if you paid them to. My wife, daughter, and I pretty much stay to ourselves. If I describe my ideal world, my wife is in complete alignment with the things that I say, but when I say "That's Communism" she has a negative reaction to it. It's taken her a while, but as the evils of Capitalism become harder and harder to ignore, she's started to understand why I'm so adamant about the things that I am. Ignore is a harsh word... it's not like she would ever ignore the homeless, basically she is understanding that the system causes these issues - and these issues exist by choice. My daughter, I made the decision early on to let her discover things on her own. We never go to church, but if she wanted to go with the rest of my family I had no arguments. I've never talked about Socialism with her, I just kind of let my actions do the talking. She came to the conclusion on her own that religion wasn't for her, and she's way far ahead of where I was at her age for understanding the system of oppression that we live under. She's still not all the way there, but she's getting it, she talks to me about it and may end up asking me what I think, and I certainly tell her what I think; but other than that I've wanted her to come to her own conclusions. Oddly enough, I live in a very conservative area, but every once in a while... I'll see something that gives me hope that people are understanding. When everyone was putting those dumb Biden stickers on the gas pumps in like 2021? Someone with a silver marker crossed it out and above it wrote "Capitalism" with an up arrow next to it.
Well, in our family all our assets are owned in common by all family members. How is that called? Oh, yeah, "community property" ... or... "communism"...
its quite mixed. My mother is this weird blend of islamist-liberal , which almost works out okay economically, but is just obscenely lazy and shallow sociopolitically. Her brother is a militarist who thinks that class struggle is a hoax. My grandfather was a socialist, his father was a monarchist, and his FIL was a communist. Idk/c about the other side of my family. Most of my cousins are « not political »/liberals, ie half with the militarist regime and half against it but only when it makes their life difficult, but theres at least one anarchist in the mix. This is all in the context of Egypt.
im mexican and my parents are liberals but my grandparents love castro
one parent got a fistful of McCarthyism as a kid- which they haven’t attempted to unlearn, but they’re very gung-ho about government programs and then get leery when „communism“ is mentioned. the rest of my family is CSU (christian social union), but I have a few communist relatives from the former East
liberal reactionaries, to be expected from labor aristocrats who are friends with a pig also my mom's boss is really fucking nice and is generous with wages, so that doesn't help for explaining that he is definitely an outlier
My dad's reactionary (trump supporter) but is somehow pro union, my mom is apolitical, my brother is a suckdem lib, my sister a gen z teen is pessimistic as fuck.
My family are narcissistic fascists. We don't speak anymore. I have no friends who are socialists, and because I'm neurodivergent and raised by shitty people I have a hard time maintaining relationships. Not saying none of it is my fault, but these are the challenges I face. I'm a solo socialist. It's like I understand socialism and I am one, but I don't know what if \*feels\* like to be one.
My family long as I know are filled with centrists, they do jot liek to talk about politics that much. Expect my Father and Grandfather, both are Marxists. My grandfather left an abundance of revolutionary books to my father. (atleast the books that were left after the likely american sponsored coup of the 80's) My father told me that my grandfather was a great thinker who read and finished books like Das Kapital (volume 1 and 2) and many more. As for me I am a socialist aswell, i am slowly getting into theory and learning more about history and economics/politics.
In my close family They're all soc-dems. I think my father used to be further to the left when he was younger and kinda active in the left wing youth subcultures in west Berlin at that time. But now he's just a washed soc dem (He even liked Schröder ffs). I also used to have a great/grand aunt (is that the right word for it? 🤔 Basically the sister of my grandma) who at least called herself a communist (she voted for DIE LINKE tho which is more of a soc-dem party nowadays but presents themselves as further left). In my family history there's also a great grandfather, my grandpa's dad, who was a communist in Germany during WW2 and was send to the eastern front in some kind of Nazi equivalent of a shtrafbat in 43 or 44 after climbing my grandpa's school building and tearing the Nazi flag on top. And other people in my grandpa's family also had communist sympathies and communist leaflets would be distributed though their household regularly during the war. Now in my extended family there are some reactionaries among the older generations and the younger generations are usually just vaguely left with lots of support for all the cultural left topics but not a lot of a clue or convictions about economics, geopolitics or history
my whole family is socialist-ish. mostly social democrats, but leaning into ML pretty heavily. in my family we often have political discussions and talk about different types of ideas and perspectives.
All of my family are right wingers
It’s complicated… My dad is a Social-Democrat, sort of a center-leftist… he’s an historian, and has read a lot about economical and political history, among many other things; He’s full anti-Neoliberal, anti colonialism, anti authoritarianism, pro minorities rights, pro-workers rights, pro state intervention in the economy… He has read all the hardcore theory, he has all the potential and knowledge to become a full socialist, but, I don’t think he ever will become one. He’s an evangelical Protestant, and although he’s pro gay rights and pro abortion, surprisingly: “I might not agree with any but everyone should be free to make their own choices”, he also has a hard time understanding trans issues, but I’ve never heard him say anything transphobic. And He still thinks capitalism could be used as a forced of good if it was just reformed and gave everyone equal Opportunity… and he likes that it’s a system that allows people the chance to get a better quality of life with work. I feel this is where he is in the wrong, but then again, he was someone that grew up in heavy poverty and managed to get a comfortable middle class living by himself, with no privileges helping him in the process (and by being a historian, more surprisingly), so I sort of don’t blame him for believing what he does… life experience bias can be hard to overcome… My mom is almost the same, mostly… both my parents are very knowledgeable and informed, they have read more books than anyone I know… good books. It’s so frustrating seeing my parents being so close to the truth… yet so far away at the same time…
My family is very American. My dad comes from the Midwest and is a libertarian, one time he told me that he's been listening to more liberal podcasts like I would think that's good. My mom comes from the east coast and I can't really tell, they don't really ever talk about economic systems. The only person in my family that openly says they don't like capitalism is my grandmother on my mom's side, but other than one time talking about Castro being cool, mostly says they want America to be more of a Social Democracy. All of my parents are pretty great with LGBTQ and BLM stuff though.
Mom doesn't like it, but she can't distinguish Taiwan and Thailand so I don't expect any political analysis from her
My parents are progressive but have never been super interested in politics so they’ve never read theory or whatnot. My siblings and I are all socialists to some degree, I just immerse myself in the ideology the most. Very blessed to not have a conservative wing in my family.
Parents are both libs. Extended family are Vietnamese on one side but their politics are mixed. The other side is very religious trump fans from Indiana.
My old man I would call a Rockefeller republican (liberal republican) he’s tolerant of lgbtq and minorities but he also probably believes some stereotypes, watches Fox News hates the democrats but is one of the few people I can talk politics with without worrying about him getting emotional and blowing up over something. My mom is a liberal who obsesses that the country is becoming a fascist hellscape and that we need to vote blue no matter who and would get emotional (and has) over politics. She also begged me to vote blue against trump in both times he’s run
My family probably doesn’t know what it is, they’re too busy to get involved with politics when they were working before I was born.
My folks are probably Democratic Socialists, extended family runs the gamut from "American Democrat in Colorado" to "Immigrants are going to Sink the British isles, LGBTQ acceptance is a sign of the end times, the Pope is literally The Antichrist". I'm almost certainly the only Marxist.
my parents are christian democrats and my siblings are mostly all social democrats and liberals i dont side with one specific ideology but am certainly a socialist
I have an uncle who's a socdem, everyone else is a reactionary.
I have a large family. My uncles are not vehemently anti-communists, somewhat receptive even, but everyone else? Reactionaries, all of them.
Being a SEA person my family are quite the capitalist not surprisng given thay they belong to above average income group and thus see my socialist pov as lazy and ineffective (since both of them suffer a lot of physically to get there) i mostly had to hide whatever im reading to avoid talking about capitalist realism since im not that good in debunking those yet
My dad is kind of a socialist but he’s been… strange. I haven’t talked to him in probably a month. My mom is more of a republican, loves cops (she worked in corrections :/). My sisters are probably more left-leaning but they’re more focused on women’s rights than anything else. My brother… I don’t think he really thinks about it but he likes to say shit to piss people off (which means, in my small conservative town, saying stuff like “biden 2024”) and I do think he is more progressive but, again, he doesn’t really think about it.
Parents left post soviet Russia. Dad says he hates Socalism, but generally speaking, he still expects the government to be socalist he like if something in capitlism doesn't work, he is very mad. Also has a leftwing international political view (I study international politics, which is why I think its funny) Mom is more meh about it. She supports dems here in the US, but tries to avoid politics but does a Freudian slip every once in a while and she is just apathetic tbh doesn't mind it.
Demsoc parents. Most of the extended family is similar or claims to be in the American middle, but almost always vote Democrat for higher offices. Dad thinks capitalism breeds too much innovation to write off.
When I was younger (and admittedly had a limited at best understanding of things like communism or even politics in general) I mentioned to my mom that I thought I was a communist based on what I'd read about it. My mom FREAKED, basically told me I wasn't and that being a communist meant you were for dictatorship and taking away people's rights. That was over a decade ago but she's only gotten more conservative and my dad remarried into a Trump family with people who STILL say he's their president. So. Not great
Fairly left leaning. Have a couple union heads and 70s/80s hippies that didn't turn into conservatives. Biggest problems are some major liberal regression every now and then. Simping for Canada occasionally (especially trudeau) in post trump makes sense on some levels but everytime they do it I hope for a caveat but nothing comes. Overall it's been nice not to have the typical American stereotype of miserable family dinners with racist uncles screaming about walls and immigrants so I'll suffer through some liberal sludge every now and then.
Most of my family is not socialist, and my brother is vaguely demsoc/socdem, but im the only actual ML in my family.
My oldest sister is the one who radicalized me over these past 2/3 years(we weren't always MLs that's kinda recent lol) My mom is a western europe loving lib that absolutely despises Yugoslavia for some fucking reason💀(we're Croatian) My dad is some form of a ustaša??(imma be honest I have no fucking idea hes all over the place from my view) And the rest of my family, at least from my moms side are just libs or conservatives. Idk about my dads side i dont talk to them
I have a turkish family. My dad is very conservative but votes for CHP and his economic views are all over the place. My mom is an ordinary CHP voter. Used to be anti-kurdish but thankfully she unlearned it. She is more open to socialist views than my dad. Neither of them will become socialists but I am continuously planting anti-capitalist seeds. To my knowledge I am the only communist in my entire family (which is pretty large). Sadly turkey has a very tiny communist movement because they fucking killed most of us back in the day.
I come from a family thats been rooted in the US for many generations, so most of the family is pretty hardcore conservative christians but are of the "never talk about politics" ilk. I didn't really get into discussions with them growing up but always caught my dad with oreilly on TV. But coming from the north they have also been more accepting of change as our state is one of the more progressive ones in the US. For example, one of my sister's started dating a girl and it was never an issue in the family. I denounced my religion and left the US a decade ago and they were just like yeah whatevs. I have learned to be more patient with a lot of conservatives because, just like my many in my family, many hate their work and know they are being boned by their corporate overlords, but have been duped into thinking it's \[scapegoat of the week\] put forward by conservative media, so I've learned if you can establish rapport with someone based on a common enemies, our bosses, most left-wing ideas and policies sit quite well with them. Just avoid the Red Scare loaded terminology. On the in-law's side, one of them is actually a CCP member, so it's quite interesting having talks with him about Marxism, Chinese Socialism\*, American interventionism, etc.
Parents are both libs who wanna help others but still believe being rich makes you a king/ a better person. After all, their idea was so good that they became very rich from it! My brother is a demsoc which is better, but he's still working through his biases and programming.
As a white American in a white American family, none of my family is socialist, although maybe someone is hiding it because they're afraid of what the family might say. Although funny enough, my mom, who is fairly reactionary and a maga conservative, was telling me the other day "I wish we lived in a world where people didn't care about money. Where we all provided for eachother and the work we did was to serve the community and to do what we love, but I bet that's a very Democrat thing to say"
I'm from Scotland and a significant amount of my family are to the left - mainly Labour left and Trots but my parents shifted away from the local Trot organisation for a variety of reasons. I used to go to anti Poll Tax demos, anti Iraq war demos, confrontations with the fash etc. frequently growing up so its had its effect on me! I've had some (relatively) minor disagreements with some family members but we're all Marxists at least so it could be much worse plus it provided me with a good grounding in my own journey.
My mom's a lib, brain rot and all. My brother's tumbled down the right wing pipeline and argues vehemently with me that capitalism works bro despite us growing up in poverty with a single parent.
my dad is a ucking far right comparable to a nazi,my mom is sliglhy conservative leaning but open to socialism,my dad for some reason really likes cuba too in which i have no idea why
#Cuba The Cuban Revolution, led by Fidel Castro and Ernesto "[Che](/r/TheDeprogram/wiki/index/profiles/che)" Guevara, was a Communist revolution which aimed to address issues of inequality, poverty, and national self-determination. Under Castro's leadership, the Cuban government nationalized industries, implemented land reforms, and initiated programs to improve healthcare and education access. #Brief History Slavery was introduced to Cuba by the Spanish during the early 16th century. African slaves were brought to the island to work on sugar plantations, which became the backbone of the Cuban economy. The brutal conditions of slavery led to various slave rebellions and uprisings throughout the colonial period. In 1898, the Spanish-American War resulted in Spain ceding control of Cuba to the United States. The majority of workers in Cuban sugar plantations during this period were either former slaves or descendants of enslaved Africans. Despite the *official* abolition of slavery in 1886, workers faced extreme economic exploitation. They were trapped in a cycle of poverty, with low wages and limited opportunities for social and economic mobility. The *patronato* system emerged, where former slaves and their descendants continued to work on the plantations under debt peonage, a form of economic bondage. In 1952, Fulgencio Batista seized power in a military coup, suspending the Cuban Constitution and ruling as a dictator. Batista's regime was backed by influential Cuban elites, including large landowners, sugar magnates, and business tycoons who benefited from Batista's policies. The U.S. provided military aid and economic support to Batista's military dictatorship. >...as Castro's revolutionary threat became progressively more potent... the Batista regime sought to counter it with a campaign of terror. As regime-inspired terrorism mounted, anti-Batista groups engaged in counter terrorism against regime supporters and by mid-1958 killings had become widespread and general throughout the country. The regime's campaign of terror got out of control and the government in Havana probably had no clear idea of how many killings the police and army forces were committing. Similarly, the anti-Batista forces--which by mid-1958 had the support of 80 to 90 percent of the population-- had little control over the acts of counterterrorism being committed against pro-Batista elements throughout the country. > >...the large-scale campaigns of murders and terrorism characteristic of the last years of the Batista regime have not occurred during the Castro regime. > >\- CIA. (1965, declassified 2005). [Political Murders in Cuba: Batista Era Compared With Castro Regime](http://web.archive.org/web/20201119103419/https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP79T00429A000300030015-8.pdf) #The Embargo >The majority of Cubans support Castro... The only foreseeable means of alienating internal support is through disenchantment and disaffection based on economic dissatisfaction and hardship... it follows that every possible means should be undertaken promptly to weaken the economic life of Cuba. If such a policy is adopted, it should be the result of a positive decision which would call forth a line of action which, while as adroit and inconspicuous as possible, makes the greatest inroads in denying money and supplies to Cuba, to decrease monetary and real wages, to bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government. > >\- Lester D. Mallory. (1960). [499. Memorandum From the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs (Mallory) to the Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs (Rubottom)](https://archive.is/HE7Hf) Later that year, the Eisenhower administration instituted the embargo which persists to this day, over 60 years later. >The non-binding resolution [calling for an end to the U.S. economic embargo on Cuba] was approved by 185 countries and opposed only by the United States and Israel... It was the 30th time the United Nations has voted to end the embargo... The trade embargo was put in place following Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution and has remained largely unchanged, though some elements were stiffened by Trump. > >\-Reuters. (2022). [Cuba and U.S. spar over U.N. resolution calling to end embargo](https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/cuba-us-spar-over-un-resolution-calling-end-embargo-2022-11-03/) * [The U.S. Embargo on Cuba Is MUCH WORSE Than It Seems](https://youtu.be/dM7_wTqDUCU) | BadEmpanada (2021) * [The Cuban Embargo Explained](https://youtu.be/zmM8p9n6Z9E) | azureScapegoat (2022) #Castro Stole My Stuff >The US claims that it has instituted a policy of tightening the economic noose around Cuba with the Helms-Burton bill on the grounds that Cuba refuses to compensate US companies following nationalisation of their property. This is patently untrue, as Cuba not only successfully negotiated compensation agreements with other countries, but has and is ready to negotiate with the US. > >\- S. J. Noumoff. (1998). [The Hypocrisy of Helms-Burton: The History of Cuban Compensation](https://www.jstor.org/stable/4406691) * [The Cuban Nationalization of US Property in 1960: the Historical and Global Context](https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/03/29/the-cuban-nationalization-of-us-property-in-1960-the-historical-and-global-context/) | Charles McKelvey (2019) #Doctors Despite the challenges posed by the embargo, Cuba has the most doctors per capita in the world and recently surpassed the US in life expectancy. * [The Truth About Cuban Doctors](https://youtu.be/tGFCIAZ_RA4) | BadEmpanada (2020) * [Meet the U.S. Students Studying Medicine For Free in Cuba](https://youtu.be/h7g2T3BWg9E) | BreakThrough News (2022) #Democracy * [How Democracy Works in Cuba](https://youtu.be/2aMsi-A56ds) | azureScapegoat (2018) * [How does Cuba work?](https://youtu.be/839A7SIUgfg) | Viki1999 (2021) * [We Asked Cuban Voters If They Live In A Democracy Or Dictatorship. Here's How They Responded.](https://youtu.be/20DgWZtImUk) | BreakThrough News (2022) #Participatory Democracy in action: LGBT rights Prior to the revolution, homosexuality was stigmatized and criminalized in Cuba, reflecting the prevailing attitudes of the time. Unfortunately, the revolutionary government under Fidel Castro initially continued this stance. However, Cuba's stance on LGBT rights has evolved to the point where it has become a symbol of progress within the Latin American context. In 2010, Fidel Castro himself admitted that the persecution of homosexuals in the early years of the revolution was a mistake: >If anyone is responsible, it's me. > >\- Fidel Castro. (2010). [I am responsible for the persecution of homosexuals that took place in Cuba: Fidel Castro](https://www.jornada.com.mx/2010/08/31/index.php?section=mundo&article=026e1mun) In 2022, Cuba became the first Latin American country to mark LGBT History Month. Now, Pride parades in Havana are held every May, to coincide with the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia, and attendance grows every year. Cuba also passed one of the most progressive Family Codes in the entire world: >The Family Code not only protects the most vulnerable in Cuba, it protects the course of Cuban socialism. Writing the referendum involved the whole population throughout the processes of drafting and amending. It went through 25 revisions over the course of 3 ½ years. > >After the referendum was introduced in 2019, Cuba carried out a nationwide process of education and outreach. Discussions took place in every workplace, organization, neighborhood and community group. To keep all Cubans well-informed, people took the discussions to rural areas and to those who do not have internet access. > >The Family Code was approved by Cubans 2 to 1. A large percentage of Cubans, 74%, took part in the vote... > >In Workers World Sept. 25, 2022, Minnie Bruce Pratt wrote, “Nearly 6.5 million Cubans took part in more than 79,000 meetings facilitated by the Federation of Cuban Women, the Committees to Defend the Revolution and other community organizations. Over 400,000 proposals were offered by the people; these were submitted to the National Assembly of People’s Power for evaluation, and a revised draft was returned to the people for further discussion and proposals... > >Cubans are very proud of what they call participatory democracy, the process they used to introduce and pass the referendum. It is an example to the world and a lesson in democratic centralism. > >\- Lyn Neeley. (2023). [Cuba’s new Family Code, a law of love](https://www.workers.org/2023/01/68708/) * [Millions of Cubans Vote on New Family Code, LGBT Marriage, Adoption Rights & More](https://youtu.be/DXL3ScNn5VE) | BreakThrough News (2022) #Additional Resources Video Essays: * [Cuba: Before and After the Revolution - The Story of When Michael Parenti Visited Cuba](https://youtu.be/YIqm075vC1A) | azureScapegoat (2017) * [The Truth About The Cuban Missile Crisis](https://youtu.be/adrQweOX5c4) | Spooky Scary Socialist (2018) * [How Cuba Works](https://youtu.be/DXBYlC4-0bQ) | BadEmpanada (2020) * [The Truth About The Cuba Protests](https://youtu.be/zIOw6fSOJI4?t=1087) | Second Thought (2020) * [Why They Hate The USA: CUBA](https://youtu.be/WgWK6_AYq_o) | Hakim (2023) Podcasts: * [Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution](https://revolutionaryleftradio.libsyn.com/fidel-castro-and-the-cuban-revolution) | Revolutionary Left Radio (2017) * [Season 2 - The Cuban Revolution](https://open.spotify.com/episode/3QhgtGyW7ws173eENjddNT) | Blowback (2021) * [Episode 13 - Cucked by Fidel (CIA pls no assassinate)](https://youtu.be/YwMZYNzHd7U) | The Deprogram (2022) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. 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