This might be controversial but i’d trust an ultra who had done work irl and done their reading than someone who is ideologically correct but most of their activism is just reading posts and arguing other people online. Like, at least those people, with the proper guidance, and their own experience will come to the right conclusion eventually or make way for a new generation of comrades more equipped to deal with the current situation after their failures become apparent.
I was an online activists too for a couple of years when i was teenager and my ideological development stuck for the longest time until I join an org and went from anarchist to marxist leninist in just a few months. And I was literally in a trot org back then!
It’s just, the material conditions im in is pretty bad and my country’s decades long history of exterminating leftist sympathizers made it hard to find other comrades yknow. I have some, but we have to work overtime just to keep up and we couldnt be that choosy of who we’re working with sometimes. We cant just pick a readymade marxist who already agreed with all of our basic tenets, we have to do the work on educating them and that means talking to them one on one or in a group setting for months just to completely clean off the red scare and internalized racism. I had to sacrifice a lot of time and energy, and being targeted by hate groups when there’s not many ppl who could help you is scary.
So sometimes I look at some posters and news online on twitter, and instagram, and see these so called indonesian communists who labeled themselves a comrade but spent almost everyday online doing leftist infighting more than praxis, posting completely irrelevant memes or even make agitprop not for our own heavily propagandized country but for the western left. Shit like that makes me want to kill with hammers! I would bet theyre not a part of any org because no one I know (irl and online) whose already a part of an org can dedicate that much time for online frivolities. No left tendency is exempt from this, even if youre an ML. The cause is a combination of slacktivism coupled with a terminal case of social media turning you to a USian and a sprinkle of sectarianism. This isn’t a team sports or a chance to own people you dork! aren’t you a communist because you want better things for humanity? to help people? Then where are you if youre not in the streets?
Online doesn’t have to be a wasteland, in person should be the priority, but there are many people for one reason or another who cannot participate in person. Finding methods to help the cause comes in all forms, like I said to another reply here, learn to make agitprop, write, create, research, work on things like the wiki, help local orgs build social media presence, etc.
Most of us are unwilling participants at best and outright victims at worse to this system, many are working extensive hours for low wages with minimal benefits, exasperating situations that suffocate us. Helping people find ways to get involved within their material situations is going to be more productive than scolding people for surviving in the best way they can. Teach, don’t punish, guide, don’t scold.
We need to empower each other, to find the best methods for each other’s participation in this struggle.
Is that something you’d be interested in? Maybe we can work in this small, fairly cozy community to help people find their “calling” in the socialist struggle? This shit can be daunting and scary, even to life long leftists.
