I used to be a Marxist. Not of the Leninist/Trotskyist/Stalinist/Maoist variety, but a Marxist nonetheless. I was introduced to Marx and Engels back in the 7th grade and for many years I read them avidly and even wrote some political tracts with a comrade back in high school. However, over time I gradually came to disagree with a lot of what Marx said and had to just kind of vaguely refer to myself as a revolutionary socialist for a while. I continued to agree with Marx's fundamental economic theories, but his authoritarian political stance I found completely incompatible with socialism since it will eventually lead to a form of capitalism in which everything is just owned by the state, as the Soviet Union showed us. It took me a while to realize that there were many other people with exactly the same objections to Marxism, namely the anarchist communists. It was such a delight for me to discover such great writers as Emma Goldman, Peter Kropotkin and Alexander Berkman, who so eloquently expressed what I had thought for years: that mankind needs to do everything it can to liberate itself from the oppressive chains of capitalism, state and religion if it is ever to achieve anything like peace or equality.
Oneironaut Reviewed by Oneironaut on . What did your politics used to be? We have a lot of articles here, so I thought this thread might be an interesting twist. What were your politics a while ago (for the older crowd)? How have the changed? Are you more liberal/conservative/neither? I'll be interesting to hear from the more vocal people/the regulars here who seem to be very opinionated! This is for pisshead, amsterdam, toroq (if he's still here) and everyone else... I'm pretty young and have only been politically active for 4 or 5 years, but I have gotten less Rating: 5