What topics have you taken a 180° turn on?

Hmm for me a pretty recent 180 i took was on Deng Xiaoping. I was a commie but I really wasn't super educated on the state of AES(even though i am part of the chinese diaspora) and was always under the impression that it was capitalism. That deng xiaoping turned china capitalist. Probably not really as big of an 180 as some other people here but really learning about china was really inspiring and restored my hope in the world ig. I feel way more patriotic towards china right than amerikkka.

Thinking of possibly doing my master's in china after my undergrad.

The European Union. I used to think it was a somewhat flawed but reformable stepping stone to a more just and strong European (liberal) democracy. After becoming a Marxist it seems obvious now it is a neoliberal power structure with some pro's for the common people (Schengen Area), but so many more ways for the ruling class to get their way (that same Schengen Area facilitating cheap labor and trade).

While a socialist pan-European organization would be amazing, it is laughable to think the EU is just slightly flawed or even reformable into this. Like parliamentary politics itself, the EU has some limited uses as a platform to us socialists and anti imperialists (Clare Daly, Mick Wallace), but limited they truly are due to its inherent neoliberal nature. State and Revolution was a great book that really put me into the ML view on Marxism, and taught me that existing power structures like the EU can not be reformed to serve the working class.

I used to be a heavy meat eater who said that 'I could never abandon meat'. Until I actually tried abandoning meat and I haven't gone back since. It's easy, cheap, healthy and I learned to cook many different things now.

The idea that the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were a horrific but sadly necessary evil to end the war. Endless propaganda got to me and I never put to much thought into it.

I learned the history and found out that it was all a lie. Japan was ready to surrender, they were finished, the attack was senseless evil power projection.

I respect all sex workers But the economy of sex work is something I've had a complete 180 on. It's not an industry that should be enabled under the current capitalist parameters.

I'm new to learning about a loooot of stuff. I used to support Ukraine's side at the beginning of the war

Fucking everything lately. I understand now most of the people we call leftists online are historically-illiterate historical extremists speedrunning the 2nd International in the midst of a golden opportunity to live new history lol

That the Holocaust was an aberration. If anything it was a continuation of what came before.

Maybe this has long been clear to some of you but it's been interesting for me coming to this conclusion. I went to school in Canada, where we of course learned about the settlement and colonization of Canada, but in a "oh this was bad but it was a long time ago and for the most part the white people didn't know any better." It was also always the British or French colonists doing these horrible things, once Canada requested independence a few unimportant treaties may have been broken but all in all everything's fine now. Well except for residential schools, but that was an honest mistake. And except for unbelievably awful living conditions on native reserves, that's their own fault. So goes the state written and approved school curriculum, of course they can't admit to their generations long history of crimes.

Of course the colonists and later the US and Canadian governments knew exactly what they were doing. They killed about a hundred million people on purpose.

Around the same time during high school I took a course that focused on the Holocaust, with material written by a Zionist NGO, basically placing the Holocaust as the pinnacle of crime against humanity to which nothing can compare.

And that's all while ignoring colonial atrocities in the global south, as I've only really started learning about those as a part of my journey into ML.

I don't leave my house anymore ever since cops tried sneaking me with weapons drawn for going for a jog in the springtime. That day, I went from "reform the police" to "fuck the police, I'll shoot back."

AI. even as a communist, i thought that we could just make minor progress in AI research and then overthrow capitalism and have socialist AI which will be awesome. but after seeing the internet polluted with AI-created drivel (that "internet is mostly bots" theory might be true in all honesty...the capitalists would absolutely do something like that to make the internet look more populated because a lot of industries now rely on the internet) and ben shapiro using AI generated fake images to fuel hate against palestine, i want to see AI completely gone. i despise it. if i had the choice to destroy AI and LLMs and all that shit, i would. and i say this as someone in a field that is currently seeing some fledgling AI implementation.

Honestly I'm not really sure. Most of my "stances" before I became a communist were uninformed because like every other person living in Amerikkka, we're indoctrinated to believe the lies of the empire.

As a kid up till I got into college I was mostly apolitical (as much as a Black person can be) aside from thinking Bush Jr was a fucking idiot and that Amerikkka shouldn't be acting like the world's policeman and telling others what to do. When Obama became president I (like other uninformed Black folks) celebrated cause we finally had someone that looked like us in the White House so no more racism (lmao)!

Wasn't until the BLM protests that started in 2014 (ironically during the Obama administration) that I became woke (the REAL, OG woke) and realized that this country was not built for people who look like me. Also around that time I was on my own in the world of capitalist Amerikkka and the struggles I went through made me question why things like food, housing and education can't be free.

It wasn't until 2016 that I actually became active on social media during Bernie's campaign, and I was hooked by the idea of free education and a higher minimum wage, etc. When he got fucked by the Democratic Party I was so pissed, I voted Green Party that year cause I really believed in Jill Stein (the only fucking party that had reparations as a part of their platform) and ended up rubbing shoulders with actual communists (they called themselves "watermelons", green on the outside but red on the inside). This was when I discovered leftbook...I could write an entire post about my experience with leftbook...ugh.

That aside, I was a anarcho-communist cause I thought anarchism was cool but after learning more about the Black Panthers I dropped the anarcho and just became an ML and pretty much never looked back.

Any positive opinion of USA if I even had one before.

There have been a couple of times my worldview has collapsed, and I took better/more accurate positions afterward.

1. That I was male, with a considerable amount of low-key sexism and not-so-low-key queerphobia thrown in. That was a hell of a shakeup, and probably responsible for the spark that started the rest.
2. I was raised an evangelical bible thumper and oooohhh boy, does that carry some hefty baggage—ranging from Isreal being -THE- holy land, Evolution is a lie, and those godless, evil queer commies have it coming. So much cringe. Karma is not without a sense of humor.
3. Was a right-wing Libertarian, very interested in military theory, military history, and was offered full scholarships to military colleges type. Was, unfortunately, definitely on the proto-fascist track politically. Although it did result in reading my first book on any kind of communist thinking in the form of SOVIET MILITARY STRATEGY by Vasiliĭ Sokolovskiĭ.
4. The Hollywood, mainstream Western storytelling methods are the best/key/correct/fundamentals of the craft. This happened around the time I started becoming a communist. With all the liberal assumptions modern storytelling makes/requires, I had to re-evaluate and relearn my career craft completely. This is the only one I openly talk about because it can be presented as a safe topic in all circles, isn't as cringe to admit to, and ML Narrative Theory is unfortunately not touched on that much—especially here in the West. And I believe it's one of our great weaknesses because we have little to challenge the subtle and constant torrent Hollywood and mainstream entertainment douses us with. This is a shame because storytelling is humanity's evolved mechanism for sharing our experiences navigating life—we should have this tool in our toolbox. Maybe I should post some lecture/essay posts on narrative theory, how it relates and connects to ML theories, and how it breaks away from Hollywood's simplistic formulas...

I was a teenage anarchist. You can imagine I’ve changed my mind on a lot of things 😂

gommunism

I used to think that all ideas, even potentially harmful ones, should be free to spread so they could be defeated in the "marketplace of ideas."

I once argued against Makan in favor of PCUSA. Now that I know they’re open patsocs with no understanding of Marxist philosophy I bash them any chance I get.

Another thing is that I used to say I hated coconut but now like it a lot.

Theres a lot more that I can’t think of.

well...

-after reading marx, communism doesn't sound "utopic"

-commerce =/= capitalism

-and more

Anti-China and Doomerism. From around 2014-2019, I was a Maoist and I thought socialism was never to come back after the fall of the Soviet Union; and if it was, it was going to be too late. Thankfully, it was around that time that I noticed that China was doing a lot of really based stuff, including but not limited to its efforts in reforestation and installation of renewable energy. I gradually came to support China, I realised it has a grand plan for the future with which came to be on board and whose milestones it is meeting or exceeding, and with China's unstoppable rise my hopes for the world returned; we just might not be as fucked as I thought before. I don't know how I had been able to pull my brain through the war coverage of Donbass and Palestine had I kept worrying about China instead of finding solace in it.

Also, around the same time I went from criticising someone for watching anime to joining an anime club, and from failing analysis 2 to tutoring it

Russia being the bad one in the war with Ukraine. I used to tell my mother, that one can totally be against both Russia and the US, and I just didn't get how she could talk abt them defending themselves from Nato and so on.

And then I became a dirty lil Commie.

Also the term "Tankie". I rly thought (due to influencers like NFKRZ) that tankies were stupid ppl who didn't understand history or so... AND THEN I BECAME A TANKIE - Proudly so.

I know a lot of sex workers and the "abusive pimps" narrative doesn't ring true to me. They're doing it coz it beats driving Uber.

I was pretty pro-military and US foreign policy until I actually joined for myself. Now that I'm leaning more Marxist, I realize how fucking crazy our leadership is and how desructive we are, all the while telling people that the other guy deserved it.

Veganism.

I used to be a "vegans are so hypocritical they don't care about plant feelings" kind of guy. Thankfully, through lots of life experiences and self-criticism I turned around and am now a volunteer in the local animal rights activists group.

almost everything I had an opinion about before I learned about and began to understand systems and the interconectedness of the world an how it developed through historical materialism

I was wrong as shit and an asshole about everything until someone finally taught me

This is all very embarrassing. Please don't read.

I grew up in a home that had Rush Limbaugh blasting every day from 12-3 in the 90s. My parents would record onto the longest cassette tapes they could find, and it would be my job to turn the tape over if I was home. I would get called (before cell phones) to be reminded to do this task.

That definitely colored my worldview. When I went to college in the earth 00s, I would sometimes get homesick and listen to a little bit of the program. Brain worms.

I jumped onto podcasting very early, listening to all of the early programs. I drifted over to Free Talk Live and would download their podcast episodes daily. I listened to Adam Curry's "Daily Source Code", and then followed him over to his current show "No Agenda" and listened to that religiously.

I read a lot of Atlas Shrugged on my honeymoon.

Over time I extricated myself from No Agenda and FTL. I'm old (42) so it's hard to remember when a lot of the changes happened.

Moved eventually over to CTH, trueanon.

I went vegan in 2016. This kind of helped me along, seeing the good in people, animals, everyone. I'm still a baby communist living a bougie suburban life.

What @Kirbywithwhip1987@lemmygrad.ml said

Stalin bad, USSR bad.

when i was like fuckin 11 or something i used to disagree with abortions because i didnt grasp the reasons people had them done. now im wiser and dont give a shit what other people do with their bodies because ITS NOT MY FUCKING BUSINESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It seems sort of weird to say, but almost everything but also nothing at the same time? A lot of my reactionary/liberal opinions were just regurgitations of points I had picked up from family/friends/school/media/etc and hadn't really thought through and didn't hold nearly as strongly as the positions I have now, so much so that I hesitate to even call them opinions (except for a few things like queer rights, since I was aware of my queerness relatively young, though my thinking on the topic has certainly evolved). Once I started becoming actually politcally conscious, I gradually started to realize all this and began slowly unlearning pretty much everything I had been taught and passively absorbed about socialist states, much of history (US history especially), how American politics actually function, etc. It's honestly a little embarassing how flimsy the foundation was for a lot of my liberal/reactionary beliefs. That all being said, this process started shortly after I started to transition, an experience that shattered a lot of illusions I had been sold about capitalism and liberalism. Seeing my rights on the chopping block with the 2016 election, and then seeing the liberal response be the pussy hat march and then... just about fuck all else, made realize socialists and communists were the only ones who actually gave enough of a shit to do something. Once I realized who my real allies were, everything else followed after that.

I became an atheist and hardcore antitheist when I was somewhere in the range of 10-12 years old. I blamed religion for all of the world's suffering. I'm still an atheist, but I've relaxed on the outright antitheism after becoming a Marxist in my mid 20s.

I still think the ideal human society would be free of religion, but I no longer think it's something that can or should be changed through brute force.

I remember reading a quote recently regarding materialism and religion. Something along the lines of "the existence of God is the material reality in x country." If someone knows what I'm talking about, please link it

Permanently Deleted

My internalized primitive thinking that current society is the best way to organize society and that there are no alternatives.

Beliefs about Quebec and Ukraine. Very different concepts I know but hear me out. As someone born and raised in the worst province which is also the rival of Quebec I had some weird beliefs. I wouldn’t say they were extreme or anything but I was incredibly misinformed about their history and the separatist movement. While I am certainly no expert on Quebec, comrades here and elsewhere have helped educate me and changed my uninformed view. Now I honestly believe its one of the better provinces.

When it comes to Ukraine, I definitely didn’t have a full picture about what was happening and I wasn’t super extreme on it anyway so I was better off than some. I like to give myself a bit of credit due to me being sceptical of the wave of support for Ukraine compared to what other countries get (like Syria and Palestine). When the war first started I was hella confused as I had no idea about the conflicts before so it seemed very unprovoked. My dislike of Putin (his queer phobia is a big one for me) didn’t help but I wouldn’t say it clouded my judgement either; for example when people on twitter were accusing him of being a pedophile I was quick to refute that (in my head as I refuse to engage with weirdos on twitter). I wouldn’t say I supported Ukraine, as I was against sending military equipment and funding from the beginning, but I wasn’t as educated on the matter as I am now. Seeing footage of Zelenskyy in gear “on the field” vs Putin in office made me sort of root for Ukraine but not really; again, I was heavily against sending money and equipment. I’m having a hard time explaining my perspective on the issue but it was different as to how I feel now. My “support” didn’t last long at all as I was resentful fairly early and exposed to why this proxy war happened in the first place. The amount of photo ops (like the VOGUE magazine fiasco) and money being spent in the wrong places got me to open my eyes and look further into the issue. I honestly believe this war was one of the reasons why I discovered and joined Lemmygrad (I wanted to see how GenZdong felt about the war and long story short I finally joined the Grad because Reddit was not it).

Economic policy. I used to be pro austerity. 🤦

Trans people. I used to just sort of humor them since i will dress like a girl for fun sometimes. When i saw my friend freak out and have a nervous breakdown because she realized she had forgot to shave and was seen, it really helped me understand that it was for real and not just pretend.