askchapo

Asking Hexbears how to go outside

Stewardship volunteering. Anyone motivated enough to care for their local environment is on some level an eco-Marxist. They may not know it yet, they may not know any of the terminology to describe or interrogate it, but on some naive level they understand the fundamentals of society are built on something at that thing's expense and to the detriment of society. You can easily correct them out of that by asking pointed questions that make them think about things they have been told to not think about.

If you volunteer with your local parks department, at least here everyone you'd be interacting with that day is some kind of socialist. If you go with an environmentalist org it's much more open and a more holistic critique. In both cases you're protecting the Real Thing that enables your community to exist on top of it. The more you describe the importance of the Real Thing and subservience of society on top of it, the more it clicks with those people who share the same lived experience and anxieties.

You might not even meet socialists, but you'll at least meet the only good liberals around you and the right-wingers who are too stupid to realise they aren't right-wingers. And you'll do good work with them that benefits you.

Just join your local Maoist Militia

I wouldn't necessarily recommend it to people in general, but you may be surprised by how far left some people in DSA are. I'm in sort of a similar area where I'm too far from my nearest major city (Atlanta) to make it to events regularly, but still want to be involved. While I was in DSA, there were plenty of people active in the Slack server, ranging from socdems to incredibly well-read MLs. Even if you can't make it to a protest or something, they usually still have social events too that come with more advance notice.

I also wouldn't shy away from being friends with "normal" people. The whole project of the left requires getting those people on our side, and a lot of them are most likely not going to come to the correct conclusions on their own without someone to help them along

That's a good question. I moved out of the sticks recently from a place with no official population to a place with north of 200k. I'm on the outskirts a bit, also. Just far enough to make a trip anywhere for anything a 45 minute affair at minimum.

Id love to have some based friends. Fuck, id just like to have some friends period. Everyone around here is just maga clowns. I'm even considering changing how i dress and shaving my beard. Maybe looking less right leaning would help- a long beard, overalls, boots and shirt w the sleeves cut off attract a certain crowd, almost like a right wing bat-signal or some shit.

If you organize you will usually make friends along the way. Not with everyone, of course, but it is eaay to pick up a few if you are nice and invite people to do things.

There are many activities that attract left people. For example, you might have a local mask bloc and COVID cautious people. This will be made up of people who care about COVID, i.e. have not bought into liberal normalization, which will include people more impacted by it like people with disabilities or just people who are consistent in their understanding and empathy. You'll be sure to find some anarchists, DemSocs, and commies in there along with some liberals that are close to radicalization. Food not bombs, Palestine protests, anything anti-imperialist, movie nights with lefty movies, (sometimes) union events, teach-ins. Sometimes you can find these things online. Sometimes they'll be on library bulletin boards or pasted on telephone poles.

You might also look for people tabling near suburban loci like grocery stores. Even though suburbanites are spread out they tend to all go to the few commercial outfits nearby, especially grocery stores.

You don't.

I'm a suburbanite Leftist. I might as well move to a deserted island.

Get involved with local IRL leftist groups. There are some in every city. Find people who are doing work you find admirable and are interested in, and get involved with it. Maybe you're helping the local homeless population in some way. Maybe you're helping trans folks get access to HRT or other transition things. Maybe you're training immigrants on their rights in regards to ICE. Get involved in community or guerilla gardening. Help leftists candidates run for office. Participate and organized protests. IDK what the Hell you want to do. But there are so many possibilities. I guarantee you that there are needs in your own community that you can contribute to solving. You may not be able to change the whole world, but you can make a difference in your own world. Find what interests you, where your passions lie, and find others doing the same. Yeah, if you're in suburbia, you'll probably have to drive to meetings to participate. But you live in suburbia, driving is a given.

find your local maoist cadre. if there isn't one, form it

Try Grindr? Truly the best social media. I'm not even joking, I've been able to make genuine friends and hang out with cool people randomly. Location grid social media ftw

i can’t tell you where to meet based people but i can tell you where to meet the worst people ever (they’re all around you)

i hate living here

You have to make based friends.

I grappled with this problem for years, and ultimately the only real solution was to move to a city.

Is there any kind of art/music scene where you're at? I've found those sorts of circles to contain a much higher rate of based people, and they are also typically more accepting of us with weird demeanors. It can be hard to find though especially if you're in a smaller suburb. Maybe there's a pub/cafe that does events that has based people? Like there's a vegan pub here that has Palestine flags n such and the people there are usually cool and social, if that's your thing.

Not sure what it's like where you are but I'm lucky to be in an area now where people are social, other places they seemed more introverted overall and as someone that never really reaches out socially it was a lot tougher to make friends.