Why People 'Leave' The Left

People will often claim they left the left because they 'grew up' or began to look at the world rationally, but this is of course always an excuse to hide an underlying actual reason they left that would be more embarrassing to admit. This video seeks to explore the real reasons as to why people 'leave the left'.

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[thenightwatchman]

i left marxism when i realized it was primarily the stomping ground for crusty rainbow haired fat soy faced pussies who haven't worked a hard day in their life and expect daddy government to wipe their ass for them. you want to reclaim the value of your labor. learn the skill and become self-employed. the vanguard party only sees you as property. long live max weber who rightfully called out marx on his bullshit.

[Sqidaedir]

A friend of mine had said it best: "Those who say I left the left, were never left, they were tourists"

[ToruKun]

"Socialism is when capitalism with universal healthcare and public transit."
"Socialism is when I can be a homesteader and everyone else can fuck off."
"Socialism is when I can kill all my political enemies and burn down cities."
"Socialism is when I don't have to work and can just play bimeo bames all day."
Listing all those misconceptions so concisely was fire 🔥🔥🔥🔥

[daemonsultan]

All too often in my experience, especially with people who are 40-60 years old who claim that they read Marx but “outgrew it” is that they simply read the Communist Manifesto, agreed with some of its points and called themselves a communist for 2 or 3 months, then learned the “human nature” argument or some derivative and declared it utopian and the like. This is frightfully common, and realistically probably why the Manifesto is on many reading lists for schools

[Marxism_Today]

Ayooo first vid of yours that I've seen - excellent work! Keep it up

[a.s.]

The saying probably comes from the time of the peak of social democracy when socialist-minded youth grew complacent because of the good salaries and public services

[forever-and-a-day]

You can't loose class consciousness - you can only have never had it in the fist place.

[LostFutures]

Great video <3
As a Arab I've noticed that anti-communism extends to the Arab world (an an extent) as well and I had to break out of that mould the stories my dad told me.

[Solaris_Paradox]

Breadtube is not an organization, it's a hashtag.

[ireneechavarria]

Your channel is genuinely one of my favorite leftist treasures ❤thank you comrade ✊🏽

[BotkillaK]

Good video. I think you hit a bunch of the major beats for why people ultimately are disillusioned with leftism. I think there's a major one you missed (or maybe it's related to the "socialism is when" trope you mentioned in your video. There's def an argument to be made either way here):

People who call themselves socialists in the Global North (usually the "West") are often unable or unwilling to abandon Western Chauvinism. They see all the horrible shit the West (tm) has done in the name of bringing civilization to the rest of the world and instead of thinking "The entire idea of a civilizing mission is dumb, who are we to unilaterally take authority over the rest of the world?" they respond to that with "The people doing the civilizing are morally corrupt, but the west can and should bring our values to the world." In their mind if the west "used its powers for good" they would be ok with meddling with the rest of the world.

That sort of thinking IMO makes one more susceptible to to liberal narratives about foreign policy & the world. When people who think like that realize that a core aspect of socialism's egalitarian mission is rejecting that sort of civilizing mission, many respond by moving right at least internally even if they won't outwardly admit it.

Sorry for the essay, but this is the best way I could think of to explain a trend I've noticed in the online left since Biden got elected in the USA.

[VivaCubaRoja]

Great video, comrade. I agree with all of the points that you made and I’d humbly like to add a few other reasons, some of which may overlap with some of the reasons that you already stated. Many may leave feeling overwhelmed, especially when living in the imperial core. The odds seem insurmountable and futile. However, to that I would say that the same was the case for those who fought against feudalism, the “divine rights of kings”, the infallibility of this or that church, slavery, colonialism, etc. During the times that all of these systems were in power(some of which still do exist to an extent) it can seem truly impossible to even imagine these changes, let alone fighting to achieve it. And yet, feudalism no longer exists, at least in most places, or as it did. Religious organizations are still wealthy and powerful but are now often forced to beg for believers. No more inquisitions or witch burnings. Slavery is now illegal, and while it still exists on the black market, it’s far better than it once was. My point being that all of these once previously permanent and eternal systems have been defeated or are on the back foot. Unfortunately many who fought for these changes didn’t live to see them just as many of us who now fight for socialism may not live to experience it ourselves but, hopefully our children, grandchildren, etc. might. Some other reasons I see people leaving or at least disengaging with the Left actively is a combination of how splintered the left(at least the Western Left) has become. A dozen small parties, who are all the vanguard of the working class, who are often separated from the working class, and who are often spending more time explaining why the other vanguards are revisionist or wrong about this and that and are therefore enemies. If a person is new to the left, it can require a lot of study and effort just to learn who’s who and why they seem to argue for similar positions yet, hate each other. Finally, tied in with that is “gate keeping” If a working class person works 50 hours a week and then starts trying to look into activism and some Twitter Lenin reborn tells them that their question is stupid or their idea is wrong or they should be reading some theory from the 1880s, it’s not particularly inviting. Building class consciousness, organizing, educating, and agitating takes time and patience. So I would encourage all of us(myself included) to be more comradely and patient with one another(when people are genuine) and waste less time trying to win an argument with online trolls, who are just there to waste time, talk shit, or are the occasional government plant.

[basedcomrade]

The people who are in it for material interests are just normal people. We can't be idealists; material conditions generate ideas, and workers that seek to better their standing by making their class the ruling class are inevitable.

[McHobotheBobo]

The truest comrades are unbreakable, unremitting, uncorruptable, and relentless!

[ItsOgre]

I think the last one is the vast majority I’ve encountered. This system will tend to force you into the correct channels towards compliance with it. It has many carrots and sticks to force people into obedience. Maybe it’s just a first world thing but I feel people often are hard wired towards the path of least resistance or worn out from work. Which is why it seems politics for many people often involve just voting and posting. Also there are zero financial or any other incentives for being on the left, actually correction, likely negative incentives. Being left is often tiresome, often depressing, especially if you live in an imperial core country where the largest left type of party that competes for power is more often some milquetoast neo liberal lite party, who often govern as right wing as any other just openly neoliberal party. Next to zero networks of support and mutual aid for party members, you’re basically on your own, with your ideas that will often run hard counter to the hegemonic system and it’s media and cultural manifestations. It’s almost no wonder people often give up when they get older and have to support themselves. If they make post hoc justifications that their ideas were wrong, it’s likely just a coping mechanism.

[mr.alphard]

Capitalism makes everything a product. It is such a contradictory system that it attempts to make even anti-capitalist ideas a fetish as well. The people who say they were a leftist but outgrew the left are people that had an attraction to the fetishized version of socialism produced by capitalism. I mean, using USA as an example, most of USA would consider Democrats to be "left". That's how bad people in general understand these conceps in-depth.

Real socialism cannot be outgrown, because it is a revolutionary concept. Understanding socialism, for starters, is the very thing that gives hope to so many people. Capitalism is not natural, it is not maintained naturally, and it is not the natural direction humanity would gravitate towards if left unchecked. Realizing this is by itself a huge step towards anti-nihilism: if you understand a problem, you can think a solution, therefore you have REASON to be optimistic. It is not about feeling optimistic. People feel optimistic about capitalism, because despite knowing the capitalist world is fucked up (everyone intrinsically knows this, even if they are heavily caught in ideology) people still want to build a life and have kids. So they shut their eyes to the world's problems, tell themselves there is a big chance everything is going to be okay, because after all no one wants to bring a kid into a fucked up world. That's how capitalism makes you FEEL optimistic. Socialism, on the other hand, gives you a REASON to be optimistic. You might not feel optimistic being a socialist, but it is not the same as being apathetic towards the world.

Now, I personally do not view this whole topic as a problem, in a strict sense. As in, for me, people that say they were left, but outgrew it, aren't necessarily a bad sign. You might take it as proof that anti-socialist propaganda works, but I, as an optimistic, take it another way: it shows many people genuinely want a better world, even if intelectually speaking they cannot imagine that. It shows many people are not completely caught in the capitalist web of ideology and lies. It shows many people becomes fascist pigs and support all kinds of atrocities not because humanity is inherently evil, but because the system is.

Now, I think the key for socialists to bring back strong worker organizations in USA, and in any country really, is to understand this "feeling of optimism" people have towards life, and find ways to direct it and use it as base for intelectual development. Easier said than done, but it is a topic we could discuss about.

[Jane-ozpp]

Ah, we hitting Vaush from the start lmao

[georgekostaras]

People on the left don’t leave. Grifters leave the left

[aliasalone]

Found you through a comrade in CPUSA, Love the video!

[sentientnatalie]

I am a communist because I am selfish, I do want a better life, but it's not as if I'm discounting the fact that so many other people share material conditions similar to mine, or are even worse off. I think that you cannot blame anyone for being selfish (material conditions mostly dictate our actions, after all) unless their being selfish at the expense of their fellows. I consider that I am selfish for my class: the proletariat. No serious communist has ever done what they did without considering that revolution would not happen in their lifetime, so it is not even for us that we end up carrying on class and social liberation struggles, but for those who follow us. I just wish I had more energy, damnit!

I hope that you will not take my use of "selfish" the wrong way lol, and ofc, I'd hope that my comrades would keep me on the correct path if I were to stray.