Why I became a Communist (and why you should too)

► Sources for further reading in the pinned comment down below!

► Timestamps:
0:00 Introduction
2:35 Reason #1
5:55 Reason #2
9:23 Reason #3
14:03 Reason #4
20:00 Reason #5
21:55 Reason #6
25:29 Reason #7

[BalkanOdyssey_]

Sources for further reading and watching:

*Marxist theory - for beginners to read*

Friedrich Engels - Socialism, utopian & scientific (96 pages)
Friedrich Engels - The principles of communism (40 pages)
Albert Einstein - Why socialism? (Short article)
Karl Marx - Wage labour and capital (70 pages)
Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx - The communist manifesto (42 pages)
Vladimir Lenin - State and revolution (105 pages)
Friedrich Engels - Origin of the family, private property and the state (240 pages)


*Marxist theory - for beginners to watch*



**About Marxism - for beginners to watch*



*Why capitalism sucks - for beginners to read*

Albert Einstein - Why socialism? (Short article)
Karl Marx - Wage labour and capital (70 pages)
Karl Marx - Value, price and profit (64 pages)
Karl Marx - Das Kapital, Volume 1 (1152 pages)
David Harvey - Seventeen contradictions and the end of capitalism (352 pages)
John Smith - Imperialism in the 21st century (382 pages)
Zak Cope - The wealth of (some) nations (260 pages)


*Why capitalism sucks - for beginners to watch*



*Beyond capitalism - reading recommendations*

Mark Fisher - Capitalist realism (81)
Peter Cockshott - Towards a new socialism (240)
Aaron Bastani - Fully automated luxury communism (208 pages)
Peter Frase - Four futures: Life after capitalism (160 pages)
Leigh Phillips & Michal Rozworski - People’s Republic of Walmart (160 pages)


*Fear of communism - reading recommendations*

Rosa Luxemburg - Social Reform or Revolution? (112 pages)
Michael Parenti - Blackshirts and Reds (165 pages)
William Blum - Killing hope: US military & CIA interventians since WW2 (391 pages)
The Triumph of Evil: The Reality of the Usa's Cold War Victory (372 pages)
US Provides Military Assistance to 73 Percent of World’s Dictatorships (Article)


Fear of communism - watching recommendations*



*Socialist successes - reading recommendations*

Capitalism, socialism, and the physical quality of life (Scientific study)
Michael Parenti - Blackshirts and reds (165 pages)
Kristen R. Ghodsee - Why women have better sex under socialism (183 pages)
Pat Sloan - Soviet Democracy (305 pages)
Beatrice Webb - Soviet communism: a new civilisation? (552 pages)
Albert Szymanski - Human rights in the Soviet Union (352 pages)
Terry Martin - The affirmative action empire (496 pages)


*Socialist successes - watching recommendations*



*Anti-communism debunked - watching recommendations*



*Capitalist hypocrisy - watching recommendations*

[davewolf]

I grew up religious, capitalist, right wing. I volunteered my life, fighting terrorism. Fast forward a number of years, and I worked my entire life, into a hospital, and lost everything. Now I am discarded like I am worth less than nothing. If we refuse to acknowledge we are slaves, our children will be unable to ignore that fact.

[andrewanastasovski]

The weirdest part about immersive propaganda is that I feel like a crazy person for saying I'm a communist to people that actually agree with me about economics and freedom, but still somehow hold on to the belief that I'm just deficient or lazy for my impoverished circumstances. It's absurd to understand these issues, and still believe that all the people in precarious circumstances are individually at fault.

[stasacab]

I looked at the balance of my bank account and became a Communist. I was not 1%, not national or international. I was part of global middle class. I have the view that making people poor until our early grave is a cruel and unjust punishment and cannot happen in civilized society. We do not accept child brides, child soldiers, burning of widows or other human sacrifices, why should we think poverty is any more acceptable.

[theresbob]

I'm 80 years and learned about Marxism/Socialism/Communism at my father's knee. He was an educated, well-read, depression era communist. I am admiring your knowledge and excellent explanation on the merits of socialism/communism. Well done, and "Come the revolution...".

[nanashi]

Growing up poor and seeing the aftermath of myself and my family was what did it for me, but only after a lot of self education. Then, I realized that my country has ruined the lives of countless families like my own, inside and outside of our countries. I blamed my mom as a kid, but I realized that she was one of many people who were left to rot by the people who were meant to care for all of us equally.

I became an adult, and I quickly realized that my only goal in life is to ensure that no child will ever grow up the way I did or worse. I also want to see a world where no man or animal will be treated as nothing more than a tool.

[tobekindlyunkind]

I started working at the age of 17 to help out at home and I have been through about 4 companies since 2019. I saw paychecks, how work is done, I've met CEOs, ... and I became a communist.

[Gravata_Prata]

I think we all on the path to radicalize ourselves passed through an inicial phase of curiosity: what it is about? And when you get to hear what it actually means, it becomes way easier to dig deeper into what it says and to fully become a communist.

[Akirarira]

My parents grew up in poverty while working hard, they had me very young, and every story I hear from them is a thought in "food, health and hygiene is something basic that everyone should receive, why the fuck can't people have basic rights?"
This is so basic and I think it's so selfish and ignorant that people PAY TOO MUCH to have HUMAN RIGHTS
We live in capitalism, many people in Brazil (where I live) live in extreme poverty because they are unable to have basic access to EDUCATION.
We went from 3 to almost 4 dictatorships, fascist governments, And other HORRIBLE things. I don't know why there are people who believe that late capitalism is the 'best system'

[ConTheo]

just be a decent person, you dont have to stand under an umbrella when you can embrace the rain.

[RomanticDrip]

Neoliberalism is so terrible that once you lose the capitalist realism mindset it’s pretty easy to become a communist or a socialist of any stripe. Capitalist realism is what ensnared me. The “it sucks but it’s all we got” mindset. Funnily enough it was actually the urban planning movement around 2019 that made me realize the status quo could be different, that was the lynch pin in my neoliberal capitalist realism mindset.

[tonyjoka]

I m an Eastern European who used to believe in communism until I grew up got a job learned about communist economics and realised how i"iotic what your trying to argue is. The issue with the whole video is that on the surface it offers a compelling interrogation of established oppinion on communism, but the issue is the facts are cherry picked and flaws with capitalism are never compared with their communist equivalents to create a more concise understanding of the two when putted againts each other, this in turn allows the narrator to twist much of the information presented to give a very limited and idealistic presentation of communism. So the video doesn't state anyting outright false but it is very propagandist in the way it ignores key facts to construct a narrow understanding of this issue.

[The_germanArtist]

i live in Germany, in the former east german region and i must say that we never really recovered from privitasation, trough the Treuhand, which sold of most of east german industry to west germans to laughtable prices, just that they mostly desolved their competition they brought in most cases, many lost their jobs, industry was lost and social services declined and our political wishes often get ignored for west german policy. it feels more like an annexation than an equall unification. Many Germans destinglish themself as east or west germans, especally in the east. Capitalisim took so much from us than socialisim. we had a worse accsess to most goods, wich can be acounted for the cold war and sanctions on the eastern block, but most public services were better, like healthcare, infrastructure, education and housing, aswell as nearly 0% jobblessness and better gender equallity.

[ldub]

Communist yes, Maoist or Stalinist no. I don't want dictatorship, I want freedom and the ability to live without the threat of violence from government entities and/or individuals.

[benjaminfussey]

Fun fact since the 60 the productivity of work has increase in almost every work. Yet we still work 8 hours per day. It's almost like to gain new rights we need to fight for them, and not simply work until we died D:

[Marushko]

this is a real shot in the dark considering you probably won't even see this comment, but are you the dude i met in croatia that knows many languages (polish, other slav languages); i won't say the name just in case for privacy reasons lol

[macinnesad]

When I grew up I assumed communism was the default. A game theory video on how Mario is secretly communist (an April fools joke) explained it simply as a stateless, moneyless and classless society where everyone is equal. And it just clicked with me. I am ashamed to admit though that my communist awakening so to say was because of a damn Game Theory video by MatPat

[EulaliaDaisy]

another recommendation on understanding marxism is Marxism Today's playlist on marxism. It's a great way to understand the phrases that we communists use, and understanding what we mean by "class struggle" all that jazz.

[mowi]

Thank you so much for putting recommendations so we can learn more about this, you’re the only source I know that has actually done that. I, as a complete beginner in marxism (and I think I speak for more than a few here when I say this), really appreciate it ❤️

[lukaswirmsberger]

Man I was really trying to listen to you. But you just run opinion after opinion and seriously, you're reason 6 made me choke at last. Saying things like capitalist police forces use more violence and surveillance than communist dictatorships(!) ever could is just plain stupid. Besides the fact that police forces differ from country to country (in some, normal police isn't even armed with guns) - it is just a delusional thing to say. There is a very solid reason all of Eastern Europe turned to the west and is vulnerable to right wing populism today. I live in Germany which was a divided country and todays German society consists of people that have experienced both. The remnants of the old SED (the easts ruling party which turned into todays "the left") are dying at the moment because the easterners are - facing todays problems - also turning to the right more so than the average German is.

You can't talk the horrors of things like the Holodomor away either. You say these arguments are debunked but you really need to go more indepth on that. I can go as far as saying that todays prosperity in the western world depends on the suffering in other parts of the world as well as overusing the resources the planet has to offer. But seriously, you specifically say that capitalism has caused more police (state?) violence that communist dictatorships ever could - a definition that includes the UDSSR. And that one has literally done more wrong to everyone but ethnic Russians themselves than anyone else in history.

Edit: You even go as far as blaming the US industrial-military complex and the incarcerationrate there but fail to ackknowledge that data on that one is at best incomplete for intransparent communist dictatorships. Where are the worst most brutal prisons in the World? China, North Korea, Ex Soviet States, Russia. Who has the biggest military? North Korea. Where do people disappear without any reason given to anyone? Ah. Guantanamo Bay is in Cuba by the way.