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zombie_berkman wrote

im 31 in a month or 2 and still getting more pissed off

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An_Old_Big_Tree wrote (edited )

Nope.

It's interesting for me to think about the types of people who do 'age out' though. In what senses were they anticapitalists in the first place? What changed for them, and how much was it that they wanted the values sold to them by capitalism? What is it about the processes of survival under capitalism that bend people towards 'aging out'?

Edit: Whatabout you, turniphead?

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dele_ted wrote (edited )

I might be able to answer that. My father has been anticapitalist his whole life, but he gave up on fighting back and decided to just make his own life as free as possible, because capitalism simply seems too huge. I think that's what happens to a lot of radicalists as time goes by - the status quo simply starts seeming immortal, and fighting back starts to feel meaningless.

Edit: I just had a long conversation with him about the state, banks and powers that be. He has by no means conformed or calmed down, turns out he's as pissed off as ever.

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An_Old_Big_Tree wrote

Yeah, I imagine that a lot of them are like that. I like to think about the details of it in some depth because I like to know what mechanism are at play. Since I think that knowing is half the battle.

It's weird for me especially because I'm sure for many of these people they had the clear sense that their own happiness/wellbeing/good was bound up in that of others. So it seems that if you stop fighting capitalism to focus on your own life/happiness, then you must no longer believe that somehow.

And at the same time, I think that loads of anarchists don't actually think that capitalism will end, and they fight anyway. So if they quit it's probably not because they think capitalism is immortal. Part of it's likely to be in turniphead's answer here.

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ziq wrote (edited )

I think that loads of anarchists don't actually think that capitalism will end, and they fight anyway.

Yeah.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGK9nhMF39Y

Doesn't matter that we can't win, we live to fight.

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An_Old_Big_Tree wrote (edited )

Ha! That video. May we all slay dragons.

Edit: original said maybe instead of may! weird.

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LucyParsonsRocks OP wrote

I think people age out of it because they get jobs and families and houses and cars and get more and more invested in the system and whatever rung of the ladder they managed to climb to after years of hard work.

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NeoliberalismKills wrote

No. I'm actually hopeful I'll become more active. I'll be better educated. Hopefully bolder as a result. Hopefully able to achieve a modicum of financial security after decades of grinding. And my daughter will be an adult and will be able to support herself.

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ziq wrote (edited )

No, I'm not the type to abandon my convictions. I still like all the same things I liked as a child, I add new things to my consciousness as I age, but I never abandon the old ones.

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Stiglitz wrote

30’s now. More pissed than ever. Old people are always pissed off. I fully intend to be a fiery old fart, if I don’t die in the revolution first.

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sudo wrote

I doubt it. If I ever do leave radical politics, it'll be due to some new and credible piece of evidence that capitalism really is the least shitty mode of production (and I doubt any such evidence exists). As a sidenote, people do generally get wiser as they get older, but that doesn't mean that every old person is wise, or that every young person is foolish. Wisdom generally comes from life experiences, which people tend to accumulate as they grow older; hence the correlation with age. But it's possible for a young person to have a lot of life experiences, and for an old person to not have many, so certain young people can be wiser than certain old people. People can also figure certain things out by listening to the experiences of others, or by reasoning them out on their own, so personal life experiences aren't the only way to become wise.

Now, as for the people who have "grown out of" radical politics. In my experience, these people never truly understood communism or anarchism. My guess is that a lot of them were rebellious and contrary as teenagers, so they flocked to whatever movement was going against the status quo, without making any attempt to understand the ideology of that movement. Later, when their urge to be contrary died down, they went back to centrism. So, they were never truly communists.

Some other people may have actually understood communist ideology in their younger years, but they succumbed to defeatism (thinking it's just too difficult to try to overthrow the government, and giving up). Or, they just grew weary of the hard work and abuse that comes with being a communist, and decided to retire. These people would still be communists, but not active ones.

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BlackFlagged wrote

I'm more worried that my radical politics will never affect anything. I'll always be an anarchist, but that doesn't mean I'll always strive to change the world.

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Defasher wrote

Not a chance. I've boycotted capitalism for too many years to ever make something of myself.

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not_AFX_lol wrote

I like to tell myself that even if I stop labeling myself as an anarchist, I will still hold the same distrust of corporations and governments, and be committed to the same goal of equality for the marginalized.

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zorblax wrote

really depends... if I never get over my personal issues, probably, because I'd never meet other anarchists in the first place.

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