One of my oldest friends is a borderline anarcho syndicalist, but is reluctant to even consider a total rejection of capitalism because the alternative is something his entire world has convinced him is an equivalent immoral totalitarianism that is just another set of rich wankers enslaving people.
Anyway. I recently let him know that after Gaza, I consider the entire US state to be a bunch of psychopathic anti-humans, and that I think we have always been the bad guys, and the Soviets had the right idea, and their collapse was an epic tragedy for humanity.
He definitely was not receptive.
Now I think I have been dropping counter propaganda into our Signal chat too frequently, and I got some pushback from him after the election. Not sure what to make of it. Kinda worried I might have strained our friendship. He has firmly stated he is not interested in my Commie takes at all.
Gonna try to back off and chill out. But now I am kinda paranoid. Like, the US really has tried to ruin the lives of anyone who tries to have anything to do with Communism. What if the next four years starts some kinda new Red Scare? There's no way my friend will risk getting caught up in that, just to humor my ideological journey.
We both have kids to worry about. Both of us got raised in right winger families. His traditional US nationalists. Mine Evangelicals.
It's gonna be tough if I don't get to talk to one of my best friends about materialism and anti-imperialism.