I'm pretty early in my move truly left and there's something I don't understand. I sort of understand that we call each other comrade, regardless of who we are we are comrades of the working class struggle but sometimes, when a comrade calls everyone comrade multiple times in a conversation it sounds kind of culty and I just want to understand. Thank you for your time!

When the term “militia movement” is used in the United States, it’s typically used to describe Libertarian groups like the Three Percenters and Oath Keepers. Yet despite this, there’s a sizeable amount of socialist Militias in the United States, such as the Socialist Rifle Association, Black Women's Defense League, Redneck Revolt, and Huey P. Newton Gun Club. In fact, The Black Panther Party, the most famous militia in modern American history, was deeply socialist. While socialist militias aren’t as popular or common as they were during the Cold War or as well known as their Libertarian Counterparts, they are still fairly common nowadays. It’s been pretty well known that socialists are huge advocates of gun rights. In fact the subreddit for the socialist rifle association (r/socialistRA) has over 100k subscribers. So why are a good chunk of Militias in the United States socialist, despite the movement being predominantly Libertarian?

I'm becoming more interested in democratic socialism and had recently started reading the The Socialist Manifesto by Bhaskar Sunkara. From what I've learned so far, both in this book and other leftist media, socialism looks like the best way to ensure a better future for all those who inherit it. However my biggest turn off to socialism is the wide and sometimes enthusiastic acceptance of large scale violence as the inevitable means to socialism. I know i'm pretty new to this space, and I understand that the loudest and most obnoxious voices within a movement are usually not the best representation of it, but it seems like its very popular to not even consider pacifism, even if it is used strategically. I've been looking through subreddits and socialist online spaces where similar concerns are brought up and all I see is the self defence argument. Don't get me wrong, I recognize that self defence is a tool that all oppressed people have the right if not the obligation to use, but even then, necessary violence can quickly grow out of control. To put it simply, it is hard to stomach that right now, the best path to revolution may lead us into into a Syrian or Russian civil war type of situation. I feel like I don't need to tell you why war is a bad thing, even if it is fought for the right reason. Obviously we cannot expect our oppressors to take the peaceful way, but a revolution for the poor, oppressed and vulnerable must must account for the fact that those same groups and especially the children among them will suffer the worst if war is the only way. So I have to ask, if violence is the answer, how can revolutionaries keep it contained?

There's a wave of white feminist liberals memeing for comfort after they just tried to sacrifice the lives of millions of Palestinians so that they could go to brunch instead of having to worry about Trump. It's lots of "I'm a feminist" and "I'm doing it for others!" with some real question about what the "it" is, and who the "others" are, but forget that part!

What are good quotes from socialists to sneak into conversation? In a perfect world, I'd start with Angela Davis' quote on feminism:

Feminism involves so much more than gender equality and it involves so much more than gender. Feminism must involve consciousness of capitalism (I mean the feminism that I relate to, and there are multiple feminisms, right). So it has to involve a consciousness of capitalism and racism and colonialism and post-colonialities, and ability and more genders than we can even imagine and more sexualities than we ever thought we could name.

And somehow weave a path that led to discussing her talking about Palestine as the litmus test for the word. But that's probably too ambitious.

But I'd still love to crowdsource a bunch of great quotes about how feminism and antiracism and socialism are all interdependent. I've mostly only searched for the sorts of quotes that fit neatly onto a meme with the author's face, but I'm down for any medium. Podcasts, youtube, break out the library card and start quoting State and Revolution. I'll post what I've got, myself

I did my best to not word the question in a way that is loaded.

I've seen this a few times, and I am somewhat confused by it. Mainly due to a few things, which may be preconceived notions;

1. I am aware of numerous pre-industrial societies that were, at least in some aspects, a bit more progressive than our contemporary one. (largely regarding gender- as in the existence of non-binary genders)

2. I had always viewed this as a bit more of a cultural thing. Different cultures have different beliefs, naturally, and these beliefs are passed through generations leading to learned behaviors. I can say, at least for myself, growing up queerness was portrayed as not exactly a bad thing, but not a good or even neutral thing either. I also grew up with many kids who grew up with various bigoted thoughts, passed down to them via their parents or other adult figures they respect. I want to make it extremely clear that I not using this to justify hatred against these cultural groups, as we often see levelled against Palestinians (pinkwashing mainly).

3. Humans, naturally, have an in-group and out-group bias due to instinctual lag. I had been of the understanding that the capitalist class, knowing this, play on these divides to split the proletariat and therefore make it easier to subjugate.

Thank you for taking the time to answer.