2013, spent the entire year unemployed. While it’s a stereotype that’s not always true about my country, in my city I do live near a jungle (and a mangrove). So I hunted and fished to eat, but somedays, I literally had to dig through the trash of the local paramedics. You see, the city gives them free meals, but the doctors throw it out because it isn’t to their liking.

I also have a coconut tree and a banana tree on my property, which also helped me get relief.

And what actually pissed me off the most, was that five minutes walk from here, near the mangrove, I knew people in an even worse situation than me. In this city, there’s many more.

I already leaned left before, but could be considered more like a typical Western-style “socialist” than anything. but that pushed me over the edge. I figured that if countries like PRC, DPRK and Cuba gave guaranteed food and housing to their peoples (my house is pretty much a shanty and it rains inside in places when it rains - and I can’t afford to repair it), in exchange for some supposed “freedom of expression,” well, my “freedom of expression” didn’t put a plate of food on my table or give me decent housing or a job. I saw no point in being able to say “oh, this government sucks” while there was mine and so much more misery all around.

So, I decided to read more into said nations and, eventually, Marxism. A former boss had given me a Communist Manifesto book that I never had read, so I began with it. And that’s that.

Bear in mind, my country was ran by the PT at the time, even though it was during the beginning of the orchestrated uprisings against president Dilma Rousseff, it was still more stable than it is now. I believe if I had to go through the same experience now, I’d be royally fucked.

(Edit: Typo)

Genzedong memes, a WWII related research project, quora syndicalists, and catholic mls on quora.