As an Autistic Man, it is really irritating that, people, as though they are a Neurotypical person that expects me to easily “get” unspoken social rules, and easily understand things without needing background information, it seems as though I am for some reason expected to not only automatically understand what people talk about when they say those phrases, but also even if I do want to look them up, I am scared of doing it wrong, because growing up, my mom forbade me from socially interacting with people, which caused me to become socially awkward… which made her not want me to talk to people for “Fear of embarrassing her”, leading to a vicious cycle that caused me to never have any friends until last year.
So thus, even to this day, I am completely unfamiliar with what it means to Support a Local Community, to Go and Organize, to Read Theory… unless those are all phrases that were made so memetically popular, that people forgot about their original meaning, and people repeat them in order to make themselves LOOK intelligent rather than actually say anything intelligent.
The end result? I have no clue whatsoever how to socialize with people, or to attend public events, how to know when they are happening, how to find them, I don’t know what the first steps are with socializing… all thanks to my mother, who failed to teach me social skills, and failed to teach me the confidence in helping myself.
So how do I accomplish the commonly thrown around phrases I just mentioned?
Hi comrade! You asked a very good question. If you aren’t already involved in some kibd of organizing it can be difficult to know where to start or what it looks like. Or how to join a good org vs. a bad one and everything in between.
For theory, people will usually make recommendations relevant to their tendency. I recommend working towards understanding Marxism, which rewuires carefully reading multiple books several times, eventualky leading to reading Marx’s Capital. The Communist Manifesto can be a good place to start with Marx but it will mean something different when you return to it having read a larger canon, so keep that in mind on your first read. It is typical to “get” 50% of it, think you get another 30% even though you don’t, and knowingly not understand 20% (these are hand-wavy numbers). I also recommend readinh Blackshirts and Reds. Let me know if there is a particular topic that most interests you and I can try to come up with reading recommendations.
For organizing, the real goal is to get involved in improving or growing an organization and developing its aporoach to taking action. I am saying this in a vague way because there are many perfectly good ways to organize, it doesn’t need to be all Lenins and field organizers. But this fact also has the downside of not being soecific enough for many people to know where to start, so they just don’t. And as you mention, some aspects of the most common forms of organizing may not mesh with where a person is socially or will require an onramp.
I think a good way to get started is to identify a local action that ticks the right boxes for the cause and positions on it and to ask if anyone there is an organizer and if they know how to get involved. This may be socially awkward or stressful for you but it is the best way to take a first step locally. The work needed for organizing is often not very theory-heavy and comes down to things like making schedules and surveys, taking notes, writing an agenda, making sign in sheets, picking up bulk coffee orders, etc.
If that also sounds like too much, you can also help by doing just one of those things and only occasionally. Good groups will appreciate any offers to help that you follow through on, even if it is just one thing per month.
To find local events, you’ll want to use social media or leverage well-known events to get plugged in. For example, May Day happens every year and if you search Twitter and Instagram you will certainly be able to find announcements of marches. You can probably find actions before then by looking for anti-imperialist events in your area, such aa pro-Palestinian protests.
I get really anxious when I hear these phrases as well, I get really anxious of being judged for my social awkwardness, being off putting for being autistic, not being “radical” or well read enough and just having the motivation to try to do the things while burnt out for years is a struggle too.
I use Instagram and have been able to follow accounts from local mutual aid groups who post about their open meetings and other events around town such as teach-ins, share fairs, food not bombs, etc. That’s been helpful, and I plan on tryyyying to engage with some groups in the near future now that I know some people who go.
A good start might be to see if there is a Food Not Bombs near you that you can volunteer at. Or try volunteering at warming centers or homeless shelters; there are often a lot of radical people who put time and energy into things like that.
Your ability to find groups like this is gonna vary, I’m lucky to live in a place where there is an abundance of different groups to join.
May I suggest casual hangouts for a bit before you jump into more tense, drama-filled political organizations then? It might be easier to start with a less stressful environment.
Try meetup.com, FB events, or local subreddits and look for local board game groups, hiking or biking groups, co-ed sports leagues, cocktail networking events, wine tasting tours, book clubs, little things like that. It’s easier in my opinion if there’s another activity like board games to help facilitate the social interaction. I also recommend finding hobbies or shows you’re interested in and going to conventions based on them. You might have to travel a bit if you don’t live near a big city. Going back to school can also help you meet people. For me, I’d also go to local bars and places every now and then, even by myself, and look for flyers for game nights or other things they may have.
I know it doesn’t answer your other general questions about what organizing or reading theory means, but since one of your big worries seems to be in engaging in social interaction, that’s probably where I’d recommend starting. If I’m off base, sorry about that, just trying to help.
I admit, at the moment, I was just giving in to peer pressure where my leftist friends think I don’t seem “leftist” enough for them, so I am trying to prove to them that I am devoted to the cause, no matter how much it discomforts me. I was bullied once about it months ago, but I still don’t want it to happen again.
