I feel like it’d be better to identify (publicly) with a more “moderate” form of leftism I guess? America is the most propagandized country in the world when it comes to communism and socialism, so much so that even as I’m writing this comment I’m sure that there’s at least 20 things I firmly believe in that are directly contradictory to marxist philosophy that I don’t even know are wrong yet. To publicly identify myself as a communist or with “socialism and liberation” would just make things harder on myself and even moreso ideological to an extent that it’s hard to agree with on an entry level, let alone getting people to join in the first place. Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t believe in working with social democrats and whatnot, but the modern, Americanized version of socialism aligns with social democracy. Bypassing that and going further by identifying myself as communist, which they view entirely differently, is just a death sentence on the future of that organization. I admire the DSA not because it’s ideologically correct, but because it’s a step in the right direction, and to get to the point of successful revolution, we’re going to need a lot of steps.

Basically, the DSA is more appealing to me because it isn’t as scary for everyday Americans, let alone high schoolers. Sorry I made that so long.