TIFU by getting involved with a communist group, all because of a girl

Submitted by Ingegner-Cane t3_10np676 in tifu

Ok, I'm gonna preface that I'm not a native English speaker so bear with me.

The other day I was walking around at my university hunting for some coffee, and at some point, I was approached by a girl with some flyers about something, I wasn't paying attention so I politely declined and went on to the coffee machine.

On my way back I was in a considerably better mood, because of coffee, and was approached again by the same girl with the flyers. She asked if I changed my mind and at this point, I noticed that she seemed cute/nice, so I gave up and listened to her. She was part of a charity group that gives food to poor households in need. Now charity work is cool but I never got involved, and generally speaking, working in social environments is not my thing, I'm fairly inept socially speaking. At that moment I thought that it could be a chance to get out of my comfort zone and meet some new people, so I told her that I would consider it. She asked for my number and at this point, I didn't feel like refusing so I obliged.

Fast forward a few days and I get a call from a girl, not sure if it was the same girl since I didn't remember her name. Anyway, she tells me that they were going to set up the food distribution thing on X day, and asked if I was still in on the thing. At this point, I was again in a considerably better mood because I passed my last exam before graduation, so I was just like "sure let's do it, it's gonna be cool".

Fast forward again to X day and it's raining. Got another call and the girl asked me if I wanted a lift by car. The place wasn't very far and was planning on walking but bad weather so I accepted. Got a bit surprised when in the car there was a dude but nothing major. Introduced ourselves and a few minutes later, while he was driving he casually says something like "you know that we are [notorious communist group fairly popular among university students] right?". I had no idea. And I told him. He didn't think too much of it and I wasn't sure either. We chit-chat a bit and at some point, he randomly asks who I voted for in the last elections. I answered. He wasn't impressed.

Him: "So you're a pro-European?"

Me: "Yeah"

Silence.

By the time we got to the place we had talked about a bunch of things but still, the situation was weird. I helped around carrying the bags of food and some other stuff, meanwhile, I got introduced to a bunch of people, some my age (24) and some much older. Even met the girl that got me into that situation and some others too (plenty of girls I noticed, don't judge me yet). For a while, we had a lovely chat, and all was good, sure from time to time they would start talking about communist theory, very passionately I would say, overall I would say it was fairly interesting, but still I'm not a communist and probably they were trying to get me into it. Also, they had a strong opinion about the recent development of the west sending tanks to Ukraine: they're against it, and I'm heavily in favor but kept that to myself.

At some point we split up and were supposed to go around handing out flyers... and their self-printed newspaper that talks about world events and stuff from their perspective. Now, this kinda bothered me but decided to go along with it. So I got to spend three hours or so going around with this new girl to publicize the food distribution thing... and doing some propaganda for the group, not great. All in all, I had a good time with the girl (wasn't interested in her that way, to be clear) but she would randomly lecture me on communism, which always reminded me that I wasn't supposed to be there. To be fair I ended up only carrying the newspapers and flyers while she did the talking, and she was pretty annoyed by that no doubt, even said so out loud. Kinda felt bad at the end so offered her a coffee and bought one of the newspapers, said goodbye and that was it.

Now I know that I should pull out, but a part of me wants to go again next week (they're probably going to call me anyway) just to interact with the people, there was even a girl in particular that I hit it off with and I'm still thinking about it. So yeah I'm just starved of human interactions. Not a great story I know but by my standards, it was very eventful.

TL;DR: got involved with a fringe political group, that kinda tricked me into it, just to stay around some girls.

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Comments

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arlondiluthel t1_j6a1byv wrote

As long as you didn't do/don't do anything illegal, there's no harm in learning about different ideologies.

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TheLeftHandedCatcher t1_j6dwbwu wrote

Well it depends on what country the OP lives in. From their rather scant post history, it seems they live in Italy. For most of Italy's post-WWII history, being associated with communists would probably not have garnered any sort of adverse attention, but lately idk.

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arlondiluthel t1_j6e6ek4 wrote

This is true. Certain countries actively suppress certain ideologies. This is part of why I prefaced my statement with "as long as you didn't do/don't do anything illegal".

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TheLeftHandedCatcher t1_j6e8ip3 wrote

Well I'm American and I can remember a time when being associated with any self-identified communist organization could have caused you serious trouble. For the last 30 years this has been way less of an issue, unless one assumes that being a communist implies support for the government or policies of the PRC that has become quite the bogeyman as of late.

Interesting though that this group seems to have pro-Russian sympathies. Interesting given that today's Russia isn't really "communist" so I don't know but that would concern me way more than the "communist" aspect, but then I really have no idea what sort of political groups are active at W. European universities (I believe the people involved are uni students) the only such people I know personally are conservative Catholics lol.

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arlondiluthel t1_j6ea1n1 wrote

I'm also American, and yes there was a time where being associated with Communists was "problematic", but not strictly illegal. Also, I find it humorous that many Americans seem to equate Communism as anti-democracy, when it's actually anti-Capitalist. Personally, I think that system built to be purely Communist has too many issues, but also a system built to be purely Capitalist has too many issues as well.

I'm personally in favor of the concept of universal basic income. We keep trying to toot our own horn, claiming to be the "best, wealthiest, most powerful nation", when too many people, including war veterans are homeless. There's no logical reason for the US to have a homelessness problem beyond pure greed. Same goes for malnourishment.

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justadiode t1_j6a4hwx wrote

>Now I know that I should pull out, but

Ah yes, the thought that tempted nearly every man at least once.

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AllanfromWales1 t1_j6a3v6e wrote

Giving food to the needy is worthy irrespective of their politics in other regards.

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Northviewguy t1_j6akuff wrote

In my impressionable 'socialist youth' I went to work live on a Kibbutz, essentially a commie farm;turns out I hated it "the committee" so much I read Any Rand's "Atlas Shrugged" in one sitting.

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Satkye t1_j6bct27 wrote

That is why she was there. Next thing you know you will be in a cult

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Icy_Engine_7648 t1_j6bzqto wrote

Why don't you check out a group that aligns with your beliefs?

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Lawyerowski t1_j6i92yd wrote

You should not hang out with them because they are pro-russian

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nobloodforstargates t1_j6o8kqm wrote

It amazes me that “communists” still get conned into supporting an imperialist kleptocracy.

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dokter_chaos t1_j6d0h1h wrote

such communist student groups are on the watchlists of your country's secret service. nothing will come from it, but your name might end up on that list as well.

also: young people endorsing communism, it boils down to two things:
a) being unaware of what communism did to the people
b) claiming Marxism is different and those countries weren't using "real" communism

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