Yup, a few of my friends became communists. The big factor for them was that liberal world view just couldn’t explain what they were seeing anymore. Introducing them to material dialectics all of a sudden made things click for them.

Most of my family and friends lean left, I’m the only one engaging with theory and such which is sad because I would love to discuss stuff irl

My own husband. When you listen to enough Joti Brar, Vijay Prashad, and great geopolitical shows like Dialogue Works and Neutrality Studies, you inevitably find that the Marxist explanation of the world makes the most sense and is the most consistent. Wouldn’t really label either me or him as Marxists yet but we’re learning.

Nope. Buy I’m planting seeds.

I have many leftist friends, most are anarchists though. I’m slowly introducing them to more Marxist concepts and about their own anticommunist indoctrination. Hopefully eventually we’ll all be highly educated Marxist-Leninists.

I have lib friends that I have consistently failed to convert even into Soc Dem over the years despite that I have turned Tankie myself. Sigh

They are all worker aristocrats that fancies themselves “white-collar middle class”. (We being in Hong Kong with a very recent history of western propaganda fanning the flames of local supremacy against China probably has a lot to do with it.)

I have no friends. I’m socially phobic and agoraphobic.

My grandfather attended a few communist party events in late 1940s and early 1950s. He was later bullied by organized crime and tormented into early Alzheimer. I knew him in real life.

i’m not a person with “friends” in the strict definition, but i try to get along in most cases with people, so there’s that…usually i discuss with people, talk in fediverse with leftist people, and try to fight against propaganda. here and the element groups are the places where i try to get some communist friends without the risk of having a date with a fed

I joined a local socialist movement

I’m lucky enough to have two people close to me who are commies despite living in a deeply reactionary hellhole. Not much I can do to guide here because both were chance encounters at work and a music event and we just had the thing where neurodivergent people instantly click with each other rather than anything politics related.

I also know a few liberals that have been steadily radicalizing over the past few years. If people already know and trust you and the first cracks in the liberal worldview happen organically they can be quite receptive to communist ideas. Just listen to their grievances and chime in with bits of history and theory that is relevant to them. Nobody became a principled communist overnight, it’s a long process and sometimes you need to pick your battles and smile and dissociate when they slip into reactionary thought that you don’t have a good angle to attack yet, but I got people immersed in a deeply russophobic and anticommunist environment to consider that maybe the Soviet Union was… le good? Or at least not evil incarnate 1984.

Be cool, be open about your ideals without forcing them, know your stuff so that you can speak confidently and source your claims, be patient, and meet people where they are and you may be able to commie your friends but they have to take the first steps on their own.

I have one friend who reads theory and I am in the process of converting others, the first one was a raging liberal when I first met him but yea, all of my commie friends are people who I’ve converted

Yup, my best friend is a communist, he’s the one that got me into it. He’s not the most articulate guy in the world but he’s intellectually honest and never stopped trying. I’ve been slowly converting more and more folks. Lucky for all of us it’s getting easier and easier to convince people capitalism is killing us. From there it’s not a big jump to socialism.

Yes, several, alhamdulillah. The white people I had to convert to communism, the non-whites were cool when I met them. I mean, they were all cool, just some less class conscious. It’s a journey. Social jobs tend to have cool people. Teachers, social workers etc. if they aren’t too bourgeois. People from countries affected by imperialism get it one hundred times faster. I’m talking days or weeks instead of years.

“Convert” might be the wrong word. I don’t actively go up to them and try to change their mind. I’m just open about my politics and if they want to talk about it, I do it friendly and one step at a time.

Also, if you want a cheat code for meeting cool people fast: join an org. Or just show up to an action or a protest and ask the organizers how you can help. Bookclubs are cool too.