I do not mean this as a rhetorical question: I mean it literally. Tell us what’s stopping you! I don’t want to invalidate you, but the opposite. I’m sure people here would love to help if it’s possible. Post away!
Personally, I think Covid and the general amount of work everyone does are the two biggest obstacles to community building. Not just for me, but everybody I know. It’s nearly impossible to build a community when nobody has the energy to even play a video game together, and actually meeting up in person can literally kill you. There are definitely solutions, but we need to realize them as problems first to find them. If you have suggestions, please share them! Same goes for the issues everyone else shares (if they’re ok with help, of course).
The reason why younger liberals are more enthusiastic about organizing is because they know gaining power is realistic. So they campaign, canvas, pester, etc.
I suspect most young socialists know that the US will kill entire families before letting a “democratically elected” (within the bourgeois system) socialist win anything substantial. So they just treat it as a social club, which is fair, a good political organization is not about politics 100% of the time.
Still, this results in a lot of time being wasted doing performative stuff. I still think that performative action is still important even if the results are localized to the media fear mongering. It’s just that without any tangible results, people will burn out. Leadership needs to be aware that book clubs and movie nights and protesting can only carry you so long before people start thinking “why can’t I just post epic tweets at home denouncing imperialism or donate money instead of protesting?” So many people, including POC and those oppressed by the west and capitalists in general, fall into the trap of jadedness, powerlessness, and assimilation. “Yeah it sucks. What can you do?”
With that being said, ultimately, I don’t believe that any agitation will be effective until industry is brought back to the US from overseas and people began to experience the feeling of being overworked in every aspect because nothing would be cheap anymore. Right now people are just “meh, I’m miserable but I don’t mind chugging along a little longer.” Until then, it’s just universal capitalist realism.
I don’t support acceleration, but it seems like the only time people start to question our current system is when everything begins to fall apart. Acceleration will be decided by those whose net worth is 5000x mine, so it doesn’t really matter whether I want it or not. I guess it’s just a matter of being more prepared than liberals and fascists when the time comes.
Yeah you're getting it. The average American still has too much hope. They're still sold on the idea that it's possible to get that house in the suburbs and the car if they hold on just a little longer. Pay off the credit card, get that promotion, finish the second degree, and eventually something will come along to secure the dream. Absolute cult of optimism that permeates too many brains.
I really believe the true death of leftist organizing in the US was the Reagan administration's loosening of housing regulation. Once housing became a commodity for the average person, an investment rather than a necessary place to live, it's like a button got flicked in people's minds. The "temporarily embarrassed capitalist" button. People think of their houses as a little business they're running. Eventually it'll get sold and they'll buy another, nicer house. Maybe they'll even rent a room or buy a second house to rent. Everyone got real estate and landlord brained over the 80s.
And how are you supposed to sell a person like that on socialist organizing? "Hey I know you've been working on this mortgage for the past 10 years specifically out of a pipedream to make $200k in profit but do you wanna help advance the interests of the global proletariat?"
the Castro brothers managed to do it with their family’s plantations. Though we haven’t seen an Engels or a Castro for over a century.