I’ve spent years arguing with people online and really have nothing to show for it aside from my own education and amusement. I was radicalized by discovering r/chapotraphouse back in 2018 I think. Nobody argued with me there, I just lurked, loved the memes, thought it was the funniest place online, then started reading theory because so many people there talked about it. Even though liberals are obviously ignorant about communism, their ignorance is willful: they never thank us for educating them, they always get angry and double-down. (In real life, it’s much easier to embarrass them and get them to shut up.) Still, I admit that it’s possible to change someone’s mind in an online debate, I just haven’t seen it happen when it comes to communism (libs on r/changemyview can change their minds about lib shit). Have you ever seen a lib admit that they were wrong about communism?
someone on r/cth pushed back on my lib takes on Maduro, while I was mostly just lurking and a bernie lib at best, and that made a surprisingly big impact on me, realizing I cant just trust NYT and NATOpedia to be factual, let alone unbiased (I was already past that)
Convincing well meaning questioners is often possible IMO, though they have to take the initiative to ask the dumb questions and research the answers... the people that are socially on the fringes of the community but dont quite "get it" yet. Outsiders who hate everything you stand for? No way