How do you do it?
I stopped participating in a group chat with some long-time friends about a year ago, mostly due in part to the exhausting conversations over politics. Ironically, after Trump was shot, the group decided to silo the conversations into two groups, one for non-politics, and one for politics, and pinged me. We're that kind of group where we go long periods of time not seeing each other in person due to life and kids, but it was nice to have them reach out.
But oh, that politics channel has not changed. Meanwhile, my worldview has shifted dramatically to the left of theirs (and beyond, really). The spectrum is:
- Center Leaning Republican (a Rogan, Pool, Peterson enjoyer),
- A Center leaning Dem
- A Vote Blue Democrat (they are also the only queer person in our group)
- A 3rd Party guy (basically a libertarian but refuses to adopt a label, and doesn't vote, but also a Peterson enjoyer, rabid anticommunist, they always know a guy, or have a family member, you know what I mean).
- All white, all male
Something interesting happened when I returned, though. The topic that started this isn't relevant, but it prompted the Center Dem friend to ask me where I get my views from. I sat on that question for an evening and then just wrote out a summary of the Marxist-Leninists view on capitalism and imperialism, without ever using "capitalism" or "imperialism", without referencing Marx or Lenin.
It was long, but, his response was, basically, "Ok, that makes a lot of sense, actually." I then told him that Marx and Lenin would be happy to know you agree because that's their analysis in my own words, as I understand it.
Usually after bringing up someone like Marx, I'll get dunked on with a barrage of anticommunist brainrot, but that didn't happen this time.
So it got me thinking about the title of this post. How do you talk to your lib friends about their distorted world view?
Don't expect wonders overnight either. If you don't have any existing connections to local leftist groups your only real entrypoint is the DSA. Unfortunately in my experience the DSA kind of sucks in this regard. In my area it's just a lot of awkward young dudes. However, it gets your name and face out there. As you consistently show up to meetings and events people will recognize you and you will recognize them. DSA often co-organizes events with other groups. You'll meet people from those groups. Sometimes you might get an invite to a training or orientation with other groups. There are a lot of cool people to be found. In the US it then diverges between the PSL, various trot orgs, and a loose federation of small anarchist-y groups. There are some people in the anarchist orgs that have typical Epic Western Anarchist beliefs and hate the PSL, China, etc. but 90% of people don't really care. If you're just looking for people at a social level and aren't like terribly serious about joining a disciplined communist org that is probably a good space to angle into.