From similar experience: If you want the friendship to last you have to play the long game and accept that you might not be able to change him. If he is a great person otherwise tell him about your position and ask him to stop sending you anti-comnunist material. Depending on his reaction either avoid politics all together or move on to the long game.
People who are entangled in western narratives will not shed those thoughts at a moment's glance if at all.
Best thing you can do is being level headed and calm even if he is spouting ridiculous nonsense. If you are organised you could introduce him to your comrades. Let him know ML's are not crazy baby eating monsters.
You could also talk about all of the positive achievements of the UdSSR or current AES countries without mentioning the country in question by name. Think about the old joke where most people agree with the goals and aims of communism as long as you don't call it communism or socialism. You could something similar and then after a few weeks/months tell him that all of this was actually achieved by country X,Y,Z. Be careful though. Depending on how you present it this could come off as very confrontational.
If you are confident you might be able to educate him more by yourself do it, perhaps you can even convince him to read some theory. Maybe start a book club together. If he is a socdem he has grievances wit capitalism but you need to help him to direct those grievances correctly.
Bottom line that all of this only works if he wants to learn and change. If he is completely entrenched in his thinking with no signs of doubt there is not much you can do. At this point it's best to ask yourself if you want to risk your friendship or if you cut your losses and accept that he will always be a friend but never a comrade.
In this case make sure you are treating him like an outsider when it comes to anything political. Even if you think you can trust him. I don't know how close your country is to fascism or how severe punishments for communists might be in 5 to 10 years but it's better to not risk anything and not give him anything that could be used to sell you out.
You could always ask him what he thinks communism is/means and whatever he says tell him that's not what you mean. If he's sharing anti-communism memes, he can't possibly have an accurate picture of communism. And, sure, communists made mistakes—but nobody is out here trying to relive the USSR exactly as it happened.
From similar experience: If you want the friendship to last you have to play the long game and accept that you might not be able to change him. If he is a great person otherwise tell him about your position and ask him to stop sending you anti-comnunist material. Depending on his reaction either avoid politics all together or move on to the long game. People who are entangled in western narratives will not shed those thoughts at a moment's glance if at all.
Best thing you can do is being level headed and calm even if he is spouting ridiculous nonsense. If you are organised you could introduce him to your comrades. Let him know ML's are not crazy baby eating monsters.
You could also talk about all of the positive achievements of the UdSSR or current AES countries without mentioning the country in question by name. Think about the old joke where most people agree with the goals and aims of communism as long as you don't call it communism or socialism. You could something similar and then after a few weeks/months tell him that all of this was actually achieved by country X,Y,Z. Be careful though. Depending on how you present it this could come off as very confrontational.
If you are confident you might be able to educate him more by yourself do it, perhaps you can even convince him to read some theory. Maybe start a book club together. If he is a socdem he has grievances wit capitalism but you need to help him to direct those grievances correctly.
Bottom line that all of this only works if he wants to learn and change. If he is completely entrenched in his thinking with no signs of doubt there is not much you can do. At this point it's best to ask yourself if you want to risk your friendship or if you cut your losses and accept that he will always be a friend but never a comrade. In this case make sure you are treating him like an outsider when it comes to anything political. Even if you think you can trust him. I don't know how close your country is to fascism or how severe punishments for communists might be in 5 to 10 years but it's better to not risk anything and not give him anything that could be used to sell you out.
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You could always ask him what he thinks communism is/means and whatever he says tell him that's not what you mean. If he's sharing anti-communism memes, he can't possibly have an accurate picture of communism. And, sure, communists made mistakes—but nobody is out here trying to relive the USSR exactly as it happened.