They're too fuckin dumb to understand nuanced material critique, so all you're doing is giving them ammo to justify their own anticommunist biases from a left lens. There is no nuance in mainstream politics and the discussions therein, only extremes of black and white, with freedom countries on one and evil dictatorships on the other. Stop it.

  • MarxMadness [comrade/them]
    ·
    3 years ago

    Good points on bullying. It has its place, but it's not a one-size-fits-all tool. It can definitely backfire (people often dig in out of spite) and we think too highly of it because we like doing it.

    As for winning people over in the imperial core, I think there are at least two promising strategies:

    • Short term: Find some egregious failing of capitalism, propose some tangible leftist solution, then beat that drum as loudly and as often as possible. This is the "Medicare for All" approach. You'll get a lot of people to listen to you because the leftist solution makes too damn much sense, and you can start them down the path to leftism from there.
    • Long term: Get people into media criticism in the Chomsky/Herman/Parenti vein. This is the "Citations Needed" approach. This is more for people who are less affected by the most egregious failings of capitalism, and who are therefore more insulated from the "Medicare for All" approach. If you can get them into media criticism from a more academic/wonky perspective, they might end up doing a lot of leftist education on their own.