I have a half-written effortpost about this but it’s not coherent enough yet. Basically I think that, in the same way capitalism makes it so we can only relate to leftist theory through the lens of consumption and consumer identity, we can only sculpt culture in ways that are fundamentally about competition for attention or liberal morality politics. Would appreciate feedback
Idk how controversial this is, but in my opinion you will almost never be able to change anyones' mind by just talking. People watch FOX or CNN to be reinforced in their views. People listen to NPR to do the same. The material base--your living and working conditions--is what sways opinions. One can be very propagandized to not notice/be able to justify/blame on someone else/or themselves their sorry lot in life, and that's where talking can be useful, but if someone is sitting tight, with an upper-middle class job in the suburbia--that's a steep wall to climb.
I think there’s a big difference between talking privately with a long-time friend and talking publicly online. And we’re obviously seeing the extents to which propaganda and reality curation can be pushed. But yeah I hope it’s not controversial to say that material conditions are the hardest barriers to someone’s worldview
you are so right. i still have some high school friends left, who never changed their views and I did 360, and on the one hand, they're just staring at me blankly when I say certain things they find difficult to comprehend hearing from me (or in general), but on the other, perhaps because we knew each other so long, in our further conversations I hear echoes of them having actually though about what I said, and that's very encouraging
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