Whenever I first read about what dialectical materialism is I didn't get it because it's like "that's how thinking works, duh. How else would you do it"? I've always thought that way, to the point that I struggle to think any other way. Idealism always made me extremely frustrated and confused and feel like the people using it had suddenly lost their mind. Even as a kid who didn't know what any of these words meant that is how I felt.
I figured out enough as I grew up, but I'm still not completely comfortable around people who think the way most Americans(and Westerners in general) think.
It may not be the dialectical materialism exactly that people I can more closely relate to believe in, but just the fact that they can think coherently, and consistently think coherently. They won't just accept contradictions without figuring out where they meet. If you point out a contradiction they can talk about it, they don't assume you have some special motivation for asking questions and begin searching for said motivation, ignoring what you said in the process.
I have a feeling there is some theory or something somewhere that would give me the vocabulary to talk about this more clearly. I'm struggling to find terms for these concepts.
What's up with that?
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Glad to hear someone else feel the same things.
At least you're talking! It's not about changing someone's mind, as much as it is understanding why someone thinks so differently. That said I've definitely swayed my uncle a lot, but I sometimes underestimate how much he's swayed me.
A tangential example since you brought up cops, a few years back I had just read "Are Prisons Obselete" by Angela Davis and went on constant tangents about how prisons shouldn't exist and cops are evil and racist. My uncle was like "ok bro sure." Which is like... a completely understandable thing for a working class American to say. So we clashed hard.
But I guess I'm more "moderate" on cops these days - you can't really convince working class Americans that we need to abolish cops. In isolation it's such a terrible idea. You have to address poverty first. I'm sure this is obvious to everyone, but it's only thru talking to my uncle over the years that I understood this. We're now basically on the same page, which is "cops are an inefficient and horrific way to deal with poverty but the US has no interest in solving poverty so in capitalism cops are necessary" (obviously lots of caveats here, ACAB still stands)
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Well, it is important to know and distinguish that learning (much like volunteering), in of itself, is not praxis. It can be something on the road to praxis, but the actual coalition building required for successful political movement will require intersections of material interests to keep culturally conflicting parties involved and engaged, not just ideological waffling.
Before dealing with the police, prisons, or any larger systemic issues, one must first recognize themselves as working class, and more broadly, sharing material interests within the whole of the working class, and seeing those interests in opposition and conflict to the interests of management and ownership. We, in the U.S., are still at that part of the game and it is impossible to move the ball forward without that becoming actualized. And the only thing that historically has actualized this is enough hard laboring people being stuck in the same place, in the same shitty circumstances and the same jobs for long periods of time (generally 5-10) with no way out for them or their children, which is not a thing in the U.S.
However, if gas prices continue to rise, it may yet become a thing. Or it could all turn tits up and the fascists will win in this country. Certainly a possibility.
Sorry for the late reply
Yeah I don't disagree, conversations can both change minds and be a learning experience. I just had the absolute worst 'radical' takes only a few years ago and was arrogant, just sucks eventually being a dick about things you're not even sure about. But on that note, my uncle's wayy more open to explictly leftist shit these days, it just took being more open to his POV as well. He's definitely starting to come around to the 'poverty is the root of crime' thing, and in my experience once that sticks it's hard not to come around to a politics around eradicating poverty. We'll probably never agree on everything but still, he's at least somewhat closet lefty now.