Despite the name, I really like Trae Crowder, the LIBERAL Redneck. He talks about the south and how it isn't all that bad, and quite frankly I agree with him.
- The south is the most diverse region in the US
- 35% of the LGBT community in the US lives in the south
- Texas, for example, is actually a pretty blue red state, and Georgia flipped as of recently. Sure, Georgia will flip right back, but it shows that these places are not lost causes.
- Virginia has pretty consistently flipped, and it was once a confederate state
- Voter suppression is the enemy here.
Don't get me wrong, I know electoralism will not save us, but it is at least a sign of changing attitudes. So what has been the best way to get people to come around?
From limited interactions I have had what works very well is that you appeal to their cynical side.
For example, I believe I at least got one right wing co-worker I knew to actually consider the concept of universal healthcare. I started by outlining it as a matter of simple economics, by explaining to them that when they need surgery, that is an inelastic demand. (A key thing you need to do is always relate something directly to them). So I offer him an example of him needing surgery for cancer. With private healthcare, what incentive do they have to make it cheap? He needs it regardless. His need is being leveraged against him. So I then explain that when the industry in completely public its only goal is to provide healthcare. With private healthcare its first goal is to make profit. A key thing I also said is that there is an endless number of ways to try to scrounge for profit, why should his sickness be one of them?
I also pointed out that he was basically a slave because he is dependent on his job, which I could tell actually cut deeper than I had anticipated because he kind of looked away in deep thought.
To his credit, he was more open an respectful to other ideas than you normally would expect from a right winger. That could have been because he respected me but who is to say, I left the job so I don't work with him anymore.
You need to sell them on matters of personal autonomy, freedom, and power. They always believe that these are being taken away from them, but the reality is they never had them in the first place (Assuming they are working class right wing).
A friend of mine frequently loves to talk to and argue with right leaning people he meets, and something he feels he has noticed is that working class conservatives actually are closer to class consciousness than liberals are. If you have a conservative that is actually going to listen what a communist has to say, they may find themselves in an identity crisis because they will have a hard time disagreeing with your points and seeing a political framework they have never seen before, it just needs to be pitched correctly by re-arranging their views instead of trying to outright refute them. But to get them to a point where they will listen to you, you need to lean into their already established feelings, and this can be as easy as saying you hate liberals. I think this usually gives them a pause of curiosity, because their exposure to politics has been nothing but binary, so suddenly you are not the enemy anymore and they want to know more.
Granted, this isn't going to always work as many right wing nut jobs are too far gone to even entertain new views unless their most recent fuhrer told them to.
"this can be as easy as saying you hate liberals. I think this usually gives them a pause of curiosity, because their exposure to politics has been nothing but binary, so suddenly you are not the enemy anymore and they want to know more."
this is too true
that's a big part of how I got switched. I despised the impotence of 'liberals' and all their fake pandering while they do nothing about an issue, but the only alternative to them that I knew was the right wing, so that's almost where I ended up.