Its been awesome talking 1 on 1 with her about my "political" views. I got to explain western propoganda re: communism, define marxism and explain to her how and why I hate liberals more than she does. When I explained I was basically just a dialectical materialist who didn't believe in culture war bullshit or dividing the working class along those lines, she said "well gee, when you say it like that it kinda makes sense."

Anyway, now we're going shooting together! :stalin-heart:

Btw I do not plan to tell anyone at this range that Im a marxist, I can already see the story in this tiny county's local edition: "Tragic gun malfunction kills one at local gun range"

  • fuckmyphonefuckingsu [comrade/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Everyone hanging out with reactionaries, I seriously think you should cease it.

    Its my grandma, dude. Idk why people on this site act like talking to their own conservative family members about marxism, communism, capitalism and class solidarity is akin to walking up to a Gestapo officer and slapping them on the back.

    These people absolutely hate you and will throw you into the hounds first if they could sacrifice you and get away with it.

    Who are you referring to, specifically? Many of them don't, actually - but sure, some of them are :frothingfash: who absolutely aren't worth talking to. I'd go as far to say that the majority of people who I've met who identify as nominally conservative are not really that political or ideological. They've just never had the privilege or inclination to pay thousands of dollars to take a CRT class at a liberal university, so they're ignorant as hell about the history of oppression or material conditions.

    How are you going to fight for the oppressed when you’re chumming up to the people who will threaten the lives of the proletariat.

    They are the prolitariat, by definition. They own nothing and have nothing to sell but their labor. They've got a car payment, rent they cant afford, no health care, and nowhere to place the blame because they're totally deluded. Having a vaccum where their knowledge of capitalist/imperialist oppresion, expropriation and exploitation doesn't make them Nazis. And trying to deradicalize them /= abandoning my comrades.

    If you were a black person or undocumented immigrant, they would chase them out of the gun range.

    I'm not gonna speak to the experience of POCs in small towns, but I will say that this generalization often leaves me with the impression that leftists dont believe there are conservative black and brown people in droves. Having said that, I completely acknowledge a genuine fear of violence is something POCs all over America live with every single day. I'm interested in what I could possibly do (if anything) as a privileged dude to help mitigate that. I'd throw down for my comrades against the fash in a heartbeat.

    They’re going to use you for their propaganda.

    I have no idea how debunking bullshit propaganda among my own family makes me liable to further radicalize them, but I'm open to your thoughts on that.

    I seriously appreciate the critical feedback, and I totally understand if this kind of "sympathy" for disenfranchised lower class crackers gets interpreted as apologia for racism. I mention elsewhere that I don't believe in some Habermassean project where we "debate" racism with fascists, and I think some other comrades in this thread expand on the topic better than I do. I only engage with these people in the confines of my own family. Anyway, I can tell you're genuinely concerned about this, I totally appreciate the feedback, and I'm open to more feedback and crit.