How are we supposed to reach people when they've been taught that greed is good, corporations are communists, up is down, and that liberals are leftists?
The Bolsheviks had to deal with superstitious illiterate peasants that believed Jews were vampires and communists wanted to have wives be communal shared with everyone. Not mentioning liberals, monarchists, proto-fascists, military dictators, etc. Who constantly railed against the Soviets.
I guess what I'm saying is we've faced worse, so chin up and stiff upper lip. We may or may not see anything in our lifetimes but like Noah building his ark we gotta build up the infrastructure of revolution to be ready should the moment to seize the reins of power arise
superstitious illiterate peasants that believed Jews were vampires and communists wanted to have wives be communal shared with everyone
Literally 4chan
Tfw Russian 4chan peasants are more revolutionary than your entire country's socialist movement
communists wanted to have wives be communal shared with everyone
Oh no....
Exactly, and emphasis on that second part.
A full-scale revolution isn't possible at this exact moment in history. On the other hand, growing a movement has been proven possible, with the right combination of strategy and support. And a fully-formed movement, in this day and age, would push us forward in ways we can scarcely imagine.
Consider: :bpp:, :PSL:, :cpusa:, and yes, even :DSA:
Naturally as you reach certain levels of recognition and power, and create a disruption that can't just be threatened and finger-wagged out of existence, things get more complicated. But here's the important thing: in the 21st century, we haven't reached that level yet. But once we do reach it, new possibilities will always emerge. Even if the change is minor, there will always be something a capable movement can accomplish which it couldn't at an earlier stage.
I can't stress enough how important it is for movements to think several steps ahead, then plan one step at a time. But in doing that, we often mistake what's possible now for what will be possible by the time we've reached the next step. My point is, not only do a movement's capabilities evolve alongside material conditions, they are also directly changed by every development within.
In other words, Only once we've seized today will we begin to see tomorrow on the horizon.
Consider: :bpp: , :PSL: , :cpusa: , and yes, even :DSA:
Amendment: CPUSA sucks join PCUSA (if your ideological stance aligns with the party program of course).
This message has been brought to you by PCUSA gang. :hammer-sickle:
:cpusa: is literally fine, join whatever's in your area and just work together with comrades
Replying to a two-day old comment to say the red democrats don't suck :sus-deep:
We faced worse when you could control the information flow much more easily. Now it's just tiktoks straight to the brain making you insane
i mean all of us made progress somehow. i don't remember what my progression was like at all unfortunately, but apparently it is possible even for a white guy who was exactly the right age to be swept up into gamergate (didn't happen for some reason fortunately).
best way to think about it is this. The people you're talking about are confused because they only know about their own experiences. That makes them malleable, or I mean like, it means they will probably start to change their ideas once they have different experiences. They're products of the societies they live in.
If their workplace is unionized and they get higher pay, or if they start gaining better access to housing and healthcare, or if they start encountering leftism as a real force in their lives. If that happens, their perception of reality is going to change. Movements have always had to deal with backwards and reactionary populations. What did they do? They gave the backwards people a better existence, and that changed how the people think.
We're only different because we fell off the track at some point. I guess a lot of us read a bunch of books, or struggle with a disability, or maybe we're trans or gay and all of those things tend to make people more leftist. We just ended up on the side of things that hasn't been fully devoured by mainstream ideology quite yet, or maybe it's just hard to make us into a product right now. In any case, try to believe in people more. It'll be ok. :meow-hug:
Yeah, like that. Most people are confused because they've had no experience outside of some vague propaganda they heard in school, so of course they're going to think corporations are communist. They haven't seen anything to prove them otherwise yet, so maybe it's our job to show them who we are.
The thing that gets me is that someone you're talking to will be on the right track, will agree with you on healthcare being a right and then suddenly say something like "Yeah! Insurance is communism! That's why!"
What do you even say to that when the red scare has misinformed them that hard?
a couple years ago I remember being like "idk, only a matter of time, pretty much everyone i know is some kinda communist. both capitalism and neoliberalism seem to be crumbling rapidly all around us." to now being like "wow everyone i know needs to read The Wretched of the Earth immediately"
Biden was an even bigger mistake than I predicted. I knew the libs would go back to brunch on kids in cages, but their own health and lives? Did not see that coming.
It's more like we're mature enough to actually pay attention to how scummy the DNC is now. There's a reason the news zeroed in on Bill Clinton being a sex offender and not what his actual international policies were.
Oh, I've been paying attention for years. Check out Listen, Liberal: Or, What Ever Happened to the Party of the People? by Thomas Frank if you haven't. Required reading for all the libs in your life, if you can get them to crack a book that isn't Hogwarts.
I more meant the libs in my life, the voters. They've completely checked out, like I knew they would, but I really didn't forsee that the whole country would basically model Florida.
I think others have touched on it pretty well. I dont have any thoughts to offer that haven't already been mentioned, but there is this Sankara quote that I find relevant here:
“As revolutionaries, we don’t have the right to say we are tired of explaining. We must never stop explaining. We know that when the people understand, they cannot help but follow us.”
i think the problem there is a lot of Americans have internalized liberal to mean "not a bloodthirsty bigot." Any level of advocacy for queer people, racial minorities, religions other than white American protestantism, the homeless, anything resembling basic social equality will sound like liberalism to them and immediately make them lose interest. That's one of the better things Settlers talks about
the people who hate liberals (who aren't us) look for mutual ideology by testing the limits of how much bigotry they can express. a common experience for white people in America is at some point being alone with other white people and they'll gently prod and poke to see how many racist things they can say before getting called out, because that's what they look for to feel connected. mutual feeling of supremacist, bigoted authority
they’ll gently prod and poke to see how many racist things they can say before getting called out
Goddamn I've seen this wayyyyy too often
Don't project global north brainworms on the rest of the world.
How are we supposed to reach people
You don't. Its accelerationism all da wey. Only then will people wake up. And China hopefully reaching its potential.
We still have to survive until the USA's war machine is too rusted to continue. Until then, we preserve what we can and stay physically fit to the best of our ability.
And drink water.
Coffee and alcohol don't count as water.
I know it isn't helpful. But I am grill pilled about it. China is the next hegemony.
Eventually they will offer to make tbe treats flow again via belt and road and we will accept happily thankful for the treats once again
Kind of how I've been. Our leaders keep making dumb decisions, China is more powerful because it hasn't killed millions of its people for line go up.
The capicity for our government to supress dissent I feel is totalizing.
As a shitposter my expertise is of course unqequestionabke but I really feel like specifically in our case we need support from outside the context of american society to see any results for revolutionary action. China being the obvious choice but even something simple like being able to operate out of a neutral territory where there is some protection from police just straight up murdering activists. Just given how totalizing the government's scope is it is hard to picture even like hawiian separatists running bandit country
You've caught my unqequestionabke typing skills
Mmmm lime go up
Then why feel bad? Just point and laugh at them while the west burns itself down to cinders.
Then why feel bad?
why not? we're all going to die to Nazi Germany v2.0
