I wouldn't have become a leftist without having been "converted" if you want to call it that. It took a large amount of breadtube to even get me to read the communist manifesto, I basically had to be spoonfed das kapital through audiobook format in snippets not too dissimilar in the way a priest would read the bible to their congregation. I think that the message that were trying to get across; abolition of property, lgbtqa+ and bipoc empowerment, and decolonization among other things would benefit from being spread in a manner not to dissimilar from a religion.

My leftism is clearly my belief system, it feels the same hole that religion would have filled. The only problem is that there is no social connection to any of this beyond the parasocial relationships I form with people online, the morally dubious breadtube personalities and maybe the odd polticial rally. What I think we need to do, as leftists, is start standing on street corners preaching the word of Karl Marx, we need to start competing with religions and start marketing ourselves as a superior belief system.

I spent some time in jail and they would regularly have religious speakers come in, there was various types of christian and muslim prayer groups being held, they would always give us something. Having a communist go into county and give everyone some books on basic theory would help create some zealots. I mean you have all this time to think a good amount of people leave having some sort of religious awakening.

I don't see a better way of converting people to leftism than by preaching it in a more religious way to Americans. Take the peoples temple for example. After learning about them they managed to do exactly this, and the way it all ended can be described as nothing other than revolutionary suicide. Jim Jones managed to build a cult from every walk of life in the United States and made a communist utopia for a few years until the feds came knocking and well they had to do it.

Maybe some of you think that we shouldn't proselytize, all I have to say to you is how you became a leftist? It wasn't something you were born as, and most likely it was given to you through propaganda from the internet rather than adopting it after reading theory by yourself or having a cool uncle. We need to start using the same structures that religion do.

  • happybadger [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    I almost never go for outright "communism good", but I think it's important to push dialectical thinking and highlight contradictions that can't otherwise be resolved. My university presentations usually include some element of that if I can fit it in topically. What are the social and material factors behind the subject? Where does commodification hurt people and nature? What historical failures led to present crises and what parallels can be drawn? If I can tie an idea to a theory then I'll cover the theory and explain why it's important to consider the extra angles it invokes.

    The problem with proselytising is that I don't want people to agree with me or follow me. I just want to teach them how to think genuinely critically and interpret new information in new ways. If they can do that, Marxism is just the result they're left with because it's the only philosophical school which analyses things like that. They'll be a more effective Marxist if they come into it somewhat organically.