And not in a condescending way either. But in their honesty, their believability, for their hardships, for the massive epiphanies that they’re on the cusp of having.
I’m in a NE city. And I’d rather hang with these motherfuckers than the smug and superior, insufferable Neoliberal dupes listening to NPR and watching MSDNC, waving blue and yellow Ukraine flags and thinking Hillary lost because of misogyny and Russia.
Yeah, the one guy sits and plays Call of Duty with his wife, and the obsessed Trump gear-wearers and flag wavers are pathetic. There’s some outrageous cognitive dissonance going on. But at the heart of it they really get it that fundamentalists this thing is Wall St Economic Terrorism and capitalism, though they’ve been conditioned to never call it the latter. Having one dialogue in simple, direct language that we can all understand, as Malcolm put it, would certainly make it plain for people.
This thing has enormous revolutionary potential. And it’s also gonna take people getting out of their alienation silos to become cooperative members of a mutual aid society. It’s also gonna take them getting involved in constantly questioning and monitoring all govt and corporate action there, as well as civil disobedience and subversive acts. I hope they have it in them (I keep thinking that some brave protesters shutting down, tying themselves to, the rail tracks would be a good salvo to Norfolk Southern and the government that they’re serious about not letting them get away with this).
I don’t know. Is this just naive idealism?
Yes it’s naive idealism. And it’s something that happens all over the world with rural communities. People hold rural communities on a pedestal, as “salt of the earth” types who are more real than everyone else. We are all human. We are all products of our material conditions along with the personal nature/nurture shit within our own families.
What is bothering you is class. You are surrounded by wealthy people in the city, not the poor people. You are bothered that you operate in a class that WILL NEVER have any revolutionary potential of any kind, so you are grabbing onto these people as hope of there being something to grab onto.
Do not tie yourself to a railroad for anyone, ever.
What are you talking about? Of course these people are people and they're "worth" knowing and talking to.
What does do not tie yourself to a railroad for anyone even mean? I interpret that as a "I got mine, I'm not going to do anything for someone else" kind of statement. That's messed up.
These people are people who deserve to be listened to, understood, made friends with, made into comrades - helped to become class aware.
You sound like you're promoting division, and I don't get it.
(I keep thinking that some brave protesters shutting down, tying themselves to, the rail tracks would be a good salvo to Norfolk Southern and the government that they’re serious about not letting them get away with this).
This is in the post that I wrote my comment too. It’s a bad idea. The train would run someone over and there would be 0 evidence that they were even protesting. Doing a live stream of turning yourself into jello will not end the way they think it will. That is what I am saying. Did you even read the persons post?
As to everything else, I am saying the claim rural people are more revolutionary than urban people is wrong. Their preference for white rural masses to their urban community is because they are just hanging out with the wealthiest people in urban areas. they can’t reflexively think white rural areas are therefore a stronger revolutionary base than the urban masses or undocumented populations in any area.
I skimmed it. I dont think anyone is saying the rural areas are more revolutionary. Unless I missed that part too.
Thanks for the explanation, your comment makes a lot more sense
I’m in a NE city. And I’d rather hang with these motherfuckers than the smug and superior, insufferable Neoliberal dupes listening to NPR and watching MSDNC, waving blue and yellow Ukraine flags and thinking Hillary lost because of misogyny and Russia.
I took this to mean rural is greater than city. They likely just mean PMC libs, but they do not make the majority of the urban population.
The guy at 10:18 is class conscious af. You could replace his Trump hat with a red beret and the vignette would still work.
I know, right!?
All it would take is for him to agree to reduce his tv time and limit social media, and get a few books in his hands to understand where he really is politically.
I mean, if those folks could start talking to one another more as a result of this thing, they’d very soon realize there is massive class coalescing happening.
Can you imagine the effect of an historical book reading group that discusses the Farmers Alliance, the IWW, the staggering amount of mine strikes, factory shutdowns and rail stoppages that their very ancestors did?
The US is split 50/50 down the middle in terms of political outlook. Those people whom are politically conscious enough to have a rough picture of the reality facing western economics and politics, regardless of ideology, either hope for something better - or - want to exploit the situation to get rich on the misery of others.
Of the people who don't resort to unrestrained vampirism, while we have different language codes for similar concepts, all taken together, the concepts come to a similar conclusion. Chud codes and concepts are twisted by a pain and anger that comes from experiencing the same situations as we experience, but without the grounding of marxism and solidarity to help process and compartmentalize them.
In my personal opinion, this can make them challenging and unpleasant to interact with, but it doesn't make them totally irredeemable. When push comes to shove as long as we engage with them, some chuds are as likely to become comrades as liberals are to flee to the fascist reaction.
There is a reason why people think if the revolution comes it will come from the Midwest.
However, you are facing down the barrel of the largest and most well funded propoganda apparatus in history that is pretty much specifically tailored to keep these people ignorant and in the dark. You give people the lowest hanging fruit and they, in their desperation, will take it everytime.
No, people are people everywhere. don't be a classist. Don't say deplorables, that's like, very awful. Like, Hilary Clinton level awful.
This is a fantastic video by the way, thank you for sharing
Used it with capital D to be satirical.
Everyone got that, right?
I guess I didn't, but I was more surprised by the reactions you got in the comments.
There is something there, I think. We like to act like there's this huge divide between liberals and conservatives in the US, but at the end of the day they lead near identical lives materially. For every place you expect to find conservatives, you will also find liberals living the exact same material condition. For every place you expect to find liberals, you will also find conservatives living the exact same material conditions.
Cus at the end of the day, what people believe in their heart-of-hearts doesn't matter. It's what they do. And you can find people on both sides of the culture divide doing basically anything, at every income bracket. It's not necessarily 1-to-1, certain contexts have selective pressure for certain perspectives -- but that pressure isn't absolute.
"Wealthy elite" always seemed like codeword for anyone on the west and east coast making over 70k, has dyed hair and votes democrat. Like I got family spread all over the midwest and all I hear is mainly ranting hate rags about random fuckin' people the "news" tells them is the problem (similar to the hate "Trump country" gets from libs). Like mutual aid can help some of these peeps see the light, start them off small and bring in more stuff about how it's in the interests of wealthy people (don't use terms like 'capitalists' yet) to keep working class people down and that everybody doing labor (engineers, truck drivers, nurses, fast food workers, garbage peeps) all make this country run. Minute you bring up theory or writing though you get immediate :frothingfash:
Either way though I feel it will take a decade or two of humiliation and collapse to actually get wide swaths of peeps interested in what socialists have been saying since forever.
Let's not play the old game of "who's better for the left, chuds or libs?". Cuz ultimately they both suck for different reasons, and you're gonna face an uphill battle converting either.
^ What you will find is that they will both side with each other to murder us the second they realize we're unironic communists.
A bit of idealism is good, its how humans operate.
