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  • MayoPete [he/him, comrade/them]
    ·
    4 months ago

    Why do you believe people can't change? I believe life experience + propaganda + material conditions will move people left.

    I used to be a lib that phone banked for Obama phoenix-bashful

    • Diuretic_Materialism [he/him]
      ·
      4 months ago

      Individuals can change, there's no social basis for more broader change. We are just a subculture of hobbyists with nothing we can build an actual movement on.

      Most westerns I meet who end up in our general corner of the left seem to be here more cuz they're nerds who are into history and economics, not out of any real social drive to support the revolution. The population of people who are nerdy the exact same way we are is fucking tiny. There's no material basis of an actual major mass movement, just a niche community or nerds. Most people are fixed where they are because there is no larger force compelling them to change, the forces encouraging them to either stay where they're at or double down are much more compelling.

      • MayoPete [he/him, comrade/them]
        ·
        4 months ago

        The challenge we face is showing people the connection between their eroding material conditions and our politics. You're right that we aren't at the point where we can convince people en masse, but I have to believe we can get there.

        I agree that there's a "type" that ends up here. We sure love a lot of metal and/or electronic music, computers, and other nerd-coded things. We are a pretty white group, all sorts of queer, and not really into "traditional" man interests like trucks or riding horses or sportsball. We'd rather see Amon Amarth than Taylor Swift.

        And we think most people are dumber than us. Call it carry over from the lib mindset.

        I think we have less traction than similar movements because a) the Capitalist propaganda is much better than in the past, b) the "treats" are basically mind Crack at this point (we all know people addicted to some online game or engrossed in their hobby of choice, and it's all designed like a slot machine these days aka Engineered to create addiction), c) We haven't gone out of our way to organize the public as well as we can, d) Socialism isn't a "new shiny thing".

        I don't have the answers but where I am starting is collecting propaganda that is hopefully more effective than telling people to read dense 200-year-old books.