try to talk to everyone, including those who seem reactionary on the surface, and you shouldn’t lose your shit at the dumb shit they might say. And as the time passes you come to realize the value of that, as you see people change, and even the people who don’t can sometimes do something good.

This approach is needed because no one knows how to build socialism in the imperial core. We don't know where the next socialists are going to come from (i.e., whether they'll be former libs, former small-c conservatives, former apolitical folk, etc.) so -- like Jesus -- you have to spray that seed all over the place and see where it takes. We can adjust our strategy as we learn more, but for now we have to recognize that we don't have enough organizing experience to write off whole segments of the population.