I've deradicalized 3 chuds so far. Two were capital "G" gamers who routinely dropped the gamer word, and the other is my boomer Reganite co-worker. And now all three are now card carrying sra members. It's fucking exhausting but it's also literal praxis and worth ever minute.
Read as much theory as you can. Yeah it fucking sucks. Yeah it's fucking work. But this is the bare minimum to be anything other than a bitchy do nothing lib. Audiobooks and video essays are fine. Make time for this because it will pay dividends.
Learn the Socratic method. The dude was onto something with this one. If you can git gud at this form of debate, you can change minds. It takes time, but it's like planting and watering a seed. It takes a long time before you'll see anything happen, but once it does, it's satisfying.
Keep at it constantly. And start with the small shit. I like to start with basic capitalism and money velocity. Help them understand how corps are like pyramid schemes. Or how stores like walmart suck money out of a community and deposit it thousands of miles away. You're trying to build a foundation. Chuds are mad at capitalism, they just don't know it. But don't use words like capitalism, Marxism, proletariat or things like that. Those words stop thoughts. Use "big business", "economics" and "working class".
Pick your battles, but don't give up ground you've already gained. If you've talked them down off some racist bullshit, don't give an inch back. Set it in stone and never move. But don't push forward too hard either. Too much and they will shut off. Baby steps.
And finally, always be understanding and willing to listen without getting upset. Stay even keeled and consistent. Don't mirror their volume or anger. But do empathize with them. You're trying to undo literal decades of mental trauma, shit is going to be dicey in there.
Beyond that, don't get discouraged if you can't reach them all. At the end of the day you really don't owe them a response at all. They will probably get addicted to arguing with you if you're any good. Humans have a natural desire to debate. And withholding your argument is an equally valid tool in your arsenal.
I have mastered the art of reeling them back in after a slam dunk. They are pain pigs, the whole lot of them.
Do you have any audio / video recs for some intro theory and Socratic method? I made a post about it a little while ago, but didn't get any response. I'm someone with a learning disability and having some of this stuff stick is difficult for me.
Im dyslexic, so I do best with audiobooks and video essays. I would start with youtube. Breadtube gets shit on around here for being too lib, but it's a great entry point. Philosophy tube is good for the basics of philosophy. I also like radical reviewer. His reviews of books help me decide if reading a particular book will be interesting enough to hold my attention. From there, audiobook bay is great for free books. Anarchist library too.
Ill see if I can find a vid for the Socratic method in The morning.
did you ever find any material for learning the socratic method? i need it so badly!
I completely forgot about this! I have been doing some YouTube searching and this is a fun introduction:
https://youtu.be/1SClxi3yYaI It uses a scene from Pulp Fiction to explain the basis of the Socratic Method.
https://youtu.be/EB4MYGInRl4 This is a very useful lecture with slides
https://youtu.be/yIbV1nzOqgM This is a quick intro to how it can be applied in a classroom setting
https://youtu.be/46CYtwXH_aE Longer lecture I haven't finished watching yet
It seems like a lot of law schools have resources on this. There also seems to be applications in behavioral therapy and teaching. If you are looking for help in regards to casual arguments, I'm sure there's more generalized resources out there. I'm going to keep looking myself and I'll let you know!
I work in a construction-adjascent industry, so I interact with chuds daily. Folks with Trump stickers on their hard hats and welders masks aren't uncommon.
What I do, to start out, is act dumb. Some people don't talk politics at all, which is alright. You can talk to people about socialism without talking about what most people think of as politics. A lot of people in construction know the rate that their company charges for their labor, or the quoted price for the job they're currently on, and pointing out and complaining about the huge difference between that and our wages isn't political to most people, for example.
Some people will start talking about a recent event, clearly trying to probe you out. I avoid whatever the lib response is, because it's usually at least partially wrong, and chuds are already innoculated against it by their preferred right wing dork, while also not going for the straight theoretical communist response. I say something that they're not going to expect that's also not bad.
As an aside, when I found out that Bernie had dropped out, I was in a work truck with a full crew getting lunch. A guy in the backseat was scrolling Facebook and said "Oh shit, Bernie Sanders dropped out." The truck was silent. Working people, even those with a mild case of right wing brainworms, know where their bread is buttered. They'll shit on Pelosi, and Schumer, and Clinton, and Biden all day long. But from most of the people I've worked with, Sanders doesn't get that kind of response. People have got a certain respect for him, and are clearly open to left ideas. People who would otherwise support the right.
Now, some people will open up with a screed that could've been written for Breitbart. "Damn, that's crazy" gets me a lot of milage. You gotta pick your moments with these people, but the ones you get can be great. Like, when the Pfizer vaccine was looking like it was going to be ready soon, after the election, and chuds were saying it was all part of a conspiracy to make Trump look bad, I got to break out "Dude, Trump said that there'd be a vaccine before the end of the year" and it broke their fucking brain lmao.
But there are a few people who are left of lib that I work with. A coworker of mine had seen a train on another jobsite where someone had painted information about violence against and abductions of native women, and that was an experience that had clearly effected him. There's an architect I work with sometimes who won't come out and say that he's a leftist, but his politics are too good to be a lib.
We all laugh at anti-Biden memes, though.
ive recently tried to think of it as an anthropologically study. what do these people really believe? what are their limits to the cypto-fascism that they follow. i suppose in your guy, it might just be obviously, on its face, "all of it." these days I have to deal mostly with libs, which can be a bit more subtle. so my new plan is gentle leading questions (if i don't get too frustrated first; had one being a slave apologist and i almost walked out).
I pretend to be totally culturally illiterate around the chuds I work with, they fill me in on all current events. I made them explain the "Black anthem" during the NFL season starting. My best one is acknowledging how close this election was despite the vote rigging, then suggesting some political gesture like legalizing marijuana or another stimulus check would have probably been enough to get Trump the win.
Lift Every Voice and Sing. The guy freaking out about it did not even know the name, the look on his face when I asked was priceless. He then went on a rant that being a black athlete is a special privilege and Lebron James and Jussie Smollet are ruining the labor market by enticing young black men into the entertainment industry and instead they should get blue collar jobs because their "physical" prowess makes them well suited for it. Then if they live humble lives instead of acting like victims they will be able to start a nuclear family and stay out of prison. Ya know, the usual talking points.
Oh, I thought it was some weird shit about changing the national anthem to be "blacker" or something lol. Love the race science aspect to convincing young athletes to turn their "physical prowess" to blue collar jobs though.
They were livid that I didn't understand that cancel culture is bad. I just corrected them and said it sounds a lot like a boycott that effectively made a company cave to their demands, it's the invisible hand of the market at work.
they're just regurgitating propaganda, it's all they know how to do. it's hard to get them to "go left" but it's easy enough to get them to see that both parties are the same. just start talking about wealth inequality and you can usually find a small amount of common ground.
I work with 90% libs but they’re just as frustrating as chuds. I’ll never forget the day I blurted out at work “you’re all still following the Mueller probe!?” After it was clear it would yield nothing. I’m pretty sure a few jaws dropped lol.
I would ignore them as much as possible or just agree with “yeah the Dems suck” but then make an immediate left turn to really shock their brains.
Plan A: stop talking to idiots
Plan B: if you must talk to idiots, do so as little as possible
Either find common ground with them about hating Democrats, or just Agree and Amplify when they say stupid shit. There's no point in arguing with people, anymore than there is arguing with an NPC in a video game. Pick your battles.
That's why it's such a good meme! The online Left is just too uptight and doesn't recognize that most of the pepe/wojack memes can easily be used to attack Right wingers if you aren't actually a radlib scold!
This is a copy of my own comment from a little while ago. I just idk, deal with it. I rly just avoid speaking to him as much as possible. Honestly just being able to come here and vent about it helps me more than anything. Knowing I'm not alone with my frustrations.
"There's a guy who sites next to me at work. He is the chuddiest chud that ever chudded. Honestly I think it's beyond chud. Like he's such a hard core class traitor it's hard for me to really believe he's a real human sometimes. Like litteraly doesn't believe national holidays should exist because it interferes with capitalism level of bootlicking. Every rich person ever deserves to be super rich because if you go back far enough then their ancestors ancestor was a hard working entrepreneur who started his business with nothing but the shirt on his back and shit. And he has thay shitty big brain neolib tone whenever he talks about anything. God fuck I hate him. If he was a 12th century Scotsman he would litteraly argue that British lords are good and totally deserve to fuck everyone's virgin wives on their wedding night. The funniest part is he's the sole income for a family of 3 and isn't making that much money. He would benefit more than anyone I know from social policies. Hates the U. S. Healthcare system but vehemently believes that any system that involves something other than a capitalist approach would somehow be worse. I could go on and on about the insanity that is this guys existence but I'll just leave it. I just had to express somewhere, just how much I hate this piece of trash. "
Just tune them out. Unless your family is the DuPonts or one of the other 10 families that run this country or your daddy works for the federal government, they literally have no power to affect their lives or the lives of pretty much anyone. They could commit hate crimes or do some other shit but most people are not that fucked up and they'll just be outspokenly awful people.
My parents are gusanos and they talk so much shit and trash about venezuela and socialism because they can't do anything else. They have no power, no control, no influence to exert.
Sure talk to them about history and recommend them books but don't beat yourself over the fact they are just freaks with no education.
how [to keep sane around/do you deal with] chuds irl?
well now see first i go a [parody] and then the [satire] right in the [redacted] until [censored] while the whole thing gets over to [minecraft] where i give em the ol [ironic caricature]
seriously tho, why are you subjecting yourself to that? stop having long conversations with these people and you wont have this issue.
edit: i mean, wtf is the point of discussing syria with someone who refuses to believe that the cia is bad and calls you, and everyone thats reported on it, a liar?
