I always feel like I'm hanging out in a punk/hardcore music scene (various anarchist groups, psl to some extent) or with lame improv nerds (dsa). I don't see either of these groups connecting with very many working class people. This is obviously a huge problem but (at least where I am) there is very little attempt to organize or recruit people making minimum wage, fast food workers, service industry, manual laborers etc. I mean shouldn't this be the main priority right now? I don't know I'm just venting but I'm baffled by how bad at organizing these groups are. Do they really just like being this cliquey group that is hard to get into and that's what really matters?
The reason the left is mostly young and consists of college or recent graduates today has its historical contexts and reasons traced back to the new left in the 60s after having been previously purged from union leadership positions in the 50s and earlier by the HCUA and McCarthy and undergoing a major split and a shifting demographic by moving to cities. When that happened the left started orienting itself around the student movement and organizing marches and demonstrations through the 60s and 70s and saying things like "the students are the revolution", something that has virtually no historical context, nor any particular strategic implication that can often translate beyond mere spectacle. This largely shifted the socialist movement from its previous strong presence in organized labor, which hasnt been able to recover till now.