Theory Recommendation Request - A lot of liberals/Dems in my life are facing crises of political consciousness watching the police collaborate with the protestors to attack "a sacred symbol of American democracy." This is a fantastic chance to move them left, but I'm hesitant to recommend anything that's too heavy.

What are some good entry-level works that are accessible to people that think the West Wing and Jon Ossoff are unironically good? Keep in mind things like S&R are disqualified because Lenin is pretty stigmatized in their brains. Need something more vanilla/unknown.

  • Wojackhorseman2 [he/him]
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    4 years ago

    Depends on their age and how deep you think they’re ready to plunge.

    This won’t be perfect bc I’m a little busy at the moment and can’t organize this properly but:

    I like to use the alt-right playbook for libs who are already looking sideways at trump supporters. And innuendo studios has other videos that are a bit more into socialism if they like it and stick with the channel.

    Renegade cut also has some good vids that can help plant the seeds that we need to go beyond the Democrats. He has a lot of good work antagonizing dems from the left without going full blown scary communist.

    As far as books, I don’t have much lib adjacent theory experience tbh, but lighter ones would be something like Manufacturing consent by chomsky and/or inventing realities by parenti.

    Modern Imperialism by John smith, pretty good at showing how we do bad shit despite what party is in office tho it does assume anti-imperialism is good which is a bit of a bar to hop for libs, good to put it in their thoughts tho

    Anyway I’ll maybe try to add some more later but these are a couple lighter and lib friendly resources and I’m sure some other comrades will offer up some good stuff to

    • MirrorMadness [he/him]
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      4 years ago

      Thanks for the reply. Innuendo Studios is great as its pretty tame and extremely reasonable. Will start there.

      • Wojackhorseman2 [he/him]
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        4 years ago

        And I’m back.

        Innuendo is good. Renegade has similar vibes but a bit dry so depends on the person

        It pains me to say this but philosophy tube can be good for younger people or people who’d be interested in his theater kid vibes. He does a good job of sneaking in radical language without being over the top like “and that’s whether your a Marxist... or not that cool yet smile” shit like that

        Mexie is pretty good too and presents some pretty radical stuff sometimes but never comes across as too hostile.

        A really good one would be some more news, with Cody Johnston. His always very critical and on point on the dems. If they liked Jon Stewart or the daily show it’s a good rec.

        I saw some people recommending black shirts, I definitely think that book is required reading but if someone is fully lib brained idk if it’s the first book I’d reach for as, IMO, a lot of the messages may meet resistance in their propagandized brains. That’s why i suggested something like inventing realities which will soften them up to accept more anti-establishment views/truths

        People should also read settlers. Idk if it’s the first book I’d go for but it’s nice to have in mind.

        And then just try sending various memes to people. They really can help a bit over a period of time, start to legitimize ideas and alternative points of views.