Nobody's actually a neoliberal. They're either fascists or people being led by the nose by fascists. Basically if you frame your argument properly I think most people are fully on board with socialism it's just propaganda and poisoned language that prevents many from realizing it.
There's also willful ignorance created by class (petite-borgiouisie). It seems largely because people who are privileged have a harder time understanding how much poorer people struggle, meaning I'm basically in agreement with you. Most relatively wealthy people don't really have a personal interest in oppressing people (although there are definitely some ghoulish and racist people out there).
"So, consider this single stick. Alone it is weak. But bundle the sticks into a removed, then top it with an ax, and you've got the symbol for... uh... shit."
Well, weren't early fascist movements pretty left wing? Before their ideology cristalized. I feel like even today people would tend to lean more towards fascism rather than socialism, because of this, and the legacy of capitalism... Socialism requires a little bit of a trust in humanity and empathy, which I feel are in short supply. Which makes it very easy to slip into the fascy path ...
No, they may have had some reforms for working conditions and social welfare in their platforms but that all came packaged with "we need to use incredible violence to destroy the Bolsheviks ravaging our country." And fascism always changes and morphs to suit its needs and aquire more power. It's disingenuous and a little dangerous to describe it as left wing. But you're right in that fascism seems to be an easier leap for libs to make, I'd wager mostly because of their nationalist rhetoric
Oh, I absolutey dont want to describe it as left wing. More like an amorphous blob, that uses whatever it can to get power, but ultimately ends up very far right as it gains power. Like a cynical realpolitik type of thing. My point is that early on, when it doesnt have power it will try to attract people with traditionally left-wing consolations - i.e. working conditions and social welfate, whereas the incredible violence kind of comes when they start gaining power. And that it kind of seems easier for people (as in the masses, devoid of ideology) to go down that alley, instead of the more peaceful socialism path. Think of "social welfare and rights, but for me and people like me, and concentration camps for immigrants" type of thing instead of - does it make sense?
Yeah honestly I think you nailed it lol. Those sort of early reforms is how fascism distinguishes itself from the status quo.
And this is also a problem I struggle with - how do you build a movement and make a revolution that doesnt get coopted by a bunch of reactionaries, or wanna be fascists. Also how do you overcome these tendencies within the masses. I kind of lowkey suspect this fear is what drives so much of leftist in-fighting...
Well, weren’t early fascist movements pretty left wing?
In so far as they were out of power and part of the fractious maelstrom of opposition, sure.
Socialism requires a little bit of a trust in humanity and empathy, which I feel are in short supply. Which makes it very easy to slip into the fascy path …
Socialidm requires you to reject the theory of innate primacy, whether it be individual, familial, racial, national, or otherwise.
But "you're special" is an easy sell, especially if it helps reinforce some other prejudice or satisfy some perceived sleight.
This has worked for me in the past, but only like twice.
Edit: That said, the more the reactionaries flail normal upstanding people trying to aid their neighbours as communists, the better it is for us. At some point people are going to be like, "oh, I never realize how cool communism is."
"You said the communism, don't you know that Stalin killed seventy bajillion people and was worse than Hitler? Checkmate SJW cultural Marxists 😎😎😎😎"
"They talk about the failure of socialism but where is the success of capitalism in Africa, Asia and Latin America?"
Is that Parenti? I automatically read it in his voice.
"Why would the larger class not simply eat the smaller one?"
A thing I've been doing is using the term "laborist". I saw it in a meme but it's really done wonders. Noone shuts down hearing "laborism", just my opinion.
The strong bundle of weak sticks is literally where fascism gets its name
I made the mistake of explaining why unions are good drunk to a bunch of service workers in my community at 1am once and one of them said "so it's like a bundle of sticks, we're stronger together?" To which my dumbass responded "no you see the sticks are fascist".
I think most of them got it, but "the sticks are fascist" was hard for the rest of my wasted latenight server comrades to wrap their heads around.
yeah but the dominant association is with italian fascists. just like the swastika existed before nazis, if you go around with a swastika on your face, chances are, people will think you're a nazi
I just go hard bore with it and don't apologize for anything. People can tell when you're being coy and it comes off as a lack of confidence. With my close friends who have known me for decades, my approach is along the lines of "communism is something that was stolen from you, and I'm here to give it back." It's easy for me because that's how I truly feel about the matter.
I work in tech and have a tired and true path of starting with how VCs suck to talking to folks about cooperatives.
But yeah then I slip up and mention guillotines or something. Oops!
Hey I'm in tech too. If you don't mind typing it all out I'd love to hear more about that method.
Tech organizing tips
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The basics still apply. Get your coworkers to complain about their job, ask what they'd change about it, pick a change you also like, say it'd be nice if we negotiated to get it, well acktshually if we all went at once...
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Don't be the first one to say the word union.
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Programmers often feel a bit guilty about their pay. Focus discussion of goals on other topics, like vacation time, reducing on-call load / reducing tech debt, 20% time, and the ability to work from home (not sure how well that last one plays during quarantine, I switched to coops before covid started). Folks I talked to were also big on winning better protections for contractors and non-tech workers working in their companies (which is awesome), though I think you need at least something that concretely benefits the tech workers themselves to really get people to turn out.
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If someone realizes you're talking about unions and regurgitates anti-union propaganda, you can counter that by pinning every problem people have heard about unions on the fact that modern unions are small and confined to single companies (donoteat01's organized labor video explains some of the reasons this is true in a fun way). Tech workers really like the idea of cross-company unions, even ones who start skeptical.
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Tech folks like the word guild better than union. Yeah yeah lol D&D nerds I know. But I think more importantly, the Screen Actor's Guild is a lot closer to what tech workers actually want representing them than most unions are.
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Getting nerds to chant is really hard. But this is a crowd full of people who like karaoke, so I'm pretty sure you could get them singing old union songs instead, especially on the second try (after they've had time to be embarrassed not knowing the words and go home to research).
What’s the difference between the Screen Actors Guild and an average union, and why is it better suited for tech workers?
It's still a successful industry-wide union. Actors can work a job, finish it, get employed by a different project, and still be represented by the SAG.
Firstly that's just a good trait to have. It's also one of the traits that plays really well with tech workers in general (point 4 above). And importantly, many tech workers are contractors or freelancers, or rely on hopping between companies for career advancement, so that's an important feature to them.
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One of these things is not like the others, one of these things doesn't belong 🎶
I feel like you might not get what the terms mean. If you like I could point you in directions to understand why you're misinformed.
