I think it's tough to have conversations around hot button issues where they've spent the last week getting talking points from mainstream media and politicians. These stupid arguments are fresh in their minds and they're more willing to take a stand against them because they just saw people whose opinions they value for whatever reason do the same.

For example, I recently got into a similar argument with somebody about the minimum wage argument and they kept talking about the Parliamentarian and how the Byrd Rule clearly states it's illegal to add a minimum wage increase to a bill in reconciliation (it's absolutely not illegal and the Parliamentarian can easily be overidden). If we had this same argument two months ago they probably would have agreed with me, they probably wouldn't have even known about the Parliamentarian or the Byrd Rule, and we could have had a productive discussion about the dire need to raise the minimum wage.

As for how we cure american insanity. That's a tough one haha. There are some pretty bad things deeply ingrained in the american psyche. I think the old-school promoting class consciousness is still a great route. I tend to get the most traction bringing up the fact that wages have been stagnant or close to stagnant for a long time while the cost of living continues to rise, and the only people who are increasing their wealth are extremely wealthy, the pace they're increasing their wealth is absolutely astounding. It's stupid, but once you place the person you're talking to into the category of people getting screwed over, even if they're PMC, suddenly they start to feel like they're on the outside of capitalism looking in.