You are not going to change his mind with one conversation. At best you can plant seeds and teach him something new or correct some misunderstanding he has of marxism (which sounds like he has alot of)

My frustrations are with people who have no idea what’s going on and feel proud about not wanting to find out.

This has been my struggle for a while. I’m pretty convinced that the principle issue of America/the west is not that there are “dumb people” that support Trump and right wing policies though they contradict with their class interest, it’s the people who are apathetic and are only able to think about what’s immediately in front of them (I need more money, I need this treat etc.) and disconnect everything else going on, such as when people are wrongfully detained they assume that it would never happen to them.

I’ve also found that when prodded, these people will not want to learn or get involved because it will make them depressed (they also say “I’m not interested” as if it’s some hobby), but also they have a discontent for their current lifestyle anyways. There are infinite excuses they will make up on why not to learn or get involved.

Have to hand it to her for having consistently bad takes. Makes it really easy to hate her

Not sure if this counts as right wing, but I sympathize with some of Dostoevsky’s philosophy. If we look at how fascism triumphed over socialism, there was an irrational and emotional component to it that drew people in, which in some ways socialism fails to do because it’s rooted in objectiveness. And I believe Dostoevsky touches on this in his works where he has characters that are disillusioned with society but also disillusioned with the revolutionary movement, because it all boils down to objectiveness. I believe he is a reactionary, but also in real life he was part of revolutionary movements so he has real lived experience of what it’s like to try to change society, which I find interesting.

That being said I do think socialism can have a subjective appeal to the masses, in that it aims to ensure prosperity and liberation for all.

Maybe I’m biased but you can even see the difference in cultures between predominantly Catholic countries vs Protestant countries. The former seems to have alot more distinctiveness and (not very, but slightly more) collectiveness

I don’t know if this is a cultural US liberal thing of thinking oneself too unique for a movement

It’s mostly this. We are brought up with individualist propaganda and great man theory bullshit to explain how everything works in our society. Then you get people who feel alienated at the mention of a “society” or “community” cause they think they’re special snowflakes that don’t fit in with everyone else, when our culture is designed that way.

We need to organize better. There is a lack of militant groups that aren’t just straight up fascists.

How to build up an organization, idk, that is the hard part. I feel like the most compelling thing you can ask someone is what would they do if shit really went down? Police won’t protect you. Your company won’t protect you. Your friend group or family is probably too small or weak.

Maybe its possible to sway left wing groups to be more militant and armed?

At least shit really hasn’t hit the fan yet that we can still organize.

Inshallah comrade

Bernie and AOC have demonstrated that they will compromise on their “principles” ( if you even consider them that) to fallback to the Democratic party line. Putting our support in them is not a way to move their supporters to the left, but for them to move leftists to the right.

I think AOC is just a careerist, and Bernie is genuine, but functionally they are the same. I think of it similar to the SPD in Germany during the late 1910s and how it compromised with the bourgeois which killed any real revolution from happening.

Bernie wants billionaires to “pay their fair share” and then what? Is that really the root of the problem? They start paying more taxes and everything becomes fine for us?

I think in order to move people further left, we have to break their trust in AOC in Bernie. They have to see that there is no politician out there that actually is fighting for their interests, and their salvation lies in their own hands and they must organize.

Edit: oops I meant to reply to your other comment

I mean with the defunding of USAID maybe? China giving an alternative to the IMF that allows countries to take loans to develop themselves in a more flexible way. It seems more promising than it ever has for the third world.

I think the working class in the west and eu is still too disorganized for a revolution. I believe the material conditions are there, but the class conscious and organizational structure to guide the working class are not, for various reasons.

Wartime revolutionary action against one’s own government indubitably means, not only desiring its defeat, but really facilitating such a defeat.

banger quote. So he’s calling out the people who say they are against the war, but take no action that would impede the government from waging the war.

The war cannot but evoke among the masses the most turbulent sentiments, which upset the usual sluggish state of mass mentality. Revolutionary tactics are impossible if they are not adjusted to these new turbulent sentiments.

I think this is important when analyzing our own modern day situations, and not just taking what Lenin lists out here and applying it willy-nilly. It is my belief that we do not need to gain the support of the masses before performing an action because if we can understand the “turbulent sentiments” correctly, then we can come to a conclusion of what the correct action is. By performing the correct action we gain support of the masses. I think of it kinda like the whole UnitedHealthcare CEO situation, but the killer was not organized and only arrived at a correct action by chance.

Those who stand for the “neither-victory-nor-defeat” slogan are in fact on the side of the bourgeoisie and the opportunists, for they do not believe in the possibility of inter national revolutionary action by the working class against their own governments,

This is a nice way of framing it. In the end our goal is the revolution and everything we do is to achieve that end.

edit: I dunno how you are going about selecting texts, but could I submit a vote for Theses on the National and Colonial Questions

This is actually the first time I’ve seen the original

How do y’all talk to libs about how the media is portraying Trump as subservient to Putin? For example refusing aid to Ukraine and easing sanctions on Russia. I don’t really have a good answer other than the long history after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and that the US and Russia would probably never be allies.

I can understand why he’d be hard on Ukraine, but even I have trouble understanding why Trump seems so friendly with Russia

Unironically, there are so many parallels with Harry potter and the way modern liberals act

Joe Rogan is the ultimate example of social being determining your conscious. As he got richer and more popular he became more right wing.

I also agree and don’t think it was a deliberate long con by any of them (well maybe Tim Pool?). They are all just products of their environments. The right also understands how important it is to control the cultural hegemony. Theyre not just talking to people about politics, but all sorts of different niches.

American online right wing propaganda is way too strong, to a point where its just a self-sustaining plague on the internet. The way it turns apolitical people into right wing nut jobs is quite scary. I would bet most people in China are apolitical and that would be ripe picking for the propaganda.

Definitely something missing imo. The right has the monopoly on violence, and even though I’d say the left can ultimately appeal to more people and have strength in numbers, a willingness to use violence can overcome that. I think it is as you said: it sounds very LARP-y until it isn’t. This is probably by design though, as any leftist group that does pick up arms or does combat training will be a target for repression.

I was in a similar position. Best advice I can give is to try to find a local Marxist org if you can. Luckily there was one for me, but I know not everyone has one. I think isolating ourselves is probably the worst thing we can do right now, even though the capitalist system makes it easy to do so.

I used to think that I could convince my more lib/conservative minded friends since I read so much, but it’s not that easy even if you have all the knowledge needed for making a point. I have never successfully converted someone, but I think I at least made them think a little bit more critically and even have them agree with me on some things.

Even in the context of Trump being in charge of the US right now, I still feel somewhat alone when talking to liberal-resistance-minded people about it because it’s like they’re approaching it from another universe of belief about how things work.

Yea I feel this too, and imo it’s because they are not against the system but the individuals running the system.

I been getting clips of her too. I could only watch for a couple seconds before I had to stop because I couldn’t stand her smugness

I feel like there’s no theory behind what kind of revolution can take place in the global north, at least none that I’m aware of. We’re still going off of past revolutions which happened in times where the societies were much different and the technological level was alot lower. Curious what others think could be a possible avenue for revolution.

My thoughts are that the consciousness of people are not at the level where a true proletarian revolution can take place (at least in my country in the global north). This is mainly due to neoliberal brainwashing and the fact that people don’t view China as socialist. Im seeing more pull towards neoliberalism as the material conditions degrade, partly because people don’t realize there is any other option. They all think it’s a tradeoff between having a good economy and letting everyone have their basic needs met.