It’s really just a progression of finding out how fucking evil the ruling class is right? Like learning how many people the US government has fucking murdered for bananas and shit really pushed me from rad lib soc dem to ML. Or is there more to it than that? Because if it is that simple we need a good way to agitate that better that doesn’t require a fuck ton of extracurricular reading.
There are a lot of multipliers too, like being part of an ostracized group will make the progression a lot faster and often fulfill those first three prerequisites a lot quicker. Like being trans, or disabled, an immigrant, etc. Trans people in particular will come out of the gate already questioning implicit social norms and structures, already hitting point 4 sometimes before they even hit those first three. In my experience, things like having been arrested or having been homeless also make a person much more open to listening. Problem is it’s often an openness to listen to absolutely anyone who can provide an alternate explanation.
Also I don’t know how to address this one, but I’ve been around leftists online and in real life orgs and there’s a massive proclivity for the members to be kind of bookish, meek types. Maybe that’s just where we’re at culturally or that’s just the only avenue for learning and growth. Well ok, or more directly, leftists are a bunch of absolute nerds for the most part. I don’t know if that’s a problem that needs to be addressed or if it’s just how things go, but I don’t know how many favors it does for things like union/party/org recruitment. Like the things you described in steps 4-6 are things that I’ve only ever seen highly educated folk do, either self-educated or through academics. Not sure how to say what I’m thinking. Maybe it’s there needs to be a more universal way of getting our point across, but maybe we’re just not powerful enough yet to do that.
