Shit sucks and is bad for the brain
The only good Contrapoints video is where she points out you can make much more headway by being cool. Not cool as in well-liked, but cool as in calm, collected, confident, and quiet. The people yelling the loudest in a conversation sound the least certain of their principles.
Unironically, look at how the chapo guys talk about this shit (excluding Matt when he’s drunk). Look at how Amber talks about anything. Look at how the guys on Trilbilly Workers Party talk about anything. Look at how the Citations Needed people talk about anything.
I get it. Our base instincts after seeing the matrix code is to just start shrieking and hope that it helps somebody else see it too. It won’t. Ya gotta stay cool, so you can calmy and clearly explain your stance.
This is easier said than done, especially when you’re talk about basic historical facts with people who fundamentally don’t give a shit, or when the topic of debate is whether you deserve basic human rights.
It’s hard to stay cool when you’re being asked to prove you’re a person.
But if you can’t stay cool, a short and simple “That’s fucked up, man” can do wonders on its own.
“You are in fact allowed to have specific ideological positions.” One of the harder lessons to get through.
I think maybe that’s why some of the coolest leftists I know got there before social media and they’ve had a decade or more to chill out. That initial burst of clarity when everything seems to snap into focus the first time you read Marx or Kropotkin is really powerful and can break your brain. I know this game comes up a lot, but Disco Elysium is so good at this. Once you start making your character a leftist, he can’t help himself and brings it up in every conversation. He comes across as naive and weird, shouting about firing squads and crimes against humanity. That’s not cool.
You’re right, just talk to people like normal people. They respond better to that. Definitely don’t talk down to people or act smug because you’ve read stuff they haven’t. Try to meet people where they are if they’re curious and wanna talk about things. Not everyone’s perfect
0.000% of Communism has been built. Evil child-murdering billionaires still rule the world with a shit-eating grin. All he has managed to do is make himself sad. He is starting to suspect Kras Mazov fucked him over personally with his socio-economic theory. It has, however, made him into a very, very smart boy with something like a university degree in Truth. Instead of building Communism, he now builds a precise model of this grotesque, duplicitous world.
:lt-dbyf-dubois:
Great post, agree 100%. Getting emotional about these kind of things gives the impression you’re under threat, like you’re not confident you can defend your own position.
Being a communist in an age where capital is setting the Earth on fire is a very easy-to-defend position, people defending the status quo should be on their back heels not us.
people defending the status quo should be on their back heels not us.
Live and breathe this mentality. It’s true, and a lot of them know it.
There’s a great quote from Dmitri Lascaris, in a response to a self-identified centrist he was debating:
“In my opinion we have to stop talking about persons defending the status quo as moderate, if you have a status quo that is leading you towards extinction ultimately, that’s extremism. The people who are the true moderates in this race are those who calling upon this country and this party to take the steps necessary to deal with a fundamentally flawed economic system that is leading us down the path of climate crisis”
Fun fact Contrapoints has interviewed Hillary Clinton about being a gutsy woman
Did you know leaked Hillary Clinton emails revealed NATO killed Gaddafi to stop the formation of a United States of Africa leaked Hillary Clinton emails revealed NATO killed Gaddafi to stop the formation of a United States of Africa leaked Hillary Clinton emails revealed NATO killed Gaddafi to stop the formation of a United States of Africa leaked Hillary Clinton emails revealed NATO killed Gaddafi to stop th
