I always feel like I’m hanging out in a punk/hardcore music scene (various anarchist groups, psl to some extent) or with lame improv nerds (dsa). I don’t see either of these groups connecting with very many working class people. This is obviously a huge problem but (at least where I am) there is very little attempt to organize or recruit people making minimum wage, fast food workers, service industry, manual laborers etc. I mean shouldn’t this be the main priority right now? I don’t know I’m just venting but I’m baffled by how bad at organizing these groups are. Do they really just like being this cliquey group that is hard to get into and that’s what really matters?
I completely agree. While counter-culture and “leftism” will always go hand in hand to an extent, in the US and most of the west it seems like you have to subscribe to the counter-culture in order to be a leftist at all. You see it on this website too, with debates/memes over what is the true proletarian art/transport/hobby/lifestyle and what is not (which ironically alienates workers of course). I think that a major hurdle in making the radical left popular in the west will be “normalizing” the left without losing its radical nature.
