If you’re right and you aren’t willing to actually communicate why, or worse, if you’re right and you don’t even understand why, you might as well be wrong.
If you’re going to argue with people on the internet, and I know you are, either go full irony or actually take time to work out an argument that you know is going to be persuasive, none of this halvsies shit.
I was on the edge of becoming a leftist for like six months. That’s literally how long it took for me to even be exposed to the idea that capitalism is bad for inherent and structural reasons, and not because of all the really obvious shit that liberals also disagree with but think can be reformed away.
The entire appeal of the right is that it’s an easy, bullshit explanation that requires no work and preys on deeply engrained societal prejudices.
Our job is just harder, requires more effort, and will more frequently fail.
Harder to teach someone calculus than to tell them a wizard did it.
“I’m not racist but why do black people commit so much crime in comparison to other races?”
Part of the trick is figuring out who’s in that borderline group (where they are potentially open to a real answer) and who’s just trolling. It’s probably best to assume the former, at least at first, because (a) you don’t want to lose those borderline people and (b) unless you’re in the ass-end of the internet, there are usually more people lurking and reading the exchange than there are people actively taking part in it.
Everyone is different.
More important than developing a super strong argument (which is basically just a gotya) is starting someone down the path towards the disavowal of hegemony needed to radicalize, which is the state you need to be in before you can accept a leftist orientation.
I knew most of the shit I know now when I was liberal. I needed permission to follow my gut and reject all the easy status quo counterarguments. I needed permission to see it from a different angle.
Just hearing someone say Capitalism was the problem over and over again helped me a lot. And inaction on climate is what sealed it.
But everyone is going to have a different trigger. Getting an intuitive sense of what that is, and pressing that button, is way better for the vast majority of people, who need a demonstration of how this shit affects their real life.
Just hearing someone say Capitalism was the problem over and over again helped me a lot. And inaction on climate is what sealed it.
These were also big for me. It was similarly helpful to read about ways things could be done better, or have been done better. It’s easy to convince yourself that even if capitalism sucks it’s still the best system there is – that’s capitalist realism for you.
The example I chose is a pretty generous one, with arguments that are pretty close to being correct. The bad arguments problem goes a lot farther into arguments that are a lot worse.
There are instances where people say things that are definitely not helping anyone, no matter their inclination.
To my benefit it’s hard to pull sources when you’re supposed to be working
You don’t even need sources, just the right arguments.
If you’re supposed to be working and you don’t have time for that, just go irony mode. I have nothing against low effort shitposts.
