this is what happens when you remove core concepts of marxist theory from public discourse. people can still easily come up with concepts like stolen surplus value and alienation by simply observing their everyday live, but they lack a greater framework that makes them understand other, not directly observable aspects such as the limits of reformism. they’re basically stuck with the insurmountable task of having to come up with all of marxism by themselves.
True, but this is where we come in. If we can’t make use of this, what good are we as socialists?
I can do graphic design but I will not appear on camera. I’m happy to help anyone who wants to post Marxist theory on TikTok, so just hmu if you’ve got a project in mind.
I’m camera shy as well, but I know it in my bones that if we miss our chance with the genz/tick-tock crowd we will be consigning another generation to nihilism and hopelessness. We need to build revolutionary fervour and optimism.
Thing is, I’m getting older and every idea I have is gonna come across as “hello fellow kids” real hard. We’re gonna need to support our younger comrades in this.
I think most people who go from capitalist to anti-capitalist go through a “humane capitalism” phase, and I think there’s every reason to believe this will progress further given (a) the state of the world and (b) the fact that they’re already comfortable calling themselves anti-capitalist even if that’s not entirely true.
People called Bernie a communist even though he just wanted to fix capitalism and make it more humane. Though he’s not a communist, he sure helped kick me down the socdem to Marxist pipeline.
Radicalization will still happen for a lot of people over time, but I wish we could get it going faster.
Individual people can progress further. It’s our job to make that happen at a high rate. But the reality is that any high visibility anticapitalist messaging will be recuperated unless it’s radical enough that the powers that be would rather demonize it.
imo the number one most important thing (in terms of rhetoric, obviously material considerations come first) is to rebuild the class identity destroyed by liberalism. We need people to identify explicitly as working-class again, and to identify capital owners as a distinct class separate from the broad concept of “rich people” or “the 1%”-- those terms make it sound like society is just divided into a spectrum from “low income” to “high income” and that misconception is a big part of the reason why people are willing to accept liberal capitalism.
Yet you use tik tok :very-intelligent:
:sicko-yes:
