There is a lot of answers but if I’d say just one it would be rejecting the current institutional power. At least right now in our time period. Fully rejecting the imperial state, no matter how much they potentially benefit from it seems like a solid transition
we are all lib so let’s not gatekeep what leftist™️ actually is. I guarantee you were a lib once too(still are, but once too.)
For me it was a combination of Bernie getting fucked over and looking around and realizing that making things safe and equitable for everybody wasn’t the center of all the other lib’s politics.
Plus the Chapo episode where they just dunk on the West Wing for an hour.
Material conditions. Once they lose the safety of wealth they will learn very quickly how far liberalism get them
I agree though that having had some material resources before is a pre-condition to class consciousness of that sense. There are other forms of class consciousness like that of workers who never got beyond paycheck to paycheck in poverty - even in the imperial core - or that of agrarian workers in China in the last century, or indigenous resistance elsewhere.
But the labour aristocracy (which benefits from imperialism) in the core and of that the subsection which had “decent” lives (controlled by full work weeks dividing social relations between you and family, offspring and partners, controlling social relations to you and the community) those need to fall a bit to real change what they think and how they will act within the framework of a mass movement.
The funny thing is that during a transitional period in which money is still accepted and used the vital resources of material, social and mental capacities they can command with it could be used to strengthen our movement. My hot take is: It was good that Engels financed Marx and the party.
I think some people look around and have that “how is no one else seeing this?” moment and are willing to consider solutions to problems outside of electoralism and symbolic protest
I think some people look around and have that “how is no one else seeing this?”
IDK that sounds like most of my life since I was 12 at pretty much anything my deluxe boomer parents and their boomer society did/said/saw on fox news/etc…
I had maybe three months of being a liberal after college when I told myself it was “time to grow up and accept reality as it is.” That ended as soon as I started working in an office.
But that’s not because I was too clever for liberalism or something - I just always hated people who acted like they had all the answers. If anything, my distaste for them was a little reactionary. I called myself an “anarchist” as a teen, but that really just meant I didn’t like cops and I thought voting was dumb. I didn’t really hold any true political beliefs back then.
But my tipping point was having to do unethical work during unpaid overtime hours. It was pretty immediate - I think I found r/cth through people complaining about y’all, and that is when I first found a tribe where I could talk about these things and work my beliefs into something more coherent. So yeah, I guess technically I got radicalized by a podcast I never listened to.
I’ll also add that I’ve been somewhat disillusioned with leftist communities lately, as well. There is so much anger and distrust towards the American political establishment right now, and all we do is make fun of these people for being “so close” without figuring it out.
We all ought to spend more time in communities where people don’t share our beliefs. Be open about the fact that you’re a communist, but don’t argue when people complain about it and don’t announce it at the start.
I’ve found a surprising amount of support when I make Marxist takes in plain language. Usually after several people agree, some guy will be like “uh that’s communism,” and that’s your opportunity to say, "Yes, I’m a communist. You’re absolutely free to disagree with my views. I just think that the current system is pitting us against each other so a few rich guys can get even richer. " Emphasize the division rhetoric because libs eat that shit up.
For some reason, the person typically sees this non-confrontational response and can’t help but go on an 800 word rant hitting every major anti-communist trope. Don’t take the bait. If you have to respond, just smile and shrug with an “Agree to disagree!”
Congrats, you’ve just shown everyone else in the room that the communist is the civil one. I’ve been playing with this tactic a lot lately and it is amazing how quickly people turn on the aggressor. Libs really care so much more about how you deliver the message than the substance of the message. That’s all it takes to get a foot in the door.
From there, you’ve gained the credibility to start propagandizing in earnest. You never want to seem like you’re trying to convince anybody - like the liberals, you have to pretend that simply holding the right moral beliefs is enough. Talk about the material conditions, but use moralism to hammer your points home. Use lib-friendly quotes from your favorite works of theory, and when they ask about it, offer to lend them a book. If someone picks up on what you’re doing, it’s back to step one: “Whoah, I thought we were just having a conversation. I know I’m not going to change your beliefs and you’re not going to change mine, so why don’t we move past this?”
Basically, I think that we need a new set of dirtbag tactics that rely less on edgy comedy and more on Machiavellianism. Never talk to these people in good faith, but always keep up the appearance. Earn their trust. Once they come to you with questions, then you can start a more honest dialogue.
How does one not take the bait, especially when the bait is very annoying? How do I learn this self control?
You think how much you would annoy them by appearing just nice human bean, with a plus of being nice human bean
I’ve known people who go back and forth on the lib/leftist barrier. One thing is a lot of them don’t see a distinction, just that we use different words or we’re scary because we say positive things about North Korea. I know a girl who has acab tattooed on her shoulder and Kamala Harris on her leg. She does not see a contradiction at all. She goes back and forth between calling herself a socialist and a liberal, because those two words don’t mean anything distinct to her. The vast majority of Americans say leftist, Democrat, socialist, liberal, and communist to mean the same thing, including liberals.
I think maybe most Americans define themselves entirely by the boundaries of electoral politics and voting, but more broadly they define themselves as media consumers. They like particular personalities and responses to recent events, they don’t care about structured coherent worldviews. The personalities and the responses are the ideology.
What finally tips it most of the time is a frustration with electoral politics and then reading theory. I know that sounds like an excuse, but it’s all I’ve ever experienced. Gotta read and re-educate yourself. The libs who get engrossed in theory and become leftists stay that way. They become more involved in wider leftist movements and usually become more coherent over time. The libs who don’t read theory but have more vague leftist sympathies will go back and forth, they’ll primarily follow youtube or twitch personalities, they’ll have weird idiosyncratic views, and the most important part, they’ll snap immediately back into obedient voters for Democrats or maybe Republicans when there’s an election. (note: having very close leftist friends or involvement in an org is often a good enough substitute for reading theory directly)
