You don't need to go shouting it, but if someone starts talking politics at you, fucking own it. Some coworker is like "trump sucks", say "yeah I know, I'm a communist". Your grandpa says "trump rules", say "no he sucks ass, I'm a communist". You're on a date and they ask who you're voting for? Say "I'm a communist". Cashier asks would you like change? "Yes, I am a communist".

Be open about your politics and lay claim to the title. Be a communist.

  • ComradeBongwater [he/him]
    ·
    4 years ago

    This is all around great advice. If someone reacts with shock, disgust, or scorn, always ask them pointed questions to get a grasp on what they think words mean. Then it puts the ball back in your court where you can correct their definitions, and show that your definition is not worthy of their reaction.

    Or, ideally, ask them what they believe, how they think we should design society. Most won’t have any sort of coherent answer to big picture questions, so you can ask about their current political concerns. This lets you know what they care about. Agree with them, amplify, explain how capitalism shits on these values and how your reorganization of society would help.

    Perfectly said. Asking about their ideals gives you hints on how to frame your own views to them. Rule number one should always be to find out what a person values. It should be your first goal. Once you have that, you just have to work to dislodge capitalism (and it's ideologies) from being the closest system to satisfying those ideals.

    This should also be done with questions. You can dismantle someone's views by forcing them to rectify them with ideas & ideals they value more. They want to justify their beliefs, give them a challenging enough question or paradox, and they'll bend over backwards trying to mend two incompatible things, and destroy their confidence in that belief in the process.

    Ex: Freedom

    If someone highly values individual freedom, ask how a few people dictating what happens where people spend 8 hours a day than the people who work there making decisions together. Ask how the "freedom" to not have your Facebook posts removed is more freedom than having the financial stability to choose where you actually want to live or visit. Are you more free buying a car, spending money on fueling/maintaining it only to be stuck in traffic for hours a day or having a tiny fraction of that money withheld to build a rail system where you have another 90 minutes every day to do what you want with?

    Always ask questions, express sentiment that you value their thoughts and input, and always pepper in lil "hmmm I've never thought about X from that perspective" type statements.