This is particularly concerning to me because leftists are supposed to be able to bridge the gap between the (presumably) uneducated or ignorant working masses and the fairly esoteric intellectualism of leftist theory.
I have never been able to do that before, ever. I can understand all these Marxist concepts myself, about workers democratically owning MOP, about what socialism or barbarism means, about the purpose of the state, about anti imperialism, but if Im talking to someone who’s totally apolitical or even just a woke liberal I have no idea where to begin bridging the gap and radicalizing.
Im sure a large part about getting regular people on your side relies on community building and mutual aid projects that demonstrates to average people that an alternative is possible and that the party is better at working with and meeting the needs of the people than the state/market is.
But lets say your just talking casually to your average non-redpilled friends. Im not trying to sound edgy but whenever the conversation switches to something inane, superficial, or material (particularly when it comes to consuming something or engaging in consumerism, which dont get me wrong I enjoy partaking in all the time) I just feel like cutting my head off. The world is fucking dying and burning all around us, we’re already past several “points of no return”, injustices are being perpetrated at all times everywhere, and the most important thing we find to talk about is some material shit that doesnt even matter?
At the same time though, thats what makes normies the normies they are, and I cant help but feel envious of their carefreeness. And its up to us to introduce them concepts within leftist theory. So how do you do that?
Learn about sports and other hobbies and be chill and ironic and shit. If people spout bullshit, laugh and gently counteract it. Especially concerning stuff about Trump. People have an idea of leftists in their head and what is important is to contradict and transcend that idea by presenting them a material actuality of you, as a real person who they probably like.
(Edit: This way of thinking about things on a micro level is a part of dialectical matierialism, from what I understand, from memes. And some theory not concerning this particular topic.)
Remember, individuals and ideas are not super important. The material conditions speak for themselves and people will vibe with what you say if you speak to those conditions. Also, speaking as a student of history, without a party organization behind you or a popular worker's movement of some kind, this is all just shop-talk, so again push often but gently. Shit takes time. Time that we admittedly don't have, but thems the brakes. Matierialist analysis is a cruel bastard.
Don't say means of production, say factory, or office, or store. Where ever they work. Make it specific.
You can talk about games... like how Dark Souls is about throwing people to the fire in order to keep fueling a dying system that never worked that well in the first place.
Don't make politics into your entire personality, and it isn't that hard. You shouldn't be dividing people up anyway by reddit logic of the "redpill" example you used. There are a number of hobbies and past times that could be considered apolitical. Sports should be one, as should most music.
It's supposed to be leftists' jobs to educate people. And you do that by offering them a spoonful of information about why things are not OK. It's actually pretty easy to do with coworkers, as you can find solidarity with most of them over the fact that our bosses are screwing us and they're overworked with 40+ hour week shifts and struggling to live pay check to pay check. But you get there by giving them a spoonful of information, not by screaming "DEATH TO AMERIKKKKKKKKKKA, READ SETTLERS" or some other edgelord shit like what is on here. Don't even use words like "Marxism" or "Communism" or "Proletariat" when you talk to the average worker. The key point is to not make them feel like shit or smugly talk down to them the way liberals do.
Your best bet is to actually talk to them about things that would benefit them. You're not going to get anywhere trying to convince them that they should give a shit about China or something "anti-imperialist" cause that isn't something that really effects our lives on a day to day basis. Most of the support with M4A happened this way. It's something that working people can benefit from, and therefore it's easier to get them on board there. Talks about how we deserve more and we're underpaid, exploited and taken advantage of - you'll get somewhere with that. Defunding the police is an overwhelming popular point with the poor, cause most of them can give you a story about how scared they are of dealing with law enforcement.
One of the biggest issues with leftists today is that most of them don't want to talk to people in the real world for examples with this post. There's no unity or real push for it when we just divide everyone up with petty infighting, usually over identity politics. Which is how it ends up being a subculture of socially alienated people, smug former liberals, and edgelords. We need to get over this notion about being scared of "normies" and start talking to people, cause I can tell you right now, we are going to be in for a rough ride if we don't get a working class movement together in the next few years. We are counting down the days that the GOP pushes a competent fascist and if we don't figure this shit out soon, it's game over.
When it comes to talking about regular shit I can't help you much there. Laugh when appropriate, ask questions even if you're not interested, and drugs are all good ways to get through that imo.
As for talking about politics, people don't like talking about politics with someone who knows a lot about it and is challenging the facade of ideology. No "normy" wants to be lectured about dialectical materialism. This is why we need a political party that builds political infrastructure. What this "political infrastructure" looks like takes three forms. The first is mutual aid and organizing where concentrated propaganda efforts are made. This doesn't introduce complicated ideas, but if people like some of the messages of a political party (especially if the party is helping them) they might support the party, join the party, or look into the basic ideas of the party. This might be mutual aid, union organizing, political organizing, or protests.
The second form is broad agitation efforts. This includes posting but also posting in the real world. Old fashioned soapboxing, leaflets, flyers, online efforts, and other stuff. This is probably the least effective but it makes the movement seem a lot bigger which can be useful and you might pick up a random stranger every now and then.
The third is an educational track which is where people actually learn things because they actually make an effort to. Book groups and later, if the infrastructure is there, schools training people in theory and praxis. Older communist movements had one big advantage over us in that they were in largely illiterate and uneducated societies so they would open public schools and teach people to read, write, and do math with an underlying left wing philosophy (imagine the first book you read being the manifesto, or learning math by solving for surplus value). We can't really utilize this method today because people are widely educated, but we should still have party schools and reading groups that teach people Marxist theory and how to organize (as well as other things). Of course we need a party for any of this which we are lacking for the most part.
Like I said you aren't going to be convincing "normies" that the immortal science of dialectical materialism says they should be communists because they're going to hear that or anything like it and think you're a lunatic. What you can do is try to suss out where there are political and economic tensions in their life and if you can help (whether that is linking them to a mutual aid network or telling them they should unionize) you do so. Then maybe they'll be interested and you can fill their head with ideas.
Ya know that dumb cunt Brace? Real stupid fucker?
Talk like him.
Start with climate change. Libs are gonna lib until they feel the shit is gonna touch them. Make them panic about climate change, that'll radicalize them. (That's what happened to me at least.)
Don't talk Marx or use any leftist language. Try to get them to read Debt by Graeber, or talk about concepts in that book. Tell them it's a book by an anthropologist.
Find out what they value and tie it back to capitalism ruining it.
Take video games being carved up for on disc dlc. Or maybe they are vegan but don't realize that buying vegan products can still support animal cruelty through companies and there subsidiaries. Or if they are a meat eater show them how cutting back in regulations by capitalist lobbying can ruin their favorite food or get them sick.
Get to know them first and what drives them. Connect it back to capitalism. All this might be easier said than done mind you. Don't let them think well that's just the way it is. If all the deaths under the soviet union were attributed to communism, all of our current deaths should be attributed to capitalism.
Its not about teaching them and doing the work yourself, you know everything you need to know to do it, you just need to talk with them, and whenever the chance presents itself, point out contradictions, but leave it open, you want them asking questions.
These days opportunities abound to point out contradictions in the machinations of capitalism laid bare during covid
If you can, don't just point out contradictions -- float a leftist solution, too.
Don't be a condescending prick like a lib. You just want to point out all of the problems with capitalism and steer them towards socialist solutions but let them come to their own conclusions.
Also there are appropriate times for everything, if you're just casually chatting, there's no need to inject politics into it, but for example, say they're complaining about their shitty job, that would be a good time to build some solidarity.
Wait until they start complaining and elucidate them on how it's a phenomenon of capitalism (it probably is). Don't get too theoretical, don't use big theory words even; keep it as short and simple as possible, try to introduce only one critical concept at a time. If you do it right, this will do two things: Help them understand their environment better, and regard you as somewhat insightful, meaning they will likely keep listening to you. Repeat until radicalization has occurred.
Of course, if they show any interest and want to know more, do expand - but realize you can't get all of it across in one conversation.
I had a really interesting time talking to some left-leaning normie friends recently, whom I’m trying to introduce more leftists concepts to, about pornography. Idk who the comrade was but there was a post here not that long ago talking about pornography being basically rape because the conditions in which someone sells their body under capitalism is coercive, and coercive sex is rape. Basically that if we as people under capitalism were to not sell our labor, we would starve and become homeless and not be able to afford water or basic needs or anything. And that applies to all jobs, that we have this gun to our head of selling our time and labor to someone else who just happens to own something in order for us to survive. So when it comes to selling your body in order to do that, it’s sex under the conditions of coercion. And coercive sex is effectively rape. I mean it’s a little bit semantic there but I think it mostly holds up. And since porn is something everyone knows about, putting it into those terms lit up some lightbulbs for them about capitalism in general. All work under capitalism is coercive, so what does that mean for the ethics of different sorts of ways people make money? Even if let’s say sex workers made a choice to do pornography, it doesn’t matter because anything else they could “choose” to do is also coercive. Anyway, that was a pretty positive conversation and could be a good route if the opportunity presents itself.
"Porn bad" seems like a very questionable angle to approach normies with, imho.
Yeah that’s true haha in my case my friend I was talking to is like really against it from a certain feminist perspective and they had already been talking about it and asked my thoughts. I think because it’s a really surprising take though that can break down certain defenses that otherwise prevent normies from analyzing labor systems
Address what's directly in front of people. That's the only thing that will get across to most: direct material interest. The most common thing you'll find among 'normal' people is they absolutely hate their boss and they wish they could have more money. Start there. Every single self-alleged conservative/liberal I've worked will start to sound like a Wobbly if you poke them with "Should we make more money?" "Should we have more vacation hours?" "Does management really know how to do our jobs?" "Is our insurance secure?"
Although this has been my experience talking to blue collar industrial and retail workers. This is probably vastly different from talking to people who work in education, finance, programming, or whatever.
Also, most people already have their minds made up in regards to anything wider than their own lives. All political expression that goes beyond their direct interests is entertainment and spectacle, so we're simply at a stage where we have to bypass that if we ever want to make headway. The average person is never going to care about theory or leftist history unless they are convinced they need it. And guess what? They feel they don't need it.
No one you're going to talk to is going to have enough influence over climate change to do anything about it. It's not like if you argue leftist points to enough people we can all pull a giant "no more carbon emissions" lever. Don't get worked up over that. You're one person and the world doesn't rest on your shoulders. Focus on what you can actually do and what the situation affords you. Average people are convinced that everything turns out fine in the end, no matter what it is.