Like seriously, why isn't there at least one single leader or famous person who is uncompromisingly anticapitalist, good at organizing, gives rousing speeches and is actually willing to do illegal shit, get arrested, inspire people, actually writes new, relevant and useful theory and generally be an icon?
I keep reading about how we are entering the one of the most turbulent decades in history. Who do we have to represent us other than socdem politicians, podcasters and journalists? We are letting crisis after crisis go to waste. We are just wasting away...
Well, the working class isn't inherently left. Their class consciousness needs to be raised, people who are more reactionary minded need to be waned off of bullshit culture war issues, and they need to be reachable/have an effective way to organize. America's working class for example exists in a country where you are expected to live on your own as an adult (or maybe with a couple roommates), drive in your own personal vehicle, and go to your private sector job which has a 93.5% of not being represented by a union, and is increasingly likely to be something involving the gig economy, self employment, or contracting work. The working class, from the perspective of those in it who aren't already leftists, is completely disjointed, unorganized, has relatively little in common, and interacts with itself as little as possible. Working people interact with the bourgeoisie through the media and consumer culture almost if not more than they do with their fellow workers. When the working class is this disjointed and fractured, its basically impossible for a critical mass of them to be attracted to following one leader in particular. Smaller groups and agitators need to organize and work to get rid of the obstacles I mentioned earlier as much as possible before we can hope to have a powerful, organized, and unified movement for the working class.
Much of which your saying may be true, but isn’t fixed by the persuasion of “leftists.” The scale of the working class is just too massive.
Consciousness is mainly developed through people’s lived experience of their conditions and major events. The job of socialists is to give full expression to the consciousness as it exists, by tying it to the broader class struggle. You’re not really persuading people as much as giving them a framework to understand a class struggle that they are already aware of on some level.
You can do this on a massive scale by political means, putting forward platforms, demands on the state, and so on. Building a political alternative that people can actually see and gravitate towards.
Check out Chapter 2 of the Communist manifesto, it’s specifically about this.