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I am a USAmerican "socialist" podcaster
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this post was submitted on 12 Jul 2024
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chapotraphouse
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You can personally think they're a bit cowardly for not getting off the fence, but I have to ask, would them doing so do any good? Frankly I think the whole mini-industry of western leftist influencers, even the ones with actually good takes, is totally pointless for anything besides entertainment. They're not reaching anyone new, not to any meaningful degree, since the population of people in the west with any potential to become actual principled leftists is tiny as fuck. Every ideology has consolidated and locked in, 99% of people who are currently a Lib/Chud/Succ/"Tankie" right now is going to remain one till the gave. Our ranks right now are about as big as they're ever gonna be so all we really have is posting for each others amusement and the smug satisfaction of "I told you so"-ing unreachable Libs.
Why do you believe people can't change? I believe life experience + propaganda + material conditions will move people left.
I used to be a lib that phone banked for Obama
Individuals can change, there's no social basis for more broader change. We are just a subculture of hobbyists with nothing we can build an actual movement on.
Most westerns I meet who end up in our general corner of the left seem to be here more cuz they're nerds who are into history and economics, not out of any real social drive to support the revolution. The population of people who are nerdy the exact same way we are is fucking tiny. There's no material basis of an actual major mass movement, just a niche community or nerds. Most people are fixed where they are because there is no larger force compelling them to change, the forces encouraging them to either stay where they're at or double down are much more compelling.
The challenge we face is showing people the connection between their eroding material conditions and our politics. You're right that we aren't at the point where we can convince people en masse, but I have to believe we can get there.
I agree that there's a "type" that ends up here. We sure love a lot of metal and/or electronic music, computers, and other nerd-coded things. We are a pretty white group, all sorts of queer, and not really into "traditional" man interests like trucks or riding horses or sportsball. We'd rather see Amon Amarth than Taylor Swift.
And we think most people are dumber than us. Call it carry over from the lib mindset.
I think we have less traction than similar movements because a) the Capitalist propaganda is much better than in the past, b) the "treats" are basically mind Crack at this point (we all know people addicted to some online game or engrossed in their hobby of choice, and it's all designed like a slot machine these days aka Engineered to create addiction), c) We haven't gone out of our way to organize the public as well as we can, d) Socialism isn't a "new shiny thing".
I don't have the answers but where I am starting is collecting propaganda that is hopefully more effective than telling people to read dense 200-year-old books.
thats some serious character development arc
Have tagged you as ex obama phonebanker
I think your view of the world is a bit static and deterministic. There are a lot of people just on hexbear who used to be chuds and liberals and they talk about their transition.
I don't mean to imply that those three guys could spark a revolution by following the line that I view as correct. But voices that break the echo chamber that propagates the West's destructive ontology are very valuable in my opinion precisely because there are so few of them. Subreddits like ChapoTrapHouse and GenZedong had to be booted off Reddit because of how influential they had become. No one could have seen this coming a couple of months after they were created.
In the end I sympathise with their desire to maximise their income as opposed to being the no. 1 enemy of the state. But it does not mean they should be spared criticism at least when its honest.
When you actually ask them for more detailed deets, you'll usually hear the same story, they grew up in a conservative household, drifted Lib in college and then only ended up here due to a falling down the right weird Internet forum holes. Most people don't really evolve past the college Lib phase and I really don't think a handful of podcasted who are already too left for most, them going that last mile that will actually make them untouchable will effect anything.
I'm static and deterministic because that is the reality in the west, our geopolitical and economic position, combined with just how damn good our propaganda is, means that there's really not much you can do, because there's not mass movement to build. Do what you can, start a soup kitchen, help migrants, do some pro-Palestine stuff cuz that's the one anti-imperialist cause that actually has enough popular support in the US to actually have some effect. But there's really not much else, with a lot of stuff going too hard on if anything will just force people to defensively double down. I straight up don't talk about Ukraine to my Lib friends at all because I'm sure if I did it'd just make them even more "Slava Ukraine". You might as well just keep you head low and hand bagels out to the homeless.
It's almost entirely because of second thought, Deprogram, and leftist YouTube that I developed the language I needed to understand the way things are, and was able to find books that I should read.
And even more important, have been doing praxis with local comrades.
A dissenting voice is incredibly important, and to believe that any positive change can come from a few thousand principled people in the west is absurd.
People watch idiot lib shit all the time, look how many of those exist.