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View Full Version : Bringing over moderates to the Revolutioanry Side



Ocean Seal
23rd October 2010, 20:42
So after being told that the Soviet Union was x, that communism doesn't work but hey its great on paper, you know the drill I've realized that in order to bring people over to the left we need to target them individually, and when we move to target them collectively we should make sure to know who and what to attack.

To begin we could try to make a model to bring people in, but everyone has their own desires and concerns. In order to win them over they need to feel like we are fighting for their ideals. Chances are, we are. Most people would say that they believe that everyone should earn according to their labor, that we should protect the interests of all people equally, that businessmen generally have a negative influence on society, elites run the country and that their voice is not heard in either major party. Now ask them if they would call themselves socialists and they would look at you a bit like this :huh:. They would each have a reason for looking at you a bit like this and there are a great many reasons for this. Explore their concerns about socialism and communism and try to correct misconceptions. The most common one is that socialism is a charity. A lot of people think of socialists as people asking for a handout. What I usually tell them is that they are entitled to the sweat of their brow and that the capitalist takes this without providing anything in return. They are merely taking back what is unquestionably theirs.

As for large groups. It is difficult to get a large portion of people to join the ranks for a socialist future. Many will immediately take a stand against this un-American position (I've seen this argument), even those who aren't particularly nationalistic or patriotic. This is the point of no return for crowds. I've found (and I may be wrong) when talking to crowds that we need to mobilize against something before the opponents mobilize against us. Before someone in the crowd gets to say "communist" the crowd must already be united against something that ignites their emotion. Timing is critical. Communist is a toxic word to most, but at least among the young ~40 didn't get hit with the propaganda as hard. There are other toxic words that incite strong emotions: elites, corporates, injustice. Attack other parties as limousine/champagne liberals and country club Republicans. Address yourself as the common man. That is the most powerful weapon against capitalism. State something like 237/435 congressmen are millionaires: that's 44%. How many Americans are millionaires? Less than 1%. How many senators: 66%
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20091107024220AAVaYBw
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/25/your-senator-is-probably-a-millionaire/
The amount that actually earn 1 mil. a year is far less.
Remember the people are upset, they just don't know how to express it.




Okay so this is just an approach that I've been developing, I don't know how good it is. If you have advice I'm willing to listen. Is there anything that I'm leaving out, or something that I'm doing wrong from the point of view of propaganda? What do you guys think overall?

Decolonize The Left
24th October 2010, 16:31
Moderates, social democrats, progressives, etc... are the easiest people to discuss radical politics with when it comes to your efforts to raise their awareness.

Things to remember which are crucial to your discussion:
1) The primary difference between the two (moderates/dems and radicals) is a poignant critique of capitalism (for radicals) and the lack-there-of (for mods/dems). Your job is to radicalize the critique, in a sense, to materialize the analysis as the mod/dem is almost certainly occupying an idealist perspective.
So for this you need a basic outline of surplus value, exploitation in the everyday wage sense, and the development of capitalism.
2) Appeal to notions of justice and what is 'right.' All moderates/democrats occupy an idealist and emotional attached perspective towards human rights, dignity, well-being, and equality. What they fail to realize is that without a materialist analysis of capitalism coupled with a heightening of class-consciousness, these ideals are relatively worthless as they are disassociated from reality. It is your job to connect the two.
3) Never allow your discussion to devolve into stereotypes - on either side. Do not whitewash the right as Hitler youth. Do not let them paint the left as bomb-throwing chaos-loving hoodlums, or as lock-step soviet nerds. This will only cause you to loose footing in the discussion as you will have to move away from the core issues - the economic critique.
4) Listen to the other side. Find where they are coming from and relate it back to the critique. We have the facts, we have the analysis, but you can't shove it down their throat. You have to make them want to learn.
5) If the discussion devolves, leave it alone. Better to have someone exposed to your ideas in a polite and respectful manner, so they may be interested in further learning, than to push them away forever.

Pick your discussions wisely and don't get discouraged.

- August