I can't stand dumb motherfuckers. Help.

[CynicalIdealist]

Comrades,

How the hell do you deal with the vast capitalist majority in this country? People are SO FUCKING INDOCTRINATED. Somehow I thought that college would be different. Boy was I wrong.

[Zav]

I understand completely. Perhaps the High School Commie's Guide would be of some use to you. I find it works great outside of a school environment. People there are just as ignorant about Communism as high schoolers.
http://www.revleft.com/vb/high-school-commie-t22370/index.html

[The Idler]

Seperate your personal self and relationships from your communist consciousness and relationships. Openly identify as communist when you organise. The more you organise, the more you will be able to express in this way.

[Agent Ducky]

I know, right? It's ridiculous... These people are hopeless.

[Agent Ducky]

What I try to do is convince them to not be capitalist. Generally you can get people to concede a lot of stuff about how much capitalism sucks but you have to try not to get into the alternative systems, because that's when you hit a brick wall of indoctrination and that's when they start being really stupid.

[a rebel]

I feel your pain, just try not to get into so many debates with stupid people,

[BougieandTheBanshees]

If someone starts saying that "communism can never work; it's against human nature," then there's your cue to give up on them.

[x371322]

If someone starts saying that "communism can never work; it's against human nature," then there's your cue to give up on them.

What? No.
It's not like that's a difficult argument to counter or anything. I used to believe that, just like an overwhelming majority still do. If we just "give up" on that majority, we have no reason to even be here. We may as well call it quits right now.

[GPDP]

If someone starts saying that "communism can never work; it's against human nature," then there's your cue to give up on them.

Not really. To me that's more a sign of hopelessness and apathy rather than an outright reactionary mindset.

The ones you SHOULD give up on are the ones who say it's a good thing that communism cannot work.

[Decommissioner]

Seperate your personal self and relationships from your communist consciousness and relationships. Openly identify as communist when you organise. The more you organise, the more you will be able to express in this way.

This is the best approach.

I don't hide the fact that I am a communist, but I am not a zealot about it either. When I make friends, or if people know of me, thats just one of the things they know about me in the back of their head. I never force political debates, in fact many times I don't bother jumping in debates that are already happening. I have found this alone does wonders in cementing the fact that 1) communism is a legitimate political alternative to capitalism and that 2) being a communist doesn't imply conforming to some preconceived notions that many assume a communist would have to conform to, at least in a lifestyle sense (in short, you can be "normal" and I use that term loosely)


This turns apolitical apathetic people who are indoctrinated under a capitalist system (human nature argument, people suck etc etc) to being sympathetic to another viewpoint and naturally curious about what communism actually is.

This is how I approach friends, family, and people abroad. Ultimately I am a friend, co-worker, family member first and foremost. It is with this trusting bond that someone can respect your ideas and beliefs and maybe even adopt them as their own.

When it comes to arguing with strangers (usually in the instance that my beliefs are challenged) I take lead, don't give into strawmen, and most importantly stay cool. Flying off the handle calling people imperialists, sexists and racists doesn't do much to make your cause look legitimate (I say racist and sexist in terms of people who hold naive beliefs, people who are unabashedly racist and sexist don't deserve your time). Whether or not that person has a change of heart is irrelevant, if you come off as the person with more well reasoned arguments put forth in a calm manner, you come out looking better to onlookers in the end (I don't know if its just me, but these sort of public "debates" always occur amongst crowds of people).

Another way I look at it is the majority aren't capitalist, not even in the sense of holding capitalist belief. I see them all as mostly agnostic or apathetic, accepting capitalism not as a belief but just as existence. Fertile ground for new ideas to be planted, and when they are, they will take hold as a positive belief (that communism is the best way forward). A majority with a new founded fiery passion for their belief in a new system juxtaposed with that same majority that just passively put up with and accepted the old system, I say there's a lot of hope in that picture.

[Bitter Ashes]

One little phrase can solidify everything in thier minds:

"I told you so"

Yes, it means coming across as a smarmy smart arse, but it gets the job done. When people begin to realise that they're responsible for thier actions and descions they start taking more care for them.

[Decolonize The Left]

Comrades,

How the hell do you deal with the vast capitalist majority in this country? People are SO FUCKING INDOCTRINATED. Somehow I thought that college would be different. Boy was I wrong.

You remember that the indoctrination of people, while important, is secondary to the economic workings of the state. So you understand that it's only through the process of material economic development that the political process develops in kind - and then you recall that things will happen as they do, and you do your best to steer them in the right direction.

- August

[ZeroNowhere]

How can you live with yourself?

[bezdomni]

It isn't their fault. Be patient.

[Thirsty Crow]

What I try to do is convince them to not be capitalist. Generally you can get people to concede a lot of stuff about how much capitalism sucks but you have to try not to get into the alternative systems, because that's when you hit a brick wall of indoctrination and that's when they start being really stupid.
I don't think that indoctrination is the only factor in this second case (alternative systems).
I think that we can agree that social relations influence consciousness (let's say, existing social relations produce limits to what is assessed as possible and viable). What follows is that indoctrination is only one aspect of this situation, the other being lack of a more or less clearly defined alternative which would have to go reasonably into details. Also, scientific knowledge and concrete scientific arguments ("human nature" argument is a good example here) is something which should be combined with this analysis and proposal of the alternative.
Of course people will be stupid. Hell, they ain't got enough time to go into specifics of why it is inherently unscientific and mythical to conclude that capitalism is the only possible way to organize social life because of human nature (which is greedy, homo homini lupus etc. etc.). That's where organization and (alternative) education should kick in (with a good dose of patience and honesty).