So this is what I've learned

[Entrails Konfetti]

There certainly are misconceptions of what Communism is among North Americans (Yes I'm saying NAs, because this is where I live). They misconcieve for a few reasons, for one thing what they've been taught about Communism has only been summarized and fed to them at schools-- never analized, and most Yanquis are apathetic in their affluence to learn more about it on their own, and so they assume what they don't know. This sounds rash, but they don't desire change, if any its to get rid of Bush. Because they don't feel any need for change they don't care to learn and analize Communism. Until most feel the need for change, it's pointless arguing and explaining it to them. Those who are interested in Communism, you can easily find them (if they are around)-- they'll be trying to explain it to people who don't care.

[RebelDog]

Its the same here in the UK. Most people, including most workers, have a erroneous view of communism which is mainly down to bourgeois hegemony of ideas, media, schools etc. Sometimes what ordinary people say lifts me, other things get me down. But I know change will happen one day. The workers cannot be apathetic forever and capitalism cannot be sustained forever.
Revolution will happen when the material conditions are correct but we fight on toward that day and reject the status quo and their superstitions, misconceptions and downright lies.

[cenv]

One of the mistakes communists make is assuming that it's simply a matter of not being familiar with definitions. Hence, many comrades feel that they can win people over to class struggle simply by explaining what communism is, what class struggle is, and how a communist society might function. The problem with this is that the rigorous conditioning the American workers have undergone to turn them into loyal followers of capitalism is much more deeply ingrained than simply knowledge or lack thereof -- the American proletariat has an entire world-view and ideology assigned to it by bourgeois society. It sees the world through the lens of capitalist society without realizing or questioning it. As such, the worst blow we can deal capitalism in the war of ideas is not trying to explain communism to people -- it is trying to provoke people to think for themselves, to start seeing class society from different perspectives, and to question the conditions of their existence.

In short, you can't explain any form of proletarian thought to someone who has been conditioned to see the world in terms of bourgeois ideology. You must first prompt them to rethink everything they know to be "common sense".