“Communism bad”
“Why?”
200 year old tropes so ancient they were debunked by Marx himself
Of course, you go through the motions of explaining the most basic political concepts that could be grasped by skimming the cliff notes for literally any Marxist works
“Friedrich Engels? Is he like the president of Germany or something?”
It’s like a kindergartener trying to teach you calculus.
It’s not funny. It should be terrifying. Because confidence works. Because that’s how millions of people have been convinced in the holiness of capitalism and will fight you, literally fight you with guns and bombs, to prevent even a ghost of communism from echoing meekly anywhere in their bubble.
And they back it all up with decades upon decades of propaganda, media, shite pushed endlessly since the creation of USSR at least. Which feeds the confidence. “Oh yeah, if gommunism so good why did this random bloke who ran away from Russia in 1992 as his country burned and boiled around him says he lives okay in USA?! Checkmate, tankie!”.
It’s not funny, it’s not fun. It’s horrifying and gutwrenching
I think about if the liberals had the same problems in the 1700s. Of course, capitalist modes of production have already been emerging across the world in form of dual power in places like the Netherlands or England, while feudal government was still prevalent.
In the 19th century, the Reign of Terror was treated much in the same way that “communism killed 100 million people” is used today. It was supposed to be the cautionary tale of what happens if you actually give the people any power. This was used to stop any sort of radical movements but also against liberals getting any more concessions out of the old order. Most narratives of the French Revolution spoke negatively of the Terror, Robespierre, et al until liberals started pushing back on that in the run up to 1848.
It’s mostly daunting to me; I feel fatigued when facing the reality that people are so easy to manipulate. It makes me feel hopeless when I see someone so willing to speak with full confidence on something they have done no research into for themselves - when the source of their confidence is just a bunch of headlines they skimmed over on Reddit’s front page over the course of several years and some heckin’ hilarious Stephen Colbert quips.
It’s so easy to just accept the reality that everyone else around you is accepting, because everyone within that environment is being constantly blasted with the same ideas, while dissent is actively suppressed - even more so when you can play the trick of lumping communists in with ridiculous reactionary fanatics.
Meanwhile, opening the eyes of someone who’s accepted capitalist propaganda usually requires a personal touch. You have to get to know them, have a conversation with them, and methodically peel back the layers of misconception they’ve been covered in their whole lives over a broad period. And a lot of the time, you’ll never convince people otherwise, no matter how you try. It’s exhausting.