Basically dress up the economics as futurism instead of tankie shit with its associations.
Marx said we should hold the means of production in common, and follow a socially beneficial plan. But a lot of audiences would roll their eyes and close their ears as soon as I said Marx.
If instead I say, “Artificial intelligence and computerised logistics are becoming so sophisticated we can think about phasing out the human element of management. We can choose democratically what we want the robots to do and they will produce it for us.”
This might sound like subterfuge to some of you, but it’s not actually dishonest. It’s a correct way to describe a Marxian economy. I replaced the phrase “the means of production” with “the robots”.
The real win here is you get around “It’s easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism.” People don’t expect a Marxist world revolution. People don’t expect the fall of capitalism. But people totally do expect robots and AI in the coming decades.
To summarize (for OP, I have essentially repeated your response in affirmation and in a more verbose form), it is beneficial to give people a glimpse into the possible future of a socialist society, but we cannot determine what that future will entail until it is manifested in reality. While I still like to envision a communist future where we use computers to automate resource allocation and distribution based on need, efficiency, and safety of the planet and humanity while cutting the money-middleman out, a fully automated communist society will not occur until the distant future, thus it is not very productive to dwell on this idea while we are still struggling under capitalism and trying to bring class consciousness to the working class. There are many steps, as mentioned in the book (which I still need to finish), that would likely precede the need to allocate resources digitally when a socialist society is formed. We will be starting under the conditions of the capitalist framework, and some changes can occur overnight while others will require more time to deconstruct the current system and reconstruct an improved socialist framework.
It is more important at this moment to educate people about class struggle and to build unity under the idea that a better society can be achieved, even if we don’t and cannot know the full details of such a society. We can look to other socialist countries and experiments now as potential examples, but I believe more people need to be deprogrammed from the Red Scare first before they are open to such projects and concepts.
Indeed, there are plenty of issues that can not be solved by technology alone (land reform, nationalization, etc), and there are conditions that prevent technology from being widely available to the proletariat (copyright, patent, etc.).
As we are in an era where it is much easier for anyone to sell their own ideas, I think it is better to have an organized party that is doing things like pooling resources into starting a worker’s cooperative, and build up that means of production into a position where it could help the local community beyond simple volunteer programs.
It’s not just about convincing others to join the socialist cause, but also about persisting through the highs and lows of a process that will take years and decades. Leaders of the party will make mistakes, comrades may not be with you all the way through. There will be arguments, there will be betrayal, there will be sacrifices.
There is nothing easy about achieving a socialist state, our Marxist teachers have shown us the light, it is up to all of us to build the road through hard work and unity.