Socialism has garbage marketing, full stop. Probably because those who specialize in marketing tend to thrive in, and thus gravitate to, capitalist frameworks. Consequentially, a great many members of the working class are propagandized into reflexive rejection of socio-economic policies that would greatly benefit them, based on taboo buzzwords and false equivalences.
Yes, established terminology is quite useful for nuanced discussion in leftist spaces, among those who understand the distinctions between “communism”, “socialism”, “democratic socialism”, “social democracy”, “command economy”, “State capitalism”, and “totalitarian dictatorship”. But for many people, those are all synonyms. “Socialism” means gulags and breadlines and the government stealing your stuff to give it to slackers.
I propose a reactionary framework. A movement committed to abandoning familiar terminology in favor of capitalist buzzwords. Driving a wedge between “capitalism” and “market economies”, leveraging discontent of blue collar workers against big business and political cronyism.
It’s not universal healthcare, it’s alleviating the unfair healthcare burden on small businesses. It’s not universal welfare, it’s freeing business owners by replacing the minimum wage with a prosperity dividend. It’s not a socialized workplace, it’s an equity compensation initiative.
The established terms are poisoned, but the actual concepts are widely popular, if you phrase them right. The movement cannot thrive by trying to carve out a portion of the “leftist” party, it has to draw support from the entire working class. The only way to accomplish this is by abandoning the poisoned terms in favor of business terms that cannot be twisted by capitalists without destroying their own platform.
Thoughts?
@agamemnonymous continueing the thread. you stated the issue was marketing being terrible. i dont actually think thats the case. talk to practically anyone below the age of 40 and almost unanimously they’ll tell you they hate capitalism and thats the starting point. for example i wound up on the far left thabks in part to youtube videos relating to xlimate change and then linking to further and further left wing channels.
i think at this point its more about patiently explaining the position
I disagree. I don’t think waiting for coverage reactionaries to die out is a viable methodology. Yes, millennials and gen Z slant left, but it’s not unanimous (I know several personally who grew up petit bourgeoisie and think capitalism is the only way) and gen X will be around for decades to come. Deciding that the hypnotized are worthless is not viable. The policies are popular, we need to reach those who would benefit on a broad scale before 2060.
Actually, I believe, if you look at the demographics, leftists will be a majority in like a few (~10) years anyways.
If your idea is to try to reach the over 40s, I think it’s a fine goal. The more the merrier.
Old people I know, they are incredibly turned off by stressful dramatic media. They avoid it. So I would start by studying what media they do consume. What flavors make the medicine go down? For example we might find that a morning news vibe that is 90% upbeat optimism is necessary to build trust and a context where ”bad news” e.g. about climate isn’t a dealbreaker. Or, we might find that tv shows, films, etc. are more important. In that case it comes down to writing rooms and gatekeepers (or more independent media breaking through?).
Also let’s not forget history. There must be past examples of what leads enough of a population to see what is really happening and reject the misleading frameworks that keep people blaming themselves and eachother for what is really systematic.
I don’t know what to think about PR which is what I think you are talking about. I am so sick of slimy overly-clever attempts at ”better messaging.”
Yes it’s not a marketing problem. The marketing is doable. The bigger issue is that there isn’t the resources or ability to mass market in Western nations the way capitalists and the more fascistic members do. Combine that with a lack of education in Western nations regarding the subject. Which is the only reason they’re able to “soil” the terms. Combine that with the constant association of socialism solely with leninists and Bolsheviks etc. Those are the real problems.
Most citizens of western nations couldn’t accurately identify more than one actually left wing or socialist ideology. And it’s always the most dubious one. It isn’t by mistake. It would come as a shock to many westerners to realize that libertarians aren’t just some selfish right-wingers. But actually has its origins and resides mostly on the left of the political spectrum. That anarchism isn’t chaos etc. I know that for the first 40 years of my life I didn’t. And I don’t think I’m all that special.
That’s precisely my point. The movement is up against capitalists with resources to soil the term. Faith in truth and education isn’t going to do it. These policies need punchy branding that can’t be villainized without subverting market economies themselves. Carving out a portion of the left from neo-liberals just dilutes voting power and hands elections to fascists. The only viable solution is branding to pull voters from the left and right wing bases.
@Eldritch yea the beginning of my political education literally began with reading the manifesto and going from there.
i will say that now a days the libertarian party really is just right wings cranks but yes im aware of its left wing origins
i do wish i had a different word than communist to describe my political leaning just cuz of the negative associations from the cold war era
I tend to qualify big C and little c communism. Usually that’s enough to slow someones roll to try to understand what you mean by big and little. Well as long as it’s a good faith discussion. Using the authoritarian bolshevik style communism as the big C named ideology. And something like a hippie commune as the more generalized concept of little c communism. To illustrate the difference.