So, how do we teach regular people about socialist theory?

Ignore the useless do-nothings.

Yes, workers tend to latch onto the most basic socialist concepts with remarkable readiness. Eveyone who collects a paycheck that hardly covers their expenses or who sees their rent go up every year already knows how fucking bullshit it all is. Show them machine that is chewing them up, and they will be inclined to resist it.

The great thing about all the red scare propaganda is that it never actually addressed what socialism really is. Show people what it is and what capitalism is, and the propaganda will be exposed for what it is.

There gave been several.

It's gonna be hard to make everything look shiny and nice without some funding.

I didn't know u were a trot, Marx poster.

Sadly Star Trek has a stigma of being nerdy so mainstream audience shies away from it. The new Star Trek films are atrocious. You can make an argument that they are good action films, but they are terrible Star Trek films and there really isn't any communism (overt or otherwise), like for example in Star Trek First Contact when Picard explains to that Earth woman from the past how full communism of the Federation is great.

Yes. Funding is needed. Star Wreck managed to be a decent movie with lots of CGI on a relatively small budget. Perhaps something like that but then you're limited in locations and how the sets look.

A full communist world will be quite different and sci-fi-ey so you can't really use our current buildings, etc. Somethibg like building a city within a massive warehouse a la Synecdoche, New York would be ideal (end expensive).

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Send them to university.

I'm not.

Oh great.

you should actually start using a name.
Your posts are decent enough that I would find it forgivable.

No, namefagging is never good. Let his arguments stand on their own.

Calm, reasonable conversation, preferable face to face and not over the internet.

yea, industrial workers had to work for more hours but they were able to organize and fight against the bosses. So we have it easy, compared to them, unless people are too spooked in a state of alienation.

...

Paper note handouts make you look like one of those lunatics that give out Chick tracts at amusement parks.

I fucking love Chick tracts. They are a riot.

HAW HAW HAW

...

simple, you don't.
at least it shouldn't be your very first concern, because they simply do not give a shit.
they have a lot other things to give a shit about though.

voice their class interest and they will listen. teaching theory goes a long way and will get picked up along the way.
i could probably just try look shit up in theory books themself, but for starters have some novel by Gorky that is describing how a religious, naive and very much common workers mother becomes a revolutionary.
it's a master piece, have the german audio book after Brechts play written on that story.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mother_(Gorky_novel)

Transitional af fam.

I approve.

you tell them they are first world labouraristocracy who are at fault for everything wrong in the world, yell at them they're reactionary assholes who just wont listen to you and that everyone else is wrong

for extra edgyness point out that the third world people have every right to kill them all

Avoid being smug or having a holier-than-thou attitude.

I realize that's pretty much impossible, but it's the only way you can get people permanently on your side.

Says the an-cap.

fredrikdeboer.com/2016/04/21/a-few-thoughts-on-liberal-smugness/

We need people who actually have the ability to interact sensibly with other people to talk to said people. People who understand modern culture, people who can hold a conversation with a random person at a bar, people who can connect with people over a laugh and common ground.

Look at pic related. This is the state of the left today. And don't think I'm excusing Holla Forums in this regard. Both SJW "socialists" as well as many of the people in this forum both seem to not be able to hold a normal conversation without mentioning some obscure theorist and wierding people out. Outside of the internet (judging from my time with Socialist Alternative) its a bleak, bleak image socialism is projecting to the masses.

So far, the best effort has been what…Jason fucking Unruhe? Jesus Christ we're fucked.

I am not sure how to do this really. There is never going to be some Holla Forums post that will shit some golden nugget and suddenly provide the answer as to how to spread socialist theory and platforms. But I'll share what I'm doing. I saved up and got a DSLR camera, learned how to use it, got my cinematographer roommate to help with production, and am going to start doing recording some shit of me talking about issues everyone has thought about and dealt with in their lives. Since I'm a decently charismatic dude IRL, I hope I'll be able to at least do something as similar in quality to that dude Steven Crowder (can't wait to take on some of the shit he spouts in my own videos) and at least get people thinking that socialism is not only an acceptable way of thought, but one that makes use of the common sense that everyone holds inside at one point in their lives (how much does every one of us bitch about pay, government waste and corporate greed).

See

I happen to be one of the more lefty-friendly AnCaps when I shitpost on here, smug anime girls aside.

No they're not.

First of all, nobody reads those. Second of all, the format doesn't allow for much content, and our point here is how to teach theory, not how to spread "workers of the world, unite!!!" LARPer stuff.

/r/ing that GMIL comic where the guy during the plague starts hitting himself with a belt and then shouts at other people for doing nothing

and we wonder why the Left is insignificant

9000 hours on google images

Why is it that feminists seem incapable of grasping that most people would like to know the sex of the person they're chatting up before they take their clothes off?

Oh dude you have no idea of how bad I want to do this.

I actually really, really like the Daily Show format of taking conservative content and breaking it down, but I'd like do a serious, well-researched version of it. I don't even need a video camera, only a decent mic.

Only way to win the masses.
If they can't connect their existing problems to the struggle for socialism, they will never be persuaded

Bump

Not only is just about everything in this post wrong it's like you've never even heard of Wolff.

Honestly I only read it a few weeks ago but it (as a method) made a lot of sense. The actual programme he put forward is outdated of course however.

I honestly never cease to be fucking astonished that there are lefties who need to have the concept of explaining how revolutionary ideas are relevant to peoples daily lives explained to them. Jesus Christ.

Correct ideas often seem obvious once you know them. The concept of transitional demands is so plain and simple but clearly many unfamiliar with Trotsky and his ideas have failed to grasp it.

Burger here. It seems like the problem of socialist theory is nestled in a greater problem of a culture of ignorance, specifically historical ignorance, conditioned by spectacular society.

Instead of beating people over the head with Capital (to be sure, I think Marxism stands and is okay), why not take a less intellectual route and critique every day life, since really the communist project is a revolution of every day life. Struggle itself will be the ultimate school of socialist theory, but we do require an intellectual vanguard in the conjuncture we are in.
The last thing people need is a "Marxism-Leninism beginner's course"

What you're talking about are transitional demands, and you're spot on comrade. As this poster says it seems obvious to some of us, but to many it is not. It is amazing how many comrades would benefit from some Trotsky.

Trotsky wants to put every one to work and wants us to all join the trade unions. In Burger only about 10% of workers are unionized and all I hear from rank and file is 'they don't care about our needs' (mind you this is only Teamsters union I know). The only people I know who care about trade unions are Stalinists. Stalinists are fools to think they can make unions revolutionary the same way people are stupid to think they can FORCE the Donkey party to run a SocDem. Alien organizations can never be a vehicle to overcoming alienation.

Trotsky emphasizes the contradiction between the maturity of the productive forces, and the immaturity of the proles. But given that case, why does he want to throw people into work? Yes people need to eat and everything but nowadays the stores are chock full, peoples' pockets empty. Everything from May '68 to today has been a show of the unions being shit from a revolutionary perspective. Sorry m8 I just fail to see how Trotsky is relevant, same goes for all the ML's and Maoists. He sure was the man in 1905 though…

Addendum, sorry. I always leave something out. I would venture to say that the most fruitful transitional action that could be taken would be increasing international coordination and building networks of communication. nb

take away their guns and accuse them of being uneducated backwards rednecks, then fire them from their job and hire mexican slave labor.

Then ask them what are their views on existentialism

Buy in bulk and distribute Jacobin magazines new 'ABCs of Socialism'

I'm a student and, as everyone, a fucking social outcast.

Neverless, because Im a social outcast, I have time to read s hitton of stuff and limit my social circles to fandoms.

Most fandoms are highly alienated audiences, and given my country historical background, the place where the old upper class (muh great past) and the new middle class (I can be a capitalist) encounter.

I rely on appelaing to mundane things that affect them. I usually mention about how much time they spend commuting (because most of them live in peripheric districts of the city and workplaces cluster around the very center), about if it worth it, given the working conditions and wages. And usually what retorts to class struggle is mentioning if the like to have a boss and if they even need it, also going after asking what does the owner of the enterprise does as a productive activity.

If I'm lucky, I find engineers, they usually agree with a FALC approach.

Boil it down to it's most layman's idea possible, that you should be entitled to the money your work produces and the guy pushing money around on Wall Street does less for the economy than you.

Being a Trotskyist doesn't mean following Trotsky's advice word for word. He was writing in a very different era of capitalism.

It's his core method that is strong. Whether via union activity or otherwise, the concept of transitional demands is what we should learn from his work.

Bump

And someone was just saying on another thread that there is no Trotskyists on the board anymore.

Either of you in the CWI by any chance?

Afraid not comrade. IMT

Here's the pdf: s3.jacobinmag.com/issues/jacobin-abcs.pdf

Very good for normies.

It's because the truth fucking hurts.

This is a good place to start.
As I've said in several past threads we need more skilled tradesmen/workers.
The focus on the academic/professional classes over the last 50 or so years has more or less divorced the left from the working class,which is the traditional starting point of leftist movements.
They are important, but should have never become the primary focus as they simply do not relate all at well to one another.
And as mentioned here there is a tangible amount of smug superiority emanating from the upper echelons of academia and the professional class that actively looks down on the workers.
They don't like that.
And it doesn't take a sociology degree or a masters in economics to understand that the people being denigrated/looked down upon won't listen to the ones doing the denigrating, no matter how good their theory is.

There is a very real disconnect between the classes, and the sad truth is, the left is partially to blame for it.
The silver lining here is that while most workers aren't impressed with socialism, most of them have no idea what it really is, so education is at least possible, though it won't be easy.

Another are of focus needs to be unions.
The ones we have now are basically criminal organizations sanctioned by the government that encourage workers to turn on one another for profit, they exist solely to strip as much as they can from whatever business is unfortunate enough to be saddled by them, and most of that goes to their own hierarchies and not the workers they allegedly serve.
Jimmy Hoffa and the Teamsters were an all too typical example of the type of mobbed-up union that turned many workers away from the thought of organizing, and you can find any amount of video examples of union thuggery online.
Those jackasses aren't fighting for anything but their own bottom lines, and the left's slavish devotion to defending those clowns is part of the problem.

I'd like it if our unions were run more like the ones in Europe, with a non adversarial outlook that actually considered both sides needs and not simply one over the other.
In Germany, the unions have a place in the boardroom and are instrumental in reigning in corporate excess, while also running robust and easily accessible apprenticeship programs that ensure a constant flow of skilled, engaged workers who actively have a say in how their company is managed.
You couldn't make me join the UAW if you put a gun to my head, but I'd join IG Metall in a heartbeat.

tl;dr
The left needs to take a long hard look at itself and come to grips with the reality, which is we are our own worst enemies.
Reconnecting with the working class is the first step, and we do that by treating them like equals in the struggle, and not like uneducated dolts because they don't know their Marx from a hole in the ground.

Shit.
I meant is a good place to start, although is helpful as well.

This works even with small things, even in everyday conversations you can use this principle to talk to people about socialism.

Only the other day I was with somebody who was moaning about having to fix a light-bulb, they said they wished they'd make one lasted forever - just banal chit-chat.
I said off-hand that even if they could, they'd have to make them to break so that you buy more. They thought for a second… then I gave an example of where this has really happened; apparently Michelin own the rights to a special kind of rubber that takes forever to wear out, but of course they will never make tires from it because then people wouldn't need them to keep producing more.
We were talking about how profit drives production, not use-value. We were talking about how capitalism actually fetters, not incentives, technological development.
Before you know it, you're talking about socialism.

The whole point is that the common man hasnt heard of Wolf

You got a better idea?

Honestly the best possible thing we can do right now on this board is do what I have been saying over and over again. We need to have a strong presence on youtube that can target a younger demographic. And i know there is Xexizy but but he isn't that well read nor does he have serious and in depth knowledge of the subject matter he is dealing with. The only thing that can work is if we have a big push towards making sure that everyone on Holla Forums who has the free time and can afford it starts a youtube channel and just starts making videos. If we throw enough shit at the wall some of it is eventually bound to stick.

Most people if they want to learn about communism immediately jump to the communist manifesto which is full of archaic language, and is a pretty dense read for your average person. Youtube is just the best way to take complex ideas and condense them down into informative, easy to understand, and enjoyable to consume media. Also YouTube has a massive audience.

Most people, because they don't have

And you were doing so well too…

Its so easy to do really; any time someone complains about rent, prices, jobs - it's another example of capitalism failing. Keep it related to their original issue the whole conversation, be careful not to lose them with abstracts. You are not telling them about socialism, you are discussing their issue from a socialist perspective. This changes minds over the long term; it gives them an analysis of their own situation which they can then consider in a wider context in time. One conversation does not a comrade make.

That was my next guess.

Can you sauce me on this one?

I don't know the details but there was some story a while back - Michelin made these special kind of tires that were really hardy: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tweel

Anyway, they said they couldn't put them on the commercial market because there were already vested interests in the original rubber industry there, so they're only for specialized sectors of vehicles or something. Not as dramatic as the original story but the point still carries; these things could be on the commercial market but capitalist interests in the rubber market won't let that happen.