Thanks for the depression! J/k I appreciate the convo.

I’m trying to find solutions out of this in the imperial core. I want my life to be useful and not just be forgotten like 99.9999% of humans that have come before me. I believe everyone has the same essential drive to matter.

So for me that means a) finding a way to reprogram the masses, and b) figuring out why I didn’t get programmed. Why didn’t the propaganda stick?

I’m a mostly well off white dude living in a suburbs aka the lib breeding grounds. I have enough income to be comfortable, cops leave me alone, and I’m not worried about any physical threats in my little corner or burgerland. And yet I am radicalized to the point I dream of .

Compare to the people in this linked Reddit thread:

https://hexbear.net/post/1931625

All the classics are there: iPhone, making fun of “true communism has never been tried”, comparing us to nazis, we’re all lazy college students, etc. None of these people have anything new or unique to say. I am surrounded by people like this all day every day. These aren’t free thinking individuals but lemmings. Basically language regurgitation machines… but why am I not one of these people?

I also grew up in a very red area. I was inundated with this propaganda. Where I live I can’t go a mile in any direction without hitting 3 churches. Right-wing and lib indoctrination is like air here.

The only thing I can think of is that I am not totally straight, and that once I was poor enough to apply for food stamps. OK, but if my temporary brush with poverty was enough to turn left then why aren’t the millions of people living that experience and worse joining me? We all know a few poor or struggling people that hold onto lib and reactionary views…

I am starting to think the biggest hurdle to organizing is that the masses are, in fact, programmed by media. I agree with your point that it is overbearing due to the sheer scope of the messaging. But I can’t accept that we just wait for material conditions to get bad enough for people to turn left. It’s more likely they will turn to full Fascism. After all, the Fascists have all the money to buy propaganda.

So maybe the right way is to push harder against the basic propaganda that China is totalitarian, that Stalin was a terrible person who personally started Ukraine, that people in Cuba eat “mayonnaise sandwiches” as one conservative posted. We need more targeted messaging showing how much better everyday life in these countries is compared to the US. Show how nice Vietnam is after they won their war. Show how beautiful Pyongyang is to walk around. Show what a city looks like when every square inch of space isn’t covered in ads. Get the Victims of Capitalism Memorial Foundation going.

And most importantly, figure out the common thread between me and other leftists coming out of the “middle class” and find out how to replicate it.