What's the point in explaining how the world works to people anymore?

I recently caught my chud family member watching some dumb youtube video about "experts lying about COVID" (yes, chuds are still malding), and like, what's the fucking point anymore?

You can be as gracious, understanding and in good faith as possible, but people will believe whatever nonsense some idiot influencer says is the truth. It makes me so mad, and unable to argue with these people, because their irrationality makes me irrational. Fuck.

Anyway, how are y'all doing?

56 comments

As revolutionaries, we don’t have the right to say we are tired of explaining. We must never stop explaining. We know that when the people understand, they cannot help but follow us.
- “No altar, no belief, no holy book... have ever been able to reconcile the rich and the poor, the exploiter and the exploited. And if Jesus himself had to take the whip to chase them from his temple, it is indeed because that is the only language they hear.” - Thomas Sankara
  Sankara was a real one.
  
  If I were taught this version of Jesus, I would likely be religious. Also, did Sankara write any books?
  
  The only time in the bible that Jesus genuinely lost his shit with people.
- i can't help but feel like this quote doesn't really apply in the same way to america in 2025. nobody in sankara's burkina faso benefitted from the status quo the way the typical white dipshit in the imperial core does and therefore actually had a reason to listen to communist arguments.
  some people are just never going to listen to reason because of their material conditions and need to be reeducated or shot, and a lot of those people are white americans
  
  I don't think Trump gets elected if the white dipshits are content with their material conditions, though?
  I think there's real discontent in America in 2025, even with how privileged Americans are globally. I think that discontent is ultimately a result of getting squeezed by capitalism, and that most folks aren't aware of that. Trump won by acknowledging that "the system" is broken, which most people know- he just pointed them to bigotry instead to protect capitalism.
  That's not to say that American's material struggles are comparable to Burkina Faso's - I think white folks in America are soft as shit - but I don't think people feel like they're doing well, and that's ultimately what drives their actions.
  
  We really need to stop doing this thing here where we post quotes from leftists living in totally different times and material circumstance and act like it's applicable to people trying to organize in the modern imperial core.
- I understand that, but for those who refuse to listen? What then?
  
  It's not like there are other ways to make people support us, so we have to just keep chipping at granite edifice of capitalism.
I mean, "experts" did lie about COVID, but not predominantly that it exists. Fauci lied about the effectiveness of cloth masks over N95s because the US can't produce shit to save their lives (literally). So your relatives are partially right, but they've been propagandized against anything that could give them the full answer (like that supply chain issue was a crisis of capitalism and capitalism can't handle real crises, rather it often causes them) so unless they can overcome that partial truths are probably the best you're gonna get from them. I just interact with people like that as little as I can for my own sanity.
- A lot of the right-wing nitpicking of CDC guidelines was very bad faith. Privileged reactionaries just didn't want to wear masks and stay home to save lives. Ya, early on during COVID the messages were a bit mixed or imperfect regarding masks because we didn't have enough high quality masks to go around. Everyone wearing cloth or surgical masks to prevent infected people from coughing viruses is still a fuckload better than doing nothing.
  I have no patience for rich people who did nothing in 2020 to compare CDC recommendations from February to November of that year. If one did shit that put a lot of people at risk of death because they're selfish, they're not even a human being in my eyes.
  
  Ya, early on during COVID the messages were a bit mixed or imperfect regarding masks because we didn't have enough high quality masks to go around.
  The surgeon general tweeting, "STOP BUYING MASKS!" and Fauci going on 60 Minutes and agreeing with a claim that masks could increase your chance of catching it are a bit more than "imperfect" messaging, if you ask me. Early on, their response was to lie and tell people masks don't work in the hopes that it would leave more masks available for healthcare workers, it didn't work and was a complete betrayal of public trust. It wasn't just mixed messaging about cloth masks, they were putting out overt lies, many of which would become staple talking points of the anti-mask movement.
  Anecdotally, I have a brother who's a bit of a weirdo politically but he was 100% on top of shit with COVID and early on he had liberal coworkers making fun of him for wearing a mask to work because it went against CDC guidelines. When the CDC did a 180, it not only discredited them but also discredited ordinary people who were trying to do the right thing and follow the science and pressure others to do so. If you're bullying people for wearing masks in February and then bullying people for not wearing masks in March, people stop listening to you and start pushing back, and "pushing back" often meant becoming antimaskers.
  Yes it was generally also privileged reactionaries but as someone who cares about science I find it outrageous that these institutions peddled anti-mask nonsense and in a sane world they'd be held accountable to restore public trust. Unfortunately the only people looking to hold them accountable are the reactionary anti-maskers, for all the wrong reasons. Individuals should also be condemned and shamed for not complying with the correct guidance, but scientists and health officials also have a responsibility to act with a higher level of integrity.
  
  A lot of the right-wing nitpicking of CDC guidelines was very bad faith.
  This is the problem, our critiques are based in reality, theirs are based in delusion. They stay stuff like it was an intentionally realeased bioweapon by China, who was working with Fauci and Biden. And that the vaccines are made to cull the population because they have caused "excess mortality." It's all nonsense.
  
  I have no patience for people who don’t mask and I feel extremely uncomfortable around them and don’t trust them at all.
- I dunno. I got through covid with simple non n95 maks. I think they were more effective than our intuition holds. I am not nit picking. I just think this is cool in an optimistic sense
  
  A cloth mask, or anything covering your mouth and nose, has to be better than nothing.
  
  This is better than nothing, but you can drive for years without a seatbelt and not have any problems. Who thinks it’s safe to drive this way? (I know lunatics who do, but still…)
  
  my friend Cleetus McDiabeetus got through covid never masking
  n95s are way better than surgicals, which are way better than nothing
Labor aristocrats and petit bourgeois intuitively know where their bread is buttered. They don't want to hear the truth. Our only hope with those is when they lose their privilege and become proletarian.
- This is the most important thing, I think. OP, you are trying to explain things to the wrong people. 90% of the white people, or just the $50k+ annual salary holder of any kind, they can't hear it. 90% of the Latin american immigrants I talk to, they lap it up and give it right back. I've had random plumbers come by to fix a toilet end up talking with me about how American imperialism destroyed their country which is why they had to leave and come here, instead of being at home where they would rather be. The most marginalized and oppressed people are the most receptive, they will also hold reactionary positions by default but through organizing and mutual aid, trust can be built and those things can be educated away with time.
  
  I live in such a white state, that even most of the 3D jobs are done by white people. Get any group of these white men together, and it’s a matter of minutes, maybe an hour or two at most, before someone says something racist or sexist or transphobic or whatever, with no pushback, although I certainly pay attention to the guys who at least don’t play along with this. A lot of these guys are either living in vans or are on the edge of homelessness, but whiteness is the glue that holds it all together.
You give a thirsty man water. You can't reason a person out of a position they didn't reason into. So you keep explaining it to them. However you have to explain it in terms they understand. My late father was a china fan because, "at least they kept thr globalists out" and you know what? Being right for the wrong reason is close enough for most people.
- You can't reason a person out of a position they didn't reason into
  you can, a lot of people leave religion because they start thinking about beliefs they just uncritically accepted their whole lives. what you can't do is force someone to actually confront cognitive dissonance.
  
  In that way I don't thinknreason carries the day. You are finding a person who already had doubts and told them about options. Which is the story I hear most is that they had already not been emotionally fulfilled and then when a better path opened up they tried it.
  
  Yea this phrase always bugs me, I did exactly what you described.
  
  you can
  no you can't and you just agreed with him while claiming not to
I'm so in the same space as you, I have no patience for chud or even lib bullshit.
Anyhow, I'm the furthest thing from an ideal communist, but I try to spend as much time with vulnerable groups and people, because they're just much better humans.
- You know what's funny. I started playing league again and legit met 3 of the coolest people outside this place tonight. Weird as hell.
  
  Oh that's really nice. Maybe you all can do a lefty team or call or something? (sorry I've never played lol)
- I have a cousin who is similar and I force dominance by saying "you are wrong and this is dumb" until they change the subject. Somewhat effective? I don't need to communicate past that at least lol
- We can’t be raging communists all the time, we have to pick our battles, we don’t just charge machine guns while waving our hands and screaming, etc. This is what I tell myself while I am surrounded by people who are either nazis or people who don’t care about nazis.
- If you want to engage (I do sometimes), you have to meet people where they're at.
  Most of my family is poor and they're on that anti-immigration shit. Digging down, they tell me it's because people in the US need help. I try to deflate their reasoning and hopefully lead them to a better analysis on their own.
I don't think most people really believe this stuff. It's more like a social signalling thing and a sort of reality TV fix.
Most of the dangers in our lives (speaking as a westerner in a wealthy and politically stable country) are systemic, like climate change for example. If shit really starts to happen in these people's own lives and they need to personally fight to survive I think most of them will snap out of it pretty quickly.
- I don't think most people really believe this stuff
  lol
- they absolutely do... i mean most of all people have started believing COVID denialism on some level, stopped masking, etc. because their govt told them to in the name of continued economic growth.
  
  Covid denialism is a low stakes luxury for most people. I bet you anything that these people would lock themselves away if they were dropped into an Ebola outbreak.
"I'm starting to understand why Lenin and Stalin just shot some people."
~ Terrance Ray
Sometimes you gotta connect with someone on a personal and cultural level before they'll listen to you. People believe what their group believes, because 1) it helps them fit in, and 2) they trust the collective wisdom and values of their group more than they trust their own limited personal judgment and life experience. If you threaten the beliefs that help them get along with their peers, they're gonna shut down to protect themselves before you even get to the logical part of their brain. The best way to get past this is to connect with them first over shared values and life experiences, because it kinda legitimizes what you're saying and gives them permission to think about it.
Just my 2 cents, not aimed at OP or anyone in particular

56 comments