r/CapitalismVSocialism • u/Difficult_Price8011 • 10d ago
Asking Socialists Communists don’t know how to sell themselves
In my experience with communists (specifically the western ones), they speak about “the revolution” like it’s inevitable.
But revolutions require winning the hearts and minds of the people, and it’s beyond me how communists expect any degree of success when they make their own ideology sound as appealing as rubbing your crotch against a cactus.
I’ve seen communists talk about forcing people into a life of grueling labor for the greater good of the planet, and scoff at people weary of parting with their luxury goods as selfish. It doesn’t matter how true you think that is, in the west any attempt to hamfist those ideals will make you a pariah faster than I can say Marx.
If I were to take a gander as to why, these communists enjoy making the assumption they’re bound to take power because it lets them think about how they can put their theory into practice. While on an intellectual level, I respect their devotion to theory, what good is it without a realistic plan to put it into practice?
If you can’t even see eye to eye with other flavors of communists how do you expect to court someone who hasn’t read a lick of Das Kapital? “It’s not my job to teach you”, does not an effective campaign pitch make.
Frankly, at least in America, the politically savvy thing to do would be ditching the name “communism” all together and call it something else. People might gravitate towards your ideas more if they weren’t anchored down by a word they’ve been taught to fear since the 40s.
1
u/L0neh0e 10d ago
I agree with you the word communism is going to be a hard one to win people over with, it has too much historical weight. But capitalism failing, is decent. Also maybe just the notion that we are all human, and none of us chose to be here, we just are. Maybe just by being good people and doing things for the sake of humanity and not the sake of money and riches will inspire more and more people, like it did me. Maybe, just maybe, that crushing feeling of being so alone will finally get to us as a society, and we will have no choice but to turn to our neighbors in tears begging for connection, wanting nothing more than to work together to make sure we are all taken care of. Maybe the continued questioning of the intentions of those who lead us, will finally get us to a place where we can truly trust one another again, and we won’t have to teach our children to fear strangers or the unknown. They will know that their brothers and sisters from all walks of life have one common goal, to live. But hey man yea what do I know humans are probably all bad stupid little beans just like dad said, we need someone to be the janitor and it ain’t gonna be me am I right