But when someone finally does, they think they’ve gone crazy for not agreeing with their politics.
TLDR less than a year ago I decided to get real serious about researching what communism actually is. Now that I’m a communist (Because doing the real research opened my eyes to a better system than capitalism, and ML seemed to be the best way to go about that), my family is questioning whether I’m like, in a cult or not? I dunno, they aren’t saying anything specific, just pushing back hard any time I prove their liberal media bubble lies to them.
I’ve opened up a politics channel on our family chat, and every time I post something about media bias, anything questioning the status quo about China, Cuba, or North Korea, it get’s scrutinized to the level of a pseudo-journalist combing every “media bias” website looking for any reason whatsoever to prove that my source is wrong (Besides, you know, just actually finding the evidence or anything). Last week a family member shared the NK story about censoring jeans… I did push back, and immediately they caved about the story and pivoted to moving the goal posts with “Well North Korea is just a dictatorship so whatever they say can’t be trusted”, then when I asked if they knew anything about NK they said “How can we? It’s so suppressive they won’t tell us anything”, which there are resources out there, they are genuinely hard to find, but I ended with “Welp they are opening up soon so you can see for yourself”. Not a single one of them knows what a politburo or peoples congress is… I have told them too, they seem to have selective memory sometimes.
If anyone posts anything from the BBC, CNN, the guardian, whatever, they give a nod and a “true true”. But second thought? Nah, that’s tankie bullshit, he’s biased, can’t be trusted… Like guys, WE’VE TALKED ABOUT MEDIA BUBBLES, YOU ARE IN ONE RIGHT NOW, I’M SHOWING YOU, I WAS WITH YOU A YEAR AGO, I GOT OUT, YOU HAVE TO LISTEN TO ME.
It’s as if “media bubble” to them meant Fox news, or ONLY conservative news. But they watch the “real news” like NPR, CNN, MSNBC, BBC. So they are fine, it’s not their media bubble that was the problem. One of them admits they ONLY READ HEADLINES (Well, 95% headlines anyway), and claim that “reading news is their hobby”. Like… dude, you don’t read the news, you said it yourself, YOU READ HEADLINES. I sent them Second thoughts video about biased headlines and they’re like “But all sources do that”. And I’m like "YES THEY DO, PLEASE BE CONSCIOUS OF THIS FACT AS YOU ONLY READ HEADLINES THEN CLAIM YOU KNOW THE STORY FROM IT. AHHHHHHHH I feel like I’m going crazy :( I even tried offering my ground news subscription. I know it’s baby steps but I figured they would be interested, no bites yet.
I can’t push too hard or I just won’t ever see them again, but at this point, is it worth it? I’m nearing 40 btw, not young. We are all grown adults. I spent so long going through this transition of learning/growing, so I know it’s not fast. The older you are, the harder it is to change, especially your biases. But still, I did it, I hoped they would too. Right now they are truly practicing the backlash effect.
Thanks for listening to my rant comrades. May your propaganda efforts not be in vein!
If you love your family and they are good to you then I suggest not broaching this stuff with them very hard. Reality of the world vs the reality of being a social animal. Your relationships are still the most important thing even though we live in capitalism.
Work slowly on moving them over time. Make sure you’re not actually damaging your relationship to win an argument. You said you’ve only been doing this less than a year and that’s a crazy short amount of time to be engaging so actively with this stuff with your family.
I recommend starting with distrust and more neutrality (ex just say Russia is another country on the other side of the world defending itself, why are you scared? Or why is the US surrounding China if the US is defending itself?)
As for sources to back up this line of questioning, many people are distrustful of “breadtube” sources like secondthought because it’s a young white guy on YouTube so if they need a white guy with a PhD talking to them, I always recommend Jeffrey Sachs for things about China and Russia, Ukraine war etc. Guy was an advisor for Russian shock therapy in the 90s, PhD etc, so there is no possible way any liberal can dismiss his opinions if they’re engaging in good faith.
And don’t press all the time. You don’t want to make communists appear annoying. If you look at it from your family’s point of view, You’ve changed so radically and are always arguing for something so bizarre, of course they’d liken you to joining a cult!
You want to appear like what most people in the world want to do: just someone who wants enough money to put food on the table and relax at the end of the day. Couple that with being well informed and it’s a winning combination.
I think political discourse is going to have to take a back seat. Unfortunately, I used to have lots and lots of hobbies, but I kind of don’t anymore. So I think I need to understand my place in the Imperial Core and just play ball just a little bit more.