this post was submitted on 06 Jan 2024
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Communism

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I was buying something at a small shop and for some reason the shop owner decided to talk about how much the government ruins business through taxes, how the government shouldn't be in business, and how there is too much socialism in government. Maybe I look like a libertarian lol.

I did my best to ask him what he meant to try and get him thinking and it seemed to help a bit. I even pulled a "any socialist I've talked to doesn't believe in any of that".

I seem to have a lot of these conversations, even when I'm minding my own business. Have any of you had luck with breaking down preconceived notions others may have? I'd just like to be better prepared since apparently this is just something that happens to me.

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[–] cfgaussian@lemmygrad.ml 13 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Tailor your propaganda to your audience. When speaking to small business owners emphasise how the state is giving tax breaks to big corporations while putting a disproportionate burden on the middle class. If they have a strong aversion to the word socialism either avoid it using it altogether or try using that to your advantage: point out how the big "socialist" corporations like Amazon, Tesla, big pharma, big oil, etc. get subsidies and how the "socialist" banks are getting bailed out by the state at the expense of small business owners. Point out how these corporate monopolies are "socialist" because they are anti-competition and how they need to be broken up "for the sake of the free market". Use their frustration and redirect it against monopoly capital and the bourgeois state that props it up. Bonus points if you can get them to get angry at how much of their tax money the state spends on wars abroad for the profits of Raytheon and Lockheed and kickbacks for corrupt politicians instead of helping out small business owners.

At this stage of capitalist development it is impossible to turn back to free competition small proprietor capitalism. Attempting to do so would crash the whole system but those from the petty bourgeois strata who advocate for this often don't understand that. If they push for policies which undermine monopoly capital or the bourgeois state structures propping it up they will be inadvertently helping to usher in socialism faster. The petty bourgeois are not class allies but they might be useful if we can exploit the contradictions of capitalism such that they are persuaded for the sake of their own selfish, short sighted interests to turn against the pillars of the system: finance, insurance, big real estate, etc., and especially imperialism.