askchapo

The first is that individualism runs deep and the "Fuck you, I got mine" mentality is hard to break

There's another mentality as or more troubling to me and that's the hold of the myth of American civil religion.

Their inclination will not be that they need revolutionary communism, that they need to seize the means and read Lenin and Mao, it will be a strong desire to RETURN to what was. To attempt to get back this mythic liberal Democracy they believe their country had for two centuries and many will cling to that as their real religion, as what they grew up being indoctrinated in in school, as the association with patriotic songs that have brought tears to their eyes, etc. They are invested deeply in not just the capitalist project or the settler one but in the myth, in being fooled, in believing that this is PEAK of societal development and that we just have to bring it back. I expect many of them will get sucked into pointless actions trying to do just that and some will take up arms against both the communists and the reactionaries and seek to put both down but likely prioritize the communists as the more dangerous I'm sad to say.

Americans are the most indoctrinated people on earth. It isn't merely class interests, it won't vanish the day those interests change, I fear it will take years, even possibly decades for the old true-believer to die or age out and for a disillusioned younger generation who never experienced the good parts of the myth and doesn't believe in it at all to come along and be swept up in communism and act on it. It's possible we might build something without them, that they'll just sit on the sidelines and not fight us, staring at the broken pieces in their hands instead but its a real problem. I think we will find the most fertile ground among the 'apolitical', those sitting it out because they feel and know on some level it's bullshit and things could take off like fire among this part of the population, it's a wildcard.