this post was submitted on 23 Feb 2024
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Have you ever actually changed someone’s mind about communism on the internet? (hexbear.net)
submitted 1 year ago by duderium@hexbear.net to c/askchapo@hexbear.net
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I’ve spent years arguing with people online and really have nothing to show for it aside from my own education and amusement. I was radicalized by discovering r/chapotraphouse back in 2018 I think. Nobody argued with me there, I just lurked, loved the memes, thought it was the funniest place online, then started reading theory because so many people there talked about it. Even though liberals are obviously ignorant about communism, their ignorance is willful: they never thank us for educating them, they always get angry and double-down. (In real life, it’s much easier to embarrass them and get them to shut up.) Still, I admit that it’s possible to change someone’s mind in an online debate, I just haven’t seen it happen when it comes to communism (libs on r/changemyview can change their minds about lib shit). Have you ever seen a lib admit that they were wrong about communism?

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[–] ashinadash@hexbear.net 13 points 1 year ago

There's this woman I met on a stupid Discord server. We only even spoke because she jumped out of the bushes and into a channel to say some weird transphobic bullshit, which I replied to about as reasonably as I could. It seemed like she might actually want to learn things though and just be ignorant, so after embarrassing her publically I reached out with a message.

For the last five months I've been screeching in her dm's, alternatingly about trans-specific queer liberation topics and general communism stuff. She was(is?) basically a lib with "muh small gubmint! da politicians are stealin da money!!!1!" as her whole political analysis. So close to understanding... It seemed to actually hit when I illustrated for her the functions of police violence and how cops exist to uphold corrupt power structures, but I'm not really sure she sees me as an actual person. It's like I'm speaking The Language of the Gods sometimes when I get a bit too left, and her reaction is usually just silent nodding or whatever when I go into a massive screed about inflation or something. Seems to be listening, says she's gonna look into things, but not real reactive. It's like being trans makes me a different life form in her eyes, lol lmao. So I guess not?

I did turn my already-pretty-left wife who I met onlinr into a based leftist though, so victory there