Hey y'all, I know things are pretty fucked right now, just wanted to share an optimistic perspective. (Copied from a comment here).
I have honestly never been more bloomer in my life.
EVERYONE is thinks things suck.
EVERYONE is pissed.
EVERYONE is trying to do something about it.
The only problem is that people don't know why things suck, or how to make it better.
Fascists think things suck because of [minority], and so they want to get rid of [minority].
Liberals think things suck because of the fascists, and so would like everyone to just play nice and we can work this all out, please.
But WE know.
WE know the problem! IT'S CAPITALISM!!!
WE know the solution! KILL CAPITALISM!!!
If everyone in the world woke up tomorrow and knew what we know, the suffering would stop.
The collective rage that we see in society would be directed at the true enemy instead of each other, and nothing in the world is more powerful than people working together to make things better.
The only thing we must do to win, the only thing that truly matters, is to get everyone to understand.
History has blessed us with the ultimate weapon.
A material power that Marx and Lenin and Sankara and Newton could not dream of wielding in their wildest fantasies.
NOW is the moment in history for revolution.
Capitalism WILL fall in our lifetimes.
I'll be surprised if it lasts twenty years.
The contradictions have become undeniable.
The people want change, they just need direction.
And for the first time in history, we have a direct line to every single one of them.
Don't you DARE quit on us.
We need everyone we can get.
Now get back to posting, soldier.
I share your enthusiasm but your assessment is not correct.
Do you mind sharing why you think that?
Education is only part of what is to be done, it is not the only thing that’s keeping a revolution from happening. Organizing people is just as important, if not more.
There are so many people right now who understand capitalism and socialism etc., but it does nothing for the struggle because they do not act to challenge power (mostly because they benefit from the status quo somehow). Even if everyone suddenly had perfect political consciousness, nothing would change because no work has been done to organise - building people’s power. Without it, you will not be able to fight the infinitely more organised power of the capitalist state.
Finally, the internet is not a direct line of communication to everyone. It reaches only a specific demographic. You can’t rely solely on it to build a mass movement.
Does it make sense? I get that we’re in the bloomer comm but I think it’s important to not stray into idealism.
What is "organizing" beyond education?
Yes, there needs to be material action behind it, and I'm saying that there already is, it just needs to be pointed in the right direction.
A hundred million people are frothing at the mouth to deport as many people as possible, and I submit that it is not out of hate.
WHY does "immigrants are poisoning the blood of this country" resonate with people?
It is not because they really really hate Mexicans. Some do, of course, but not enough to build a mass movement.
It resonates with people because the blood of this country IS poisoned. This country is possessed by a demon, and it needs an exorcism. And people feel this.
And they are trying to fix it.
They are organized.
They are taking material actions.
They are willing to sacrifice.
Capital sees this happening, and it is terrified. It NEEDS to direct revolutionary energy away from itself, and so it conjures up a boogeyman.
It needs to be something pervasive, but immaterial. Something ubiquitous, yet divisive. A fight that must never end.
It needs to split the people in two, point them at each other, and let them take their revolutionary energy out on each other. The two sides should be perfectly balanced so no that no real progress is ever made, but also unstable so that each side feels like it might be able to win if it just tries a little harder.
Democrats get too powerful? No problem, whip up some hate for a minority on fox news. Republicans get too powerful? No problem, time to run some stories on hate crimes.
Every presidential election is close. Elections swing back and forth every few years.
That's not a coincidence. That's evidence.
I don't like it any more than you do, but MAGA is part of the revolutionary class, and we need to start acting like it.
The greatest trick the devil ever pulled.
It is literally, materially a direct line of communication to everyone. It is a revolution in communication on par with the printing press.
CAPITAL has built the internet into echo chambers.
CAPITAL told us that we hate each other.
CAPITAL has algorithmically split us into factions that do not talk to each other.
What would Lenin have been able to accomplish if What Is To Be Done? could have been published online?
How much more effective would the movement have been if he had a YouTube channel?
What if the greatest minds across Europe at the time could have hopped on a video call to discuss strategy?
What if the soviets had a subreddit?
We're playing on easy mode, y'all.
R.I.P. capitalism, good luck making it to 2030.
"It is literally, materially a direct line of communication to everyone."
This is deeply untrue. I'm an adult educator and I can tell you right now, no ifs, ands, or buts, that there is a massive demographic of people who have functionally zero contact with the Internet. There is a digital divide that is a huge stumbling block for overcoming educational access. This is not even an age thing, it has so many vectors. Rural access is much less. Access for the impoverished is much less. Access for people of colour, especially Indigenous people, for disabled people, for migrants, for criminalized people, for people on the streets, for people working multiple jobs, are all much less. If someone has not completed high school, they are much less likely to use the Internet, especially for education. Illiterate adults are also really not using the Internet, and this is a large percentage of the population. Perhaps a shockingly large percentage, if you don't have experience teaching adult literacy.
If you have contact with education and with vulnerable sectors you will very quickly realize the limits of the Internet in reaching the people most in need. A huge portion of the population don't even know how to send an email. This is not an exaggeration, digital literacy is quite literally an essential component of my job. Not to say anything about all the rest of your post, just want to reiterate what starkillerfish was saying, that the Internet is not a direct line to everyone, but instead a direct line to certain demographics.
i recommend you join a socialist organisation or a union to learn about that, but to put it briefly - organising is the act of building power, getting people to pool their collective resources to pursue specific demands. if you do organise irl, you will know that the internet is not where you go to organise workers. you go to the factories, to the warehouses etc. You do realise that literally, materially not everyone has access to the internet, right? Due to time or monetary constraints for instance.
also this is nonsense language and strays close to reactionary. "blood of this country" is not materialist analysis
Comrade, revolutionary optimism is a good thing to have, but do not let it cloud your analysis. Organization is a material action, in real life, of building the working class up. Even if you have every part in a shelf disassembled, ready to play their part in the final shelf, a shelf you do not have. You must hammer in the nails, arrange and align the legs, place the slats, stain the wood. Raising awareness is not enough in and of itself.
Join an org.
As someone who studied Information Science, this is cap. Swathes of people lack internet access or have such poor computer literacy they may as well lack access to the internet. I literally know people in both categories as well.
How will you contact the worker who works 8-10 hours a day, 5 days a week, with a 6-hour day most weekends then goes home, turns on cable tv for a few hours, then goes to sleep and wakes up to repeat the cycle?
What about the workers that do use the internet but in an extremely limited capacity: they watch Netflix and other streaming services, and message people they know IRL on WhatsApp, that is about it. How are you going to communicate with them?
These are examples that are pulled from people I actually know, let alone some of the examples of tech illiteracy I've had to study. How will the internet act as a direct line to them in this case?
I'm glad you're optimistic but that line is a certified lib moment.
Also, education alone is not organized, it doesn't create supply lines for mass strikes (people are far less willing to strike and fight the system if it means their children starve to death), it doesn't set up community self-defense, and it does not create a bail fund. Organizing requires education, yes, but it also requires actually being able to act in an organized capacity which requires things like logistical capacity which theory alone does not give you. If we implanted the specter of communism in everyone unhappy with the status quo today, supply lines still need building, money, and resources still need allocating, and skillsets need reviewing for divisions of labor.
You mention that material action outside of education is already done, but is that material action comprehensive enough and solidified enough to support a mass movement and the struggle it shall entail? I would say no.
They are organized in protests, they do not have widespread community gardens set up to feed people when the capitalist system shuts the spigot off.
So I will second what another Cowbee said: Join an org
This if anything, is proof of the need for organization beyond just education. These are all propaganda and organization use of the internet as a tool. But also, if it is that simple the revolution should have already occurred as all of these have modern equivalence. What Is To Be Done is published online, and all parts of the movement have YouTube channels. Modern organizations do use video calls to discuss strategy. The revolution has yet to occur.
I am not saying the internet is not an indispensable tool: I was exposed to theory via it. But more must be done outside of it, there are still people to be reached who lack internet access, unless you want capital to be able to cut off resources for the movement you need secondary structures built up outside established systems.
I will say though, despite disagreeing on a lot of the points, I do generally agree with the fact that we are at a fulcrum point where education is one of the foremost things that need to be done to capture the rising class consciousness and discontent.
I know this might have been rhetorical, but I have a plausible answer: by working at the liquor store or dispensary, and getting really good at being an empathy source that gets people to open up. A large fraction of the working class is self-medicating, often pounding 10+ drinks a night (or the psychoactive equivalent in weed or pills or other drugs) to chase away the nagging thoughts of perceiving their personal context in the world.
If I don't have the right hyper-gregarious personality type to play that role, I'll team up with a comrade who does, and I'll work a bunch of jobs with the explicit intention of finding people with compatible value-sets or life philosophies, and bring them in via more focused one-on-ones.
Additionally, people ache for free shared spaces. If you have one of these, you can attract and bring in lots and lots of people. It's nice to be able to hang out at someone's house but ultimately it's still someone's house. Having access to socialization that doesn't cost money upfront is a game changer.
No I agree, my point was moreso against the internet is a direct line comment. All of those require in person interaction and intervention. It's rhetorical in the sense that any solution requires a direct connection via in person interaction