Fucking god damn it. Actually. Just checked on 'em and one of them snuck in fascist media (COD: Black Ops). My plan has failed. I told them they could only watch Revolutionary Girl Utena blu-rays on that PS3.
Leftoid Praxis v2.0: Breedageddon commences. It's out only hope, I guess.
Well… not everyone was raised to be pro-slavery and many people hated the monarchy. It is naive to think that the way one is raised has no sway in the way people end up being. The way and ideas people grow up with shape the way one thinks. Sure, many overcome it, but many don’t. And the more propaganda increases in the future, the harder it will be to pierce through the eco chamber.
You missed the point. People back then didn't get raised with liberal values like we do now, and yet we now have those liberal values widespread. People weren't raised irreligious and yet atheists proliferate. Reality and especially the crushing reality of Capitalism often radicalizes people away from their childhood propaganda.
Nope. For us to win we must get converts. If it's just 3% more or whatever it makes little difference.
Think of it this way: if you have two kids and a 100% success rate at raising little socialists, you've only "replaced" yourself and nothing more. A good organizer will radicalize hundreds of people over their lives and have an effect of creating more organizers that will do the same.
Oh, comrade, don't count yourself out for that. My parents are too far gone for me to bother with, but they're in their 60's (I would say "retirement age" but lol, not happening in ).
You have to triage your efforts:
Firm Supporters
Soft Supporters
Soft Opposition
Firm Opposition
Focusing on moving people up this ladder is what keeps me going. If I can take some radlib off the sidelines, make them active agitators, and bring them into the Firm Supporters category, that's a win. If I can convert a hardline liberal/conservative to being on the sidelines instead of actively opposing us, that's a win. You have to do what you can with what you have. None of us are perfect organizers, but maybe we can get a little closer to that goal.
It's only about 2-4 people per year if you start at 20 and organize for 50 years. This is very achievable if you put yourself in scenarios to meet people that are "almost there". People that like unions, marginalized people trying out community organizing, parties/orgs that allow libs and baby leftists in but don't let them dominate, orgs that table at political rallies and protests (competently), holding events where you invite the community to watch a movie or hear a speaker. Party-building stuff, basically.
Edit: oh and also be ready for emergency mobilization and recruitment. Never be caught off-guard when something like George Floyd's murder happens. Libs will take over and sheepdog if you don't (intelligently) insert yourself and work with your coalitions. This means being part of coalitions before the big events hit.
An agitator's job is not to convert but to sow the seeds. Every crack in capitalism is another place to put a seed and "That's capitalism for you!" is a seed that can be cast every day. Just keep pointing out the contradictions of capitalism and let people convert themselves.
I am absolutely not worried about people's personal choice to have kids or not. I am worried about a how much "antinatalist" rhetoric there is amongst what is considered the left, which is actually just recycled malthusian and neo fascist talking points. I am worried about how many people can't have kids not because they chose not to, but because they think that they can't afford children.
The right wing cultists having families of seven kids are a very small minority. Most people with right wing political views simply don't want to do that. In most western or industrialised societies, people are still having less kids on average, regardless of political views.
The bourgeoisie will never struggle to have kids, that's kinda the most significant materialist factor for any kind of difference in birthrates across ideological lines.
How is it evil or fascist to think having kids is wrong? They aren't saying "disabled people having kids is wrong" or "black people are out breeding white people". It's "no one should have have kids". Unless they secretly mean only white people should have kids (which doesn't seem to be the case?) it doesn't seem evil or fascist. A moral position you don't hold, or find odd, but I don't understand why that would be evil.
Like, some people think birth control is immoral. That's doesn't make them evil, unless it's part of something else (white Christian values are being replaced and you need to defend against it).
There is nothing inherently reactionary about antinatalism as a philosophical stance, but I suppose parts of it could be cherry picked and packaged in some sort of genocidal propaganda. It wouldn't be the first time fascists did something like that.
I'm curious as to your understanding of antinatalism, since you consider it reactionary.
My own understanding: Someone who is never born is incapable both of a) experiencing and causing suffering (inevitable part of life) and b) missing positive experiences (as well as being missed themselves).
Having children is a central part of our biology and therefore our society, so I get that most people react negatively and never spend time and effort on the subject. It's one of those beliefs people are more likely to come to on their own than being "enlightened" by a 30 min vid. I think it is partly responsible for me now being vegan, at least the two feel closely connected as far as my values and beliefs go.
I don't know for sure about the likelihood of chud ideology transmission from one generation to another, but I can personally vouch for coming from a glaringly chud biological family where no one still alive in it is someone that I maintain contact with.
There are always stupid people in the world but human empathy is actually increasing with time. Today’s children aren’t as hateful and intolerant as their parents.
It doesn't matter how right-wing their parents are, the zero-sum nature and general decay of late capitalism are going to end up pushing them to the left. Capitalism won't let most of them be small business tyrants, and bootstraps and welfare queen rhetoric aren't nearly as convincing when you're working 60 hours a week to live in a box and eat noodles and the only medical care you can afford is prayer.
We leftists don't have time, resources, or largely even the desire to have children in such a shithole. We're also way more literate than the right and have a sense of forward thinking and planning, so we understand what parenthood requires.
We have a revolution to build, and simply don't want to be tied up in parenthood and join the ranks of the rest of the miserable, dysfunctional families capitalism has forcefully cultivated. Not only that, we're always considering what our theoretical children would want, since bringing them into this world isn't just about us. Don't forget, we were/are someone's kid. What did we get out of the arrangement? A front row seat to the end of a viable future. This is what we're supposed to reproduce? This is the burden we're supposed to force on someone else who didn't consent to being born in these conditions? Fuck. That.
The only way I'd have kids is if China or the DPRK guaranteed my theoretical partner and I a secure existence will full citizen rights, that way we'd have piece of mind we couldn't be rug pulled and sent back West to fucking die. The West cannot have my children, ever.
As for your question about being worried reactionaries are having many more kids, I honestly don't worry all that much. Those type of parents tend to be abusive and sabotage their children's interests, development and aspirations, or fight against them. How many of us are products of abusive reactionary families? Don't Elon Musk's kids hate him? Proletarianization is inevitable, and history always has a Marxist bias.
If the Quiverfull movement had any validity and success in getting its children to join and have more children than you can count on one hand, they would be 1 generation away from taking over the world.
New tactic just dropped: Encourage communist party members to marry and procreate with each other to indoctrinate as many of the next generation as possible
Reactionary thought (or ideology generally) isn't heritable. Most of these people treat their children like shit, and while that doesn't mean they'll turn into leftists, it does mean that the children of reactionaries are far from certain to become reactionaries themselves. This is especially true for "normal" chuds, who still want to be participants in mainstream society and politically engaged. Mennonites have a high retention rate in part because they're disengaged from normal society and they provide a supportive, insular community. Most chuds just treat their kids like shit, and also don't provide any kind of integrated, supportive community. That's a (materialist) recipe for losing converts.
nah, the Great Enshittification will ensure that material conditions continue to push more people, especially young people, further left as time goes on, regardless of the political leanings of their parents