If they ACTUALLY support socialism yes, but if they just support “The word the republicans call Nancy Pelosi all the time.” then its not very useful. Since what you really need are people that actually want to organize. Just look at someone like Bernie Sanders. He calls himself a socialist but he was one of the people out there refusing to call Gaza a genocide for the longest time. Words don’t mean anything unless people know their actual definition. Someone who says they support capitalism but actually wants to get out there and do anti-imperialist action is vastly more useful than someone who wants to sit at home and say they want free college so theyre a socialist. The USA is just a very strange place where people say things that make absolutely no sense.
if people were already principled socialists we would have no work to do.
if you want to raise money for real work and you decide to have a socialist bake sale with socialist in the name it does not matter how educated the public is, it matters whether they’re positive on the word or not. you’d do much better with one of those now in the US than you would at any time 10+ years ago until you go back far enough to the Panthers being active and better among white people until you go back before McCarthyism.
it’s the job of (some) orgs to educate people and it’s good if more of them are willing to come in the door or hear you out in the first place.
the downside of john q. public not knowing the difference is that bernie or “national-socialists” can co-opt the sentiment as well.
healthcare pls socialists aren’t all going to show up and do the work but they’re much more amenable to us than clintonite single-payer types were in the 1990s.
yeah i mean i wouldn’t try to remake the weather underground out of bernie fans, but all the actual cool zone stuff is backed up by farmhands who can give you fertilizer off the books or 100 people who will show up to a place in santa outfits on short notice so you can disappear in a crowd, or teens who will vandalize surveillance cameras for fun.
If they ACTUALLY support socialism yes, but if they just support “The word the republicans call Nancy Pelosi all the time.” then its not very useful. Since what you really need are people that actually want to organize. Just look at someone like Bernie Sanders. He calls himself a socialist but he was one of the people out there refusing to call Gaza a genocide for the longest time. Words don’t mean anything unless people know their actual definition. Someone who says they support capitalism but actually wants to get out there and do anti-imperialist action is vastly more useful than someone who wants to sit at home and say they want free college so theyre a socialist. The USA is just a very strange place where people say things that make absolutely no sense.
if people were already principled socialists we would have no work to do.
if you want to raise money for real work and you decide to have a socialist bake sale with socialist in the name it does not matter how educated the public is, it matters whether they’re positive on the word or not. you’d do much better with one of those now in the US than you would at any time 10+ years ago until you go back far enough to the Panthers being active and better among white people until you go back before McCarthyism.
it’s the job of (some) orgs to educate people and it’s good if more of them are willing to come in the door or hear you out in the first place.
the downside of john q. public not knowing the difference is that bernie or “national-socialists” can co-opt the sentiment as well.
healthcare pls socialists aren’t all going to show up and do the work but they’re much more amenable to us than clintonite single-payer types were in the 1990s.
I guess, maybe I am too militant. I want guerillas, but I guess someone who gives 5$ to the guerillas is fine too.
yeah i mean i wouldn’t try to remake the weather underground out of bernie fans, but all the actual cool zone stuff is backed up by farmhands who can give you fertilizer off the books or 100 people who will show up to a place in santa outfits on short notice so you can disappear in a crowd, or teens who will vandalize surveillance cameras for fun.