>>8526I've been thinking of this question myself. I think the best places to start are the popular pamphlets of the Second International era - still revolutionary Marxism, but from obscure authors with non-Russian names that won't trigger normies. Rosa Luxemburg for example is surprisingly appealing to liberals because of her gender and cool life story, yet she was a steadfast revolutionary Marxist whom Lenin criticized for being too insurrectionary. She doesn't have any really great works for beginners however.
Kautsky has a couple works in this field, the best one being
The Historic Accomplishment of Karl Marx that focuses on Marxist political
practice instead of just theory. The author and the tone of the writing are less intimidating than Marx himself, but the political message still remains true to his work. Lenin was a fan of this pamphlet, in fact the quote about Marxism being the combination of "English economics, German philosophy, and French socialism" was ripped pretty much directly from Kautsky.
Finally there's
The Two Souls of Socialism by Hal Draper. Good stuff while still remaining short and accessible. Some of the political content may be objectionable however, like the constant bashing on the USSR as "Stalinist socialism from above".
I still think that Engels'
Socialism: Utopian and Scientific is the best introduction to Marxism by far however. It's tough to recommend to total normies, but if you can sense they're Marx-curious it's the way to go.