Neglect of optics on the left?

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Neglect of optics on the left? Anonymous 21-12-25 23:07:47 No.2608087

I'm asking sincerely, how much of a problem is this? Most people are not class conscious and reactionary politics based on vibes is extremely common. I present as fairly "socially traditional" in my personal life while still being a progressive and my politics have surprised many people I know due to their associations with "the left", that being some variation of the "blue haired feminist (or trans woman in 2025)" or whatever boogeyman they have. Being a socialist does not mean what it means to me for these people.

While I obviously find it laughable to not base your politics on material factors and don't subscribe to socially regressive sentiment myself I still feel worried about how much impact this could be having on the movement. I don't know how you would deal with this though because I don't think promoting reactionary politics within the left is a good idea but large swaths of people who will definitely never read theory are also being alienated due having socially regressive views that clash with the "vibes" they're getting of the left, regardless if they're true or not. There's of course also the other side of this where people who are clearly liberals identify as "socialists" due to their own associations with the left and social progressiveness while also never reading theory which makes organizing IRL harder (I have personal experience of this honestly).

Maybe there's some kind of "class reductionism" (despite being used as a derogatory term by some) one could adopt but I also don't know how you'd do that properly since reactionaries weaponize optics anyway.

Anonymous 21-12-25 23:11:36 No.2608100

kill all opticians.

Anonymous 21-12-25 23:13:03 No.2608103

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>>2608100

Anonymous 21-12-25 23:21:20 No.2608120

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We have this thread at least once a week.

First of all, this idea that leftism has uniquely bad optics is one spread primarily by rightwingers on rightwing platforms like X the Everything App. The right acts just as if not more cringe on a day to day basis (picrel), they've just set things up so that they can shittalk us more than we can shittalk them.

Second, people's politics are ultimately the result of their own self-interest, or at least what they perceive to be their own self interest. They'll adopt the views that they believe benefit them; the presentation of these ideas has very little actual impact.

Anonymous 21-12-25 23:24:28 No.2608129

>>2608120
I agree with you that the right is cringe but they sincerely believe what they're saying. Like how do you actually solve this problem?

Anonymous 21-12-25 23:29:21 No.2608139

>>2608129
You don't. It's a hard pill to swallow, but already radicalized people are typically not worth engaging with directly, and are often radicalized in the direction that they are because their ideology being true would benefit them. You should be interested in people who already have one foot in left-wing thought, or are politically uninvolved but in a situation where leftist politics would benefit them. Otherwise you're just wasting your time.

Anonymous 21-12-25 23:40:24 No.2608160

>>2608139
I'm not denying what you're saying, but do you have examples of this? I've had the thought progressive liberals are at least approachable but seeing people further to the right as a lost cause is something I'm not sure of yet which is why I made the thread I guess, wondering how much optics actually matter. Right wingers are cringe but they have the benefit of appealing to tradition which makes them more easily digestible for many people.

Anonymous 21-12-25 23:49:26 No.2608170

>>2608160
It's easy if you're actually a prole yourself. I'm currently between jobs, but the place I worked previously was full of people in tough spots who had more to gain from Marxism than they had to lose.

Anonymous 21-12-25 23:55:52 No.2608176

>>2608170
Well, many people I've worked with had extremely reactionary attitudes despite being pretty much in poverty, typical white identity politics as you might expect. Is there value in appealing to them?

Anonymous 22-12-25 00:33:02 No.2608237

>>2608176
I'd say not really. For those kinds of people, you need to wait for the material conditions to arise for them to question their ideology themselves.

Anonymous 22-12-25 06:58:26 No.2608575

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>>2608087
It's a game that cannot be won when the bourgeoisie owns all the mass media and can hire innumerable shills

Anonymous 22-12-25 09:35:40 No.2608654

>>2608120
TRUTH NUKE

Anonymous 22-12-25 09:37:00 No.2608656

>>2608575
Also a truth nuke, don't even bother fighting the media war, their agents alone probably post more propaganda than you, nevermind their botfarms

Glownonymous 22-12-25 10:33:20 No.2608718

>>2608087
I think the left plays with optics way too much. It's concern for optics that causes groups to do their pointless little flag and poster holding photo ops with 15 people.

Here's the thing, conservatives look at people with blue hair and go "that's a lazy socialist liberal". This is not, in fact, a socialist who doesn't care about optics. This is a crazed lunatic who calls everything he doesn't like a socialist. And he doesn't like blue hair. This is not a person, this is conservative media with billions of dollars behind it and hundreds of millions of viewers. So it makes sense why you confuse the two things, but hopefully this sets you straight.

Anonymous 22-12-25 17:23:26 No.2608980

IMO the left obsesses over optics too much, trying to be le decent hecking human being. Instead we should stop trying to pass off as normies, we don't need to seem normie to get people on our side.

General Niggnin!7MGHd/e/GM 22-12-25 17:26:29 No.2608985

File: 1766424389068.png (1.05 MB, 1179x1138, IMG_5289.png)

>>2608575
>>2608656
Evendoe mainstream media is dying and alternative media is the biggest its ever been. While yes the bourgesisie of course have a hold on this it also lets us establish our own media outlets such as this site. I wouldnt be all doomer about it

Anonymous 23-12-25 06:05:55 No.2609696

~~>>2609623~~
>They have grown quite rapidly.
It's been a while since I last checked, but as far as I can tell, they had a decently large influx of members in the beginning, but failed to actually maintain that growth. As far as I can tell, their actual cultural relevance peaked about a year ago, which is kind of sad.

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