>>2616244>Eh, I think the mistake a lot of communists make is assuming class consciousness already exists or is like the default, and if that's the case then why isn't the socialism happening? So they think, well, it must be because THEY are trying to stop it because "they," like you, also anticipate the proletariat awakening (obvious!) and overthrowing them (inevitable / two weeks / etc.).whether a lot, or some, or even most communists believe that class consciousness is obvious i cannot speak for, but personally i have no illusion that class consciousness is at all something obvious. in the recent Reitter translation of Capital (that i have been enjoying immensely), the foreward states that one of capitalism's peculiarities is its opaqueness on its concrete presentation, i.e. the way you can analyze a factory or a corporation and be unaware of capitalism's intricacies and working components, contrasted with its clarity only through abstract theoretical analysis. you must study capitalism from a distance to understand how it really works because obscuring and camouflaging the appearance of things is core to how capital operates. lenin was correct in his conclusion that the proletariat must become organized and led to be able to see the chains on their wrists, otherwise they live believing that they are free, that those chains simply do not exist or that they wear them through their own free will, or that this is god's will, or nature's will, etc. this is the duty of the vanguard.
>But the most sobering possibility is that they have no reason to think that. The working class actually does not by default think of itself as a class, and your ideas are simply not shared by the vast majority of people in most developed capitalist countries in the first place. i agree
No one actually needs to "divide the working class" either if the existing structure that organizes society already does that.
here i disagree. although an ignorant populace is ideal, there still has to be a plan b, plan c, etc. and an eventual panic button. it doesn't hurt to guarantee success for the ruling class, and it doesn't cost them much either.
It's a kind of post-hoc way of thinking, like [things happened this way] so therefore [it must have been intended this way]. It's in the way you say "they" as if these guys are sitting around thinking in the same terms that you do.
the beauty of capital is that it does not have to be conscious of itself or of how it functions to properly protect itself, it is like an animal who operates on instinct, that being the protection of its material conditions. i agree that there's a good chance the ruling class is not aware of the intricacies of marx, but that is not necessary for it to see the way the wind is blowing, and consequently to create the conditions for its continued prosperity.
>I think it is the case that constructing politics around these identity categories is more compatible with the status quo and that's where the incentives are and that's rewarded, but I doubt they think much about any of us at all.yes, i think this is the way it manifests more often than not. human beings for all their powers of rationality do not often utilize these powers unless the situation demands it. however, i do think the ruling class does think about the proletariat, because a large part of their profits are reliant on our consumption of their commodities.
>>we live in a post-meme world now, and the left must ramp up meme production as this serves as the only real method of information and news that most americans digest.>I think it's going to take more than that, anon. of course, but the primary weapons of war are not physical action, but rather the reasons that people fight in the first place. today, the weapons of the vanguard and the proletariat are memes, and if the revolution is to take place and succeed, it will be led to that point because the people will be led to become aware of their class, and to realize that freedom from slavery is possible.
"Material force can only be overthrown by material force, but theory itself becomes a material force when it has gripped the masses."
like the subsequent poster has said, the working class is not united by anything but class, but this is enough once they become aware of their conditions, and, perhaps most importantly, once they understand that there exists the possibility of liberation *today*, and that there is a party that exists to organize them and lead them towards liberation. we are lacking that kind of party, but not because of a lack of leadership or talent. it is a matter of organization.