askchapo

(Btw, I may be a right-wing shitlib relative to you guys, but out here where I live I’m basically a commie. It’s relative.)

I can empathize. I don't live in the US, but where I am, we are ruled by a right wing comprador colonial government that also uses religion to justify itself.

I think you're doing good work by trying to focus on material conditions when talking with the people around you. That's the most important thing. If they focus on culture war issues, I think it often is the best approach to try to circumvent direct engagement with those topics (still unequivocally say that trans rights are human rights, gay people deserve marriage and not recognizing their marriage is a slippery slope to invalidating all other kinds of marriage that aren't between two aryans in a Lebensraum homestead, etc) and to try to steer the conversation into the actual nature of power and authority. At the end of the day, you aren't gonna achieve anything by convincing them to agree with the Democratic agenda, and even voting for Bernie is largely useless. The goal is to bring them into the fold in a socialist movement through mutual aid programs, direct action, agitation, education, and whatever other arenas of struggle are available to advance the cause. Getting them to be perfect is not a necessary part of that process.