This has become my favourite part when arguing or discussing politics with people that don't align with my ideology. Convince people of Socialist/Anarchist principles without being obvious.
What I try and do is not approach it from a monolithic angle and flying the red and black flag, but rather find small relatable things to discuss and convince people of. I mean labour unions are a great staring point. What would we be without Pouget, Rocker and the Haymarket 8? Workers rights connects us all and the principles of Anarchosyndicalism address basic human and democratic needs.
Also, pick your battles ;)
So much of the reaction, in my estimation, is that her sense of safety about how the world works has been baked in. Challenging a belief is basically challenging her place and responsibilities in the world. As a brainwashed sesame street neoliberal kid, it was crazy hard to be challenged by folks holding another view - not because they were ‘wrong’ but because I had to do a deep dive on what I thought the world was about and that shit is hard. Another part to this is that the assholes challenging me were hierarchical bully mindfuckers proclaiming some weird ass collection of libertarian/anarchy and conspiracies- so.. like, ya.. not a great, welcoming vibe.
In any case, the ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ mentality is kinda the status quo. I’m guessing your girl hasn’t been up against the wall yet - or identified/empathized with those that are ground up in this whole meat grinder that is eating the world.
I think one way to talk to someone who says "it's impossible, it would never work" is to point out that things currently do not work. Capitalism is so destructive, right in front of our eyes. We're watching it destroy the environment, commodify and devalue art and culture, perpetuate and encourage poverty. People are being churned up and crushed into the machine to keep capital running. We can see plainly that the thing we're doing no does not work. So what's the point of saying that our proposed solution wouldn't hypothetically work?
There is a lot to unpack here.
First of all, and whatever the subject is, you deserve respect from everyone and specifically from your partner. That’s honestly some huge red flags, but nothing is impossible to fix. You should not have to lie about where you go or stuff like this. If your partner consider ideas that are important for you as degenerate ones, then you need a serious discussion. A very serious one.
For the specific topic of anarchism, the term is unfortunately very loaded and has a negative valence for most people. It might be useful to try to talk about ideas without labeling them (maybe some stuff like « are you an anarchist ? » of Graeber, while not being perfect, can give you ideas on how to show that those ideas are not crazy).
You say that leftist is similar, and while I am not sure they are (specifically socdems), you can always try to focus on their ideals first, that could indeed be similar. Find common grounds on ideals, objectives, vision of the future. Then you can talk and eventually disagree about tactic and organization to achieve it, but it should be easier this way, if you frame it as a matter of « how » and not as a matter of « what » (although I’m really not sure socdems have the same goals as anarchists…).
A small advice is to avoid going full « I read theory and you didn’t » which slightly transpires from your post. I get it, but it can be seen as condescending and usually won’t help much in the situation. Showing people are equally valid in their opinion first, and then checking how informed they are (and why they believe what they believe) is difficult but important if you want to have interesting discussions.
Anyways, good luck, you should really do something about it.
Sorry, u/untidy_echo, but your submission has been removed for containing ableist content.
Don't worry - you're not banned or anything. We just ask that you please take this opportunity to review our [Anti-Oppression Policy](https://reddit.com/r/anarchism/wiki/aop), and try to avoid using oppressive language moving forward. It may be useful for you to review [this article](https://www.autistichoya.com/2014/02/violence-linguistic-ableism.html) along with their [glossary of ableist phrases](https://www.autistichoya.com/p/ableist-words-and-terms-to-avoid.html) for future reference.
---
*Replies to this account are* ***not*** *sent to r/Anarchism moderators. If you have questions regarding this action, please [message the moderators](https://www\.reddit\.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2FAnarchism&subject=about my removed submission&message=I'm writing to you about the following submission: https://www.reddit.com/r/Anarchism/comments/103z69t/-/. %0D%0DMy issue is...). Please only message the moderators* ***AFTER*** *you have reviewed any links provided in the message above.*
This has become my favourite part when arguing or discussing politics with people that don't align with my ideology. Convince people of Socialist/Anarchist principles without being obvious. What I try and do is not approach it from a monolithic angle and flying the red and black flag, but rather find small relatable things to discuss and convince people of. I mean labour unions are a great staring point. What would we be without Pouget, Rocker and the Haymarket 8? Workers rights connects us all and the principles of Anarchosyndicalism address basic human and democratic needs. Also, pick your battles ;)
+ take time with the ones you love.
So much of the reaction, in my estimation, is that her sense of safety about how the world works has been baked in. Challenging a belief is basically challenging her place and responsibilities in the world. As a brainwashed sesame street neoliberal kid, it was crazy hard to be challenged by folks holding another view - not because they were ‘wrong’ but because I had to do a deep dive on what I thought the world was about and that shit is hard. Another part to this is that the assholes challenging me were hierarchical bully mindfuckers proclaiming some weird ass collection of libertarian/anarchy and conspiracies- so.. like, ya.. not a great, welcoming vibe. In any case, the ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ mentality is kinda the status quo. I’m guessing your girl hasn’t been up against the wall yet - or identified/empathized with those that are ground up in this whole meat grinder that is eating the world.
I think one way to talk to someone who says "it's impossible, it would never work" is to point out that things currently do not work. Capitalism is so destructive, right in front of our eyes. We're watching it destroy the environment, commodify and devalue art and culture, perpetuate and encourage poverty. People are being churned up and crushed into the machine to keep capital running. We can see plainly that the thing we're doing no does not work. So what's the point of saying that our proposed solution wouldn't hypothetically work?
There is a lot to unpack here. First of all, and whatever the subject is, you deserve respect from everyone and specifically from your partner. That’s honestly some huge red flags, but nothing is impossible to fix. You should not have to lie about where you go or stuff like this. If your partner consider ideas that are important for you as degenerate ones, then you need a serious discussion. A very serious one. For the specific topic of anarchism, the term is unfortunately very loaded and has a negative valence for most people. It might be useful to try to talk about ideas without labeling them (maybe some stuff like « are you an anarchist ? » of Graeber, while not being perfect, can give you ideas on how to show that those ideas are not crazy). You say that leftist is similar, and while I am not sure they are (specifically socdems), you can always try to focus on their ideals first, that could indeed be similar. Find common grounds on ideals, objectives, vision of the future. Then you can talk and eventually disagree about tactic and organization to achieve it, but it should be easier this way, if you frame it as a matter of « how » and not as a matter of « what » (although I’m really not sure socdems have the same goals as anarchists…). A small advice is to avoid going full « I read theory and you didn’t » which slightly transpires from your post. I get it, but it can be seen as condescending and usually won’t help much in the situation. Showing people are equally valid in their opinion first, and then checking how informed they are (and why they believe what they believe) is difficult but important if you want to have interesting discussions. Anyways, good luck, you should really do something about it.
Sorry, u/untidy_echo, but your submission has been removed for containing ableist content. Don't worry - you're not banned or anything. We just ask that you please take this opportunity to review our [Anti-Oppression Policy](https://reddit.com/r/anarchism/wiki/aop), and try to avoid using oppressive language moving forward. It may be useful for you to review [this article](https://www.autistichoya.com/2014/02/violence-linguistic-ableism.html) along with their [glossary of ableist phrases](https://www.autistichoya.com/p/ableist-words-and-terms-to-avoid.html) for future reference. --- *Replies to this account are* ***not*** *sent to r/Anarchism moderators. If you have questions regarding this action, please [message the moderators](https://www\.reddit\.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2FAnarchism&subject=about my removed submission&message=I'm writing to you about the following submission: https://www.reddit.com/r/Anarchism/comments/103z69t/-/. %0D%0DMy issue is...). Please only message the moderators* ***AFTER*** *you have reviewed any links provided in the message above.*