Hello people in my screen. During my few years as a commie i’ve always noticed a flaw with the Communist movement in my country (Italy).
People, expecially young people (who are, not always, but most of the times the ones of higher radicalization potential) tend to spend copious amounts of time on the Internet. My mom used to read books, now she listens to them while doing stuff, i used to hang out with my friends IRL, now we play on discord and other boomer (although true TBH) examples.
The right is exploiting the Internet-space to a far greater extent than us (often in quantity and “relatability” and not quality), their propaganda is everywhere, with millions of eyes looking at it. It’s sometimes veiled with a coat of “liberalism” and “progressivism” but, in the end, does nothing but promote the status quo, just by means of a different tendril of capital. (such is the case with an IG page I wont mention, who calls themselves a “liberal institute” and constalty post quotes by the likes of Thatcher, Raegan and similar demons, it has thousands of followers, mostly young people who think the state and the evil EU regulations are the reasons of their misery.)
Our Italian left-wing is doing a piss-poor job at exploiting the massive outreach opportunity the internet is, me myself am part of a student’s org, our website has been offline for years now. People in the org know but don’t particularly care. And looking at the spaces with the most eyes on them, the corporate social platforms, the situation is dire: The few people who try to engage with the “commoners” are either sick with the left-wing communism disease: euro-communists, leftcoms, anarcho-libs, people who are far too sectarian, or who focus on appearance more than substance, and actually relating to the mass and their grievances, making the fact of being a communist a status symbol or a lifestyle instead of an Ideology. Or well-meaning Marxists who, unfortunately, are shunned by the masses because they just don’t get that the masses are largely de-politicised, they don’t want/aren’t ready to hear about complex theory concepts or things that are “too far” for them (you can’t really go to the average worker and sing praises of Stalin, as much as me and you wished) Plus all content produced by these Comrades is infected with the oh-so-common TikTok plague. Sometimes an IG infographic, if it’s not liberal in nature, can get the point across. But more often than not an in-depth analysis is needed, while still trying to keep it engaging and not too long. Nothing over +or- 20 min, ppl have stuff to do. In fact there are exactly 0 communist channels to speak of on YT, all the content is on Instagram and TikTok, Short-form oriented platforms who, although very popular, don’t really allow for the deep exploration some kind of topics deserve. can’t really divulgate the whole history of the cold war, with all it’s nuances, happenings and US… actions in 1min or less.
Now comes my idea: Filling the niche of Italian YouTube long-but-not-too-much form communist content for beginners, the majority of de-politicized people betrayed by electoral politics, and just people looking for entratainment and information.
I believe there’s potential. People are betrayed on the daily and are looking for answers, and when they find them they’re often finding them in not the best of places. Instead of focusing on openly marxist content, the endless debates on the topics who always divide us, I’d rather talk about real-world issues the majority of people face and try to relate them to capitalism and it’s tentacles. Think of something like “Second Thought” on YT. The current state of our communist movement is miserabe, people don’t know who we are and what we actually want. I think that by making people understand that we aren’t baby-eating freedom-hating monsters, but we actually agree with the masses on most issues, and by making them reflect on the fact all these separated issues are part of a “bigger picture” we can get somewhere.
I don’t really expect much. Big Tech is notoriously allergic to politics let alone Marxism, and the people are brainwashed and propagandized since birth. But i hope to at least get somewhere. Is my idea stupid? Maybe. Will i try anyway? Yea. I’m not fooling myself into thinking that “Breadtube streamers will bring about the People’s Revolution” to be clear. I just want to get the few people i’ll reach thinking and re-thinking about stuff.
Now come the questions:
What’s the acceptable level of “far from my zone of comfort” for the average depoliticised person?
Which are the “universal” issues, which all (western) proles face, and are most suited to get the masses engaged and listening? (ties in with 1st point) I have a few topics in mind but they’re all National/EUropean issues
In general, how to not “scare” people who have been told to fear us all their life?
OPSEC tips? I know a YouTuber who produced very good and informative content, which actually got me to think a lot, BayArea415, had to leave YT because he got doxxed… I use Linux, a VPN and Free Software for all steps of production. But if there’s more i’m all ears.
And finally, if any of you has experience in the video sector, please share tips! i’d be glad.
These are just the questions who come to mind. Feel free to share everything you want!
Thanks.
I don’t have experience in making videos, but I can think of a few good guidelines here:
- Decide who your target audience is, like envision this person, and make your content for their benefit. If it’s a depoliticized person, explain what terms mean simply before using them.
- Don’t do tailism / reaction content, you set the agenda and let other people discuss.
- Write out your general script / essay before making it. The persuasive essay format, ie outline the few points you want to prove first, then get into each of them in detail, then end with the outline again, is a great format.
- Don’t make content more than 20 minutes. I think the average attention span is like 10-15m max.
- Material conditions specific to your country or city are always good topics: jobs, rents, cost of living, public infrastructure, etc.
- Focus on important questions / topics… Answer questions you wish you were asked, not low effort ones that lower the discourse.
- You can avoid scaring people by showing that anyone who works for the people’s betterment, regardless of their actual politics, has historically and will be labelled as communist and targeted by the US military and their servants. Hell, even if you talk about wanting to raise wages or decrease rents, someone will label you a communist, even if you aren’t one.
- Be a person who people can look to and say, this person would do a better job than the current people in charge. That means not talking down to others, being measured and disciplined, and always with an outlook of how best to serve and help people. Read how to be a good communist by liu shaoqi, or fidel’s autobiography to internalize these values.
- If you want opsec, don’t show your face, and do like hakim does.
This is a great project, and I wish you the best of luck. Italy has a rich history of communist figures to talk about too.
For now, my personal favourite example of effective education/propaganda are a french team called “Zawa Prod”. Unfortunately it’s only in french but here’s a quick breakdown:
- Different Marxist tendencies+ strong anti colonial ties for the ideological core
- No overt symbolism on the surface, but honest about being left wing militants (sneakily quote Mao sometimes)
- Both valuing entertainment, crass humour, good vibes, while having a separate well-defined time for serious discussion
- No catering to the poor little white male reformed nazis like breadtube, focus on creating a welcoming space for both indigenous people and LGBT+ people, openly discussing the difficulties of bringing the two together
They have a significant following and are actually able to get a lot of money from donations, allowing them to make bigger projects and reach more people.
This hardly answers any of your questions to great depth, but @DamarcusArt@lemmygrad.ml provided a few tips last week at the end of a very long interaction with a visiting liberal: https://lemmygrad.ml/comment/3894557
Hi fellow Italian communist.
I personally have started living abroad as the job market in Italy, as you know, is extremely bad (all of the people that replied to my resume wanted me to work for free for like 2-3 months which I think is unacceptable).
Were I work now I found a lot of Italians that also got out of Italy but they are full of lib brainworms. Also like almost none of them speak any English.
Sometimes we have discussions about the state of things and they agree with me on workplace democracy, the rich class being a huge issue but if you even name socialism (let alone communism), you can see them get horrified by the idea.I tried to send them some videos for radical leftist YouTube channels but all the ones I know of are in English and as I said, most of them don’t speak almost any English (how they survive abroad ? I have no idea).
If you end up making a channel that targets this type of people, tell me the name of the channel so maybe I can get some of the videos I think would work on them around.
Oh yes, if you need some video ideas I’m not sure how popular this is outside of italians living abroad but I saw some people watching videos of how some Italian cities have “degraded”.
I’m pretty sure this channel are pretty far right, like they go in places where a lot of poor people (mostly black) live and try to get them to say that the reason they aren’t getting a job is because of drugs and being aggressive.
It really feels like they try to dehumanize them.
I don’t remember the name of couple of YouTube channels that do this kind of video that I saw them watching but you can probably fine them on YouTube.With the way they discuss social issues, I’m 99.9% sure they are a pipeline to fascism so a video showing that they are and telling people what the actual solution is could help.
Read about the situationalists
also detournement counters capitalist realism (to an extent)
This might sound a little bit metaphysical, but I think that the concept of a sigil, as it relates to chaos magic, can be a very powerful concept to understand if you are trying to do propaganda. If you do propaganda, you should probably understand how symbols work in a linguistic sense, and I personally don’t see necessarily anything inherently metaphysical with the concept of a sigil. Graham Morrison says it pretty much better than I ever could. McDonald’s, that logo, that Golden Arches logo is a sigil. You’ll notice that they turned their logo upside down after the boycott started. It’s because they’re trying to change their sigil, trying to modify their sigil, because the average person isn’t familiar with the McDonald’s logo turned upside down. They see those Golden Arches, and we’re getting into where that sigil is no longer associated with cheap fast food, American excess, quantity. It’s instead associated with death, despair, child murder, and genocide. We are modifying their own sigils as we attempt to take the power back. And the same can be said, our sigils can serve as lines of flight away from the status quo. Ostensibly, my brand, the name, Dini is a sigil. It symbolizes the miracle escape. It symbolizes someone breaking the chain. It symbolizes someone who is able to control the spectacle. And it’s not innately political, but we can make it so. At least I believe we could. Think about this. A brand named Lenin, in all caps, is going to come off completely different than a brand named Houdini, in all caps. Even if the root goal of the Houdini brand is to instill and normalize communist thought and support the working class, support working class artists, go against corporate algorithms, break free from all that, it still does not have the connotation that the sigil, the word, Lenin does, simply because Lenin is more connected to the communist subculture. It’s more connected to direct revolution. You see what I’m saying? I think an understanding of linguistic sigils and symbols and how words and icons and pictographs incur their meaning on a collective level is important, even if it sounds like some metaphysical shit. But it’s not. I don’t think there’s anything inherently metaphysical about chaos magic.
Question 1 = Zero. The Right always speaks in the simplest terms. If anyone feels you’re trying to shove a dictionary in their ear they will be turned off. Know your audience and use their language; anything else is a waste of time. “Tax The Rich!” is a message anyone can get behind.
Question 2. Think Local, Act Global. The best message is the one that someone can act on instantly. Talk about local issues first, then use that to grow your brand. There are plenty of global experts in the media already; no one else knows your area like you do.
Question 3. Goes back to Question 1. If you say “Marx tells us XYZ” you’re audience will focus on Marx. If you say “I think we should do XYZ” people will talk about XYZ.
Someone once told me that it’s easier for people to act their way into right thinking than it is to think their way into right actions. Which person is going to get fit faster? The one who spends a month trying to read up on the perfect diet/exercise plan, or the one who wakes up and starts jogging? The second one will eventually start asking other active folks about what they do, while the first can paralyse themselves with analysis.
Find a good candidate/issue that is going to be voted on soon. Tell people to vote, and then tell them why.
