My mom is an MSNBC liberal (😭), but is surprisingly receptive sometimes. She values my opinion.
She told me she wanted an app to listen to podcasts. I did send her the page for Citations Needed. I feel like this could be a good transition away from MSNBC.
Any other recommendations? Even if it’s just an episode?
Side note, I sent her a Parenti quote and she said she liked it 😏
Scene on Radio and Unfucking the Republic are good lefty pipeline podcasts. Scene has good seasons on intros to American imperialism, and Americas sham democracy without being outright commies. If she likes those try blowback, and since it’ll get one to empathize with socialists in the past you can try more outright commie stuff. Note: if she doesn’t like cursing then un-effing is not the the one, and if it does work make sure she doesn’t start listening to David Pakman or TYT 🤮 which it led me personally to.
Funny story…Blowback season 2 was monumental in radicalizing me. I realized I had been totally lied to about Cuba and that I couldn’t even list reasons why they were considered so bad.
Made me think ‘what else have they lied about?’
I try to very directly hit friends and co-workers with stuff like that. Easy go to for reminding my older friends and co-workers is the “Drug War” and the DARE programs. Something that is mostly not considered a “political” example as far as it being pretty well excepted by left, right, and centre at this point. I too really got a big shot of “fuuuuck, what else have they lied about” from season 2 of Blowback. It has lead to me being able to talk with folks about how outright hypocritical the US is with Cuba alone. Which then leads to at least them having a better opinion of Cuba. So a start is a start, though I do still have a hard time with the more vilified indoctrination about China/DPRK/Russia/etc. They have a hard time with gray area opinions. Like the Ukraine stuff is so frustrating as most people see Russia as always bad (though to be fair the super anti-LGBTQIA+ stuff isn’t a good look from a liberation standpoint). So I am constantly having to preface anything slightly “pro-Russian” with “I’m not saying that their government are the good guys, just that our nation’s actions lead to this”. Though I firmly stand with the proletariat masses and not any of the governments or rich elites involved. Fuck NATO, Ukraine, Russia, Nazis, and the US. It is all just so covered with lies from all of them, that honest understanding of the facts is basically impossible to know. But we do know history is repeating itself and NATO’s agreements with members may very well lead to WW3 in the same ways that caused WW1.
Blowback is an excellent way to start introducing people to the truth, and that map of the annual UN vote to end the embargo on Cuba is a great way to get them curious enough to start listening to it.