what are methods to which we can deploy propaganda. how to we get people to gain class conciseness though the use of propaganda
The revolution won’t happen online. Spreading memes and online propaganda only goes so far. Organizing must be done in the streets, the masses won’t be found on social media and “leftist” circles.
The internet is a massive tool and it must be used but it has its place. I’d recommend reading this article, it isn’t exhaustive but focuses on social media and its pitfalls MLs face in its use while organizing.
https://liberationschool.org/social-media-and-democratic-centralism-opportunities-and-challenges/
Organizing is always the first step. The process of obtaining class consciousness is not an individual process, only a collective one. There, you will definitely find the resources and tactics to advance class consciousness. Besides that I can only recommend you read What is to be done? by Lenin. The beginning is not an easy read considering there is a lot of historical context involved, but it makes sense eventually.
There’s already a lot of propaganda everywhere, it takes a bit for people to find such propaganda and attach themselves to it and spread it that way. The most effective propaganda is mass propaganda. Things like Medicare4All and Force The Vote were great forms of propaganda that hit the political sphere. The biggest hindrance is not having the backing of institutions and big organizations. FTV was an online phenomena but unfortunately without institutional backing. If we had large people’s organizations and if the DSA weren’t such cowards, we’d have power not just alone but through big orgs like DSA, that’s if they backed FTV as a working class principle. They didn’t of course, instead they wanted to keep favor with the politicians who are supposed to represent the masses.
No more propaganda. Give speeches, organize, guard, and rise up!
Honestly a lot of people I’ve talked to disagree with what I’m saying partially / completely, but I really feel like we can do a lot of work through social media --> memes, visuals, music, promotion of materials, etc. Obviously a concerted effort behind an org. works best, but I’ve yet to see any marked change in engagement through institutions like Gravel, CPC, CPUSA, SRA, local groups, what have you. With the sheer scale of the internet, we should be spitting these things out like candy. It’s free real estate. There is potential for backfire with liberalism, and that’s something I think everyone’s seen too often, but otherwise it’s a net positive so long as the people engaging in them join a party and educate themselves and mature over time. Liberals and their ilk will complain about tankies online all day while also wanting better living conditions at home. Sooner or later they will make the connection that either A) their POV is outright wrong or massively inefficient in seeing anything through; B) when they finally achieve something–UHOH-- they pulled a Tanky or whatever and finally shut up; or C) related to (A), they will waste years of their lives operating at a snail’s pace that they become jaded and give up.
Now, I’ve seen a lot of well-minded folks pull a Trot and just devote their entire being into a newspaper that no one but themselves read, so don’t do that. I swear to God if I see another newspaper / blog plug I’m going to fucking blow a gasket. There’s hundreds of them, just funnel everyone into a few that’re good. I try to plug RedSails.org bc I believe Roderic Day is really good writer, and great at journalistic writing. Too many write like it’s the Next American Novel and it drives me up the fucking wall. Also, holy shit, these folks should just get a laser printer or transition to digital. These liberals ironically do more for HP and Dell inkjet profit margins than raising any CC I swear to God.
The rapper Noname has done infinitely more good in this respect than these dime-a-dozen litterers. I don’t even listen to her music but I see her social media presence gaining traction with thousands. PLUS she isn’t a liberal (so far I’ve seen) and plugs actual theory, and she does so tactfully and says little to nothing about China, Russia, etc. Now some might say that’s a negative, but I believe baby steps is > hitting the gas pedal right at the start. Get the folks interested and reading, and then they will come to us. That’s how it happened for me, and it’ll happen like that for others.
More traditional POV: join a union, learn organizing tactics and agitate from within. Attend marches on things, but I personally believe these to be a waste of time and often outright detrimental; public talks are a better alternative.