Hmm, so I shouldn’t immediately call people pedophiles if they object to a Death to America? …no
I’m not listening to advice from a rich petit bourg. His only “labor organizing” is a union that lasted not even 4 years.
He’s not part of a party, and doesn’t have a distinct stance beyond “leftist”.
As an autistic person, it’s horrifying to have people agree that really the solution is to mask harder, to shut up and try to get people to like me. I’ve tried. They don’t.
I can’t be “normal” and normal isn’t real. We are so far beyond normal. I don’t want “free healthcare” or whatever “leftist” goals without an end to oppression. Without an end to genocide. I don’t want normal things.
It doesn’t matter if you act normal or not. You’re going to the camps with me, or barely escaping with the skin on your back either way.
This is a grifter selling you complacency, he just sounds cooler and more left than Pod Save America. He just wants your attention. And money. Very much your money.
And yeah, he fought against ISIS with the YPG (coordinating with U$ military). He’s as politically coherent as the anarchists fighting for the banderites, he just got lucky that he was fighting the right people.
“Be normal” is problematic but the kernel of truth cannot be exaggerated in its importance: organizing is social. If you are not socially competent, if people don’t like you, you will have a tough time organizing anything at all. You can still take on other roles, and if you feel you can’t do well socially that’s fine and you can do those other roles, but the core task of an organizer is to wield and grow social influence.
Let’s say you are organizing a workplace. If you can get the most popular, respected, socially connected person on your union campaign, even on your organizing committee, that is a HUGE get. That’s your ticket to going straight to the endgame of duking it out with management. That person can get you a large chunk of the workforce solely through others trusting them and thinking that if they like someone, that means that person’s opinions are correct, or at least worth respecting.
Let’s say you’re already in an organization. You need to hold correct lines on many topics. You need to be internally educated so you can develop those lines. They have to be relevant to external work that you do. How do you handle internal disagreement if the people in your org are in the liberal habit of treating this as a deeply personal fight and attacking each other almost immediately? You can’t leave out trainings on how to converse, how to deliberate and provide criticism as comrades, and modeling behaviors from leadership itself, including, again, leadership being liked and likeable.
And when the opposite is the case, your org or chapter may implode. It does actually happen. Drama that isn’t about more serious issues like assaults or a serious reactionary split is extremely common. It is individuals exaggerating and amplifying their own self-importance and sense of being aggrieved so that they spend way too much of their time and platform attacking each other. Antisocial behavior within the org, placing oneself before it - either by doing the unnecessary personal attacking or disrespect or by perceiving it and overreacting. Or even just having naive members try to do actions with no trainings! Many people just need experience, confidence, and a plan of action. If you canvass, you will encounter people who are proudly wrong in a myriad of ways. You don’t need to argue with them, just “handle” them and move on, modeling a respectable person yourself. That won’t do jack for the proudly wrong person, but maybe their relative heard you and moves towards you when they would not have if you decided to have a heated argument.
Many orgs, maybe even most orgs, don’t prioritize any of this as a primary concern. Some don’t even really address it directly at all. And, consequently, they create unnecessary roadblocks to their own success and cohesion. Most of it can be addressed through trainings and explicitly adopting norms and strategic understandings of discourse.
If you are not socially competent, if people don’t like you, you will have a tough time organizing anything at all. You can still take on other roles, and if you feel you can’t do well socially that’s fine and you can do those other roles, but the core task of an organizer is to wield and grow social influence.
there’s not really any “other roles” when there’s zero local movement or structure. But i’m somehow supposed to organize from among thousands of strangers i’ve never spoken to before and none of them have worn a mask since 2021
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You can contribute in orgs as a member of an org without being an “organizer”. Organizations also need help with basic logistics, art, tech infrastructure, and so on. The social bar there for not being counterproductive is just “don’t pick pointless fights”. If you don’t think you can do that, yes maybe you’re not in a place to help the movement, but I think the vast majority of people who think this are actually capable of passing that bar. This is exactly who should listen to the suggestions I am making.
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Most orgs are small at a local level. You will start out talking to 3-10 people. The level of masking will be comparable or better than anyone else in your community.
if there are groups here they’re not making themselves visible. I literally don’t know anyone in town and it’s been years since i’ve spoken to someone who isn’t behind a register.
That could be the case! I don’t know your locale or how big it is and for safety reasons you shouldn’t tell me! Sometimes they are there and it’s not obvious or they are “composite” groups with varying ideological backgrounds united by a common activity like Food Not Bombs or running a co-op or hosting radical movie nights.
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Belden is obviously not very normal though.
Anyway, it’s a pretty shitty slogan compared to, say, “Be relaxed and considerate” or something like that
brace is a weirdo even among podcasters
he is a funny one though, and likableI might have liked him a lot better if he hadn’t repeatedly attributed the bizarre behavior of fascists to “neurodivergence”, and maybe focused on fascism and bourgeois culture themselves as the actual cause of the bizarreness.
yeah, that’s fair
Hard agree. This is the guy who still regularly says the r word, and sometimes, when he’s feeling woke, says “neurodivergent” with the intonation of a slur.
This is what drives me nuts about r/trueanon. There is a group of “the left” that thinks the only way we can gain popular support is if we throw someone under the bus. It’s like we have to sacrifice some marginalized group so no use in worrying about it too much. Just pick the one that causes the least stink aka the ones least likely to push back. This is the only way to appeal to blue collar workers. It’s like they picture some dirty oil rig driller in Texas that is almost sold on socialism if it weren’t for people accusing him of doing microaggressions. We need that guy on board so stop making a fuss about me, millionaire podcaster, talking like a 2004 shock jock on satellite radio.
They’re literally doing Chuck Schumer-style triangulation and they don’t realize it, it’d be sad if it wasn’t infuriating.
Well yeah, everyone (even 95% of communists) can agree (with their actions, even if their words are prettier) that if the disabled suffer and/or die thats fine and acceptable in support of normalcy
Not gonna defend Brace but he’s been saying it less lately and when he does slip Young Chomsky now bleeps it
Be relaxed and considerate
more like just be likeable. or be popular.
if our shit was popular we wouldn’t be in this mess
I don’t remember who said it, but somebody once said being a successful communist requires you to be the most organized disciplined person at the shop. There’s a lot of truth in that, and I think that’s what Brace is getting at here when he talks about ‘getting your house in order’.
Let’s face it the western left is a joke and is deeply unserious mostly. If we want to get serious on organization we will need to go to every day people (even the 99% that don’t agree with everything we believe). That means ‘being normal’ as he said, or rather don’t be the most aggressive off putting weirdo in the room. Be relatable to everyday people. Organize and work with others to DEMONSTRATE how leftist organization can benifit them. Do the grunt work, even when it isn’t glamorous, it’s boring, and difficult.
If you’re serious about social movements then you will have to be social. ‘Touch grass’ as they say. That’s just the bottom line if we want to get anywhere. No serious leftist should have a problem with this.
Yeah the big schpeel a local organizer has been giving before our canvassing for an election here is pretty much this, most people want to hear and talk about surprisingly everyday things (wages and healthcare, but also potholes and graffiti) and also probably have some pretty bad opinions, but you don’t need to be teaching them about dictatorship of the proletariat or teaching them why the cuban revolution is actually a good thing
Exactly be pragmatic and pick your battles.
don’t be the most aggressive off putting weirdo in the room
Everyone is on their phone all the time while on break, usually in isolation. Like, a vast majority, and this holds true across sectors.
Being relateable and “making sense” is good advice. But ultimately, everyone is a lot more atomized these days than even 6 or 7 years ago, which is the last time Brace worked a regular job. And atomization plus mediation of everything through huge tech platforms takes a toll on everyone’s mental health. Everyone knows the world is fucked up, and the adage “makes sense” that it is unbecoming to be well adjusted to a corrupted world.
You break down this barrier by organising a work group trip to get local food during lunch, even if it’s just a quick drive to the supermarket where people buy sandwiches or whatever.
It gets some of them out, in your vehicle, and communally doing something together, usually sitting and eating together where you get chance to build some connections and then work from there.
If groups that already do that exist, get into them and see what’s up too.
Build a gang
I’ve tried this approach word for word at work last year and the management forced us to have lunch separately at several different times to prevent any sort of organizing
Wow what the fuck
Perfect example of why trying to pin the lack or failure of organizing on idiosyncrasy is specious. Organization is hard because it’s constantly being thwarted by people in positions of power. It’s not because there aren’t enough sociable people. The issue isn’t whether organizing is a social endeavor or if we have enough sociable people, it’s how do we become successful in spite of obstruction. That’s a much harder question for an entertainer/podcaster/youtuber to answer as a neat soundbite.
This is how you know it works.
The “get food” strat hasnt been possible for me (or healthy for anyone) for more than half a decade now lol
Yeah I can only speak from a european experience unfortunately. Driving a group 2 minutes around the corner to get food outside of work is just incredibly easy to start building a group with.
Covid doesnt stop at europe’s border (to be clear, i am talking about covid, not driving distances lmfao)
That’s the plan, tbh. Probably with big batch homemade stuff though.
even if it’s just a quick drive to the supermarket
But ma’am, I work in the supermarket
Heist time!
Compared to getting lunch out of a vending machine, the food options are ambrosia. Usually I buy soup in a bread bowl which costs me maybe $5-6. The stuff from the deli, especially with the employee discount, is remarkably cheap. The payoff for a heist like that would not be all that large.
That said, my workplace is in a business district, where fast food options cost twice what my in-store lunch does, and restaurants cost 3-4x that base amount.
There’s at least one coworker who is caught in a debt cycle and only ever gets PBJs and such in the break room; I want to start making big batches of curries especially for her.
Nobody every wants to Heist anymore.
Not for that kind of payoff they don’t.
Brace you’re not wrong but you’re also definitely not “normal”. Extremely charismatic and funny but not “normal”.
The way he brings up autism in this video as well makes me feel like his point is actually “be neurotypical”.
I don’t think I could do this anyway, I’ve eaten too much shit and been beaten down by having to beg for worse and worse jobs or watch my life savings be wiped out again that when I talk to people in person about politics I am just legitimately angry and probably off-putting.
He doesn’t mention autism in this video?
This is a short clip from a much longer interview
Instead of telling nd folks to mask their nd, belden should equip an n-95 mask so as to stop participating in and endorsing social murder, as well as protect his own health and wellbeing
looks like the comments are coming around – this sentiment would get you banned by resident anime appraisers 4-5 years ago.
