Also an American. I have a more optimistic outlook than many here. So many right-wingers have the beginnings of class-consciousness, but are misdirected by race and labels.

If it isn’t immediately apparent, all of these traits are exploitable by a tactful Marxist. All it takes is a willingness to pretend their ideas are not inherently reprehensible and a vocal criticism of the Democratic party. I have turned a couple of reactionaries into self-described socialists.

The dominant components of reactionaries in my region and how to exploit them:

1. Anti-elitism - i.e. politicians, celebrities, & owners of large corporations.

• Point out the hypocrisy of politicians & celebrities.
• Make sure they know that their class interests prevent them from understanding or working in service of the working class.
• We’re experts at pointing out shitty lib takes; just dress your criticism in their language.

2. Fetishism for working-class, blue collar manual labor. Large, unionized industries all across Pennsylvania have been hollowed out or outright moved elsewhere. Reactionaries long for their return to satisfy both their rough & tough image of masculinity + the material conditions that came with a unionized workplace.

• Describe how capitalists are not working class.
• Make sure they know that someone else makes their business’s day-to-day decisions, performs the labor that makes them wealthy, and does their taxes.
• Show them that the “job creators” will never create jobs for them if it costs them a penny more than outsourcing or automating. If they know their labor is seen as disposable by capitalists, their animosity will grow.
• Keep using the words “working-class” & “labor”. These carry the association with the physical labor that plays to their masculinity fetish.

3. Desire to “have an open discussion” - They get great satisfaction over discussing politics with people they disagree with. It gives them an ego boost by letting them believe they’re open-minded despite being reactionary. If you don’t parrot Democratic party-line rhetoric or indicate you’re partisan, they’ll actively want to debate political events or philosophy with you.

• Engage whenever possible.
• Drop all labels and describe Marxist ideas in language that hasn’t had decades of propaganda against it.
• Use “workplace democracy” and “keeping what you’ve worked for”.
• Avoid anything that hints to your ideology.
• Learn to rephrase “means of production” and similar slogans.
• Accusations of closed-mindedness or adherence to existing beliefs work well with people of this mindset.

4. “Triggering the libs.” They love to watch people experience large, turbulent meltdowns over small, effortless comments. They will say things they may not even necessarily believe just to get amusement from the reactions.

• Say “fuck Barack Obama/Joe Biden/Nancy Pelosi” and similar as often as you can.
• Mock liberalism extensively.
• Speak crudely and don’t use language that sounds like it’s been focus tested. Drop the PC woke-speak when you can.
• When pushing back on their ideas, use vivid, visceral language and connect figures they dislike to it too. (e.g. for interventionism: “Hillary Clinton wasted our money for X to blow up brown children in the middle east”).

5. Distrust of elected officials of either political party. Material conditions have constantly degraded for many, especially in urban and rural areas. Suburban areas haven’t exactly prospered either. Conservatives here tend not to have love for the Republican party; when confronted with two distrusted options, they just tend to prefer the more hands-off approach.

• Make it known that you loathe the Democratic party. Criticize them first and loudest.
• When they complain about something good, make sure to tell them that Dems only pay it lip service.
• Paint the Democratic party and Republican party as two sides of the same coin working together to fuck the people in favor of large capitalists.
• Make sure to characterize partisan disagreements as purely performative.

6. Disdain for a focus on identity. They are likely struggling and have a visceral reaction to the notion that other people’s struggles receive attention while they toil.

• Paint social issues as a distraction from class (I’m intersectional, but you cannot sell these people on feminism/anti-racism until you sell them a more class-based analysis.) Tell them that the prevalence of social issues in contemporary media/culture is meant to distract and divide working class people from focusing on economics that benefit the working man.
• Point out that the elites want us to focus on race/gender/sexuality because it prevents any of us from realizing we are all in the same boat and working together for better conditions.

7. “Earning” wealth. Everyone likes to feel like they have earned what they have through their own labor. They are proud of what little they have managed to accumulate. They are incredibly scornful upon hearing others not having to toil for similar.

• Reword the the theft of surplus value.
• Point out that the value of this theft from workers is much greater than any amount of taxation.
• If you need to defend giving assistance, use examples that are hard to justify opposition to (e.g. children and elderly). Then re-frame “free shit” as insurance for bad luck, cost-saving measures, and getting the value out of your tax dollars.

8. Racism. Most reactionaries don’t actually believe that they are racist.

• If they show overt racism, connect it to “mainstream media” and use similar arguments to dealing with opposition to identity politics.
• Make them feel like a manipulated fool for playing into the hands of “elites”. Force the notion that racial analysis = small brain, class analysis = big brain as hard as you can.
• The LBJ quote: “If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket.” is your best friend here.
• Ask them directly what they would do in X situation with Y material conditions.
• Know they will be the toughest to engage with, and cut civility early if they’re not receptive.
• Switch to bullying, belittling, and exerting dominance as soon as productive conversation ends. Especially effective if you can do it in front of peers that won’t take their side.

Some ideology-specific rhetorical tools:

1. Libertarians:

• Your end goal is the complete dissolution of the state.
• You love guns.
• Volunteerism isn’t very voluntary if you starve unless you agree to volunteer right now. The most voluntary/free system is one where food, housing, healthcare, transportation are secure.

2. Trumpers:

• Give Trump praise to win rapport.
• Claim to also want a political outsider too.
• Use “liberal media bias” extensively, and steer causation towards capitalism and protecting ad revenue. Say Trump’s trade policies hurt their advertisers (along with all your ideas).
• Mention he has gotten a free ride his entire life and serves the elite because their financial interests are the same.
• Ask how a person who has always lived lavishly would understand struggle or labor.

3. Democrat Stans:

• Point out that their values have only slid backwards since the New Deal.
• Counter claims to social justice progress by mentioning we are more segregated than when legally enshrined.
• Show that any progress made originated from revolutionaries, socialists, communists, and union, and that the laws they like only passed after liberals caved to pressure from the left. Make it abundantly clear that liberals gate-keep that progress.
• Say Dems have the right idea, but their donors encourage them to poison well-intentioned bills with pro-corporate clauses.
• Constantly bring up that centrist Dems dominating the party is what allows Republicans to move to the right and be so terrible.
• Always mention that Trump’s extremism has made far-right views more acceptable and that the same process would work on the left.
• Point out that the right will always characterize the left as radical, anti-freedom extremists. If this will inevitably happen, you may as well have someone further left.
• Never discourage voting. This instantly makes you a useless idiot for the GOP in their eyes. Instead, promote direct action as being faster, more reliable, and less depressing than electoralism. Encourage lib-friendly actions like volunteering at soup kitchens.

4. SocDems:

• Always take the doomer approach. The more discouraged they are, the more alternative, more revolutionary actions they will entertain.
• Electoral system won’t even allow a tame socdem and actively resists anyone who isn’t in the pocket of corps. Surely our efforts would be better placed elsewhere?
• Say private property is the root of all our problems. No candidate who runs on abolishing it will ever win in our system.

5. Bible Thumpers:

• Jesus’s words on the rich
• Jesus hung out with homeless, sex workers, and downtrodden.
• Jesus was chill with property damage against bad institutions.

Some general rhetorical tools I employ:

• Figure out what they value as soon as possible. Frame as much as possible in terms of those values.
• Pretend some shit they say is new and novel to you. Appreciate their viewpoint vocally.
• Start from the assumption that most people agree on most things and that differences are small and less impactful than the agreements.
• Frame disagreements as originating from perspective differences.
• Tie your views to events and struggles in your own life or those very close to you. They’re more likely to empathize and consider a viewpoint when there’s a psychological aversion to directly insult your experiences. The more emotional, the better.
• Tell them you used to hold that viewpoint until you learned X.