Current Events > Are Leftists Bad at Messaging Because They're Too Brutally Honest and Frank?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I think it's less that, and more a propensity for idiot goppers to only listen to what they want to hear, decry anything that doesn't fit their twisted narrative as 'fake news', and perform their signature mental gymnastics around everything else.

It's not even being brutally honest. It's just being honest. Trump lies 24/7 has a fan base that has willingly died for him.

Maybe Dems should just lie more. But the problem is, once that happens, there's nothing that separates the two in the eyes of centrists, since both sides lie, who cares if the other is full of christofascists.

Lying about the positions you hold and then bait-and-switching them doesn't work with leftism.

It works for the right (and for liberalism) because they are incoherent, irrational ideologies. They don't have to rely purely on the validity of their ideas, leftism does.

Xatrion posted...

I think it's less that, and more a propensity for idiot goppers to only listen to what they want to hear, decry anything that doesn't fit their twisted narrative as 'fake news', and perform their signature mental gymnastics around everything else.

That may be true, but I've also heard from folks in real life that the left hasn't given them much to look forward to either. For one, I'm concerned that all this apathy towards the left is happening due to daily concerns like homelessness, food prices, crime rate spikes, etc. Leftists and progressives definitely need to improve their messaging skills because I don't want the far right to keep on taking advantage of their blind spots.

Leftists aren't so bad at messaging as a lot of centrists believe. They happen to say a lot of stuff that threatens centrists' worldview though, so they're lashed out at.

You can't 'message' your way around a truth that people refuse to accept. You can either say it or stay quiet, the latter being what they want them to do.

Like yeah, you can just not talk about the problems and contradictions in our country and instead say "leftism is when gas price go down!" or something, but then you're kicking the can down the road for when you get to office

ClayGuida posted...

It's not even being brutally honest. It's just being honest. Trump lies 24/7 has a fan base that has willingly died for him.

Maybe Dems should just lie more. But the problem is, once that happens, there's nothing that separates the two in the eyes of centrists, since both sides lie, who cares if the other is full of christofascists.

More Democrats definitely need charismatic figures to attract more voters. Believe it or not, having a magnetic personality and not offending various demographics can go a long way.

Humble_Novice posted...

More Democrats definitely need charismatic figures to attract more voters. Believe it or not, having a magnetic personality and not offending various demographics can go a long way.

Youth also helps. There's a reason that the Squad raises so much money and has such high approval ratings in their districts.

Brutal honesty is not a virtue. Honesty has positive value, brutality does not.

ClayGuida posted...

Youth also helps. There's a reason that the Squad raises so much money and has such high approval ratings in their districts.

The youth definitely saved us from a red wave in 2022. Both the left and Democrats need to appeal to them even more once 2024 comes.

Humble_Novice posted...

The youth definitely saved us from a red wave in 2022. Both the left and Democrats need to appeal to them even more once 2024 comes.

No, I meant youth in the House. The median age is like 65. Dems absolutely need more 20-35 year olds and fewer 70+ year olds.

Corporate leftists are bad at messaging

Actual leftists message just fine, fuck the snowflake tears

Thats a weird way to phrase wont tell easily digestible lies.

"just being honest" is often something racists say, I'm not sure that's a leftist thing.

Leftists have a lot of legitimate gripes and points.
The problem is that they occasionally make dumb claims that hurt their message like whenever a right winger does something that isn't completely terrible they'll have this compulsive need to mention that deep down the right wingers doing something decent are just as bad as their far right party members despite all evidence to the contrary. If they stuck to reminding people that a right winger doing something positive is still awful they might come across much better.

Leftists also base an unhealthy amount of their foreign policy views towards anti American animus rather than focusing on the bad regimes oppressing people instead. It's why they (rightly)* bash Israel for its policies towards the Palestinian people but when pointed out that Western Sahara suffers under Morocco using similar tactics they shrug it off because Uncle Sam doesn't give them as much support. It's not a new phenomenon either. From 1973 to the present day they have had a peculiar obsession with Augusto Pinochet the former dictator of Chile. Even though Auggie was a bastard they don't focus on his neighboring regimes in Paraguay and Argentina who were just as bad if not worse.

The Final problem a lot of leftists have had since at least Marx is as Bertrand Russell pointed out about Karl, they hate the borgouise more than they love or empathize with the proletariat. Lenin took this even further than Marx did. Today a lot of leftists including the ones who aren't Marxists suffer from the same problem.

*Even considering the atrocities Hamas has committed over the past couple weeks or so, Israeli policy towards Palestine has been cruel and inhumane. That does not excuse Hamas from moral blame as two wrongs do not make a right.

The underlying issue is that the right gives people easy answers to all of their problems, with no regard for the facts. We can be as honest as possible, as nicely as possible, but the resulting message will not be as convincing in the short-term.

I believe the best path forward is to continue exposing the lies in the right's messaging, while continuing to address the concerns of people and voicing support for policies that would actually help them. I don't see the current lies promoted by the right holding up forever, and I believe we're going to see more and more people abandon them over time. We're already starting to see this, with Gen Z overwhelmingly voting blue in the last election.

I would love to see a more immediate shift, but I haven't seeing any compelling suggestions that would allow that to happen.

Just need more youth, that Democrat woman who went off on republican idiocy and Trumps 91 felonies definitely got her point across in front of everyone.