Hmm, so I shouldn’t immediately call people pedophiles if they object to a Death to America? …no

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.

“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.

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.