Introduction

The problems facing this world are so often too much for us as individuals to fully grasp and appreciate. Every new day seems to bring a new type of capitalist horror, and there seems to be little we can do about any of it. The large apparent scale of the issues facing us is one of the difficulties in explaining to the “uninitiated” the problems with capitalism. An average person may have a vague concept of the way that companies seek to control distant governments for things like fruit[1] or oil resources[2], but they don’t often understand the real dirty business of it. Even those extreme right-wingers that so often celebrate the violence imposed on others would recoil at the actuality of their ideals realized (many are, even if their reasons for doing so remain diverse[3]).

Even those issues that do directly affect people may seem distant and abstract. The tariffs imposed by the Trump Administration rose prices for consumers throughout the U.S., yet he lost very little support among the poor who felt the impact of those prices, with many viewing it as a personal sacrifice they were willing to make in order to defend the U.S.’s perceived place in the international order. It is the same even for such things as police brutality or pollution. Many people, even those that consider themselves liberal, will not be moved by trauma unless it is something they can personalize to themselves.

What the National Parties Get Wrong

“A camel is a horse designed by committee.”

Unknown

The national parties, having to focus on a wide range of different people across an entire nation, will most often as a result of this focus attempt to appeal to the broadest range of people. This results in arguments too generalized to be effective for any one audience. Too often, the so-called National Communist Organizations seek to emulate the bourgeoisie duopoly in their arguments in an attempt to pull away their supporters or emulate their national success. This tailist tendency is also doomed to fail as the organizations do not control the propaganda networks sufficient to overcome those of the duopoly and such appeals only weaken the position of the tailing party by diluting their message.

The national focus also reveals how little such organizations consider the plight of the smaller sections of the proletariat from outside the coasts. As they churn out endless articles echoing national media, they show themselves as little better than non-revolutionary journalists waving pamphlets among coastal cities.

National Vs Local

“Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long-shot.”

Charlie Chaplin

The focus of our group is the local, as opposed to the national level problems, explicitly because those problems are ones that we cannot overcome. The system is structured in such is way that even those big national groups cannot do anything to change it. An example of this was demonstrated in a town hall I attended that was put on by a CPUSA affiliated group in Lawrence. At that town hall, one of the Democratic Representatives for the Kansas Statehouse was arguing that the only way to overcome the right-wing policies in Kansas was to vote for more democrats. It didn’t occur me until I was doing some research later that most members of the Kansas GOP, as in many states, run unopposed for their seats, just as many Dems run unopposed in states controlled by their party. Problems with the Kansas Dems aside, this is but one way that power is taken from anyone who might have an opposing viewpoint and the major parties isolate people into the artificial box of Left vs. Right.

Our voices have no impact on the larger nation, and trying to make people on the coast understand the issues we face in Kansas is at best met with indifference and at worst derision (even among supposed Communists, hardships we face here are said to be our just deserts for “voting the way we do”, despite the above issues). However, the problems we have here are closer to us than they are for folks in the national groups. They are more personal to us, and more convincing to the members of our community. Take for example the widespread backlash occurring due to the proposed 1% sales tax taken on by the Wichita city council[4]. Working class Conservatives are against it as part of their general anti-tax stance and leftist are against it because it’s being proposed in order to lower property taxes on landlords[5] and raise money for the police[6]. This presents just one opportunity to educate conservatives in the way that capitalism is a local problem that we can overcome at the local level. I first learned how different approaches are necessary in a discussion I once had with an rich uncle of mine, who was criticizing our national environmental policy and its effects on business. After trying appeals to the science of how such policy creates acid rain in industrial areas to no avail, or how the EPA was started under a hero of his[7], I finally just told him to look at the dead fish floating in the Arkansas River, a river that as a child that he once enjoyed playing in, and how much of it is still filled with runoff from Coleman Industries and Vulcan Chemical[8]. Showing him that his life has been made worst by the actions of these industries went a little ways to changing his worldview. He’s still conservative, but he’s also now understands the cost on a personal level[9].

Approaching Your Neighbors

“We Communists are like seeds and the people are like the soil. Wherever we go, we must unite with the people, take root and blossom among them.”

Mao Zedong

One of the most important things a revolutionary organizer can do is speak directly to members of their community, but far too often we convince ourselves of the efficacy of that online trolling and sporadic meetings of other activists. The business we are in as revolutionaries is to build the cause among all the working class by reaching out to them and helping them see themselves as “working class”. This is best done by appealing to them on a personal level, so that they see the problems up close and learn that those problems are the result of capitalism. We must form personal associations for them between their miserable conditions and the system, rather than allowing them to continue to see these issues as far off problems that have no effect on them.

The difficulty is obviously overcoming the pervasive bourgeoisie media that floods their minds with anti-Communist propaganda and that very literally seeks to disassociate the people from the source of their troubles. Mass media has made each person buy in to their choice in party to an extent that the biggest cheerleaders for the oligarchs and corporate class are those they oppress. We can only overcome that media with difficulty and by forming personal and open relationships among others around us. That takes guts and the willingness to be open about your views. But such openness is what our opponents have demonstrated even before it was so popular.

Social science has long concluded that personal interactions are far superior to those found online or through the phone[10], and we should take advantage of peoples inherent conflict avoidance behaviors by approaching them in person (although it helps to be prepared[11] to overcome those avoidance behaviors by setting a tangible goal for any interaction you might engage in). Some of the things we must do for the cause will make us uncomfortable, but that is realistically the least of our worries seeing that our goal is overthrowing the capitalist system and the rich that gain so much from it. Things like practicing social interactions may also seem strange or silly to most, but it’s something that leads to success, as every skill needs practice to develop it[12] (you wouldn’t believe how often I practice my courtroom speeches at home or in the car, or study what affect their voice and posture has on a jury).

“Conservative” vs. “Liberal”

“While it is useful to rebut charges and get your arguments out in circulation, you have to understand that arguments and evidence have little impact on people as long as their feelings tilt them against you.”

Jonathan Haidt

Science has also shown that different people use and process information in different ways. Those with a more “conservative” mindset are most often convinced by what we might consider anecdotal evidence or personal experience and favor stability, versus a “liberal” being more receptive to hard data and change[13]^&[14]. Other research indicates that differences stem from differing moral foundations[15]. These differences therefore often require different approaches to the way we interact with people based on their place along the political/ economic scale[16]. It behooves us as activists to learn techniques for educating everyone, and not just continuously “preaching to the choir” as is so often the case.

Battle tanks are armed with a variety of ammo and weapons so that they can face a variety of threats because there is no one weapon type that is useful for all. It’s hard to face infantry with a main gun just as it’s often useless to attack another tank with a co-axil machine gun (for those uncomfortable with that analogy, it is the same for a D&D party, as having an all barbarians group would likely make for an unsuccessful [and boring] campaign). Similarly, we must therefore learn to approach people individually and armed with a variety of arguments, or weapons, for our cause, so that we can interact with people where they are, rather than where we want them to be.

People are more complex than what place they have on the Overton Scale, and they very often don’t have control over how they ended up there. Therefore, this also goes to the admonishment that we should avoid blaming people for their deeply held beliefs even and especially when we disagree with those beliefs (within reason, nobody is asking you to put yourself in danger). Such things are very often outside of a person’s control and it’s our responsibility as the Vanguard to demonstrate that their ignorance harms them as much as it does others, rather than continue the liberal tradition of attacking them for those beliefs.

Conclusion

All of this basically boils down to the idea that we need to approach people personally in order to sway them to our cause by relating the problems they face in their own lives to the capitalist system under which we live (and sway them we must, or be doomed to fail). History will not accept any excuse for why we were unable or unwilling to approach the people around us for this great task, and we shouldn’t accept them in ourselves. The approach of having a local focus creates a much more intimate understanding than pointing out national emergencies, and that intimate understanding will sway more towards our cause that we all share.

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[1] Luis Miranda. United Fruit Company: How a Corporate Giant Created the ‘Banana Republics’ of Latin America. 05/15/2025.

[2] Lalee Ibssa , Katherine Faulders, and Mariam Khan. White House says US intends to keep seized tanker’s oil, hits Maduro family with new sanctions. ABC News. 12/11/2025.

[3] Ian Ward. What I Learned Discussing Israel with Tucker Carlson, Steve Bannon and Marjorie Taylor Greene. POLITICO. 12/08/2025.

[4] Wichita City Council Puts 1% Sales Tax on March Ballot. KSN News. Raj Ghanekar. Dec 16, 2025.

[5] The proposal came from an organization of Wichita business owners. See: Wichita Forward. (accessed 2025).

[6] Proposed Wichita Sales Tax Sparks Debate Over Fairness and Community Input. The Community Voice. Bonita Gooch. December 11, 2025.

[7] Of course it’s Reagan.

[8] See: List of Superfund sites in Kansas – Wikipedia (accessed 2025).

[9] The next step will be to show him the link between “capitalism” and U.S. industry. It’s a game of inches.

[10] “The social grounds of personal self: Interactions that build a sense of ‘we’ help clarify who ‘I’ am”. Koudenburg. European Journal of Social Psychology. Wiley Online Library. 2024

[11]8 Tips for How to Overcome Conflict Avoidance, Choosing Therapy. Chelsea Twiss, LP, PhD, Heidi Moawad, MD. March 22, 2024.

[12] See: 25 Key Interpersonal Skills for Well-Being. Psychology Today. Tchiki Davis, Ph.D. July 3, 2024.

[13] Conservatives value personal stories more than liberals do when evaluating scientific evidence. The Conversation. Randy Stein, Alexander Swan, & Michelle Sarraf. November 9, 2020.

[14] Many Differences between Liberals and Conservatives May Boil Down to One Belief. Scientific American. Jer Clifton. March 1, 2023.

[15] Conservatives V Liberals. Ethics Defined. Citing Jonathan Haidt. The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion. Pantheon. 2012.

[16] Conservative vs Liberal Rhetoric Differences In 2025. Michael Bedenbaugh. Jun 18, 2025