I made the mistake of balking at some particularly unhinged Ukraine/Russia rhetoric offline yesterday and got called a vatnik, a tankie, a Russia lover and I was even suspected of being pro-Israel and apparently a nazbol Aimee Therese follower or something
I’m not even invested in this shit, I just find the insane saber-rattling and warmongering unsettling 
When someone tells you Putler’s going to invade Estonia, Poland and Finland for Lebensraum next if he’s not stopped in Ukraine, just nod your head solemnly
yeah sacrificing your social life on the altar of performative internet leftism isn’t it
i know because i regularly sacrifice my social life on the altar of performative internet leftism
there’s def a synthesis out there for people more socially gifted than i
There are ways to hide your power level but you have to be very accomodating, not get heated, and figure out what direction to guide someone to get them started questioning the dominant narrative, instead of going debate bro mode. People want to be listened to and respected, and will remember your tone, affect, and willingness to treat them like a person far more than they will your points 90% of the time.
Don’t: rant to people how you comment on here among communist hardliners
Do: understand their language and worldview, twist it rhetorically to serve our ends. Class war against all bourgeois parties domestically, anti-imperialism abroad. These are essential to be pushed at all times among any western leftist.
In groups settings, pushback and mockery can completely turn a vibe around.
I feel this, but at the end of the day I guess I’m not really interested in socializing with people who can handwave away a man holding his headless child
I get that, I slowly cut off most of my friend group during the BLM protests for similar reasons. Then sealed the deal by moving to a state where I know zero people lol
There’s potential within certain structures to coopt or utilize a person’s power without associating with or empowering them, but it’s a very fine line and I am not nearly experienced or smart enough to navigate that. I recall reading or listening to something by an auto union organizer in the 70s and his experiences having to deal with reactionary nonsense among the very coworkers he was trying to organize and advocate for, all the way up to literal white nationalists.
We live in the belly of the beast and idk exactly what to do about it really