I actually had something like this happen with my gf when I first started organising. I was super passionate about being a communist and I was constantly mad about things that happened around me and in the world. My gf got mad at me because ´communism won´t fix things, it´s scary!!!’ and she felt sort of intimidated to talk to me about politics because she just wasn’t as involved as I was. At first I was mad too but eventually I figured I had to do something to change this argument between us. Because I still liked her very much as a person and I wanted to be with her.

I just started focussing on party work and wanted to lead by example. Communism is still a scary ideolog for many and many people are still brainwashed by decades of propaganda. But it is hard to see the bad sides if you and your party actually achieve postive things. Maintaining a bus line in your city is not scary. Making sure a local park isn’t taken over by some private owner who wants to make a rich people’s resort of it is not scary.

Eventually by doing all this stuff she saw what exactly I was trying to fight for and she turned around. She even goes to party stuff with me now sometimes.

My point is: I think a lot of communists sometimes have this aura of ‘I know how things work so if you just listen to me and let me explain it, then maybe you’ll understand too’ which is no different from the smug liberals we criticize. We are at a disadvantage after decades of anti communist propaganda and we need to be aware that convincing people of communism sometimes takes a very gentle and time consuming approach, and being mad at these people isn’t helping.