[Someone] = Stereotypical leftist adjacent person who (semi)frequents the mainstream web. Curious in this whole socialism thing, has very little theoretical knowledge.
Scenario: They’ve come to you complaining about the quality of their time online worsening and how they’re looking for what they say is a “Open-Minded Community” They have already tried places like r/socialism and say: “They’re way too snobby and book heavy.”
You ask them what they think about socialism and they say: “Well I don’t really know, but Zahran seems pretty cool, maybe it’s possible to have a good version of it.” “I know the Soviet Union failed, but given how tyrannical Stalin was, maybe it’s because they had bad leaders.”
What would be your approach be?
Oh yeah, that’s understandable. I disagree with some of the things that also make us less appealing to a general audience (I tend to be anti murder fantasy) but only on the grounds that it’s bad for the mental health and social adjustment of the people doing it and, insofar as it has a political character, is reactionary. But my original comment wasn’t about it changing or not changing, just that things like that make us generally bad as a radicalization pipeline for naive moderates, so OP shouldn’t direct their friends to us (yet?)
Anyway, I think I’m just talking in circles.