What do you do when people don't care?

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I'm dumbstruck as to what to do. The US is building literal concentration camps, and none of my co-workers care at all.

In fairness, I work in healthcare with an almost exclusively cishet white population who are financially well off.

Many of them espouse to be Christians, and no one cares at all that the American government is following the exact playbook from Nazi Germany.

What do you do? How do you make people care before it's too late?

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How do you make people care before it's too late?

none of my co-workers care

You can't force another to care. We can educate them with facts and reason while trusting them to make their own choices. And, that isn't done in a workplace, instead one on one with in presence of a human relationship.

But, if you insist, then there's always a way. Read the Bible as part of a Bible study to develop a nuanced understanding of its message. Related that message to social democrat, socialist, communist, and anarchist ideology. Determine the relevant Bible passages useful in the specific situations you encounter with specific Christians, then memorize those passages. Then, in full context of Bible and situation, in the moment, quote the passage. Finally, shut up and wait.

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I spend a good amount of energy trying to explain the merits of Marxism-Leninism and Leftism in general on Lemmy (and IRL, though that's much trickier). Ultimately, you can't make someone care. You can't convince people of something they choose not to want to believe, either, no matter how much evidence you throw at them. Roderic Day wrote a great article titled Masses, Elites, and Rebels: The Theory of "Brainwashing" that perfectly encapsulates this process. People license themselves to believe whatever it is that they believe benefits themselves, regardless of evidence or empathy.

What you can do, however, is explain the merits of that which you believe in, and this is far more effective with people already targeted by the current system. Those closest to the edge, those radicalized by their conditions but not yet organized or versed in theory, are the perfect people to talk to. The effort required to gain an ally in that sense is far less than someone who is convinced that the system is fine, but just needs a little tweaking. Building strength through organization helps legitimize your positions and expands the circle, so to speak, by moving the "line of radicalization" further. Person A, who believes the system is fine but needs tweaks, goes from comfortably mainstream into the new line of radicalization, one step away from working to supplant the system, when those who were radicalized near them organize.

Further still, as conditions deteriorate, more people are impacted and more people are radicalized. This is both good and bad, bad in the sense that more are affected by the evils in society to a greater degree, but with the good being further chance of organization.

Just my 2 cents as someone who has spoken with many different people about Marxism.

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What would you like for them to do? Have they discussed how they vote with you? Or how they spend their money? Maybe they just don't want to talk about it at work?

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People won't care until negative things start effecting them. Even at that point, many will still deny negative things are happening or they will put the blame somewhere else. This is why I believe things are going to have to get bad, really bad, before they can turn around. The biggest thing to go bad would be the economy. An economy so bad would be hard to deny and live with. Unfortunately, the more money you have, the longer you can "deal with" a bad economy, and still think everything is okay.

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If you are trying to make them care or discuss it at work then that is where you are failing.

Very few people want to or are willing to discuss politics at work. Many will report it as harassing behavior and you run the risk of getting fired.

You need to talk to them outside of work.

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As someone in a similar environment, there are others who care. It just isn't worth the risk to my job & professional relationships to talk about. Most people who don't care I won't sway anyways and anyone who does care doesn't need to talk to me. So, for the betterment of my family, I stay quiet at work. Outside of work though I'll talk to my friends & anyone who will listen about the risks of the current regime.

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Do you want people to care or do you want to lecture people who don't agree with you. People like to give lectures on politics, but no one listens to them. If you want people to care you have to care about them.

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As someone who admittedly is guilty of "lecturing," many do enjoy it and have DM'd me or replied thanking me for it. Different people respond better to different approaches, be they the walls of text I am frequently guilty of or shorter questions trying to get them to elaborate on their own understanding.

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Bingo. This is the fundamental disconnect I encounter on a daily basis. All anyone wants to do is lecture me about how they are right, and I am wrong if I think different than them.

That isn't how you learn or win people over to your side. All it does is promote ignorance & alienation, and that's what we have an overabundance of in our current society.

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Don't waste your energy on people who won't listen.

Look for people, places and groups that support your own beliefs.

If you can't find those people at work, then just be nice to them but not too close. Them in your free time, use your energy to support those people and groups you believe in.

Don't waste your time on those who won't listen.

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I think a better question is, how do we make our elected representatives care?
(The answer, of course, is by not electing a**holes, but that's not going to happen until people really start to suffer).

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It's less about valuing communication and more about the dopamine hit. Delivering that lecture and educating the simpletons feels really good.

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I wish I knew. People keep telling me to "organize" and "strike". Like yeah a Walmart full of 60yo conservative white people is going to strike over this, fucking idiot.

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exclusively cishet white population

Red State? Then don't bother, nobody would care.

Look up the specific area around your workplace and trump's margin of victory, and you'll see just how fucked it is.

Preaching in a red area is a waste of time, I'm telling ya.

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Idk I listen to politics lectures. It's not really the lecturer's fault he was lecturing, he was right and so he should be lecturing others on truth.

This idea that all opinions are equal are how we ended up in a post-truth world.

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All anyone wants to do is lecture me about how they are right, and I am wrong if I think different than them

The question is - are you wrong? Is your take actually valid? Based on sound imperical data? Is not fallacious? Does your reasoning stand up to scrutiny?

Ultimately you shouldn't need to be coddled if you have any allegiance to the truth.

It's one thing if a 3-year old gets 2+2 wrong. It's another when it's a 33 year old.

The unfortunate reality is that democracy as a vehicle for progress is a failure because not enough people have an allegiance to the truth, nor have the basic epistemological tools for determining what's knowledge, what's belief, what's a hypothesis, what's theory or what's evidence or any idea of what the scientific method even is.

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Lecturing others anonymously online isn't exactly caring either.

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You have more control over your attitude than over politics, or other peoples' opinions. Don't exhaust yourself and don't strain your relationships uselessly. They want to bring you down and push you out. I usually reject stoicism, but this is a good time to be stoic and keep your energy reserves, and your attitude, fresh.

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There a big difference in seeking something out and someone walking up to you and talking at you.

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What do you do when people don't care?