How do YOU wake up friends and family?

[RickyJ]

I have come to the conclusion that you can't wake up people that don't want to wake up. Kind of like you can't help a person that doesn't want to be helped. Don't worry about it, all you can do is try, if it doesn't work then try on other people. Some will wake up, most won't. You are talking about 9/11, right?

 

[Barrex]

It helps when half of your family was on black list and named as "enemy of the state" by secret police during last communist regime. I, like 99% of my family, was libertarian (miniarchist, voluntarist...) whole my life. I just didnt know a name for it. In general anything that you say against state is well accepted in BiH.

 

[tod evans]

Speaking as a person older than your father I feel secure in pointing out that the message is sound.

I've found that there's a huge generation gap, that it's much easier to convert younger people to support liberty candidates and support the principles of liberty than to convert people who are older. So, from my experience it's much easier to convert younger people to support liberty candidates and support liberty principles than to convince the older generations to change their political views. A lot of older people have political views that are set in stone, and they aren't going to change.

 

[cajuncocoa]

Keep talking. Don't give up.

 

[specsaregood]

I start by not referring to it as "wake up", and avoid terms like ignorant, naïve, brainwashed, sheeple, etc.

 

[Brian4Liberty]

I start by not referring to it as "wake up", and avoid terms like ignorant, naïve, brainwashed, sheeple, etc.

Of course you don't use those grammatically accurate (except for the new word "sheeple"), yet potentially inflammatory terms when trying to convince someone.

 

[CaptUSA]

Ask them questions that cause them to ask their own questions. Do not supply them with answers.

Nothing is so strong as your conviction when you have discovered a truth for yourself.

 

[specsaregood]

Of course you don't use those grammatically accurate (except for the new word "sheeple"), yet potentially inflammatory terms when trying to convince someone.

The interesting thing is... when you continually use those terms in private or in the echo chamber it changes your attitude so that even though you might not use them when in varied company there is a good chance that your true feelings --such as: superiority and smugness -- will still be obvious to those you are trying to sway your direction. just saying...

 

[Christian Liberty]

The interesting thing is... when you continually use those terms in private or in the echo chamber it changes your attitude so that even though you might not use them when in varied company there is a good chance that your true feelings --such as: superiority and smugness -- will still be obvious to those you are trying to sway your direction. just saying...

I'm sorry that reality is offensive to people. I'm honestly done caring. They can screw themselves.

 

[KingNothing]

Lead by example: work hard, be kind to people, learn as much as possible.
Listen to others: Understand their concerns and the issues they care most about.
Convey optimism during conversation: Empathize with others and use relevant information, presented in an optimistic manner, to explain the Libertarian(or whatever) solution.

 

[mczerone]

Be informed, be friendly. Let THEM bring things up!

If you have a FedBook account use it to share videos, pictures, and articles that educate the masses.

LearnLiberty.org is great

Lewrockwell.com has new articles daily.

Use the many meme generators to use humor to "Beg the question"

This is close to what I do.

I get along with may different people, and leave political philosophy out of most conversations.

But as soon as they start complaining about X or Y, I have an opening.

First, sympathize with their complaint.

Second, analyze their complaint - find where the real problem to this symptom lies.

Third, offer the freedom solution that (1) solves their complaint, and (2) predicts their fears and sets them to rest before they fester.

The most important pitfall to avoid is giving specific "central planner" solutions to the problem that can be attacked for short-sited flaws and be attached to your entire philosophy. For example, you don't want the other person to say, "Well, he thinks that roads can be paved with gummi-bears, and that's the freedom solution, so freedom is unworkable for anything."

 

[Arklatex]

Lead by example: work hard, be kind to people, learn as much as possible.

I 2nd this, those who are meant to wake up will ask questions and get interested on their own rather than you preaching. Attract them to you and let them ask the questions.

 

[NoOneButPaul]

Beat them over the head with it until they hate the thought of even seeing you again.

I haven't been able to decide if that will actually work but it seems the only option.

The older generations are so far gone it's damn near impossible to break through to them. They are so caught up in the false right-left paradigm they can't see how fucked everything is.

I've started to come to the conclusion (which was given to me by an elderly liberty fighter a long time ago that I initially refused to accept) is the best thing to do is just forget them and do what you can. Let them get slaughtered. It's hard to let that happen but people will only learn if they make the mistake themselves. Make your position known completely and then be done with it. When we are proven right at least we might get listened to next time...

 

[mosquitobite]

https://www.coursera.org/course/thinkagain

Online course -free

Think Again: How to Reason and Argue
Walter Sinnott-Armstrong and Ram Neta
Reasoning is important. This course will teach you how to do it well. You will learn how to understand and assess arguments by other people and how to construct good arguments of your own about whatever matters to you.

Workload: 5-6 hours/week

 

[Steely Dan]

I 2nd this, those who are meant to wake up will ask questions and get interested on their own rather than you preaching. Attract them to you and let them ask the questions.

Agreed, you have to make them seek it out. Whether its you they seek it from or some other source. As long as they are interested/concerned is about the best I think you can hope for. Its easy to get into know it all mode and not even realize you're doing it. Some people will just never be convinced of anything unless its on the boob tube. All you can do is hope they "come around" and start asking questions or seeking truth from somewhere besides the teevee. I'm at the point where I'm kinda done talking to people about it unless they bring it up.

PS .... Howdy T town neighbor

 

[Henry Rogue]

I would like to know myself. I can't even get my Wife on board, she just doesn't want to hear about it.

 

[bkreigh]

I dont talk about it constantly. I usually wait for them to bring up the topic and voice my opinion. Soon enough something in the news will validate said opinion and ill bring it to their attention. Political views are something that wont change overnight or through a month or even a year or two. If you talk about politics try and do it in a real casual way and make sure the conversation doesnt drag on. Short points here and there seem to work the best.

To be honest im not sure if i have "changed" anybody nor do i care. I have made them think though and thats pretty much all you can hope for.

 

[eduardo89]

I would like to know myself. I can't even get my Wife on board, she just doesn't want to hear about it.

It's very tough, especially with women in my experience. With my girlfriend I got her to start questioning her second religion (statism) by talking about school choice when we were looking for a pre-school for our daughter. You have to start with things that interest her and which affect her, and start by just planting seeds. Don't get into too many details, but make her start asking you questions.

 

[fr33]

I would like to know myself. I can't even get my Wife on board, she just doesn't want to hear about it.

Damn that is rough.

 

[Natural Citizen]

Ths may sound sadistic so forgive me. It's the way I genuinly feel about it. I think it's best to just let the drones sleep until the alarm goes off. The one that kicks down the door and bangs the cymbal so loud that their heads bounce off the ceiling.

No, this doesn't include family, obviously. By default the family is typically of the same meme.