I mean a lot of it is boring. Knowing leftist political theory is like a curse from an ancient Greek myth where all mundane things now seem connected in horrifying ways.

Typical middle class Americans don’t care because they’re in a bubble of safety. The more precarious ones have already been primed to understand precarity is caused by immigrants, queer people, Russian meddling, or the devil himself. Best solution I’ve found is meet people where they are, bring it back to their daily lives. People think politics are boring when it’s an old white guy saying gibberish to another old white guy. They get more invested when they learn a good union deal is within their grasp, or they can negotiate something like better healthcare or childcare.

That’s how you deal with it for most people, bring it right to what’s in front of people’s eyes. Don’t focus on stuff that’s already mystified for them.

Focus on them by not focussing on them, if you can understand what I’m saying. I just started doing all kinds of things for our party and occasionally asked friends for help filling out petitions, asking them to donate clothes for a thing I’m doing, ask them to fill in some surveys of our party, invite them to casual get togethers.

Weirdly enough I don’t really like talking about politics that much either. But since I’m involved so much, lots of people come to me to talk about just that. Now imagine someone who isn’t involved in politics and also doesn’t care about it. You’ll have a hard time convincing them to join a party or an org. Instead, what worked for me is just leading by example and eventually those people will know you do politics and find it easier to talk about it.

“For sure. I get it, that does sound much funner, so what do you think is preventing you from being able to just get stoned and watch anime or play games all day?”

Most people’s first contact with politics is when they learn about the apparatus of liberal democracy in school. A lot of time is spent treating the various levels of government, the legislative bodies, the major liberal parties, the legal system, the executive branch, etc. For the vast majority, this is the only systematic treatment of politics they will learn, and it is boring. It fills up weeks of their life with dry, lifeless content which they will only ever use once in four years, if even that.

What is far worse, it provides no satisfactory resolution to the very good questions they do need a political education for; questions about the origin and structure of poverty, homelessness, war, unemployment, crime, inflation, inequality, racism, sexism, climate change, or why jobs are sucking so bad. The consequence of liberal democratic education is ultimately that these things are the way they are because people keep voting for them, which - while consistent within the framework established in these courses - of course leaves most people frustrated. The failure of schools to teach critical theory in the end leads not only to a widespread disinterest in these fundamental questions, but also to others turning to unhinged conspiracies surrounding them.

To rekindle one’s interest in politics, it is necessary to ask these questions again. There is - sadly - no shortage of occasions which should prompt you to do that. The zeroth step, of course, is always to read the theory yourself. But in discussions with the politically disinterested, it is advisable to start memorising and dropping short quotes whenever the opportunity presents itself. When they show interest, go over the specific questions that interest them the most, and recommend books and other media. Though you can find great answers to many of the above questions in Capital, you should try not to advertise it as a holy book from which one can get all the knowledge. Depending on the interests of your interlocutor, you should recommend more sectional and modern scientific literature.

I first inform them that everything is political, so unless you’re deeply bored with everything, you don’t think politics are boring. You just don’t like certain aspects of society or dealing with them. Like another commenter said, most people think of two white men in suits gabbering at each other which is fucking boring. But if you’re able to reframe that stereotype into how politics affects your material reality, most people care.

Weave in politics with whatever their interests are. Oh, you like architecture and are studying it at the university level? Wouldn’t it be cool if you didn’t have to pay out the ass for the rest of your life because of that? What about if you had a democratic workplace and could decide among your peers what you design?

Things like that.

You don’t have to delve into grade A Marxian economics right away to get people involved in this. It truly affects every aspect of our lives, it’s just about making people realize it. Hence class consciousness.

No fucking clue. A lot of them fail to grasp how much more shit things can and will get

Community events really do a lot of work. The local DemSoc party in my hometown runs a lot of youth athletic events that gets the kids away from gangs while also being exposed to left-wing politics at the same time.

Typically finding stuff that might interest them whether it’s a new park or a new law to inconvenience homeless people and letting the conversation naturally escalate.

Hopefully they get curious or at least start thinking about something that might impact them

Politics is pretty boring, political history is pretty interesting.

I cut ties with them. Politics is infinitely more entertaining and interesting that whatever topic they’re interested anyways.