Comrades and Clickbait: Why the Left Needs a Messaging Makeover

They will never capture most Americans like this. And they need most Americans to actually win.

I was raised by a Cuban Marxist. Not a college campus cosplayer or an Instagram revolutionary, but a man who watched Batista fall, believed in solidarity, and made sure I knew the difference between real struggle and theoretical LARPing. So when I say the American far left has a messaging problem, I’m not speaking as a critic from the outside—I’m speaking as someone who was bottle-fed collectivism and still believes that a better world is possible. But damn, y’all. We need to talk.

Let me be clear: I’m not talking about Democrats. The Democrats are corporate-friendly centrists, a gaggle of cautious technocrats in J. Crew, terrified of offending moderates and utterly incapable of telling a sincere and compelling story. They’re weak-tea versions of the far right—less overtly cruel, sure, but also far less interesting. They offer little more than managerial competence and occasional social progress, and that’s not going to electrify anyone. No, I’m talking about the hard-core left. The real socialists. The communists. The abolitionists. The ones who, if given real power, would actually make this place more livable, fair, and safe. The ones with the correct values—and a disastrously outdated marketing department.

Here’s the hard truth: the American far left is allergic to effective universal messaging. While the far right is out here selling fascism and poison in red hats and Facebook memes, the left can’t even decide whether it’s okay to use Helvetica. They’re still handing out mildewed newspapers. Still using Soviet era imaging. Still saying “comrade” like it’s 1917 and we’re all factory workers in Petrograd. Meanwhile, average Americans—exhausted, broke, scared—aren’t being pulled toward revolution. They’re being pushed away by a vibe that screams exclusionary historical reenactment club.

When I brought this up to leadership at a certain socialist organization with great ideas but invisible to the masses, suggesting maybe they stop using terms like “comrade” in public-facing materials, I was met with defensiveness. One scowly woman told me her master’s thesis was on the beauty of the word comrade and she was on a mission to make Americans love it. That’s nice. And selfish. And a whopping waste of time. My dad’s master’s degree was in real-life praxis. And I can promise you: effective socialists in 2025 don’t use Trotskyist messaging anymore. They meet people where they are. Because caring about people means communicating in a way they can actually hear.

And the far right? They’re brilliant at this. Savants. And here’s why: they come out of big business and know they’re selling poison. Always have. Selling trash is what they do. Tax cuts for billionaires, corporate feudalism, culture wars designed to distract from wage theft. They know if they told people what they were actually doing, no one would buy it. So they lie. But not just that—they study how to lie effectively. They run focus groups. They learn what colors evoke trust. They test ad copy like they're launching a new flavor of Doritos. They wrap cruelty in patriotism, greed in family values, authoritarianism in memes. They turn systemic theft into something that feels like a warm hug in a loving home.

They’re not afraid to manipulate emotion, because they understand that politics is emotional. And because they come from a world where doing bad things in secret is normal, they’ve trained themselves to sell anything to anyone. It’s not moral. But it works.

The far left in the U.S., meanwhile, is doing the exact opposite. Scolding. Whining. Correcting. Making everyone feel like they walked into a party where they’re underdressed and being graded. The left has become the guy at the potluck who lectures you about ethical quinoa sourcing while talking with his mouth full. It’s a performance of virtue with zero emotional intelligence.

The only people they reach are people who already think like them. That’s a recipe for irrelevance. It presumes a level of education, cultural awareness, and historical context that most of the American population doesn’t have—and frankly, shouldn’t be expected to have. You’re not better because you read Gramsci. You’re just less accessible.

And let’s talk about Claudia de la Cruz, the PSL’s 2024 presidential candidate. On paper, she had it all—an Afro-Dominican socialist from the Bronx, a preacher, an organizer, a poet. Her story could have galvanized millions. But her campaign tone quickly turned inward, rigid, and shrill. Instead of embodying hope, she mirrored the worst of online leftist culture: shouty, sanctimonious, and joyless. Her posts often felt like a contest to out-woke her followers. She adopted the screamy ALL CAPS fearmongering more at home in MAGA circles than in a movement for justice and liberation. When what’s really needed right now is peace. Clarity. A calm, grounded presence people can trust.

Contrast that with Claudia Sheinbaum in Mexico. She is a socialist, too, but she’s not out here yelling about seizing the means of production or demonizing, well, ANYONE. She’s talking about safety, dignity, and community. Her banners say things like “Honesty, Results, Love for the People.” She replaced theoretical dogma with practical compassion—and she became the first woman president of Mexico in a landslide, with its highest ever approval rating at 81 percent. That’s how you do it.

Sheinbaum isn’t performing for a niche audience online of baby commies on Twitter. She’s speaking to an entire country of human souls, with calm competence, and actual hope. She doesn’t dress like Chairman Mao. She dresses in elegant, semi-formal Indigenous Mexican clothing that bbroadcasts a tidy, reliable respect, cultural specificity, and authenticity. Every outfit says, “I see you. I honor you.” It’s a visual language of dignity.

Meanwhile, here in the U.S., our politicians are either suits or slobs. We get nothing but stiff professionalism or chaotic disarray. There is no middle ground. No humanity. No tenderness. Every candidate seems like they’re out to destroy some other American. That’s the culture now: mean or boring. Furious or fake. It’s exhausting.

The socialists have a real opportunity here. They could become the party of compassion, calm, and cultural clarity. They could stand apart not by being louder—but by being more grounded. More loving. More relatable. Imagine a movement that wasn’t about looking smart and clobbering your enemies, but about making all people here feel safe and proud to be Americans.

We don’t need another leftist trying to win a debate. We need a leftist who can win a barbecue. Someone who knows how to walk into a room and radiate warmth, not correction. Humor, not shame. Vision, not rage.

The problem isn’t the values. It’s the vibe. It’s the tone-deaf branding, the ideological purity contests, the refusal to adapt. If you can’t talk to a tired mom in Ohio or a laid-off mechanic in Albuquerque without scolding them for their pronouns or class consciousness, you’re not a movement—you’re an asshole.

What the left lacks isn’t morality. It’s pragmatic empathy in their branding and messaging. The ability to understand someone’s fears, even if you don’t share them. The ability to speak in their language—not because you’re manipulative, but because you actually want to help them. Real organizing requires humility. It requires storytelling. It requires marketing, whether you like it or not.

We need storytellers. Evangelists. Stand-up comics. Bartenders. Reformed ad execs. People who understand that persuasion isn’t selling out—it’s showing up. It’s knowing that aesthetics matter, language matters, vibes matter.

So yeah. Maybe the word “comrade” is beautiful to some people in the modern USA. But you know what’s more beautiful? Winning.

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