I’ve been having trouble explaining to liberal co-workers that there isn’t really an “Upper” or “Lower” working class. They insist that class as a relation to means of production is outdated and it makes more sense to measure it by income. What’s the most effective way to explain to them why this doesn’t work?
In this case, it might make sense to try a different approach and return to the nature of class divisions after making some headway. It sounds like they’re either committed to the idea that meritocracy is a real thing, or that wealth, status, and power just kinda, do that. There is little systemic analysis going on.
It might make sense to start discussing ideas like what really even is the goal of politics, and how can these goals be achieved. Most of us (in the Great Satan) begin with idealist conceptions about this. That victories are gained through awareness and clever rhetoric. That politics isn’t inherently about conflict, but compromise. That in the end, justice prevails because good ideas are inherently more powerful than bad ideas. All of this needs to be broken down and discarded. Replaced with a more realistic understanding about how struggles against oppression function. Get them to understand first that politics is about conflict, then start building the case for class conflict. After all, if they are still operating in a framework that politics is about compromise, then the result will inevitably be class compromise.
Do you have any good book recommendations?