Entering the world of blue collar workers is ripping me out of my left wing marxist bubble I had in Belgium. All of my coworkers claim to be right wing. At our friday afternoon drink today several of them voiced their support for AFD winning in Germany saying they are glad they won and that the people have had enough.

Now, at first you feel like you need to get out of the racist group. But marxist organising for years has prepared me for this. Deep down I believe people are left wing and that they are led on to become right wing by scapegoating of the oppressive bourgeoisie class. So, naturally, you try to engage in their visions and concerns. By asking them some simple questions I managed to get to the core of their problems which were almost all the same: cost of living increase, imaginary enemy created by the media, working too many hours for too long, etc.

I managed to make a start in poking holes in the fabricated narrative they have inside their head. Too easy for left wingers it is to stick their heads in the sand thinking they just know better than all those racist blue collar workers who mostly vote right wing in this country. Which is a shame, as our very beliefs were founded by these same workers many years ago. The left managed to abandon the working class here resulting in them turning to racist parties.

This will be a huge task to fullfill but I truly believe that by empathic towards their concerns and steering them in the right direction, I can get these people to change their views. Of course this is possible because of my privileged position of a white man. But someone has to turn the tide. A specter is haunting The Netherlands. It is me.