Liberal turned conservative David Mamet famously said:
“In order to continue advancing their illogical arguments modern liberals have to pretend not to know things.”

The middle two sentences of your first paragraph nicely sum up a large part of the puzzle which ardent progressives seem to pose to me,

” I have no clue how they resolve the various contradictions. I know what they say; but, it does not align with reality. …. and they look at me as though I am speaking a foreign language.”

The question I’ve been harping away on with regard to relatives (because it seemed to me that if anyone had an insider’s chance of getting to the truth, it would be another relative) is actually a layered or multiphased one.

The obvious one I’ve been asking is how they justify their progressive values to others, given the cost to traditional liberties and rights which these programmatic progressive values impose. The other aspect, or level, is how they came to prioritize these collective values above all other life interests, such as self-direction, voluntary association, and a strict allegiance to truth.

I suppose it is all of a piece from one angle. But if by some circumstance one could ethically strap a progressive in a chair until he yielded up honest and forthcoming answers, the next question after “What primary facts of reality or nature compels your progressivism?”, would be, “How did you come to the conclusion that this selection of facts were primary?”

Yes, the inherent contradictions and overall incoherence. As you say, you, ” … have no clue how they resolve the various contradictions.”

And neither do I.

I just joined Parler because Bookworm posted that she was going over there.

DJT Jr is only on twitter, so that’s enough reason for me to stay.

Covid may be messing with our social brain. The unemployment itself is a big stressor.

I don’t think anyone can top that. My late brother-in-law came over from Germany in 1948, but he was too young to have been in Hitler Youth. I found out decades after the fact that a classmate of mine was a red diaper baby- his father had been a full time CPUSA operative ( they paid his salary) from 1945 to 1956, when news of Nikita’s Stalin speech prompted him to quit.

My hometown had refugees from both Hitler and from the Iron Curtain (both Europe and China). The girls I went out with in high school included a girl whose mother fled Mao’s China and a girl whose parents had fled Hitler.

I read Watherman Mark Rudd’s memoir. He mentions meeting relatives who had survived the Holocaust- whereas those I knew had gotten out of Europe before the war. I suspect that one reason I didn’t go the SDS route in college was because I had grown up with a number of Iron Curtain refugees.

I follow several bird photographers, for example — these people wait for hours and hours to capture the perfect shot, and those of us who follow them get to see great photos with no effort just for fun.
This gal feed birds by hand, and posts the videos: https://twitter.com/JocAPhotography/status/1276178536437624834?s=20

Another fun account is Dancer on Film, which neo might enjoy; I just came upon this impressive clip of Gene Kelly: https://twitter.com/DancerOnFilm/status/1276228668860190720?s=20

If you keep following pleasant people and keep unfollowing those who post unpleasant things, eventually most of what you see is positive. Then you get more and more good stuff. Here’s one of my favorite videos ever — this was posted a few weeks ago and I have no idea where it is or who originally posted it, but it’s just nice to know this happened, such a sweet scene:
https://twitter.com/Brink_Thinker/status/1262552729752305664?s=20

Sign on to change minds one at a time. Not everyone on Twitter and Facebook is a die-hard idealogue. I find that there many who mouth the party line not realizingg that there might be a legitimate, thoughtful other option. I don’t engage with those online who are thoroughly brainwashed and unwilling to think.

My Marxist relatives are either long deceased, or very distant relatives I’ve had little contact with for years. So I have no access to the thoughts of my Marxist relatives.

I have leftist relatives, though. More of them, however, are liberals than are leftists. Many are very bright but IMHO are politically what the Soviets might call “useful idiots.” I doubt very much they would ascribe to the egg/omelet thing, even to themselves. They are naive, but that is not the same as being Marxist.

I also had a Marxist relative (somewhat distant; didn’t know him well) who believed that it was possible to get Marxism right this time. A very idealistic person. The new Marxism would not resemble the old at all. I don’t think he thought any eggs would need to be broken.

The Marxist relative I knew best is long gone, however. He was of a much earlier generation. From what I heard him say over the years, he was 100% able to justify anything the Soviets did. I never heard him directly address the issue of Stalinism and its murders, but I have little doubt he would either deny that it happened or justify it if he admitted (even to himself) that it did.