Multiple people told me I should listen to Chomsky, yet it took me years to finally stumble across this CD in a record store in 1998.  The time I wasted not knowing about Chomsky, has made me much more favourable to recommendations ever since.

In this 1995 lecture given at MIT, Chomsky lays out the groundwork for a deeper engagement with left-wing politics. Put simply, there is a section of the wealthy right wing across the world, who see things in very much a class-based way.  This wealthy class continually attack unions, even though they are incredibly weak, advocate for more "flexible" working conditions, and lower taces for their class.  They want to reduce the size of government, because democracy is the main tool the poor have any input into that cn protect them from elite power. Above all these class conscious elites don't want poor people to see things in a class-based way, because that might encourage solidarity.

Don't make the same mistake I did, engage with Chomsky. Listen to this lecture a couple of times, try to commit it to memory.

Here is a quote to get you started: 

to defend the country against the UN forces being brought in on the black helicopters by the Council on Foreign Relations to commit genocide or whatever story you like. Or else it's fight against Lucifer and beast 666...If you take a look across the country, that's what people are worried about and fighting against; Aliens, the devil, the UN forces, the Federal Reserve, everything except what is real, private tyranny, private corporate power, the guys who are listed in the fortune 500