First, if you're going to watch some TV, make sure it isn't some insipid PBS "programme". Watch sports. Make sure its something you can have a conversation about. That means cricket in the UK and baseball in the USA. Soccer works, but only if you call it "futbol" and are fluent in Spanish.
Second, frame all your anger at the ruling class in terms of "bosses" and "fucking stupid rules". Given enough repetitions of this exercise, you'll even start to find your understanding of class crystalizing... "Yeah, it's all because of the bosses and their fucking stupid rules."
Third, frame all discussions about socialism in terms of HMOs and the phone company. "Pacbell has put so and so through so much shit. Somethings got to be done." And.... "Those greedy bastards at the HMO are gonna let a few people die before they start paying for malaria shots."
Fourth, everyone knows that the TV news lies. Every discussion about TV can be pointed back to TV news. Even if you don't watch TV, you can talk about the "idiots" on "the fucking six o clock news" because "it's all a bunch of sensationalist crap." "I just did some political work with some mothers and their union, and did we get a single second of air? We got three seconds. That's just bullshit. You can't trust the six o clock news."
If you are afraid of sounding too much like a crank, you should talk a little about the various social projects you work on. If you don't have any, you should get one or two. People really like to hear stories about that kind of thing.
Of course, if you are a crank, just be yourself. --
-------------------------------------- John Kawakami johnk at cyberjava.com, johnk at firstlook.com