123
submitted 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) by Gay_Tomato@hexbear.net to c/the_dunk_tank@hexbear.net
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] PM_ME_YOUR_FOUCAULTS@hexbear.net 73 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Once again vindicated for not watching "BreadTube" slop.

One time someone on here tried to argue to me that reading theory was too hard and it's the same to just consume someone else's summary. Sounds great until your only knowledge of socialism is a convicted sex trafficker/pedophile YouTuber explaining to you how Lenin would have voted for Kamala

[-] Ericthescruffy@hexbear.net 16 points 8 months ago

Put it that way you're not wrong but:

I maintain that if a socialist movement actually requires a majority of its membership to have actually read every volume of capital cover to cover and be able to write a college level paper on the subject: we all might as well just take the black pill right here and now because comrade that just simply ain't gonna happen.

Reading theory should always be encouraged but like it or not: any organized mass movement is going to depend on people who are operating purely on the cliff notes.

[-] PM_ME_YOUR_FOUCAULTS@hexbear.net 13 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Precisely why everyone should be encouraged to read theory, even if not everyone actually ends up doing it. The more people who have actually read theory, the more people can get away with having read the summary

As an English teacher, trust me when I say that no one is less under the illusion that everyone will do the assigned reading than me

[-] RyanGosling@hexbear.net 8 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

I maintain that if a socialist movement actually requires a majority of its membership to have actually read every volume of capital cover to cover and be able to write a college level paper on the subject: we all might as well just take the black pill right here and now because comrade that just simply ain't gonna happen.

No one is demanding that from anybody. They’re just demanding that people stop jerking off and throwing away their life and money to e-celebs who talk to a camera for a living and maybe read a book. Any book.

any organized mass movement is going to depend on people who are operating purely on the cliff notes.

Ok? Then tell the ecelebs to actually make good cliff notes

[-] DayOfDoom@hexbear.net 6 points 8 months ago

First-worlders need to read theory to combat the first-world desire to just tune out from the struggles of the bottom rungs of imperial core society and more specifically those struggling outside the imperial core. Vibes-based imperial "leftism" is going to make you more wrong than right at some point, maybe no right now when all the left gets to to do is chat about ideology and news events. You could see how astray people got as soon as Bernie pseudo-ran or BLM and people had to actually start looking at society through a marxist lens and not a passive consumer but kept doing shit like telling Canadians to phonebank for Bernie Sanders and whites to not talk over corporate-backed POC shitlibs.

The comrades outside the imperial core have their lives directly linked to improving global working politics, though they too still need to engage with communist theory and thought/consciousness, just not as much and for different reasons than us.

[-] RyanGosling@hexbear.net 5 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

In the global south, you got unions, parties, organizations, clubs, and media run by leftists.

In the west you just got the media, and half of the problem is that everyone calls themselves a leftist including liberals who hate themselves, and the other half of the problem is that the media is dog shit culture crap 90% of the time.

The local libs in DSA and other socialist orgs make political and community gains in their areas, but you rarely hear a peep about it from these big radlib channels.

[-] spectre@hexbear.net 15 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Millions of socialists have not read theory, it's fine.

Edit: very anglo-online-centric responses here lol

[-] RuthlessCriticism@hexbear.net 50 points 8 months ago

It really isn't fine. You don't have to read quickly or even that much, but please just read a few pages here and there.

[-] PM_ME_YOUR_FOUCAULTS@hexbear.net 42 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Better hope they listen to a principled person who has actually read theory then rather than some Nazbol piece of shit

[-] CyborgMarx@hexbear.net 26 points 8 months ago
[-] panopticon@hexbear.net 18 points 8 months ago

Yeah I've met those socialists and their opinions are bad and wrong

[-] ElChapoDeChapo@hexbear.net 6 points 8 months ago

Counterpoint: Elon Musk reads theory

Sorry, there's no coming back from that one

[-] RyanGosling@hexbear.net 4 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

The difference is that most of the socialists aren’t western. They have actual vanguard parties to guide them through the struggle, and they also have communities where friends and neighbors help keep each other accountable and set expectations. You don’t necessarily need to understand The Word of Marx 100% when everyone around is dedicated to struggle for a better life. You see the words in the life you live.

Westerners don’t have any of that. They have SpongeBob and Spider-Man with the exception of workers who have been beaten down so much they don’t even have the capacity to know what the fuck a vaush tube streamer is - those guys are comparable to the exploited in the global south. Some of them (not all) are in the exact conditions

If one cannot do the bare minimum of reading pop history by leftist writers or even listen to Audiobooks because it’s too hard, then it’s going to be very grim. It’s better to just watch cool guy stream with his fancy RGB lights spinning and watch news clips with him.

this post was submitted on 07 Mar 2024
123 points (100.0% liked)

the_dunk_tank

15912 readers
561 users here now

It's the dunk tank.

This is where you come to post big-brained hot takes by chuds, libs, or even fellow leftists, and tear them to itty-bitty pieces with precision dunkstrikes.

Rule 1: All posts must include links to the subject matter, and no identifying information should be redacted.

Rule 2: If your source is a reactionary website, please use archive.is instead of linking directly.

Rule 3: No sectarianism.

Rule 4: TERF/SWERFs Not Welcome

Rule 5: No ableism of any kind (that includes stuff like libt*rd)

Rule 6: Do not post fellow hexbears.

Rule 7: Do not individually target other instances' admins or moderators.

Rule 8: The subject of a post cannot be low hanging fruit, that is comments/posts made by a private person that have low amount of upvotes/likes/views. Comments/Posts made on other instances that are accessible from hexbear are an exception to this. Posts that do not meet this requirement can be posted to !shitreactionariessay@lemmygrad.ml

Rule 9: if you post ironic rage bait im going to make a personal visit to your house to make sure you never make this mistake again

founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS