this post was submitted on 15 Sep 2023
81 points (100.0% liked)

the_dunk_tank

15912 readers
386 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
 

Bonus points for implying Parenti is one too.

Another one:

Summarises it better than I could. I used to watch him, along with other content creators, but it's been a while so don't remember exact examples. The above hits the nail on the head when it comes to the overarching issue.

The fact Hakim promotes Parenti, if I remember correctly, is one sign of his liberalism. The fact he runs a sub like r/TheDeprogram which is one in a long line of western petit bourgeois leftist meme subs (succeeding MoreTankieChapo and GenZedong) and the fact many of his podcast's followers there are Dengists is another sign of his liberalism.

The fact he has a (fairly successful) YouTube channel where he makes relatively short, relatively shallow, "snappy" videos, as well as a podcast, is a clear sign of the petit bourgeois nature of the commodity production ("content creation") he's engaged in. And I think the fact he has a fairly successful Patreon from which he funds his own survival + the continuation of his petit bourgeois commodity production pretty much by definition makes him a fairly successful petit bourgeois. And the fact it is his political propaganda which directly affords him this class status is problematic to say the least.

E: Please keep in mind that me as well as many others are deriving this stuff from personal as well as collectively experiences and observations. I'm not just randomly thinking oh he's petit bourgeois so fuck him. I personally spent years consuming leftist content on YouTube and the like and did not learn shit about the philosophy and theory of Marxism or the history of communism. I had a very superficial understanding of things despite spending years watching this stuff and it showed when I started engaging with the sub we're on right now since people here actually have a more in depth understanding of Marxism. I've basically had to start over which is what I'm doing now, I've tried to put away all I think I know and started studying Marxist texts, starting from the basics, a few months ago. This is my own personal experience but if you talk to other people here you'll find it's not unique at all. Leftist content is legitimately not a good way to learn Marxism, at best if it somehow manages to be devoid of liberalism it's just an entertaining thing to do in your free time, but even then there's so little leftist content that is actually revolutionary, exactly for the reasons I described above, that leftist content creators work within the framework and by the rules of petit bourgeois production in the industry of content creation. They are by default driven to produce content that will appeal to western petit bourgeoisie and labor aristocrats since those are the people who consume things like YouTube and podcasts the most. If your concern is to just consume leftist whatever then okay, keep watching it. But if you want to become a Marxist and an actual communist, i.e. the vanguard of the global proletariat, you'll have to do better than that.

(page 2) 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] CyborgMarx@hexbear.net 14 points 1 year ago

Someone should inform those gobbers it's not communism that's gonna take away their treats, it's climate change

[–] Rojo27@hexbear.net 13 points 1 year ago

Reading that made my head hurt.

[–] ennemi@hexbear.net 13 points 1 year ago

reduced access to treats = life is harder

[–] DamarcusArt@lemmygrad.ml 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Are you able to crosspost this to https://lemmygrad.ml/c/shitultrassay ? It's prime material for it.

I'm not sure if you can crosspost from one instance to another though.

[–] Walk_On@hexbear.net 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Sorry I tried, but the page wouldn't show up when I searched for it.

[–] DamarcusArt@lemmygrad.ml 6 points 1 year ago

Ah, that might be why it's so dead lately. It seems like no one can access it.

[–] Shinhoshi@lemmygrad.ml 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] Walk_On@hexbear.net 3 points 1 year ago

Hey! That was it. Posted.

[–] LeylaLove@hexbear.net 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] CommunistBarbie@hexbear.net 10 points 1 year ago

gommunism is when poor. ultras are the worst.

[–] plinky@hexbear.net 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Thinking that petit bourgeoisie is bad by default is a big problem on the left shrug-outta-hecks

[–] RyanGosling@hexbear.net 6 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Yeah, it’s an unpopular opinion, but my default opinion about small business owners is “okay” compared to large chains and corporations where it’s “damn, the owners deserve to get shot.” There’s more nuance to it

[–] FanonFan@hexbear.net 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This is still just liberal moralizing, the thread (and this site in general) is full of it.

Marxist class analysis isn't about good or bad, it's about material interests and revolutionary potential.

Check out Mao's analysis of the classes in China

https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/selected-works/volume-1/mswv1_1.htm

[–] RyanGosling@hexbear.net 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I didn’t say I was analyzing anything with Marxism

[–] FanonFan@hexbear.net 7 points 1 year ago

The problem is your (and a lot of this thread's) liberal analysis, not whether you claim it to be Marxist or not. I'm offering an example of how class analysis is used to effectively engage with the world, rather than sit back and moralize about it.

If you claim to be on the left, meaning you want to achieve leftist goals, squabbling over whether an entire subclass is "bad" or "good" is worse than a waste of time. Do their material interests and social position influence them to be a progressive force or a reactionary one? Do they have revolutionary potential?

Besides, "petty bourgeois" is largely a Marxist term, being used on an explicitly non-liberal site. Using Marxist terminology without abandoning liberal ideology deprives it of its utility.

I personally disagree with this, obviously the scale of the harm they create is way higher for large corporations, but small business tyrants are some of the most cartoonishly evil people. Even more so for ‘mom and pop’ landlords, I’ve had way better experiences renting from a corp than when I’ve had an actual landlord

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Alaskaball@hexbear.net 7 points 1 year ago

Fucking nerd and loser. Cut yourself out of your armchair and embrace a whole field of grass

[–] whodoctor11@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 5 months ago)
load more comments
view more: ‹ prev next ›