They probably also wouldn’t be liberals anymore though
The Principles of Communism is really a nice intro to communist theory, I have it as the first work read in the introductory Marxist-Leninist reading guide I made. That being said, it likely isn’t creating a communist yet, just planting the seeds for one. Education doesn’t have to just take the form of telling others to read theory, explaining concepts also helps, like imperialism.
At the very least it would get people to start grasping what communism even is, instead of them creating vibes-based strawmen in their heads that they argue against.
Oh for sure, I’m not arguing against reading it, after all, but just pointing out that it isn’t quite that easy.
I’m not disagreeing, I meant for The Principles of Communism specifically because it’s such a short read. If most people read it just once it would save so much time that’s usually spent clearing up misconceptions in conversations.
I wish most people would start with that instead of the Manifesto of the Communist Party (or “The Communist Manifesto” as most people call it). It gets through most of the misconceptions in a much faster and simpler way. I like that you have it listed first in your reading list.
Yep! I agree, that’s why I put Principles in my list and not the manifesto.
Well liberals think reading a book ghost written by Hillary Clinton IS a book. I wish liberals would do a little more to educate themselves on leftist theory so they can at least realize that what they are promoting isn’t leftist at all. I don’t really expect that to happen though. It’s not like you are going to see Liberals toting around Kropotkin, Goldman or even Marx. They are too indoctrinated into capitalism to bother reading anything that conflicts with the belief that capitalism is the best way to organize a government… And if they can’t get over that hurdle, imagine what finding out there are people that don’t believe in having a government at all will do to them. They still think police are a necessary evil… They can’t comprehend that the modern American police force was born out of slave patrols. They would probably have no problem with the fact that private prisons exist, because they haven’t broken down why capitalism is bad yet, which in many ways would be a precursor to understanding why we shouldn’t have private prisons, or even have prisons at all. They were happy with the status quo, or they just wanted to be included in the status quo. Truly challenging it, fighting for it’s abolition and destruction are just not ever going to be on the table for the average liberal. It sucks. I know there is a tendency to think we can educate our way out of the current crises, but you can’t really. How do you show somebody who is invested in the current system, that as soon as you create police you have set yourself down the road towards fascism and there are no off ramps? They didn’t get it during the Weimar republic despite placing a high value on academia and philosophy and they don’t get it now that we are repeating history almost exactly as it unfolded the last time. For each Nazi archetype there is a current match in Trumps inner circle. Stephen Miller is cosplaying Himmler, Hegseth is cosplaying Gehring and so on. In this case, history isn’t just rhyming, it’s immitating the past and since liberals seem to have never read a history book, they don’t seem to have a clue. Even Trump reads his history, he keeps a copy of mein kampf on his night stand. Does that stop liberals from openly collaborating with Trump on his agenda? Maybe we should ask Gavin Newsom who has spent his entire tenure as Governer promoting Trumps agenda. Maybe we should ask Kamala Harris who spent her time as VP advocating for mass deportations using ICE in a similar way as Trump. Neoliberalism and Fascism aren’t really that far from each other. If they could get over their squabbles over guns and abortions, then liberals would basically be holding fascisms pecker when it pees.
Education is still important, because people’s openness to new ideas depends on their current material conditions. As conditions decay, radicalization increases, and so does people’s willingness to get organized and read theory.
To imply that you cant have a thought about a better future without reading the righrt book is big gatekeeping energy.
It’s more that leftists have been discussing and bringing about better societies for centuries, agitating and organizing, so if we want to take things seriously we need to learn from what works and what doesn’t. That’s why I made an introduductory Marxist-Leninist reading guide. It’s to help people new to theory.
‘You’ can, you just have to be a big brain erudite to come to conclusions that took several intellectual giants’ work throughout centuries. The kind of mind that comes once every thousand years a la Solomon.
Respectfully, you just cannot conceive it because of Dunning-Kruger and because you’ve never been in a position in which you had to ‘create a working ideology for society from scratch’. A part of me also thinks that “saying you need recipes to cook complex meals is big gatekeeping energy”, then I fuck everything up and remember I’m both ignorant and naturally incompetent when it comes to cooking. No, we WANT to believe it’s different, but it’s not, and a wise person understands their limitations.
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Ahh so insulting liberals is fine but when I insult y’all you cry, report and remove? Pussies.
Community rule 1.
There would be a bigger leftist movement if the CIA’s saboteurs weren’t so successful at insulting /alienating liberals - which they do deliberately because they know an honest and educated liberal is most likely to become a leftist.
This is also how to spot a fed in the wild.
