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submitted 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) by PugJesus to c/politicalmemes

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[–] PugJesus 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

The Communist Manifesto, Critique Of The Gotha Programme, Theories Of Surplus Value, and various assorted letters and articles. I attempted Das Kapital, but it was dry enough and enough of a slog that I ended before the halfway point.

The Conquest Of Bread, State And Revolution, Anarchism And Other Essays, various 20th century articles and letters from socialist writers and theorists, ML and anti-ML.

Innumerable books and articles dealing with the actual history of socialist movements, especially anarchist movements, either in whole or in passing.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

Okay, a very sizeable list. Not doing the whole Read more theory! bit, just suggesting Value, Price, and Profit and Wage Labor and Capital as shorter and condensed, though half of Capital probably covers more than those do. Socialism: Utopian and Scientific is a good read from Engels on Historical Materialism if you care.

As for Lenin, Imperialism is probably his most important work when it comes to understanding a lot of Leftists on Lemmy, IMO. Many Leftists I see form most of their foreign policy positions on the conclusions Lenin provides in it.

As a precursor, I consider myself a Leftist, not an ML, not an Anarchist. I am anti-sectarian, because I believe the path to Socialism will be different in every country. Whether that be Marxism, Syndicalism, Anarchism, the overall goal is to move leftward and collectivize ownership of the Means of Production.

Do you disagree with any of that? Do you believe it enough to consider me a fascist, or was that a one-off kneejerk reaction?

[–] PugJesus 2 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

As for Lenin, Imperialism is probably his most important work when it comes to understanding a lot of Leftists on Lemmy, IMO. Many Leftists I see form most of their foreign policy positions on the conclusions Lenin provides in it.

I feel like a lot of Lemmy Leftists miss Lenin elsewhere on foreign policy, though. Not that I would regard myself as pro-Lenin in general.

Imperialism is as much our “mortal” enemy as is capitalism. That is so. No Marxist will forget, however, that capitalism is progressive compared with feudalism, and that imperialism is progressive compared with pre-monopoly capitalism. Hence, it is not every struggle against imperialism that we should support. We will not support a struggle of the reactionary classes against imperialism; we will not support an uprising of the reactionary classes against imperialism and capitalism.

God, I've seen so much apologia for Iranian theocracy on here that it makes my head spin.

Do you disagree with any of that? Do you believe it enough to consider me a fascist, or was that a one-off kneejerk reaction?

No, I don't disagree. As mentioned before, I'm quick to snap, especially since many people on here openly salivate about the idea of a fascist takeover here in the US, because "Both sides are the same" or "It will move people left".

I honestly don't remember calling you a fascist (I'm sure I did, as I am quick to emphasize that supporting the rise of fascists like Trump, actively or passively, IS sitting at a table with 9 fascists, and quick to assume bad faith), but it was probably incorrect, and definitely spoken in anger rather than careful consideration.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

I generally agree with the idea that some Lemmy Leftists are picky and choosy with Lenin. I do find that understanding how they view Imperialism makes a lot of their takes make sense from their perspective. however. It brings me to my largest (probable) disagreement with you, however.

I do not expect you to agree with this, but I believe where you and I differ is our stance on Lemmy's population. It is my belief that on Lemmy, there are relatively few bad actors, and therefore the sheer amount of Leftist infighting causes more overall harm than good. There are relatively extremely few accelerationists, PatSocs, MAGA Communists, or otherwise bad-faith "leftists" on Lemmy, the majority from what I have seen have at least read theory and can be reasoned with.

Again, I don't expect you to agree with that, but I do want to hear your POV on that.

As for calling me a fascist, you did so here, which I snapped back on. That's what gave me the initial impression that you are just looking to pick fights with Leftists, rather than have a conversation. We are having one now, so that's much better than I originally thought, so I'll take the L on that.