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.
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The Communist Manifesto? Is that a video game?
Leon Trotsky? What's his Twitter handle?
Antonio Gramsci? Did he invent Instagram?
me, before federation: "fuck dude, I've gotta skim through these books I read way back when, wanna be on my top form during arguments with libs"
me, now: "oh. these people haven't read books since high school, and even in high school they were 'the curtains are just blue' dweebs"
The power of perspective
Instagramsci 
Jokes aside, we might have better success with Parenti or asking them to watch Klein's "Shock Doctrine" for a quick primer
Agreed, maybe add in David Graeber's 'Bullshit Jobs' and 'Debt: The First 5,000 Years' as a starting point towards leftist ideas. It might be a good idea to create a 'leftist 101' reading list to ease them into it. Theory is great, but it tends to scare newcomers.
Bullshit Jobs has a lot to say about the immediate experiences of most first world workers. Debt is very readable and important, but it's also abstract and a fuckin doorstopper. Like based on the title alone I don't know that most normies would have an interest in what presents itself as an economics textbook.
bullshit jobs also comes as a much shorter article that introduces the book, which is incredibly useful. in fact reading that article when i was 15 is what really started my radicalisation and lead me to reading theory. the key to cracking libs is just letting them know that yes, that vague feeling they have is right, something is wrong, and people (graeber or perenti at first, then marx/lenin/etc) know why. bullshit jobs is fucking great for that.
Hot take: telling a lib to read State and Revolution probably won't work or radicalize them.
Agreed. The Lib --> Leftist pipeline for westerners needs to start with youtube videos that seem inoffensive on the surface, like Second Thought, Hakim, etc. Then after the more approachable video content, they might be willing to dig into theory. It's like trying to convert someone to Christianity by telling them to read the Book of Revelations.
Hakim is no good for complete libs imo, he’s got a lenin profile pic that will scare them
Wait, that's not just a silhouette of what he looks like irl?!
No it is, he’s actually the secret great grandchild of Lenin ofc and bears a striking resemblance
~/j~
Honestly, Second Thought is what started my lib->leftist pipeline. I owe them so much, lmao
Because they won't read it anyway?
State and Rev is mostly a DemSoc vs RevSoc debate along with theoretical details on the latter, it's not a "self-identifying liberal" vs socialist thing.
It's a common but unproductive habit to wave favored books at people like they are scripture. I think State and Rev is great, but I would never tell someone to read it as a first Marxist work.
Yeah no one really reads theory until they're already a socialist and are curious to learn more about it
"Let's all rush to judgment, yeah" says guy who rushed to judgment
https://hexbear.net/comment/3708784
Be nice to them, they're just not as submerged in these things as we are.
The average non-marxist has probably only read Marx and Engels' introductory works and maybe a little bit of Lenin.
e: I know there's nothing that really indicates this but I was joking
The average non-Marxist has heard of the Communist Manifesto and thinks that is the extent of the philosophical canon. The average Liberal has not even read any Liberal philosophy, like Locke, Montesquieu, Rousseau, Paine, etc.
The average non-marxist doesn't know that "Capital" and "The Communist Manifesto" are different things, much less that the latter is a pamphlet and not a book.
100%
I remember reading the communist manifesto in university twice because I was sure I must have missed something. (This was extra curricular, I was in engineering) Like it was fine, but it didn't really live up to my expectations of reframing history by analyzing it through the lens of class.
I only recently figured out that it wasn't Capital. (It was before I read your post but probably within the last year, so ~15 years from when I read the manifesto).
I haven't gotten around to reading Capital, would it work as an audio book?
I haven't gotten around to reading Capital, would it work as an audio book?
Here you go:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUW6cjZgi7Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4Cpj_wXF88
I would also recommend David Harvey's supplemental explanations of Capital, he is very down to earth:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5vu4MpYgUo&list=PLWvnUfModHP9Ci8M1g39l4AZgK6YLCXd0
Extreme overestimation
Relevant xkcd?
i can't find it now but yeah :p
found it!
In what country? In the USA, a lot of people don't read books unless it's required for school or work. If they do read for pleasure, it's often young adult, bs 'self help' (ie Rich Dad, Poor Dad), or shallow non fiction that reinforces what they already believe.
i was doin a dumb joke sorry
Libs love to flaunt their L's for some reason.
"I'm actually too important to bother knowing things. Honestly, I'm a little embarrassed for you for taking the time to read something."
Gramsci? thats like the metric system?
Gramsci is the abbreviation for Gram Science, the study of mass.
Huh I wonder if there was any way I could click a link and find out what someone was referring to?
Maybe in the future, but it is impossible now so I shall remain ignorant thanks to your inability to describe something that you provided a link to that had a full description.
I bet they've read the entire Harry Potter series 3 times though
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain taught me everything I need to know about revenge as a motivator. Namely that it's cool and good and drives you to clean up landmines
I thought for a second that you meant arab like amab or afab or something