this post was submitted on 15 Nov 2024
43 points (100.0% liked)
chat
8195 readers
434 users here now
Chat is a text only community for casual conversation, please keep shitposting to the absolute minimum. This is intended to be a separate space from c/chapotraphouse or the daily megathread. Chat does this by being a long-form community where topics will remain from day to day unlike the megathread, and it is distinct from c/chapotraphouse in that we ask you to engage in this community in a genuine way. Please keep shitposting, bits, and irony to a minimum.
As with all communities posts need to abide by the code of conduct, additionally moderators will remove any posts or comments deemed to be inappropriate.
Thank you and happy chatting!
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Down with purity tests.
If you want fair treatment and opportunity for all people and an end to the exploitation of the third world, you're a leftist.
Das Kapital was fundamental to my leftist awakening, don't let others tell you its scary.
It is The Silmarillion of communism, it's not the easiest read.
Im not saying it's an easy read. It just made my own leftist economic views literal. It was one of the first leftist works I read, and if you approach it with an already leftist economic perspective it is nothing short of inspirational and enlightening.
I found it to be mostly proof of stuff I already intuitively believed. It was nice to see things laid out explicitly and it's fantastic for reference but I didn't personally get too much out of it I didn't have going in. Depends on your reading order too, I'd read most of Marx and Engels other works as well as the Lennin essentials, Parenti, and a bunch more stuff before hitting Captial.
Oh yeah that makes sense. In terms of economics it was the first work that laid out my own inherent beliefs for me and I love it for that.
I was radicalized by the 2000 election at age 9 into a radlib and the Iraq War are age 11ish sent me left. There was no fucking way I was gonna be reading Capital in my founding years cause they happened real early. Plus for a while I figured crust punk lyrics counted as theory which is hit or mud at best.
Damn my dumbass didn't call myself a Marxist till I was 22-23.
Rap, particularly Lupe Fiasco, Joey Bada$$, Killer Mike, Mos Def, and Talib Kweli definitely brought me in the fold too.
@[email protected] everyone starts at different times and different paces, so long as your hearts in the right place, you're good.
Dead Prez was a huge part of forming my political consciousness
I was an anarchist for most of my time, or at least I called myself that cause I hadn't really established what Marxism was too well until I was like 25 or so, it wasn't really that I adopted ML theory, I kinda came to it organically and then found out it's what the Soviet union had been doing this whole time! So yeah, broadly leftist since a young age but didnt really have a coherent ideology aside from calling myself an anarchist when it turned out I hadn't been along until my mid 20s. I also got into the punk scene real young where very eclectic and often incoherent leftism is the norm.
But yeah, this is a global project and we need almost everyone to get on the trolley eventually, we can't afford to arrogantly dismis people for not going to the library first, that's counter productive and counter ideological
I will say, an easier introduction to written leftist thought would be:
The Communist Manifesto
What is to Be Done?
Social Reform or Revolution
Settlers
Settlers is by far the easiest read if you can understand the Maoist dialect.