chapotraphouse

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Type of Person: Radlibs Who Call Themselves Communists and Refuse to Read and So They Just Constantly End Up Regurgitating Western Imperialist Talking Points (hexbear.net)

submitted 13 hours ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I hate to be rude to these people, but you start talking about Actually Existing Socialist Countries and all of sudden you feel like you're talking to a libertarian who hates prisons. And I'm like have you read any of these... and its like nah.

That's why I often don't really suggest Naomi Klein and Bullshit Jobs because they are great points of entryism, but they just give permission for westerners to still have no historical understanding of the world around them. Spouting off about Totalitarianism.

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

I like Klein but I don’t really see it as truly communist or socialist literature. Always gave off socdem/liberal vibes.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 13 hours ago (2 children)

Yeah I don't need to read her work, but the suggestion comes from the same place as any point of entryism and at the very least its not very reactionary. I guess I just see the role of westerners is to support AES countries and to reject imperialist rhetoric rather than to first understand how their position in this system is also fucked and I guess one could do both at the same time, but if I have a place to start its the former.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago) (2 children)

That's not what entryism means, but it's similar in its pathological aversion to confrontation. Why not just suggest Parenti? He's got some nice, accessible polemics, and also a lot of his material is in talks, so you're more likely to get a young person to engage with it (though I guess you didn't mention the demo).

Are you going to get killed or fired if the person you are talking to discovers you to be a communist? If not, then hiding it is probably counter-productive if you're still advocating for your positions. You don't need to shout in people's faces demanding that they acknowledge the efficacy of Mao's land reform, but actively hiding behind lib academics is just silly.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 hours ago

You can glean useful information from books that aren’t explicitly communist too.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 11 hours ago

Parenti is always great, I also like suggesting Kwame Ture.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 13 hours ago (2 children)

I generally agree with your perspective here, but not reading an author you reference in a post lambasting people who won’t read theory is a choice.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

I mean if I lambasted Orwell while complaining that I don't read enough Fanon, I don't see any hypocrisy there, just a comparison between worthwhile and not worthwhile

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 hour ago

Yeah, that’s fair. As long as you have read some Fanon that stands. Only so many hours in a day after all.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 11 hours ago

I have read. I don't actively read. Its not like the latest Klein work comes out and I'm like I have to get that one.