I'm paid to be a software developer, but my real passion is to be a bisexual communist game developer and writer. But i'm not good at the bisexual, communist, game developer, or writer thing.
It's always funny when liberals come from Reddit because the profit motive slowly ruined everything that once made Reddit fun and disruptive, but then absolutelty mald about Marxists and other leftists once they get here, the explicitly leftist answer to Reddit.
It's especially bad on !Lemmy.world, where the majority of users are too idealistic to stay on Reddit but not well-versed enough in leftist theory or practice to actually engage with most of Lemmy.
It's even goofier when these same liberals think they are leftists, but then still get upset at Marxists, and even Anarchists.
and even Anarchists.
I have lost count of the number of times I have been called a tankie by libs lol
I am an anarchist, but I work with a decolonial Marxist org and I have read plenty of ML theory and know who my comrades are.
Congratulations, you’ve described me perfectly! 🥲 (except for the anarchist part, cought up with that about 6 mon ago)
If you want to get into Marxism (even if it's just to learn about what people are actually talking about), Principles of Communism by Engels and How Marxism Works by Chris Harman are fantastic pamphlets that really take no time to read through, though beware, Harman is a Trotskyist and that bleeds through a bit in his writing.
Marx mostly spoke about Capitalism and while no Marxist can avoid reading Marx, he doesn't provide a great introduction to Socialism in the Marxist sense, if that makes sense. Still, Value, Price, and Profit and Wage Labor and Capital are fantastic intros to the critique of Capitalism.
Even if you're interested in learning about Marxism-Leninism, jumping straight to Lenin before even understanding Marxism would be a mistake. Lenin builds his own critique off of Marxism, as a Marxist, so it is preferable to go through Marx first.
The amount of comments I've seen start with "I'm as left as they come" instant eye roll
"Redfash" or "horseshoe theory" is usually another giveaway. MAGA Communism and PatSocs certainly exist, but not in any serious number, and they aren't here on the mainstream Lemmy communities.
"I'm as left as they come! I also agree with US foreign policy, and think that every country on the official US sanctions and foreign adversary list needs to be overthrown."
I’m as left as they come, and anyone to the left of me is a MAGA troll.
not well-versed enough in leftist theory or practice to actually engage with most of Lemmy.
The problem is that if your political world view requires actual study in order to understand and promote, you're never going to get anywhere when it comes to affecting real change. Most humans don't give a shit. You have to give them something simple and easy to make the core of their political identity. In our society capitalism has a head start because it's baked into the school system, but you don't get the luxury of forcing everyone to learn how you economic system works.
The problem is that if your political world view requires actual study in order to understand and promote, you're never going to get anywhere when it comes to affecting real change.
Two war-torn feudal backwaters transformed themselves into spacefaring superpowers in the span of a single human lifetime. History has shown that mass political education is possible and effective. I mean hell, we all have to be instructed as kids about the dangers of fire, and that works. I don't believe that educating people in Marxism is some sisyphean task any more than educating people in math. I think I can and has been done.
Damn, imagine needing to know things to do shit?
It really doesn't require much study to understand and promote. You can go as deep as you like, but the underlying principles are straightforward and rather obvious, like class dynamics.
Additionally, Capitalism doesn't have any "edge" over Socialism - it's in a steady state of decline, has been declining, and appears to continue to decline. Capitalism cannot be permanent, it does not have a head start, and there is no need to force everyone to understand how Socialism works.
That's really my point, you have these knee-jerk reactions because you are unfamiliar with the topics at hand, and do not appear to have tried to understand them further. The inevitability of Capitalism's decline means you don't need to be forced to understand Socialism by anyone, you'll either learn on your own or will ride the tide.
You probably won't agree with what I have said, but that's more a choice you personally make, on whether to engage or disengage, and that's fine.
Lemmy.world really can be maddening sometimes. It seems like any vaguely political post develops some intense strawman "tankie" action. I've pointed it out a few times and it doesn't go well.
The tankies that they keep complaining about are just your traditional Marxist-Leninists saying Marxist-Leninist things.
I think some Lemmy users like the image of being communist without actually subscribing to orthodox communist viewpoints. Just accept that you're not one, there's no shame in it.
I agree, you should see how mad the liberals got when I told them that the term leftist means someone who is against capitalism, not just people more left than elected representatives. Had a whole fight with me about the word not meaning that and that you could totally be a capitalist supporter and a leftist.
Nah. There are cases where it stops being about upholding their values and more cheering on one side over another even if what they support is against their values.
They think everyone to their left is a tankie and everyone to their right is maga and they alone posses the singular correct opinion.
It's even worse sometimes, they think the left is a portal that is actually secretly MAGA. It's what happens when your political opinions are purely vibes based and not founded on any material analysis or reality.
Same here. It's always Lemmy.world and their echo chamber. They are especially idealistic liberals, they can't stay on Reddit but they also can't stand leftists, everything is vibes and nothing is material.
They, right now, are comparing Marxists to Evangelical Christians and are circlejerking about it, lol.
They, right now, are comparing Marxists to Evangelical Christians and are circlejerking about it, lol.
In what way are they comparing the two? Doing a comparison of Marxists against Evangelical Christians could be valid depending on the context of the comparison. Marx had a bit to say on religion's role in the class struggle.
I feel seen
Bahahaha!
Post communism? whats that? As far as I understand it communism should be at the end of cultural and social development. What should be after that?
I'd argue that it is not possible to have an end. Culture and society, like species, continue to evolve and is never a static thing (believing otherwise is one of the big contradictions of neolibs and other staunch pro-capital ideologies). So, "post-communism" could be a set of philosophies that may not be concievable until such point that humanity has evolved culturally and socially enough. Possibly influenced by technological or external factors.
Actual sound answer and not a shitpost. Good comment.
It should also be part of a dialectical assessment of material conditions and social organization.
The nature of the dialectic is for it to continually and fluidly evolve, every now and then contradictions mount to a point of qualitative change and give rise to a new system that resolves the contradictions of the last, but gains new ones. It never ends. Marx only said, capitalism will bring about socialism, which will in turn bring about communism. Everything after that is too far away to really make any concrete statement that isn't grossly biased by the conditions of our time.
Fully autumated luxury space gay communism, comrade
Star Trek is what comes after communism
If you aren't joking, they mean 'to post the propaganda on the Internet' and not post-communist.
That's probably it, communism specifically for posts sounds kinda weird.
You can have a proper gander at deez nutz bruv.
*our nuts
Amen.
i like asking other people to tell me what i do, because i do whatever the fuck i please. And am beholden to no labels.
