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What are some leftist books you dislike but everyone else seems to love?
  • Not books per se but authors: I find both Marx and Fanon very tedious to read. Their prose is awkward and I feel like the text is fighting my brain when I try to read them.

    This is not a slight against their ideas, just their writing.

    It should also be noted I've read neither in their original language, just translations, so it's I entirely possible this is just the fault of translators. I don't think it is for Marx though, because even when I read Engels or Lenin and they block-quote Marx the text automatically gets :wtf-am-i-reading:

  • NSFW
    Yes
  • In prison Ocalan became a theory head, and he synthesized a kind of hodge-podge anarcho-feminist revolutionary theory that Rojava is ostensibly based on. I'm not familiar with the specific quote but in context this is likely about challenging the assumed role of men in society to uplift women's position.

  • Enjoy a Scott Adams galaxy brain classic about what to do with "a young male family member that is a danger to himself or others." (CW: violence, edgelordery)
  • This isn't even a hard determinism argument - it's genetic determinism. A hard determinist wouldn't argue that changing an individual's environment to one that has a support network is pointless, they'd just argue that whether you do or don't wasn't really your choice

  • Ok hear me out - what if instead of being invisible the hand of visible but you just hate looking at it?

    MEET THE SOCIETY

    MARGARET THATCHER

    The Iron Lady herself sits proudly as a member of the Invisible Hand Society. Trained as a chemist and having worked briefly as a barrister, Thatcher became leader of the United Kingdom’s Conservative Party before ascending to Prime Ministership. There she proudly upheld neoliberalism against its many challengers, earning her an esteemed place within the society.

    FRIEDRICH HAYEK

    The Austrian-born Hayek is a Nobel-prize winning economist and free market warrior. An ardent critic of socialism, Hayek argued that a free market was essential for individual liberty. He condemned overbearing governments’ tendency toward central planning, and asserted that it was the government’s prerogative to defend the free market in order to preserve a free society. The society is proud to count Hayek as a member.

    MILTON FRIEDMAN

    The world-famous economist Milton Friedman was arguably the 20th Century’s most passionate free market defender. With his book from the 1960s, Capitalism and Freedom, Friedman established the philosophical foundation of a generation of capitalists. Later, his theory of monetarism would go on to influence such luminaries as fellow society member Margaret Thatcher and former U.S. President Ronald Reagan. Friedman has truly earned his place among the world’s most renowned free market advocates.

    ADAM SMITH

    The original Invisible Hand Society member, Smith literally wrote the book on free market capitalism. His book, The Wealth of Nations, laid the foundations of the free market, arguing that rational self-interest and competition lead to economic prosperity. Adam Smith established the Invisible Hand Society, and to him a wiser, more affluent world owes a debt of thanks.

    AYN RAND

    Known by her pen name to her readers and admirers, Ayn Rand’s fiction stridently defended the free market. Rand understood that individual rights, including property rights, were the foundation of a truly free society, and her novels influenced a multitude of political movements. She sits proudly as a member of the society.

    CAPTAIN INDUSTRY

    The Captain embodies the business leaders who amassed great personal wealth to the everlasting benefit of their nation. Their will toward personal gain increased jobs and productivity, while fueling innovation and expanding markets. This hero wears his cape proudly as a member of the society

    Link to this moron shit

    4
    What are the best/coolest documentaries you’ve seen?
  • Concerning Violence: 9 Scenes from the Anti-Imperialistic Self-Defence (2014) is a great documentary. The guys who did the Black Power Mixtape found a bunch of old archival footage from like 7 or 8 different global south independence movements from labour to militance, really interesting footage. Meanwhile Lauryn Hill reads sections of Frantz Fanon’s essay “On Violence”.

    In the Year of the Pig (1968) is a great antiwar Vietnam documentary.

    The Act of Killing (2012) follows the aging lumpen Indonesian thugs who performed massacres of left in 65 as they recreate their massacres for film. Required viewing for the left, great companion piece to Vincent Bevin’s The Jakarta Method.

    Theatres of War (2022) is about the CIA/Pentagon influence of Hollywood scripts and storytelling. It is actually kind of a shit documentary on some ways (like Michael Moore vibes but toned down), but seeing all these FOIAed docs right next to clips that were directly inserted by the military will get you pretty :picard-direct-action:

    I Am Not Your Negro (2016) is a cool doc about James Baldwin, Samuel L. Jackson reads one of his unfinished books intercut with footage of Baldwin being cool af.

    Sir, No Sir advances the thesis that the reason for the eventual pullout from Vietnam was because of war resistors in the ranks of drafted troops. Turned out so many troops were letting off grenades in their CO’s quarters they had to invent a term for it lol. :boots-riley: and Tom Morello did a song for the soundtrack called Captain Sterling’s Little Problem about icing your CO

    ALL of the above films can be streamed for free on Kanopy if you have a library card.

    Let the Fire Burn (2013) is a great documentary about the Philly pigs bombing and burning down like an entire residential city block in their attack on the MOVE complex in 85. They have great footage from the committee that investigated it.

    If you don’t want something political, Crumb (1994) is probably the best non-political doc I’ve seen, about Robert Crumb.

    Also Frederick Wiseman has like 50 great documentaries about the US if you care about the US - there almost all can be streamed for free on Kanopy. I watched Law and Order (1968) recently shit was cool (CW on that clip - pigs assaulting a sex worker)

    Edit: I forgot Paris is Burning (1990) is a blassic

  • Soy Joker vs Gigachad Pyle
  • I know he's not supposed to be a depiction of a principled war resistor, but he is supposed to be a depiction of a GI that blew away his commanding officer. I'm just saying it's an ahistorical representation of the type of person who actually did that.

  • Soy Joker vs Gigachad Pyle
  • I never thought about it before but Full Metal Jacket is kind of retrograde the way it portrays the guy who blasted his CO as a sobbing incompetent moron. In reality there was a lot of resistance and direct murder of COs by GIs during the Vietnam War, but it wasn't done by antisocial mouth-breathing idiots but principled resistors.

    Sir, No Sir is a great documentary about GI anti-war resistance whose thesis is that it was actually the internal resistance to continuing the war at all levels from infantry to intelligence that forced US withdrawal.

  • InitialsDiceBearhttps://github.com/dicebear/dicebearhttps://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/„Initials” (https://github.com/dicebear/dicebear) by „DiceBear”, licensed under „CC0 1.0” (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)HO
    HoChiMaxh [he/him] @hexbear.net
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