To be fair, I wasn’t expecting you to read either, just to throw them onto your TBR if they sound interesting, as you expressed interest in the general idea. I’m not assigning you homework.
As for putting in the effort to understand Marxism, and Marxism-Leninism, no, I don’t expect everyone to put the same amount of effort in. That’s one of the benefits of having a Vanguard, or party organization, as long as the people are represented you don’t have to expect everyone to be some grandmaster Marxist.
Anyway, it isn’t specifically a racial analysis (though it touches on it frequently), I love Blowback. It’s about various wars and conquests the US has been involved in throughout the latter 20th and 21st century, understanding the modern US Empire.
And as for Marx, he was a big fan of Lincoln freeing the slaves, and frequently wrote class analysis. His notes are often disorganized and in letter forms, though, so a lot is collected posthumously by Engels or others.
Sorry I feel like that came off a little more dismissive than I intended. I’ll check out the podcast, it sounds cool. I fucking hate war and I love unraveling the bullshit the powerful use to trick us into thinking it’s in our best interest.
I love unraveling the bullshit the powerful use to trick us into thinking it’s in our best interest.
You would likely very much appreciate Marx then, as it is his work that plainly showed the most fundamental way in which the capitalists (the ruling class then and now) exploit the masses and how that exploitation is the basis for the existence of the capitalist class. It’s very much the foundation for why it is even a necessity for, as you said, the powerful to trick us about what our interests actually are. But you don’t have to read his work directly to get a basic and general understanding of what he said. The same way you don’t have to read Darwin in order to develop a basic and general grasp of evolution. However, in both cases you do have to engage with some of the actual material on the topic so as not to come away with a false understanding of it, e.g. a creationist’s cartoonish understanding of natural selection (“my grandpa wasn’t a gotdamned monkey!”) or a right-winger’s ridiculous notions of communism (“the tankies want to steal my toothbrush!”)
And as for Blowback, sounds like you’ll love it, and probably hate it as well for how fucking sad it can be. It’s really painful sometimes, I legitimately tear up at it.
I recommend listening to it in release order, and not skipping any of the bonus episodes, as they often contain interviews with experts and people who actually lived through these events.
I use antennapod, which is on F-Droid. You can also… “find” the mp3s online and listen through any mp3 playing app. First two seasons are on Spotify and other common apps IIRC as well.
Sadly, I’m shackled to my iPhone still… don’t want to buy another phone yet. So I don’t think I can use F-droid. I don’t like to install unnecessary apps if I can avoid it, so I don’t have any podcasting app right now. I will look for the mp3s, that’s more what I was wondering, it’s how I usually listen to most podcasts, or on youtube since you can use that in browser. But I didn’t see any links on their website.
Yea, you’ll have to “find” them, ie pirate (which they seem to have indirectly stated is okay, they are Communists after all), or go through Spotify or other sites. Here’s Season 1 on YouTube but make sure you don’t miss the bonus episodes! Those are some of the most interesting, usually interviews and other great subjects tangential to the main subject, that playlist doesn’t have em.
To be fair, I wasn’t expecting you to read either, just to throw them onto your TBR if they sound interesting, as you expressed interest in the general idea. I’m not assigning you homework.
As for putting in the effort to understand Marxism, and Marxism-Leninism, no, I don’t expect everyone to put the same amount of effort in. That’s one of the benefits of having a Vanguard, or party organization, as long as the people are represented you don’t have to expect everyone to be some grandmaster Marxist.
Anyway, it isn’t specifically a racial analysis (though it touches on it frequently), I love Blowback. It’s about various wars and conquests the US has been involved in throughout the latter 20th and 21st century, understanding the modern US Empire.
And as for Marx, he was a big fan of Lincoln freeing the slaves, and frequently wrote class analysis. His notes are often disorganized and in letter forms, though, so a lot is collected posthumously by Engels or others.
Sorry I feel like that came off a little more dismissive than I intended. I’ll check out the podcast, it sounds cool. I fucking hate war and I love unraveling the bullshit the powerful use to trick us into thinking it’s in our best interest.
You would likely very much appreciate Marx then, as it is his work that plainly showed the most fundamental way in which the capitalists (the ruling class then and now) exploit the masses and how that exploitation is the basis for the existence of the capitalist class. It’s very much the foundation for why it is even a necessity for, as you said, the powerful to trick us about what our interests actually are. But you don’t have to read his work directly to get a basic and general understanding of what he said. The same way you don’t have to read Darwin in order to develop a basic and general grasp of evolution. However, in both cases you do have to engage with some of the actual material on the topic so as not to come away with a false understanding of it, e.g. a creationist’s cartoonish understanding of natural selection (“my grandpa wasn’t a gotdamned monkey!”) or a right-winger’s ridiculous notions of communism (“the tankies want to steal my toothbrush!”)
No worries!
And as for Blowback, sounds like you’ll love it, and probably hate it as well for how fucking sad it can be. It’s really painful sometimes, I legitimately tear up at it.
I recommend listening to it in release order, and not skipping any of the bonus episodes, as they often contain interviews with experts and people who actually lived through these events.
Do you know of a way to listen to this without downloading some terrible app? All the links were making me do that…
I use antennapod, which is on F-Droid. You can also… “find” the mp3s online and listen through any mp3 playing app. First two seasons are on Spotify and other common apps IIRC as well.
Sadly, I’m shackled to my iPhone still… don’t want to buy another phone yet. So I don’t think I can use F-droid. I don’t like to install unnecessary apps if I can avoid it, so I don’t have any podcasting app right now. I will look for the mp3s, that’s more what I was wondering, it’s how I usually listen to most podcasts, or on youtube since you can use that in browser. But I didn’t see any links on their website.
Yea, you’ll have to “find” them, ie pirate (which they seem to have indirectly stated is okay, they are Communists after all), or go through Spotify or other sites. Here’s Season 1 on YouTube but make sure you don’t miss the bonus episodes! Those are some of the most interesting, usually interviews and other great subjects tangential to the main subject, that playlist doesn’t have em.
Edit: oh shit, found em all lol out of order tho