Cowbee

Cowbee , vor einem Tag

Try to budget as best you can, and contribute what you can afford, if anything, to broad, market-cap weighted index funds that focus on the entire global economy, not just the US.

Cowbee , vor 2 Tagen

Getting an EReader has increased the rate at which I read drastically. Reading becomes less of a task and more of a convenient way to spend time.

Reading Marx and Engels is also a great primer for anyone getting into Leftist theory.

Cowbee , vor 2 Tagen

In spirit of the post, Wage Labor and Capital, Value, Price and Profit, and Critique of the Gotha Programme are the easiest to digest works by Marx, and the most applicable to general leftism. All are short reads too, each can be completed in around an hour.

Engels has some great works too, and his works are generally grouped in with Marx's because they worked together closely, but I kept it to strictly Marx.

Cowbee , vor 2 Tagen (Bearbeitet vor 2 Tagen)

WLaC is also good, because it describes the role of Capital itself within Capitalism as it relates to Workers, and thus allows Capitalists to exploit them.

CotGP is added because it clears up a ton of misconceptions people who have not read Marx yet consider themselves leftists have about Marx and what he advocated for, practically. He essentially dismantles a weak Socialist/Social Democrat plan and explains the transition to Communism. He even adds on just how lengthy a process reaching higher-stage Communism will be.

Edit for your edit:

Yep, it's always cool to see logical analysis lead to correct conclusions that later make themselves apparent. It's funny how often Marx ended up being correct even on limited information simply due to strong analysis.

Cowbee , vor 2 Tagen

1984 is still a work of fiction, and one that is not really making suggestions on how to combat dystopia. It's a warning, sure, but reading leftist theory that actually makes analysis and provides suggestions on what to practically do is more useful.

Cowbee , vor 2 Tagen

Not yet, getting an EReader has really accelerated my reading, but I really want to hammer in the basics before moving on to the likes of Parenti and Losurdo. Plus, I have queer theory like Trans Liberation: Beyond Pink and Blue as well as Fanon's works on colonialism I want to visit before then.

Cowbee , vor 2 Tagen

The Oceania itself could not be reformed from the inside, it had to be dismantled, and ultimately isn't by the end of the book, yes. Orwell never tries to show how to fix the problem, nor does he explain the mechanisms or forces that led to Oceania. Thus, 1984 is a depiction of what could be, in order to say "avoid this," without recommending a course of action.

Leftist theory on the other hand does focus on mechanisms, existing material conditions, frames of analysis, and propositions to enact change and what change to enact.

1984 is a fine book to read for enjoyment, but not for changing society.

Cowbee , vor 2 Tagen

Yep, it does a great job of just being doomer and fun to engage with on the basis of story, but not applicable to reality.

Cowbee , vor 2 Tagen

Yes, we already live in a dystopia, reading 1984 does not tell people how to escape that in any capacity nor does it suggest how to prevent it.

Cowbee , vor 2 Tagen

Yep, same! Not quite at that pace but it totally reversed my years-long spell of not being able to finish a single book in a year

Cowbee , vor 3 Tagen

Capitalism cannot be democratic. It's better than feudalism, but ultimately serves Capitalists.

Cowbee , vor 3 Tagen

Why do you say Communism isn't the answer? It does empower people and the xommon worker and protects individuals from corporations.

Cowbee , vor 3 Tagen

Does it? Is Oligarchy just when you have a government but no or little Capitalism?

Cowbee , vor 3 Tagen

Revolution and the historical application of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat have resulted in more democratic institutions being put in place than what previously existed.

Social Democracies are not Socialist, nor are they trying to be Socialist. They still depend on Capitalism, and exploitation of the Global South. They are also seeing rising disparity and weakening worker protections over time, because reforming a Capitalist state into something better over a gradual process is extremely difficult.

History's most notable democratically elected Socialist was couped in 2 years, Salvador Allende, with the help of the US.

Cowbee , vor 3 Tagen

That hasn't happend, historically. Unless you mean the Khmer Rouge, but that was more fascist than anything else, and the leadership explicitly rejected Marx.

Cowbee , vor 3 Tagen

Khmer Rouge was backed by the US and was lead by fascists who rejected Marx, like the Nazis.

The USSR and China both drastically improved metrics like life expectancy, literacy rates, reduced poverty, eliminated famine, and generally uplifted the poor when compared with Fuedal Russia and Nationalist China. They had numerous issues and tragedies, yes, but overall did very well for its people.

Please find a genuine source saying that North Koreans don't think their leader poops. Or, just watch a video of some Aussies going to North Korea to get a haircut. North Korea is certainly no paradise, but it's also one of the most propagandized against in the western world.

Cowbee , vor 3 Tagen

The government is run by the people, it's a complete restructuring away from Capitalist ownership into public ownership. The people are not distinct from the government.

Shifting from an economy run by competing warlords to one owned and run by the people is indeed a vast improvement.

Cowbee , vor 3 Tagen

I don't believe I made the point that contemporaries criticized their fascism outright, I made the point that they were fascist and rejected Marx. Calling them Communist isn't accurate in any way, plus they were stopped by the Vietnamese Communists.

The history of geopolitics in Asia is very complicated and cannot be summed up in a short Lemmy comment, my point was to distance Pol Pot from Communism, because he wasn't a Communist and denounced Communism, nor did he implement Socialism.

China, the USSR, and North Korea were/are Socialist, and should be judged as such, for better and for worse. Pol Pot and the gang were not, so judging them as though they were is just silly.

Cowbee , vor 3 Tagen (Bearbeitet vor 3 Tagen)

None of what you just said is historically accurate. The USSR, for example, had Soviet Democracy in place. Yes, the government did have the power, because that power was taken from Capitalists and given to the public, which was managed by a Worker State. The idea that the USSR was a "dictatorship" is wrong, even the CIA said that the idea that the USSR was run by 1 dude and his whims was false (pdf download link, fair warning).

An excerpt from said doc if you don't want to download it:

"Even in Stalin's time there was collective leadership. The Western idea of a dictator within the Communist setup is exaggerated. Misunderstandings on that subject are caused by lack of comprehension of the real nature and organization of the Communist power structure. Stalin, although holding wide powers, was merely the captain of a team and it seems obvious that Khrushchev will be the new captain. However, it does not appear that any of the present leaders will rise to the statue of Lenin and Stalin, so that it will be safer to assume that developments in Moscow will be along the lines of what is called collective leadership"

The idea that the USSR, PRC, Cuba, etc. are/were just "Dictatorships with fancy names" makes no attempt to do actual, material analysis of the structures in place in these countries.

Cowbee , vor 3 Tagen

I think this is completely inaccurate depending on what time you are talking about. I would say Pol Pot was probably one of the most ardent communist of the 50's, it was just a weird type of agrarian communism. And in the regions he controlled he did attempt to construct a classless agrarian socialist society.

He had denounced Marx and created a form of Feudalism. We do not consider the Nazis to be Socialist either. His "agrarian Communism" was an expliciy rejection of Marxism from the get-go, as his concept of deindustrialization goes directly against Marxism.

If you have nothing in common with Communism except the name, you have to justify why you believe yourself to be Communist. Rather than doing that, Pol Pot stopped pretending and denounced Communism altogether.

Cowbee , vor 3 Tagen

When did he denounce Marx, do you have a quote?

Not off the top of my head, no, but my point is that the principles themselves were not Marxist nor Communist, thus he denounced them later rather than attempt to continue to claim Marxist influence.

Also, the same accusations of feudalism can be charged at North Korea.

In what manner? Vibes?

Or as the maoist say, Marxism with Chinese characteristics. The same charges could have been levied at aspects of the cultural revolution. Different forms of revolution are required for different forms of societal structures and limitations. The vanguard approach is not exactly going to fly in a mostly agrarian culture.

More vibes, lol. Mao was not a deinustrialist, nor was he a nationalist. Yes, different forms of revolution are required, but intentionally setting the clock on progress backwards, rather than forwards, is inherently a reactionary position, which became self admitted!

Lol, that's not up to you to interpret. You are conflating nearly 50 years of history to a single decade. I could make very similar arguments about the Soviet Union based on just the 80's as well.

I am not. I am aware that Pol Pot distanced himself from Marxism publicly afterwards, but he was never operating under Marxist principles. At most, he took inspiration from the Chinese revolution with regards to the agrarian focus, but instead focused on deindustrialization and nationalism.

I think it's pretty obvious that we're just trying to distance communism from a regime no one can morally defend. Nearly all the arguments you made have been levied at China, Korea, Russia, or Cuba at some point, but we tend to defend them because the ends mostly justify the means.

More vibes.

Cowbee , vor 3 Tagen

Hear me out: add some Materialism

Cowbee , vor 12 Tagen

America is a one party dictatorship, and in typical American extravagence, it has two of them.

Cowbee , vor 12 Tagen

Here's how Bernie can still win

Cowbee , vor 12 Tagen

He slipp

Cowbee , vor 14 Tagen

Arce telling the coup leaders to fuck off to their face on live TV was wild, lmao

Cowbee , vor 14 Tagen

Read Marx, it's comforting.

Cowbee , vor 14 Tagen

Yes, Marx makes it clear what's wrong with Capitalism, why it cannot last forever, provides a philosophical framework for viewing any problem, conflict, or struggle, and shows how to move beyond our present dystopian state.

Cowbee , vor 14 Tagen (Bearbeitet vor 13 Tagen)

Jumping straight into Capital is like going spelunking with no tools or training, it's Marx's masterwork but it's dense and complicated for those not versed in Marxism already, and it isn't targetting the average person, but economists and scholars. That's not to say you should never read it, just hold off, for now.

A few great primers for Marxism in general are Why Socialism? by Albert Einstein, The Principles of Communism by Friederich Engels, and How Marxism Works by Chris Harman, in the order I recommend reading them.

Marx did write for the common worker in several texts. Wage Labor and Capital and Value, Price and Profit are short and concise works on Marx's critique of Capitalism. After that, I'd wrap around to Engels again for Socialism: Utopian and Scientific to understand the history of Socialist efforts and how Marxism solves the problems they have faced, and touches on Dialectical Materialism, the philosophical framework of Marxism. Add on Critique of the Gotha Programme to see Marx critique a weak Socialist program and advocate for a better method, then swing over to Manifesto of the Communist Party to tie everything by Marx and Engels together and spur revolutionary fervor.

Finally, I would make sure to read Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism by Lenin. This does not really get into Marxism-Leninism, this is Lenin as a Marxist examining how Capitalism has changed over time to exploit the global south via exporting machinery and predatory global bank loans, absolutely critical for understanding modern Capitalism. If you want to get into Marxism-Leninism, add on The State and Revolution by Lenin as well, but you do not need to at this point.

We are in the Age of Imperialism, specifically its decay. Over time, the global south is becoming increasingly revolutionary and are throwing off the IMF and the US. Eventually this will destabilize the US, the world's current largest Imperialist power, and give rise to the possibility of a Socialist movement within the US as commodities become more expensive and Material Conditions weaken. This will be due to a decreasing subsidization of cost of living in the US off the labor of workers in the Global South.

Let me know if you have any questions!

Cowbee , vor 14 Tagen

Read Marx, comrades.

Cowbee , vor 21 Tagen

EReaders made a big difference for me. I now plow through books when I used to not be able to read a single novel in a year.

Cowbee , vor 20 Tagen

Steam Deck has made a huge difference on my backlog-clearing abilities.

Cowbee , vor 20 Tagen

I try to alternate between fiction and theory, helps me digest the theory better while maintaining interest and momentum in reading!

Cowbee , vor 20 Tagen (Bearbeitet vor 20 Tagen)

I've been working through classics and they are usually a bit dated. Dune is goodish, but also I prefer the new movies for their much better treatment of women, the Fremen, and removal of the wierder parts. Neuromancer feels like Gibson wrote it with one hand and has never spoken to a woman in his life.

I remember loving Roadside Picnic a while back. If you want to be incredibly sad, Han Kang's Human Acts is brutal but beautifully written.

Cowbee , vor 22 Tagen

There are people that legitimately try to argue that Star Trek isn't a representation of an upper-stage Communist society.

Cowbee , vor 22 Tagen

I'm betting on Luigi

Cowbee , vor 22 Tagen

Systems can be bad, and the people who support and work within bad systems are bad, even if they act nice outside of that system.

Cowbee , vor 21 Tagen

Becoming a cop is a life change, voting is standard, as is consuming bananas and using smartphones.

Deliberately choosing to become a cop is bad, because there are a wealth of alternatives. Not true for voting, bananas, smartphones, or cars.

A small subset of humans become cops, it isn't a thing someone just chances into

Cowbee , vor 24 Tagen

Nobody is suggesting that, people are arguing in favor of dismantling a fascist ethno-state.

Cowbee , vor 24 Tagen

A single state solution over Palestine and former Israel, with equal citizenship.

Cowbee , vor 24 Tagen

How?

Cowbee , vor 24 Tagen

Ethnostates are bad, and right now we have a fascist ethno state destroying people.

Cowbee , vor 24 Tagen

Israel is an ethno-state centered around Jewish identity. That is the literal entire point.

Israel is not the only fascist state that should he totally destroyed, of course others should be. The US is probably the biggest cause of conflict and exploitation worldwide.

Cowbee , vor 24 Tagen

Oh duh, just gotta ask the Anarchist necromancers

Cowbee , vor 24 Tagen

Anarchists tend to fall for idealism, and see only Anarchism as "good" and therefore acceptable. That's really the key point, they feel like they must unify means and ends, and that the microscopic chance that one day Anarchism may be established is worth fighting for.

It's idealism to the core and puts the individual over the well-being of the group.

Cowbee , vor 24 Tagen

Dead and buried.

Cowbee , vor 24 Tagen

I spent a couple years reading anarchist literature, and turned to reading marxist lit when the anarchists started giving unsatisfactory explanations.

Are you me?!

Cowbee , vor 24 Tagen

I agree, post-radicalization Anarchism is a comforting and easy position to adopt, because western Anarchists tend to rail against Marxism, which fits with liberal anticommunism.