Gramsci wrote: Sat Mar 01, 2025 4:02 pm He does fall into a bit of a common trap of having a very restricted understanding of socialism. That of socialism as “The State”, rather than socialism as workplace democracy and cooperative ownership. Markets and business exist outside of capitalist ownership structures. There’s nothing to say we can’t have cooperatively owned businesses competing against one another parallel to a social democratic public realm.. The problem with the current system is exploitation not competition or even markets.

Can you fault someone for hoping The State could actually be the antidote to wealth inequality? I don't know that answer to that, and can't really see issues like this clearly. I'm probably as woefully unaware of what Socialism actually looks like, because frankly I'm distrustful of inorganic systems. I also probably don't have a fully fleshed-out understanding of Socialism on an ideological level. I feel like The State as inoculant against oppression is Communism.

I do sympathize with the idea that Laws are for us, to be used against centralized power. Also IMO, property law perverts the laws of life and limb. It's an incongruent belief for someone who professes to be a Utopian Anarchist, but here I am in all my crapulence. I figure, we'll eventually get there if we try.

Dovira wrote: Sat Mar 01, 2025 2:53 am This is your Maidan moment, Americans.

Gunna take a few days off and educate myself. Gunna read Marx, and take in a bunch of Wollf and Zizek lectures.

I have other reading, but I'd love suggestions for you cats. Mostly interested in socialism and communism. Not so interested in Marx-As-Christ...


Stay safe. Be well.

JD Vance went on vacation in Vermont and people showed up to boo him, he left. Love this!

AttackChimp wrote: Sun Mar 02, 2025 10:10 am I have other reading, but I'd love suggestions for you cats. Mostly interested in socialism and communism.

A kind of founding moral text for me is Aimé Césaire's 1956 letter to the French Communist Party.

If you're doing Marx then the Lukacs essay on "Ortodoxy" and the Karl Korsch one on "Marxism and Philosophy" will place you at once on the correct path. Unironically Stalin's "Foundations of Leninism" is a good brief history on precisely what made the Bolsheviks, and Lenin's Marxism, distinct, and how that tied to the wider controversies in the European socialist movement. On the philosophical background see Beiser : The Fate of German Reason + After Hegel.

AttackChimp wrote: Sun Mar 02, 2025 10:10 am Gunna take a few days off and educate myself. Gunna read Marx, and take in a bunch of Wollf and Zizek lectures.

I have other reading, but I'd love suggestions for you cats. Mostly interested in socialism and communism. Not so interested in Marx-As-Christ...


Stay safe. Be well.

This is a decent in depth

AttackChimp wrote: Sun Mar 02, 2025 10:10 am Gunna take a few days off and educate myself. Gunna read Marx, and take in a bunch of Wollf and Zizek lectures.

I have other reading, but I'd love suggestions for you cats. Mostly interested in socialism and communism. Not so interested in Marx-As-Christ...


Stay safe. Be well.

I feel like you're being honest and sincere here. I am not sure. Been a weird few weeks of your posts on this ol' board, have to say. No shade, just being honest.

If so, The Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire set my head on fire when I read it nearly 30 years ago now. It set my watch in a way for how I approach that aspect of my life (which is, you know, LIFE).

Also a podcast recommendation: Philophize this. The host goes through a lot of things, but in a way even a knuckle dragger as me can start to understand some of the concepts. He also touches upon The Pedagogy of Opressed. Gotta read it!

Isaac wrote: Sun Mar 02, 2025 3:06 pm I feel like you're being honest and sincere here. I am not sure. Been a weird few weeks of your posts on this ol' board, have to say. No shade, just being honest.

I promise I'm not going to spin out of control. You aren't watching me become radicalized. I will not ask anything of anyone here, other than advise.

I do kind of recognize a collective skepticism on this board. I get it. I read the old forum - some of the names you referred to. I promise I'm not like that.

Gramsci wrote: Sun Mar 02, 2025 2:13 pm This is a decent in depth

I liked this. I was rewinding a lot because It got my brain to spin off in different directions.

Dovira wrote: Sun Mar 02, 2025 2:05 pm A kind of founding moral text for me is Aimé Césaire's 1956 letter to the French Communist Party.

This went way, way over my head. I printed it so I can take a couple more stabs at it. I fear I don't understand the context well enough...

Shananiganz wrote: Sun Mar 02, 2025 4:28 pm Also a podcast recommendation: Philophize this. The host goes through a lot of things, but in a way even a knuckle dragger as me can start to understand some of the concepts. He also touches upon The Pedagogy of Opressed. Gotta read it!

Watching this now.

Isaac wrote: Sun Mar 02, 2025 3:06 pm If so, The Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire set my head on fire when I read it nearly 30 years ago now. It set my watch in a way for how I approach that aspect of my life (which is, you know, LIFE).

I am definitely reading this, based on the pod I just listened to.

On a personal note, thanks. I'm gunna go fuck off now. Been asked to leave too many times - I can take a hint. Thanks for the reading and be well.