I was a far-right lunatic until about 2009, when I started turning left. I have read many (center-)leftist articles from Jacobin, Common Dreams, The Guardian, and, from Brazil, Carta Capital and IHU (Catholic liberation theology).
Lemmy (despite my suboptimal instance) and communist friends got me interested in actual Marxism, but I have not yet really studied it. So please recommend:
- The best Marxist Lemmy instance for my background.
- Marxist books or videos in approximate reading/watching order. For the next many months (I suspect six months) I will have very little time, though.
Bonus:
- reasonable tolerance of Catholic faith and individual morality
- contextualized on Brazil, Cuba, broader Latin America or China
Background: Brazilian Catholic male autistic ADHD IT analyst with an electronic engineering degree and MsC in computer science. I have a son with my wife. I highly value privacy and software freedom. I read English well, but Spanish quite poorly. Native Portuguese speaker.
EDIT: I got a lemmygrad account. I am still processing the other recommendations.
The system temporarily improved because there was a risk of revolution internally and a successful revolution externally. Without both, concessions don’t come. Moreover, justifying Imperialism, ie vicious exploitation of the Global South, is monstrous.
Again, the election is going to come before the revolution.
Again, I keep talking about what is practical and do-able and you keep going on with theory.
Again, I point out that you can work for the election and still desire a complete overthrow of the system.
I was educated by old school Communists who fought in Spain and fought the Red Scare at home. One of the stories they always told was that in 1968 they told people to vote for Humphrey over Nixon.
An election without internal revolutionary pressure or a recent example of a successful revolution won’t change anything, though. Theory must guide practice. By focusing on elections that cannot and will not change anything, and denouncing theory, you encourage people to stick their heads in the sand and watch as others change the world without them.
Read some of the stories of the people who lived through the New Deal era and tell them that ‘nothing changed.’
Like I already said, the New Deal was only possible because there was revolutionary pressure within, and a recent successful revolution outside to learn from. Where are these in the next US election? If you can’t point to them, then you don’t have a point at all.
So we agree. The New Deal changed people’s lives without needing an actual revolution.
Thanks for helping me prove my point.
I have been having this same argument with people since I was in high school. I’ve seen plenty of elections come and go, and not one revoultion in over 20 years.
I’ll stick with the thing I can see, and leave it to you to dream your dreams.
Good-bye.
It needed revolutionary pressure from within, and an external revolution to serve as example. Without each, there have been no real mass concessions. You have seen no revolutions, but also no concessions, and when faced with the reasoning you say it’s better to not understand. That does make sense if you’ve been making this same false argument for 2 decades though, if you never attempt to understand anything why would you ever learn?
If you’re going to try and put words in my mouth, please serve them with guacamole and chips.
Good-bye
You specifically railed against theory, explaning and understanding, what else could you have meant?