I thought about this yesterday when I was trying to explain the difference between socialism and communism. Even such a simple question requires so much foundational information. I couldn't just say they were different stages of society, because communism is really more a vector of transformation for societies, and to even understand how these societies transform you have to understand dialectical and historical materialism. So I'm revising my post to explain what a dialectic is and I realize I'm already in my third paragraph. Not only is no layman going to read this because its just boring philosophy mumbo jumbo, but I've wasted the last 20 minutes writing out this thing that I eventually just end up deleting anyway.

What we need is a streamlined way of propagating theory for a new online age. The Communist Manifesto was supposed to be the quick and dirty version of theory to propagate, but people don't even read 10 pages anymore. What we need are children's book versions of these ideas, summarized in an easily spreadable copypasta format. Not only do they have to be simple and succinct, but entertaining as well. Getting someone hooked has never been harder, because with so much information at our fingertips, its never been easier to ignore it.

I also think they should be modular, rather than longer masterposts. Someone who asks a simple question shouldn't have to read an entire essay, but if the question requires it we should be able to plug-and-play with additional information. This is the hard part, having separate copypastas for each topic that can work with each other while still being understandable independently. It's hard, but I think its necessary in order to bring editing down to a minimum and increase spreadability as much as possible.

Edit: oh cool I got featured lol

  • 420blazeit69 [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    The Amartya Sen ones are especially good because he's not as easy to dismiss as someone like Parenti or Graeber. I was texting a friend about a Graeber book and he googled him, saw "anarchist," and right away he started discounting the guy. You'll get the same reaction when people see Parenti's a communist, too.

    • GnastyGnuts [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      Yeah, for people who aren't familiar with the guy, from wiki:

      "Amartya Kumar Sen CH FBA (Bengali: [ˈɔmortːo ˈʃen]; born 3 November 1933) is an Indian economist and philosopher, who since 1972 has taught and worked in the United Kingdom and the United States. Sen has made contributions to welfare economics, social choice theory, economic and social justice, economic theories of famines, decision theory, development economics, public health, and measures of well-being of countries.

      He is currently a Thomas W. Lamont University Professor, and Professor of Economics and Philosophy at Harvard University.[5] He formerly served as Master of Trinity College at the University of Cambridge.[6] He was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences[7] in 1998 and India's Bharat Ratna in 1999 for his work in welfare economics. The German Publishers and Booksellers Association awarded him the 2020 Peace Prize of the German Book Trade for his pioneering scholarship addressing issues of global justice and combating social inequality in education and healthcare. "

      So basically, my mans has the kind of credentials and lack of forthright political bias that lib sorts will have a really hard time dismissing.