Whenever I first read about what dialectical materialism is I didn't get it because it's like "that's how thinking works, duh. How else would you do it"? I've always thought that way, to the point that I struggle to think any other way. Idealism always made me extremely frustrated and confused and feel like the people using it had suddenly lost their mind. Even as a kid who didn't know what any of these words meant that is how I felt.

I figured out enough as I grew up, but I'm still not completely comfortable around people who think the way most Americans(and Westerners in general) think.

It may not be the dialectical materialism exactly that people I can more closely relate to believe in, but just the fact that they can think coherently, and consistently think coherently. They won't just accept contradictions without figuring out where they meet. If you point out a contradiction they can talk about it, they don't assume you have some special motivation for asking questions and begin searching for said motivation, ignoring what you said in the process.

I have a feeling there is some theory or something somewhere that would give me the vocabulary to talk about this more clearly. I'm struggling to find terms for these concepts.

What's up with that?

  • D61 [any]
    ·
    3 years ago

    The downside of being the leftist Cassandra.

    Once you know enough that you can actually start talking people through the "path" from "Thing A" all the way through to "Thing Z" you now sound like a tinfoil hat wearing conspiracist.

    • happybadger [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      That too. I really hate how it's lumped with false demystification. Socialists are just hippies or libertarians or drunken uncles with some thoughts on what caused 9/11 despite it being a child's birthday party.

      • D61 [any]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Lazy liberal horseshoe theory strikes again!