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?

  • corgiwithalaptop [any, love/loves]
    ·
    3 years ago

    I don't have the capacity at the moment to digest the full post and comments, but one thing I can say for myself is that as I've gotten older, I definitely purposefully try to keep me IRL interactions with only leftists. Just because simply put - 1) it gives us common things to talk about (anticapitalism, etc), and 2) I simply do not like arguing, even when I know I'm right.

    Also, my poor mental health probably plays a large factor in that, but all the people in my life that I honestly consider my real friends (there are few, admittedly) are leftists with the one exception of an apolitical guy (fuck, the amount of times I've heard him complain about his body hurting and not having health insurance, I could have ranted for days about how he should try to unionize and at least advocate for universal health care)

    • 4zi [he/him, comrade/them]
      ·
      3 years ago
      1. it gives us common things to talk about (anticapitalism, etc), and 2) I simply do not like arguing, even when I know I’m right.

      i just had to spend three weeks on the road with a hog who believed that vaccines were fake, mask mandates were a part of (((them))) wanting to control you, and that laura ingraham was the smartest person on cable tv. dude was technically my supervisor so i just nodded along at everything he said and shut up as i didnt want to stir shit/make my life worse while i had to be around him.

      but it was also completely boring; we had nothing to talk about. if i tried to talk about a common interest, like cars, it would set him off on a brandon rant about Priuses and libs. Small talk like complaining about gas prices would set him off into another brandon rant. if we talked about our working conditions the company puts us under, he would just talk about it as if its his own personal failure they expect too much of him, and any attempt to refocus it to the higher ups fucking us over was met with, "yeah well what can you do you know."

      definitely made me appreciate the couple friends i have and that they are also leftists