• hogposting [he/him,comrade/them]
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    4 years ago

    there’s newish short books written by people like Michael Parenti that summarize the concepts in the old books

    He's not saying don't read those books; hell, he refers to a modern leftist author right there in the screencap. He's saying that we should be summarizing leftist ideas for modern audiences and for our modern situation, not just demanding people read something from the Civil War era.

      • hogposting [he/him,comrade/them]
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        4 years ago

        He’s not saying don’t read those books... He’s saying that we should be summarizing leftist ideas for modern audiences and for our modern situation, not just demanding people read something from the Civil War era.

          • hogposting [he/him,comrade/them]
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            4 years ago

            if you haven’t read the book

            Again: he's not saying "don't read Marx." He's saying don't dogmatically demand that other people read Marx as a prerequisite to agreeing with socialism.

                  • hogposting [he/him,comrade/them]
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                    4 years ago

                    I don’t think he operating on good faith on Marx

                    What makes you say that? He runs a magazine that publishes socialist literature and wrote a book called "Why You Should Be a Socialist." And he's not criticizing Marx's ideas here; he's saying not to treat Marx's writings as holy writ. I like Star Wars, but it weirds me the fuck out when people treat it as something near-spiritual.

                    Leftists can disagree about stuff without operating in bad faith.