I'm seeing some dumb-ass takes about how "online isn't real" and how it's "a drop in the bucket." But seriously, how did you all become aware of leftist ideas? How does anyone in nations such as the US become politically literate? How many of you were former atheist edgelords or shitposters on reddit?
Seriously, online does matter. It wasn't Fox News that created the alt-right Charlottesville rally. It was the fucking Sargon/skeptic/manosphere pipeline, which was primarily a youtube phenomenon. Or how about the comrades that listened to Chapo, and were inspired to travel to Iowa to help Bernie win the Iowa caucus? For Christ's sake just look at how much of an influence Facebook has had on the CHUDs. To ignore that we live in a neoliberal hellscape where the vast majority of us only find some kind of solace or connection in the online world is to ironically ignore material conditions. Something can be "not real" but still have a HUGE affect on the "real world" (e.g. money, gender). Have the recent voices of trans comrades and POC comrades about their issues here not taught anyone anything? Doesn't take a genius to see this.
For those that scream "rEaD tHeOry" take a step back and think, what the hell were many those "classic Marxist texts?" A lot of them were political pamplets or, as others have pointed out before, literally debate-bro replies to others. How is that any different than online shit now? Honestly, if Marx et. al were alive today, wouldn't they use podcasts, tweets, and youtube vids to spread their messages?
TL;DR: online does matter. Seriously, how did any of you become politically aware, be honest.
ppl read more now than they used to if you count reading stuff online instead of only counting novels. Yeah, ppl aren't as good at reading novels or writing letters than they used to back in the day but let's unthaw some asshole from the 1600's & throw him into reddit and see how he fucking fares
I'll give you that, yes we do read in general more, but it usually isn't long or full of intricacies as theory is. Theory is more akin to legal-ese imo these days.
Nobody read theory back then either lol I assure you the past had no more grand philosophers than the present does. Idk if u imagine like the era that marx & engels lived in was full of marxes & engelses but if u do u need to square your worldview off with 1 question: why did nobody listen to them?
What do you mean nobody listened to them millions of people did lol how do you think these movements got off the ground in the first place?
the french & german & british revolutions happened before marx
You brought up 3 liberal democratic revolutions, I'm not sure what these have to do with this.
Not disagreeing there, more like those that could were more apt to read at the degree this calls for, not that they actually went through with it. They even made bad interpretations back then.
He just keeps linking to Rembrandt's "The Pig That Pooped on its Balls"