read all the books. read theory from other tendencies. odds are there’s deeper, more radical, and more practical places to go with theoretical study than the revelations you get from the first few. it’s all like that. read more and more (of course while you continue to do praxis)
while you read theory, please consider the historical era, culture of the people involved, and mistakes they made, and where systems failed and why, and where did the tendencies “revolutionaries” succeed and fail. have no heroes. remember that most of these people were still assholes irl. life before the Internet was full of dumb shit and bad ideas.
also, always keep in mind the reality that a lot of what you’re reading (considering most of it was written as propaganda let’s be real) has deep translation errors as it moves through time and space, but still is essentially correct
philosophy will help you get over a lot of liberalism if you still have it. what is violence? turns out a lot of things are violence. can we use violence? yes. getting to this unlocks different takes and your own willingness to read new theory.
history will take you to a lot of different places: what is the revolutionary history of Latin America? How did the Zapatistas do it, what were they like as people?
anyway
the point of reading theory isn’t to become narcissistic and quarrelsome with comrades for no good reason, the point of theory is to become a better informed theoretical leftist, and build up your confidence to the point where you’re willing to go and find irl comrades
also read cross-culturally: read Indian, Latin American, Middle Eastern, Asian and African and (and so on) and experiences of revolution and communism, as there definitely is a eurocentrism trap in the left that leads well-meaning posters to naive lib takes that will become painful memories as time goes on
edit: banned books are fucking cool. always rebel lol. also yes theory does in fact allow you to dunk on other comrades but you should be honest and upright when you do so because again there’s real people reading all of this
To add to that, reading theory gives you a responsibility in the sense that you now have the power and duty to explain and educate your comrades. To quote Sankara
“As revolutionaries, we don’t have the right to say we are tired of explaining. We must never stop explaining. We know that when the people understand, they cannot help but follow us."
And teaching is learning, and learning is teaching, in the sense that the pupil will force you to go past your blind spots, to consider new aspects of things, etc, so win win.
And furthermore, reading more theory gives you more leftist perspectives on various issues, which then allows you to shape your own beliefs instead of parroting whatever single book you happened to read and nothing else. It also allows you to be more flexible and practicable, instead of dogmatic and bullheaded, because you know there's more than one way to overthrow capitalism.
read all the books. read theory from other tendencies. odds are there’s deeper, more radical, and more practical places to go with theoretical study than the revelations you get from the first few. it’s all like that. read more and more (of course while you continue to do praxis)
while you read theory, please consider the historical era, culture of the people involved, and mistakes they made, and where systems failed and why, and where did the tendencies “revolutionaries” succeed and fail. have no heroes. remember that most of these people were still assholes irl. life before the Internet was full of dumb shit and bad ideas.
also, always keep in mind the reality that a lot of what you’re reading (considering most of it was written as propaganda let’s be real) has deep translation errors as it moves through time and space, but still is essentially correct
philosophy will help you get over a lot of liberalism if you still have it. what is violence? turns out a lot of things are violence. can we use violence? yes. getting to this unlocks different takes and your own willingness to read new theory.
history will take you to a lot of different places: what is the revolutionary history of Latin America? How did the Zapatistas do it, what were they like as people?
anyway
the point of reading theory isn’t to become narcissistic and quarrelsome with comrades for no good reason, the point of theory is to become a better informed theoretical leftist, and build up your confidence to the point where you’re willing to go and find irl comrades
also read cross-culturally: read Indian, Latin American, Middle Eastern, Asian and African and (and so on) and experiences of revolution and communism, as there definitely is a eurocentrism trap in the left that leads well-meaning posters to naive lib takes that will become painful memories as time goes on
edit: banned books are fucking cool. always rebel lol. also yes theory does in fact allow you to dunk on other comrades but you should be honest and upright when you do so because again there’s real people reading all of this
To add to that, reading theory gives you a responsibility in the sense that you now have the power and duty to explain and educate your comrades. To quote Sankara
And teaching is learning, and learning is teaching, in the sense that the pupil will force you to go past your blind spots, to consider new aspects of things, etc, so win win.
And furthermore, reading more theory gives you more leftist perspectives on various issues, which then allows you to shape your own beliefs instead of parroting whatever single book you happened to read and nothing else. It also allows you to be more flexible and practicable, instead of dogmatic and bullheaded, because you know there's more than one way to overthrow capitalism.