• hedders@fedia.io
    1·
    7 hours ago

    Read “The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists” by Robert Tressell. Or, if reading a book is too difficult, there’s a graphic novel version I think.

    • TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      11 hours ago

      Until someone links them to a tiktok account that breaks down marxism into 15 sec soundbytes they can understand.

      God forbid OP try and make an effort to learn about something… that’s too much bro.

  • brendansimms@lemmy.world
    3·
    21 hours ago

    You could try out a DSA book club. They sometimes read through fiction books that are much more entertaining than straight up economic theory (…for some) then everyone discusses. It’s a very approachable way to start understanding marxist/leftist socioeconomic ideas. Link: Reading Groups

  • yesman@lemmy.world
    293·
    2 days ago

    There is no reason to study Marx other than you find it interesting or because it relates to something your interested in. There is very little utility in knowing the theory.

    Marx was a genius similar to Freud. They changed the way we think and gave us new tools to examine the world. Beyond that, their particular ideals are often as wrong as two left shoes.

    There is plenty of room on the left for people who reject, or are ignorant of Marx.

  • Grail@multiverse.soulism.netEnglish
    71·
    1 day ago

    Read Kayanerenko:wa The Great Law of Peace. It’s political theory from the Indigenous people that gave Engels the idea for communism.

    Get your communism straight from the source, don’t settle for the cheap European knockoff.

  • A_Union_of_Kobolds@lemmy.world
    141·
    2 days ago

    You can… read Marx? Or find a podcast about him?

    It’s economics, “boring” or “dry” kinda comes with the package

    If you want sexy you can try Che Guevara or Max Stirner (lol good luck)

    Do you mean Marxism-Leninism? Thats what most people mean when they say Marxism, but there are lots of us who appreciate Marx and disagree with the trajectory his namesake took.

      • Schmoo@slrpnk.net
        1·
        18 hours ago

        If you want to explore classical Marxist ideas in an entertaining way, check out Michael Burns on YouTube. He used to run the channel Wisecrack and makes videos about philosophy, and he is a classical Marxist who talks a lot about Marx and Engels. That being said, these days you’re not going to find much discussion of Marx that doesn’t cover Marxism-Leninism in some way.

    • Rioting Pacifist@lemmy.world
      7·
      2 days ago

      For clarity MLism was reverse engineered by Stalin to justify the violent oppression of the working class, it spread to other regimes that wanted to justify the same, but Lenin didn’t have a lot to do with it.

  • sad_detective_man@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    7·
    2 days ago

    there’s a chick whose videos get posted on videos@lemmy.ml hexbear, I don’t remember her name but it should be something super obvious. She seems to know not just the theory but also a lot about Russia in the period of time it was written in.

    Also there’s this guy on youtube called Andrewism. He interprets a lot of theory for adaptation in the future and for building community now where he lives. He’s pretty cool.

    edit: links

  • Tiresia@slrpnk.net
    51·
    2 days ago

    Things seeming boring and dry is your mind telling you that you’re trying to learn something that isn’t interesting to you. Fancy tricks to hide that core truth won’t undo it.

    Why do you think you want to learn Marxist theory? To have status among leftists? Go punch a Nazi. To understand modern or historical leftists? Their actions aren’t guided by Marxist theory. To have status among political theorists, economists, and liberals? Lol. Lmao even.

    To gleam a better way to have a succesful revolution that results in a better society? Okay, cool, do you have a community of people that won’t starve to death within days of trade being cut off? If no, congratulations, now you know all Marxist theory that you need to know until you do have such a community.

    • DylanMc6 [any, any]@lemmy.dbzer0.comOPEnglish
      1·
      19 hours ago

      While I do strongly oppose fascism in all forms, call me a liberal hippie (Hi, liberal hippie!), but I prefer not to fight, and violence is NOT a good tactic. However if I do know martial arts, and some fascist hooligan comes at me, I would probably kick their ass in self-defense.

      I’m looking to study socialist theory because I’m getting very sick and tired of capitalism going unchecked, as well as the conditions of the very archaic bourgeois-capitalist system that enable people to push others around because of who they are.

      Do you have a community of people that won’t starve to death within days of trade being cut off?

      I assume you’re talking about the famines that happened in the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin - there are factors into why that happened such as the bureaucratization of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and lack of the agricultural tools needed for farming. If the US were a socialist country and they’d bring them a bunch of tractors and such (like in the alternate history story “Reds! A Revolutionary Timeline”), the famines wouldn’t happen. NOT being rude, NOT being insensitive, just saying.

      Oh and I prefer regular Marxism and left-communism. Seriously!

      • Tiresia@slrpnk.net
        1·
        18 hours ago

        I assume you’re talking about

        No, I’m talking about you, dear liberal hippie, having a community that can survive a transition away from capitalism. Once you have that you can talk about the finer details like what to do once you’ve survived or what to do with the labor left over after you’ve done what is necessary to survive.

        Unlike the USSR, we now live in a world where food production is highly commercialized, globalized, and industrialized. What if John Deere used Starlink to brick every tractor in your revolutionary polity with a malicious software update? What if the same happened with every food processing factory and food warehouse?

    • wassup@kbin.melroy.org
      3·
      2 days ago

      There is value in learning things that at first glance seem boring or dry.

      Why do you think you want to learn Marxist theory? To have status among leftists? Go punch a Nazi. To understand modern or historical leftists? Their actions aren’t guided by Marxist theory. To have status among political theorists, economists, and liberals? Lol. Lmao even.

      It’s also possible that OP is studying this stuff simply because they are interested in political philosophy

      • Tiresia@slrpnk.net
        2·
        1 day ago

        If they are interested in it, then why is it boring to them? Genuine question.

        There is value in learning things that at first glance seem boring or dry.

        Is there? If the school system is any indication, people can spend literal years studying things they find boring without retaining them. Plus they can develop a hatred for the subject. Plus all sorts of bad intellectual habits like pretending they know the answer so they’re allowed to move on.

        I agree that things that feel boring to someone can turn out to be important to them, but that’s a contextualization issue, not a nose-to-the-grindstone one. As the game design adage goes; you have to show the lock before having them hunt for the key.

        • wassup@kbin.melroy.org
          1·
          11 hours ago

          If they are interested in it, then why is it boring to them? Genuine question.

          Being interested in something is not the same as being entertained by something. You can value the knowledge you gain from studying something even if, while you’re studying the material, you find it challenging.

          Is there? If the school system is any indication, people can spend literal years studying things they find boring without retaining them. Plus they can develop a hatred for the subject. Plus all sorts of bad intellectual habits like pretending they know the answer so they’re allowed to move on.

          Yeah you can have some bad outcomes studying stuff you’re not interested in, but it can also be very rewarding. I can’t really argue with you about this because I’m just pulling from my own personal experiences here. If you’ve never had the experience of studying something dry and finding it rewarding, then there’s not much I can say.

          • Tiresia@slrpnk.net
            1·
            4 hours ago

            Boredom isn’t a lack of entertainment, it’s a lack of interest. Learning something challenging feels frustrating, captivating, even maddening, but never boring.

            I can’t really argue with you about this because I’m just pulling from my own personal experiences here.

            In the business, that’s called “anecdotal evidence”. The reason you can’t argue with me is because anecdotal evidence is kind of irrelevant compared to the statistical observation that children spend decades reaching a median fifth grade reading level.

  • bunkyprewster@startrek.websiteEnglish
    2·
    1 day ago

    I thought the 1848 manuscripts were pretty rocking when I first read them.

    I always felt Marx’s finished products had a kind of dull exposition, at least for large parts. I think he felt he had to lay out a system like that. But the unfinished stuff, even the Grundrisse have a lively dialectical feel that is pretty captivating.