I was a far-right lunatic until about 2009, when I started turning left. I have read many (center-)leftist articles from Jacobin, Common Dreams, The Guardian, and, from Brazil, Carta Capital and IHU (Catholic liberation theology).
Lemmy (despite my suboptimal instance) and communist friends got me interested in actual Marxism, but I have not yet really studied it. So please recommend:
- The best Marxist Lemmy instance for my background.
- Marxist books or videos in approximate reading/watching order. For the next many months (I suspect six months) I will have very little time, though.
Bonus:
- reasonable tolerance of Catholic faith and individual morality
- contextualized on Brazil, Cuba, broader Latin America or China
Background: Brazilian Catholic male autistic ADHD IT analyst with an electronic engineering degree and MsC in computer science. I have a son with my wife. I highly value privacy and software freedom. I read English well, but Spanish quite poorly. Native Portuguese speaker.
EDIT: I got a lemmygrad account. I am still processing the other recommendations.
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There are many Brazilian comrades on lemmygrad.ml that could help with materials in Portuguese, and I’m sure the PCB (partido comunista brasileiro) also has a good introductory reading list.
For a shorter english introduction, I maintain this crash course socialism that goes over the basics.
Hi friend!
For what Marxist instance would be best given your background, well there are only two total, to my knowledge, so you could just try out both and see what you like best! They are Hexbear and Lemmygrad. Lemmygrad is smaller but is more focused on Marxism-Leninism in particular. Hexbear has a ML-ancom and everything in between left unity stance and places great emphasis on making the space safe for people of marginalized groups. Lemmy.ml has many Marxists but is not explicitly commie.
For reading recommendations, this can be a difficult question to answer because there are many important texts in the Marxist tradition and some of them, particularly the foundational ones, are dense and challenging to read. I do strongly recommend reading the core works of Marx and Engels, since they define Marxism and later works are based on them. The order in which to read books really depends on how you prefet to read and learn.
I prefer to read from “the beginning” and already knew the relevant philosophical background so I just read Das Kapital right after The Communist Manifesto. But reading Das Kapital takes a long time. Reading groups dedicate months just to Volume 1. If you prefer a faster introduction and summaries, then I recommend Heinrich’s companion text. Heinrich inserts some of his own opinions, but you can balance these out by reading Marxists critical of Heinrich, like Michael Roberts. If you want an even faster and simpler introduction, you can work backwards by reading short overviews from newer texts and blogs and so on and then make sure to try and tackle Capital later. But remember that the farther from the original works you get, the more likely that you will learn something incorrect about them without being in a position to notice it.
Another strategy is to start with Lenin, particularly his own notes on Hegel and Marx, and proceed to Stalin’s overview of Marxism-Leninism, which includes an overview of Marxism. These are much easier to read than the source texts. All of the works so far will have Portuguese translations.
Regarding tolerance of Catholic faith, both instances will likely not care so long as this does not mean contradicting community standards, e.g. a vocal tradcath would contradict the feminist stances of both instances. Both instances have Christian comms, similar to subreddits. Lemmygrad’s all seem to be inactive, though. Hexbear is, generally speaking, against insufferable New Atheist contrarianism (and so many of its original proponents became reactionary).
Regarding having Latin American context, both instances of course have a good amount of comrades from Latin America. I know that Hexbear has an active Latin America comm.
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I haven’t seen any Marxists shit on it myself. In fact it’s available on ProleWiki.
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I find 99% of why the left fails is self policing on bullshit that doesn’t matter
Mostly we fail because we live in the imperial core, and we have been suppressed, purged, and even assassinated by it for over a century.
China is just ethnofascist at this point (cue the CCP downvoters and haters)
Ask and you shall receive. You’ve been taken in by your own country’s Cold War II propaganda. Previously, previously, previously.
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where the one big family bed has an assigned state bureaucrat who sleeps with your family
Do you have actual evidence, or are you accepting the testimonials of CIA-backed radical fundamentalist Islamist Uyghurs? Previously.
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So your claim is no Chinese bureaucrats ever slept in Uighur beds, embedded with them?
No, my claim is: what are you even talking about, and where is your evidence? Is “Chinese bureaucrats sleeping in beds” a metaphor for something, or are you talking about literal beds? What a bizarre thing to say.
Edit to add: This is what you take at face value? https://www.vice.com/en/article/male-chinese-officials-monitoring-uighur-women-sleeping-same-bed/
A cadre from the ruling Communist Party in Kashgar, Xinjiang, who wished to stay anonymous, told RFA that between 70 and 80 families in his township were put through the program.
You know what Radio Free Asia is, right?
Please consider developing some real media literacy. Previously.
Yes, as a lower class Uighur, my lived experience is CCP good
Do you often pretend to be someone you’re not online? Is that why do you delete all of your posts & comments that are more than a week old? Curiouser and curiouser…
Ethnofascist? JFC.
Don’t listen to this person. You can trust me, I’m actually a commune of 13 Uyghurs that writes like a Redditor and parrots US propaganda right down to its terminology. Ask me about lived experience.
You might try also asking !brasil@lemmygrad.ml.
Cowbee (auth, btw, jsyk) has an intro reading list: https://lemmy.ml/post/22417306
Marxist-Lemmyisim.
I translated the communist manifesto into a rap for people who want a quick intro https://youtu.be/0Rw0QvEjwuQ
The Jakarta Method by Vincent Bevins mentions Brazil quite a bit.
Marxist-Leninist’s (ML) like to cite “On Authority”. Here’s an anarchist view: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/punkerslut-on-authority-a-response-to-friedrich-engels
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I’d suggest you to look for a guidebook on any of Marx’s works, or Engels. He’s right about many things, but he is a boring writer. Reading his stuff is tedious, especially without a guide. I see others recommend starting to learn about Marx from people after him, but I completely disagree that that’s a good place to start. Dictators, oppressors, and war crime deniers have nothing of value to say.
Counter argument.
All political theory is a waste of time.
The only thing that matters is votes and winning elections.
Study the real candidates and their current policies. Work for the ones who will actually help the people.
Trying to split the hair of ‘Marxist/Socialist/Social Democrat’ doesn’t get anyone elected.
mho
