Welcome again to everybody. Make yourself at home. In the time-honoured tradition of our group, here is the weekly discussion thread.
☭ Matrix homeserver and space
☭ Theory reading group on hiatus, will move to Lemmygrad later this year
☭ Find theory on ProleWiki, marxists.org, Anna’s Archive, libgen
Recently I find myself thinking of Mao’s oft-quoted concept that one has no right to speak if they have not investigated the subject matter. I find so many liberals commenting on the affairs who, quite simply, lack even a cursory understanding of history. I’ve come to see most liberals as egoists at this point: everyone thinks they have something to say even when their education and knowledge on the matter is limited to an extreme degree. Having thoughts are one thing, but if you do not know what the Nullification Crisis is, or your historical understanding precludes any thought from before 1900 than I quite simply do not wish to hear what you have to say.
Yesss, so much this. That’s one of the things I’ve tried to address in my own thinking in becoming more communist and less liberal, is if I don’t know enough about something, I don’t need to have a “take” on it. Especially I try to apply this with countries I don’t live in. Most of the time, if I’m being honest with myself, I know little about the realities of them. And it’s one of the things that motivates me to learn Mandarin, so that I can learn about China from the perspective of China and Chinese people living there, not through a western imperialist “endless lies” filter.
Liberals have main character syndrome. and its fucking annoying.
Also, I got on Redbook recently to see what the hype is all about. It’s been a really good, mostly wholesome experience. As a Westerner it’s been cool to talk with people from China about daily life and run into the odd culture clash.