I’m not really trying to escalate or de-escalate. My goal is to either get you to walk away with a more nuanced understanding, one that adheres closer to reality, or to give onlookers good information. That’s why I usually include a good amount of links and resources, even if I don’t expect everyone I talk to to go in and read them. I’ve been directly thanked by other users for doing what I do and giving them new perspective or changing their minds, including users I have never spoken with previously, so I know my strategy has teeth to it. I may stumble in some conversations or do well in others, but as a net result, I can take pride in knowing thay my strategy is sound.
Either way, I would certainly hope you look at Marxist sources critically. All sources are biased, so it’s better to be honest about it. One of Mao’s more important texts that absolutely holds up today is Oppose Book Worship. A dogmatic comrade is more of an enemy than an ally, dogmatism leads to errors in judgement, and these errors in judgement lead to taking those who aren’t actually enemies and are in fact potential allies as enemies.
Read them critically, but check the cited sources, look for holes and gaps, don’t just blindly reject or accept them. Critical reading is important for everyone, not just leftists. Any reading where you aren’t engaging with the text and just uncritically absorbing it is book worship, and should be opposed strongly.
Fair enough. As of the time I write this comment, I have actually expanded the comment and fleshed it out more with good articles to explain some nuances I left hanging that can be confusing without a background in Marxism, so I recommend re-checking it.
I’m not really trying to escalate or de-escalate. My goal is to either get you to walk away with a more nuanced understanding, one that adheres closer to reality, or to give onlookers good information. That’s why I usually include a good amount of links and resources, even if I don’t expect everyone I talk to to go in and read them. I’ve been directly thanked by other users for doing what I do and giving them new perspective or changing their minds, including users I have never spoken with previously, so I know my strategy has teeth to it. I may stumble in some conversations or do well in others, but as a net result, I can take pride in knowing thay my strategy is sound.
Either way, I would certainly hope you look at Marxist sources critically. All sources are biased, so it’s better to be honest about it. One of Mao’s more important texts that absolutely holds up today is Oppose Book Worship. A dogmatic comrade is more of an enemy than an ally, dogmatism leads to errors in judgement, and these errors in judgement lead to taking those who aren’t actually enemies and are in fact potential allies as enemies.
For an example of this disastrous method in practice, see the Communist Party of Peru - Shining Path, who took the peasantry as reactionary and murdered 69 people in the Lucanamarca massacre due to the CPP-SP’s adoption of the Gonzaloist tendency “Marxism-Leninism-Maoism.” This is not to be confused with Marxism-Leninism/Mao Zedong Thought, which is the ideology of the CPC (or, currently, Marxism-Leninism/Xi Jinping Thought, which synthesizes Mao Zedong Thought with Deng Xiaoping Theory for Socialism With Chinese Characteristics), “Maoism” is an Ultraleft tendency. “Ultraleftism” is taken very seriously as a threat to the communist movement.
Either way, I recommend reading ProleWiki, Qiao Collective, Red Sails, Liberation News, Fight Back! News, Comrade’s Library, and, of course, the theoretical texts written by Marx, Engels, Lenin, etc. (here collected on ProleWiki). There are of course many more sources you can check, but these are all explicitly Marxist-Leninist sources, from theory to essays to news articles to encyclopedia entries from a leftist perspective.
Read them critically, but check the cited sources, look for holes and gaps, don’t just blindly reject or accept them. Critical reading is important for everyone, not just leftists. Any reading where you aren’t engaging with the text and just uncritically absorbing it is book worship, and should be opposed strongly.
we’re hitting a good point here, just recognize that and don’t ruin it.
good stuff here. thanks. i’ll add them to my inquiry list.
let’s stop here before it gets ruined. XD
until the next time!
Fair enough. As of the time I write this comment, I have actually expanded the comment and fleshed it out more with good articles to explain some nuances I left hanging that can be confusing without a background in Marxism, so I recommend re-checking it.