[-] alicirce@lemmygrad.ml 5 points 2 months ago

It's probably more worth my time to take a leaf out of Roderic's book and not post on here but the idea that he coordinates a network of alts being a more reasonable explanation to you than that he has friends is just too ridiculous. Here's some contrary evidence for you to grapple with:

You can listen to a podcast I've done here: https://directory.libsyn.com/episode/index/show/8d546709-2b54-498a-a29d-a0bde330a940/id/27767583

You can also watch Roderic on a panel about Losurdo and his book in Stalin here: https://twitter.com/RodericDay/status/1724514720374301034?s=19

Do you really think we are the same person?

[-] alicirce@lemmygrad.ml 21 points 3 months ago

My experience as a scientist is that to do good science, you need to be thinking dialectically. I think a lot about why more scientists are not Marxists; people who are good at thinking about the interconnectivity and changing nature of things in their science turn to eclecticism in their political beliefs/philosophy. Part of this is that I think we treat science and politics as such disparate things that must never interact.

A lot of the "business" of science is very undialectical, and that's where you see the failures of the field manifest. For example, assessment of a scientist's contributions based on first authorship, journal prestige, etc, encourages bad practices with respect to collaboration and sharing results.

You might enjoy this article by Bernal, a Marxist scientist: https://redsails.org/the-social-function-of-science/

Already we have in the practice of science the prototype for all human action. The task which the scientists have undertaken — the understanding and control of nature and of man himself — is merely the conscious expression of the task of human society. The methods by which this task is attempted, however imperfectly they are realized, are the methods by which humanity is most likely to secure its own future. In its endeavour, science is communism. In science men have learned consciously to subordinate themselves to a common purpose without losing the individuality of their achievements. Each one knows that his work depends on that of his predecessors and colleagues and that it can only reach its fruition through the work of his successors. In science men collaborate not because they are forced to by superior authority or because they blindly follow some chosen leader, but because they realize that only in this willing collaboration can each man find his goal. Not orders, but advice, determine action. Each man knows that only by advice, honestly and disinterestedly given, can his work succeed, because such advice expresses as near as may be the inexorable logic of the material world, stubborn fact. Facts cannot be forced to our desires, and freedom comes by admitting this necessity and not by pretending to ignore it. These things have been learned painfully and incompletely in the pursuit of science. Only in the wider tasks of humanity will their full use be found.

[-] alicirce@lemmygrad.ml 7 points 7 months ago

I agree with another poster that more recent writers can be easier entry points into theory because the authors translate it in ways that highlight ML theory's relevance to today and recent history. As the other poster mentioned, Parenti's Blackshirts and Reds is good on breaking through cold war nonsense about the USSR, there's a couple chapters online here. Losurdo's Liberalism: A Counter history dissects the dominant ideology of our time. There's a short summary of that book by the author here.

No one here has yet tackled the question on how important it is to read Capital: I think it's crucial. There are so many concepts it lays out and arguments it refutes that it makes reading other theory much easier. I think of Lenin's Imperialism as a sequel to Capital, so it makes sense to me you find it challenging to read. That said, Capital is also challenging to read and it might help to familiarize yourself with some of the concepts it covers before you tackle it. Here are some (mostly short) essays for that purpose.

I've posted a lot of links from RedSails because it was started for this purpose: to make theory accessible and demystified and relevant for today. If there's a topic or author you want to read more on, it has curated articles for those ends.

I'll end with my favourite Lenin, which I think highlights why we can't "go back" to some better time before capitalism but must go through capitalism to socialism.

[-] alicirce@lemmygrad.ml 5 points 8 months ago

Accusing someone of being "brainwashed" isn't, as far as I have seen, so rhetorically effective that I think we need a drop-in replacement like "hate-passed." If "you're super licensed" sounds silly it's because "you're super brainwashed" is also silly.

What about:

"Do you actually believe that nonsense or does it just give you license to discount the incredible social progress China has made?"

I think the post earlier in this thread used it well. They're not defining the term, they're explaining the phenomenon. Because it uses a familiar term, it is easy to understand and doesn't read jargony:

I think this is better understood as licensing American settlers to unleash their preexisting white supremacist worldview onto a politically acceptable target.

Rejecting the term "brainwashing" means not only improving our understanding of how propaganda works but also improving our rhetoric.

[-] alicirce@lemmygrad.ml 3 points 8 months ago

What do you think is lacking from the term used in the essay, "licensing"?

[-] alicirce@lemmygrad.ml 8 points 8 months ago

Can you please let me know how often I should post such that I am neither terminally online nor suspiciously off-line?

[-] alicirce@lemmygrad.ml 9 points 8 months ago

It's strange to me that being responsive to questions, regardless of the amount of social clout someone has, is somehow spun as a bad characteristic about Roderic here.

[-] alicirce@lemmygrad.ml 8 points 8 months ago

there's an email listed on the RedSails "contact" page: https://redsails.org/contact/

[-] alicirce@lemmygrad.ml 9 points 8 months ago

Just a quick correction, this isn't written by Day. As noted in the forward, it is by JW Mason:

J. W. Mason is Associate Professor of economics at John Jay College, CUNY and a fellow at the Roosevelt Institute.

alicirce

joined 1 year ago