this post was submitted on 21 Sep 2024
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i call myself a marxist and a communist because i agree with marx's analysis and critique of capitalism, and other marxist and adjacent theorists critiques of imperialism and advocacy for democratic centralism. i largely agree with historical materialism as a means of analysis, but i'm just not sold on strict ontological or epistemological materialism, in the sense of eliminativist physicalist realism. i have yet to be convinced out of epistemological nihilism and metaphysical/ontological agnosticism. obviously any specific beliefs like astrology or solipsistic idealism without any empirical evidence or epistemological basis are probably BS, but it would be foolish to assume we know basically everything about reality imo.
Not to mention that western materialism erases or dismisses indigenous peoples', and for that matter, any non-western forms of knowledge. This is colonialist in nature, and reinforces the patriarcal, objectivist, project that is the social institution "science".
What we call "facts" are politically loaded notions, and what we accept as fact and fiction reflects the power imbalances of an already unequal and oppressive society. So, thinking that our knowledge is complete only through western, objectivist ways of knowing, is to tacitly accept the power structures that led to it being dominant in the first place.
What are "non-western forms of knowledge"? What are some examples of facts posited by these forms?
I'm not sure myself. Maybe they're referring to stuff like indigenous technical knowledge of environmental management. When you look into that, all the generations of accumulated knowledge gained by observation and experimentation, it really upends the traditional Western descriptions of indigenous peoples as lacking any scientific tradition.
It blew my mind when I learned about it, especially the major environmental impacts not maintaining those systems had on the western hemisphere post-Columbus.