this post was submitted on 20 Jun 2023
109 points (97.4% liked)

Communism

9427 readers
1 users here now

Discussion Community for fellow Marxist-Leninists and other Marxists.

Rules for /c/communism

Rules that visitors must follow to participate. May be used as reasons to report or ban.

  1. No non-marxists

This subreddit is here to facilitate discussion between marxists.

There are other communities aimed at helping along new communists. This community isn't here to convert naysayers to marxism.

If you are a member of the police, armed forces, or any other part of the repressive state apparatus of capitalist nations, you will be banned.

  1. No oppressive language

Do not attempt to justify your use of oppressive language.

Doing this will almost assuredly result in a ban. Accept the criticism in a principled manner, edit your post or comment accordingly, and move on, learning from your mistake.

We believe that speech, like everything else, has a class character, and that some speech can be oppressive. This is why speech that is patriarchal, white supremacist, cissupremacist, homophobic, ableist, or otherwise oppressive is banned.

TERF is not a slur.

  1. No low quality or off-topic posts

Posts that are low-effort or otherwise irrelevant will be removed.

This is not a place to engage in meta-drama or discuss random reactionaries on lemmy or anywhere else.

This includes memes and circlejerking.

This includes most images, such as random books or memorabilia you found.

We ask that amerikan posters refrain from posting about US bourgeois politics. The rest of the world really doesn’t care that much.

  1. No basic questions about marxism

Posts asking entry-level questions will be removed.

Questions like “What is Maoism?” or “Why do Stalinists believe what they do?” will be removed, as they are not the focus on this forum.

  1. No sectarianism

Marxists of all tendencies are welcome here.

Refrain from sectarianism, defined here as unprincipled criticism. Posts trash-talking a certain tendency or marxist figure will be removed. Circlejerking, throwing insults around, and other pettiness is unacceptable.

If criticisms must be made, make them in a principled manner, applying Marxist analysis.

The goal of this subreddit is the accretion of theory and knowledge and the promotion of quality discussion and criticism.

Check out ProleWiki for a communist wikipedia.

Communism study guide

bottombanner

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Essentially do you see any big modern marxist public figures coming in as the "old guard" ages out? Who?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] qwename@lemmygrad.ml 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

To be fair, I have no clue to who these people are, I don't read the writings of any non-Chinese marxist besides Marx, Engels, Lenin (and maybe Stalin). I also don't like the idea of linking increased literacy to willingness to learn.

Crowd-sourcing information is not a new idea, that's how humanity has advanced, the internet does make it much easier, and with better translators it'll be even better in future. The main issue is moderation as you mentioned, which goes back to having an authoritative person or group that most people can trust to delegate the tedious work of moderating to.

[–] AlbigensianGhoul@lemmygrad.ml 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I also don’t like the idea of linking increased literacy to willingness to learn.

And never would I. But without literacy one is almost unable to educate themself independently. We're not that far removed from a time where huge most colonised countries had less than half of their population able to read their own language. Now being able to read is basically compulsory for most professions or just living in urban areas in general. I see no point in propping up "big Marxists" if their resources don't even have Spanish editions and people have to rely on those grifting translation editors with huge prefaces and postfaces that read like "but remember kids, communism is just a theory!".

Again my issue is not with the concept of authority, but with conflating modern "English-language popularity" with it. Specially considering how inaccessible the "popular ones" actually are to the average world proletarian when compared to how developed the native-language capitalist propaganda machines have become. It just seems off to me to take the argument that "we should be careful about trusting individual self-proclaimed Marxists and instead should work more to propagate and organise the material that already exists" and make it about "anti-authority that leads to anarchism".

Crowd-sourcing is not a new idea, but crowd-sourced encyclopaedias that fit on your pocket are. And there are many already-written books and articles (some written by Parenti and others) to get in there in an organised fashion, with other new resources such as hyperlinks, rather than hoping that yet another Ivy League economist (or worse, a Breadtuber) figures out new ways to say to Unitedstadians that Capitalism is a terrible system. That is work basically anyone here can do given enough free time. Capitalists have this obsession with making "the next big thing" when what we need is already there, and I don't think we should fall for that trap too.

No ill will here, just thought my argument was being misunderstood there.

[–] qwename@lemmygrad.ml 1 points 1 year ago

we should be careful about trusting individual self-proclaimed Marxists

I agree with this, which is why I don't read or quote from them, but their work might be relevant to others which is why they seem popular.

and instead should work more to propagate and organise the material that already exists

marxists.org is a great resource but doesn't actually have Xi Jinping's work on it, or any of the past 3 Chinese leaders for that matter, even though they are available in Chinese and English from official sources. ProleWiki is what this site promotes, though more work is definitely needed.