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

  • QueerCommie@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
    3·
    2 years ago

    There are other decent figures who are younger. Vijay Prishad is only 55. We’ve got everyone in the revleft podcast family. In addition, more zoomer centered figures like the deprogram people and hasan.

    • TarkovSurvivor@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
      1·
      2 years ago

      Came here to say Vijay as well even tho he’s not that young he should have a good 20+ years in him still, hopefully.

  • qwename@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
    2·
    2 years ago

    Two people in this thread say that with the internet, we can move away from “big public figures”/“big thinkers”. While I appreciate this optimism, it just sounds very anti-authoritarian, and I quote from Engels On Authority:

    Why do the anti-authoritarians not confine themselves to crying out against political authority, the state? All Socialists are agreed that the political state, and with it political authority, will disappear as a result of the coming social revolution, that is, that public functions will lose their political character and will be transformed into the simple administrative functions of watching over the true interests of society. But the anti-authoritarians demand that the political state be abolished at one stroke, even before the social conditions that gave birth to it have been destroyed. They demand that the first act of the social revolution shall be the abolition of authority.

    There are anti-government and anti-“big corp/business” tendencies in the US/West, which I will call “anti-authority” for now. The essense of “anti-authority” in capitalist countries is anti-capitalism, or anti-“dictatorship of the bourgeoisie”, but there is a gap in this logic that stops people from turning into marxists right away, as they might instead become anarchists. This gap in logic will not be closed just by having everyone have access to free information through the internet, as there is too much information to digest, and imperialists will also interfere with the propagation of marxist ideology.

    “Anti-authoritarian” sentiments do have positive outcomes, like decentralized technologies (think internet, bittorrent, p2p, fediverse etc.), the open source software movement, but these only serve as tools, they are the means and not the end.

    • redtea@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
      1·
      2 years ago

      In addition to this, one of the selling points of Parenti, Woolf, Hudson, Furr(?) is that they’re accredited professionals. This isn’t to take an elitist stance on my part. But it counts to the audience that must be reached.

      There is an alternative, which is to develop working class education. For us and by us. Reading groups are good, but I’d argue that a fuller program and curriculum is needed. Some examples exist. But we need to get to the stage where they’re in all our communities, wide-ranging, and not just online. Many people don’t have basic literacy or numeracy skills, nevermind a theoretical understanding of political economy.

      This goes back to my first point. It’s not just that being well regarded academics means that people will listen. It’s that well regarded academics are good at explaining things and teaching. I think that’s why e.g. Parenti and Woolf are so effective.

      I don’t think simply making knowledge accessible in a bourgeois world will make people radical. The bourgeoisie control the means of distribution as well as production. Most people never encounter (1) counter narratives, or (2) encouragement to learn to think critically beyond a shallow liberal sense of the phrase.

      Without these, most people aren’t even aware (i) that a Marxist critique exists or (ii) what a Marxist critique can offer. This is what intellectual titans like parenti and Woolf provide. There are others, though, and more coming through every day.

  • Gresham Law/TheyThem@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
    1·
    2 years ago

    More of just barks & make beliefs, the US system is doomed to no avail but here we are watching it all crumble.
    It will only get worse with the economic warfare, Repression/Regression/Chaos/Divide/Disorder.

    The 4th Reich is a fitting name, they keep destroying progressive movements from the inside anyway.
    To What End really, honestly don’t want to know the answer to this question but you gotta ask yourself was it worth it?

    Check out Ben Norton & Radhika Desai’s work and a recently discovered one for more context:

    Decolonised history by Historicly & Deep-State by Aaron Good:

    Edit:
    Added links & more content

  • Soviet Snake@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
    1·
    2 years ago

    Zizek! I’m kidding, but maybe the answer is not in the West, but elsewhere, and maybe the media just doesn’t pay attention to them because it is in their best interest.

    • alekhine_alexander@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
      0·
      2 years ago

      Hi comrade, is something wrong with bad empanada? I watched a few of his and thought it was pretty neat. I am asking because you mention him together with vaush.

      • AmarkuntheGatherer@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
        1·
        2 years ago

        He doesn’t acknowledge PRC’s achievements, doesn’t support AES except Cuba (I think) and doesn’t align himself with other anti-imperialists. He attacks journalists critical of the west, I faintly recall a bona fide NED spook quote tweeting BE to attack the Greyzone.

        Insofar as he limits himself to attacking rightists, especially the ones claiming to be socialists, he’s fine.

        • QueerCommie@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
          1·
          2 years ago

          He calls himself socialist, supports LatAm social democracy, and defended Stalin from holodomor lies, but he constantly has bad China takes, and his streaming channel is toxic.