I slowly started to make the switch after finding Madeline Pendleton on tiktok lmao n listened to their podcast (Pick Me Up I'm Scared) - basically the thing that got me was learning about the CIA, the idea of the compatible left, etc etc and like realising oh no i've been doin CIA work for free I better read a bunch oh no the tankies were right
I was only anarchist for literally 2 weeks. It sounded good until I actually started to read their books they recommend like Conquest of Bread and realized it just was not for me. I had become very disenchanted with moralism for various reasons in my youth and every anarchist text out there is just moralism.
Just generally being anti-AES. What caused me to really take Marxism-Leninism seriously was actually working in an industrial environment, and reading works like Socialism: Utopian and Scientific that ended up making far more sense. It was a combination of proletarianization developing proletarian consciousness, with exposure to dialectical materialism and scientific socialism.
I suggest reading Masses, Elites, and Rebels: The Theory of "Brainwashing" as well as Debate Culture is Bourgeois and Should be Abolished. People do not learn through debate unless they are already willing to change, so if you are not succeeding in convincing someone then you should do your best to convince onlookers. You do this by coming across as rational and level-headed, with good sources. Don't jump to insults, and take no easy and cheap rhetorical wins. Focus on the arguments at hand and get your point across in an easily digestible and concise manner.
I agree on debate culture. It's a vassal for reactionaries to infiltrate ideological discussions.
Agreed, and it isn't particularly useful for education as I elaborated on earlier.
One of those texts cites Revolutionary Education: Theory and Practice for Socialist Organizers. Have you read that book too? What are your thought on it?
Not yet! Part of my planned studies for the year include Marxist texts on education.
I have! It's not extensive, but it's a good overview of foundational educational concepts all Marxist-Leninists should know that you can build from. It's pretty short and accessible. It definitely shouldn't be the only thing you read on the topic, but I do recommend it.
I also find it really useful for guiding me in teaching these concepts to other organizers.
Thank you. I'll definitely be reading it this year.
I was never a proper anarchists per-say, as I was still kind of unsure when it came to my beliefs at the time, but watching people flail around on Leftbook against people who've read a little theory was what really made me stop and go "these people aren't serious".
My cringe take was that every ethnicity should get their own state cause then you get states fracturing and fracturing until you eventually reach city-states level and start fracturing more and after that point they slowly cease to be.
As for disillusionment - I grew up in modern Ukraine. As that quote goes - "Capitalism managed to do one thing communism never did - make communism look good" or something like that. Anarchism and social democracy was not providing the answers I was looking for. So it's not fancy words or faith but the reality that I faced and am still facing.
I was watching Philosophy Tube and thoht, "Man, this guy has such good takes!". I also simply EQUATED the United States and the Soviet Union in terms of being worthy of support, even if it wasn't being pro-America. I also watched tons of video essays, and thoht that Adorno and Horkheimer were absolute geniuses and wanted to get my hands on Dialectic of Enlightenment. Also, lots of shitty video essays, lots of Vaush, lots of "left" streamers who were pampered douchebags.
I am not exactly sure what cured my Anarchism. I think it was actually Anarchist refutations of Capitalism that eventually lead me to MLism, such as the idea that people are not naturally self-serving, which I got from Kropotkin. I do know that with the United States getting more and more fascist, I realized that just going against all authority is a stupid idea, and that for a proper revolution, you need to have some hierarchy. In fact, I'd gladly have a socialist state not only to organize production in the hands of the workers, and not only to ensure that everyone has their needs met, but also to block US influence abroad, which will of course weaken it. Also, the state is not just an evil thing that will always be evil, but rather a monopoly on the use of force, and in the hands of the working class, that is actually very helpful.
Crunchiest take was "the only consistent anarchism is egoist". The thing that brought me away from anarchism was "the only consistent anarchism is egoist". If you want to be academically consistent then anarchism is fine; if you want to affect the real world it's self-defeating. I grew up and stopped prioritizing feeling smart.
Crunchy was a typo of cringey. But I stand by it.
Crunchiest take was "the only consistent anarchism is egoist".
If you want to be academically consistent then anarchism is fine; if you want to affect the real world it's self-defeating.
You got it down to a T why I don't particularly believe in anarchism.
Not to be too topical but it was Parenti who dispelled my liberalism. Stop recommending On Authority to anarchists.
Tbf on authority worked for me*
(*wasn't an anarchist, but had a lot of "lib-soc" leanings when I first became an ml)
After reading Engels, I was like, "Wait a minute, he does have a point. How the fuck are we supposed to overthrow a class that owns everything, from wealth & capital to the armed security apparatus, without using violence and imposing the workers' authority over them?"
Anything in particular from Parenti?
Definitely the "Yellow Parenti" Speech and Blackshirts and Reds | Audiobook
Yellow Parenti ofc
I wouldn't say cringy per se, but the most difficult takes for me to overcome were something that had resulted due to identity based politics.
Until I sat down and studied why are trans people being targeted, who are the organizations actually funding the hate campaigns, who was it that paid for the TV programs and the churches that broadcasted propaganda against those like me. I looked into who funds far-right governments across the globe. And sure enough it all leads back to the West. I looked into who funds far-right extremist groups that target those like me.
I figured that I'm just being used as an idea that's going to be thrown away the moment I outlive my usefulness and that there will never be real liberty without the end of Capitalism. And most importantly that sometimes to end Capitalism one must do counter-intuitive things that they don't want to do, or, as it's sometimes referred to as: critical-support.
A rather recent slam dunk on top of all this has been the book: Who Paid the Pipers of Western Marxism? By Gabriel Rockhill
But the most cringe takes I've had were when I was much younger, about DPRK, everyone here already knows all of them I'm sure so there's no reason to repeat them, but it is embarrassing.
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