• Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
          12·
          3 days ago

          He kinda does, he just doesn’t make it a focus. If you want a Marxist analysis of the US’s racist history that continues to today, you might want to read Settlers, or if Colonialism in general is more your interest, Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth.

          • LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net
            1·
            3 days ago

            I mean I know he touches on related themes but I’ve not seen much that is explicitly about this stuff—though to be fair he was living on another continent in a different time, so it’s natural that his interests would differ from mine.

            Marxists always want me to read some 800 page book. That might be fine within your own circles but do you really expect people to put in that much work to understand an ideology they don’t already endorse?

            If you’ve got a shorter essay or podcast or something I’ll check it out.

            • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
              51·
              3 days ago

              To be fair, I wasn’t expecting you to read either, just to throw them onto your TBR if they sound interesting, as you expressed interest in the general idea. I’m not assigning you homework.

              As for putting in the effort to understand Marxism, and Marxism-Leninism, no, I don’t expect everyone to put the same amount of effort in. That’s one of the benefits of having a Vanguard, or party organization, as long as the people are represented you don’t have to expect everyone to be some grandmaster Marxist.

              Anyway, it isn’t specifically a racial analysis (though it touches on it frequently), I love Blowback. It’s about various wars and conquests the US has been involved in throughout the latter 20th and 21st century, understanding the modern US Empire.

              And as for Marx, he was a big fan of Lincoln freeing the slaves, and frequently wrote class analysis. His notes are often disorganized and in letter forms, though, so a lot is collected posthumously by Engels or others.

              • LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net
                2·
                3 days ago

                Sorry I feel like that came off a little more dismissive than I intended. I’ll check out the podcast, it sounds cool. I fucking hate war and I love unraveling the bullshit the powerful use to trick us into thinking it’s in our best interest.

                • LemmeAtEm@lemmy.ml
                  3·
                  3 days ago

                  I love unraveling the bullshit the powerful use to trick us into thinking it’s in our best interest.

                  You would likely very much appreciate Marx then, as it is his work that plainly showed the most fundamental way in which the capitalists (the ruling class then and now) exploit the masses and how that exploitation is the basis for the existence of the capitalist class. It’s very much the foundation for why it is even a necessity for, as you said, the powerful to trick us about what our interests actually are. But you don’t have to read his work directly to get a basic and general understanding of what he said. The same way you don’t have to read Darwin in order to develop a basic and general grasp of evolution. However, in both cases you do have to engage with some of the actual material on the topic so as not to come away with a false understanding of it, e.g. a creationist’s cartoonish understanding of natural selection (“my grandpa wasn’t a gotdamned monkey!”) or a right-winger’s ridiculous notions of communism (“the tankies want to steal my toothbrush!”)

                • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
                  2·
                  3 days ago

                  No worries!

                  And as for Blowback, sounds like you’ll love it, and probably hate it as well for how fucking sad it can be. It’s really painful sometimes, I legitimately tear up at it.

                  I recommend listening to it in release order, and not skipping any of the bonus episodes, as they often contain interviews with experts and people who actually lived through these events.

      • LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net
        10·
        3 days ago

        Well that settles it as far as the artist but I’m not sure why OP posted it. From their other submissions, they seem to be a socialist.

        It’s too bad because I have plenty of criticisms of Marxism and socialism according to many lemmings but there’s just nothing here to engage with. It’s completely without understanding or thought.

    • mmddmm@lemm.ee
      1·
      3 days ago

      I came here looking for context, because well, I imagine one can’t make a joke about those extremist groups (like MAGA) beliefs that is so ridiculous that they wouldn’t realistically adopt it as a belief.