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.
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!”)
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.
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.
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!”)
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.