Firstly, thank you for accepting me into the community. Within the last few weeks I came to the realisation that there is no such thing as a healthy, stable, capitalist society. I want to learn more about communism because it could be a real alternative to the frankly poor conditions of working class life in the UK (and any other capitalist country).
There is one thing that stands out to me here that I’d like to understand because it’s a little jarring. In a few places (e.g. https://lemmygrad.ml/post/9012898/6943775) on the topic of Russia, specifically the war, people seem to believe the invasion was justified and that the Ukraine government is Nazi? Why? From my point of view, which I do admit is going to have inherent Western/NATO bias because I live in the UK, is that this is an example of Russian imperialism. If the US invaded Canada, or the UK invaded France, it would rightly be considered a travesty. Why is Russia not given the same treatment? After all, it is not communist any more and it is working class people being sent to die in this war.
Shouldn’t the modern Russian government receive the same scrutiny as any other capitalist government?
We need to centralize this sort of information and compile a list of sources for easy future reference for newbies, similarly to how we did for other subjects like the “Uyghur genocide” hoax.
I’ve been considering doing something like this for a while. I just pinned a thread on GenZhou to collect sources in the comments. We could also host it on ProleWiki once it’s sufficiently exhaustive.
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That would be amazing. Perhaps a FAQ on prolewiki* or elsewhere?
I’m really digging your inexhaustible, plain-language and patience more and more, lately. I think at first a shorter attention span from the other instances and “junk food” Western media, easy to consume in massive amounts, spoon-fed, skillfully-hidden ready-made, opinions, washed down with unthoughtful bandwagon comments. I definitely can’t consume as much here, and have to keep coming back to reread for missed/skimmed information, and deeper reflection. A blessing, but it keeps me from being aware of other developments, so I’m not sure if I’m just greedy and addicted* alone, or if it’s simply too much for me to keep up.
One thing that is more and more glaring elsewhere (aka the West, and specifically for me, the USA): we are so mired in resenting the past rather than learning from it, forward motion is not even a goal, let alone a results-driven action plan.
Edited for autocorrect, punctuation
Yes. At the very least something like a basic chronology of the conflict and its history.
Thanks. But i wouldn’t call it inexhaustible, haha…i definitely get lazy sometimes and just post links. I do think it it’s important to be patient especially with new comrades who just don’t have the same level of knowledge yet on certain subjects. As Sankara said: “we must never stop explaining”. We all started at zero at some point, and so we should be patient with others who are relative newcomers to socialism and anti-imperialism. Education is really the most empowering thing.
And yes, i also think it’s very important to use plain language that anyone can understand. I know from my time teaching science that if someone who is making an honest effort to understand what you are trying to explain is still not getting it, then it’s probably your fault as a teacher. We need to do our best to break down complicated concepts in easy language and simple logic rather than retreat into technical jargon that only a few “experts” can understand.
This is all the more important when you are doing revolutionary educational work to dispel bourgeois miseducation/misinformation and give people a clear and correct historical materialist perspective on the world.
The downside of what we do, as you pointed out, is that it takes more effort to really rigorously educate yourself and undo all the bourgeois indoctrination, it’s not necessarily the kind of “cheap fast food” of content that you get elsewhere, even on other leftist forums. I’m still working on getting more concise and efficient in my writing, because that is important if we want to reach a broader mass of people who don’t have the time or the attention span to read entire essays.
Resenting or glorifying. Neither is helpful. Without understanding the past we cannot hope to have proper context for what is happening today. And that leads to dangerous misconceptions, it leaves you open to being lied to by malicious propagandists who will pretend that history just started in Feb 2022 or on October 7. The point of learning from the past is making better decisions in the future. The knowledge itself is only a means to an end. As Marx said: “The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point is to change it.”
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