The Communist Manifesto? Is that a video game?

Leon Trotsky? What’s his Twitter handle?

Antonio Gramsci? Did he invent Instagram?

  • GrouchyGrouse [he/him]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    51
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    Instagramsci kelly

    Jokes aside, we might have better success with Parenti or asking them to watch Klein’s “Shock Doctrine” for a quick primer

    • commiecapybara [he/him, e/em/eir]@hexbear.net
      cake
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      35
      ·
      1 year ago

      Agreed, maybe add in David Graeber’s ‘Bullshit Jobs’ and ‘Debt: The First 5,000 Years’ as a starting point towards leftist ideas. It might be a good idea to create a ‘leftist 101’ reading list to ease them into it. Theory is great, but it tends to scare newcomers.

      • HumanBehaviorByBjork [any, undecided]@hexbear.net
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        20
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        Bullshit Jobs has a lot to say about the immediate experiences of most first world workers. Debt is very readable and important, but it’s also abstract and a fuckin doorstopper. Like based on the title alone I don’t know that most normies would have an interest in what presents itself as an economics textbook.

        • Lerios [hy/hym]@hexbear.net
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          20
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          bullshit jobs also comes as a much shorter article that introduces the book, which is incredibly useful. in fact reading that article when i was 15 is what really started my radicalisation and lead me to reading theory. the key to cracking libs is just letting them know that yes, that vague feeling they have is right, something is wrong, and people (graeber or perenti at first, then marx/lenin/etc) know why. bullshit jobs is fucking great for that.

    • cynesthesia [any]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      22
      ·
      1 year ago

      Blackshirts and reds is an awesome polemic. It’s exciting to read and very engaging. The assassination of Julius Caesar may also be worth suggesting as a starting point for some kinds of people because it is about a time and place far away, and so is less ideologically threatening than the story of the allies subordinating nazis into western anticommunist terrorism.