#41
Not Your S.H.I.E.L.D.
Post rating: ~

underp posted:

What is wrong with Marxism today?

- all its predictions were wrong
- it was written by a jew
- ended up being a way for under-30 democrats to sound edgy while not really being radical



#42
Not Your S.H.I.E.L.D.
Post rating: ~
i was checking facebook on a friends un-AdBlocked computer the other day and i got suggested to join platypus1917 but assumed it was just another mustang19 alt
#43
Post rating: ~
Too smart? Yes and it sucks. I am smarter than everyone I know. I hate it. I had to “come out” as smart recently because for years I dumbed myself down just to be able to communicate with people. I constantly quote books and blogs and podcasts to keep from sounding crazy. Between Freakonomics and the works of Malcolm Gladwell, my relationships have suffered from being smart because thanks to you I see the hidden side of everything. Most people don’t want to see or know the hidden side. The more I quote, the crazier I sound. Is this the downfall that Levitt touched on?

I moved to Chicago from Nashville to study improv and it broke my brain. I came to improv late in life and all those years of study and life experience are available for quick access at all times in my brain. Not only that, when I see things now, I see the hidden side automatically and it has made functioning in the world (of non-academia mind you) very difficult. I worked for big tobacco in promotions for years and we couldn’t promote smoking or cigarettes so I learned the value of the hidden side from the front lines.

Like when McDonald’s launched Fish McBites, I didn’t see the product. To me it said: “An excuse to come back to our restaurant and try a product we know you’ll hate but at least you’ll be in the store to smell a Big Mac because we know that’s what you want, anyway.”

And even if that is not true, it sucks because everyone I know is off to see the new Star Trek movie and I just think of things like that as business these days. So. … how do you learn to ignore the hidden side of everything and just get back to enjoying a nice Sprite without thinking of corn subsidies? How can I make new friends? Can you guys start a personals section?

http://www.freakonomics.com/2013/06/11/freakonomics-ruined-my-life/
#44
tardy on these heaters
Post rating: ~
Saaaaaaaammmmmmmuuuuuuuuhhhhhnbb oh frrggryghjfdscjhx
#45
Post rating: +
Mccaine, here is a critique of your article. This is out of love.

Your writing would be improved through editing, especially removing words. Many write the details of their thoughts even though they are not useful for communication. You could do this editing yourself.

Also, the American expression is, "if the shoe fits, wear it."

Here is my attempt at editing the first three paragraphs of your essay:

---

Marxism has many problems today.

- Historiography. Marxism has a tradition of analyzing history, and not only economic history. However, many Marxists are sectarian. Although these Marxists are often well-informed, they are not living up to proper Marxist ideals.

Many Marxists argue for their sectarian ideas. These works do not follow established standards of analyzing history. Such works are merely polemics.
#46
tardy on these heaters
Post rating: ~
Thanks Joel
#47
Not Your S.H.I.E.L.D.
Post rating: +
Heres my attempt at editing the first 3 paragraphs:

---

Did.


Not.


Read.
#48
[account deactivated]
#49
Post rating: +
Yeah the Dutch thing was kind of funny. As the Spaniards say, the world is a scarf. Such also is Marxism.
#50
[account deactivated]
#51
Kurdt
Post rating: +
The world is, alas, a vampire, as they say in Chicago.
#52
Post rating: +
yes what the naxalites need is more honest academics and the support of historians to publish dense studies of land reform in 19th century India.

this isn't whats wrong with marxism, this is mccain writing about why he wants to be a marxist academic and why he considers actual politics unimportant compared to historical research. thats fine for him, but if you don't know mccain personally why would you care what he thinks about his own project as a marxist PHD candidate?


#53
Post rating: -

Superabound posted:

Heres my attempt at editing the first 3 paragraphs:

---

Did.


Not.


Read.



shut the fuck up superabound

#54
[account deactivated]
#55
sup b*tch
Post rating: +
a theoryboi who brings the pain, mayne
#56
Mike Nelson here.
Post rating: +

roseweird posted:

who the fuck is mccaine

mccaine is a pseudomaoist brezhnevite homosexual who moderated the something awful forums debate sections for a long period. he is a phd student and committed to a scientific understanding of marxism as a unified social theory.

#57
Post rating: ~

roseweird posted:

who the fuck is mccaine


google mccaine_ballgag.jpg and you'll find out

#58
Post rating: +
I'm a self identifying crypto Maoist autonomist draperite with gout, pleurisy and a bad case of measles. And I don't vote.
#59
Post rating: ~

DeleuzerAndRetardi posted:

roseweird posted:

who the fuck is mccaine

google mccaine_ballgag.jpg and you'll find out



dont be a cocktease
https://encyclopediadramatica.se/File:SA_McCaine.jpg

#60
[account deactivated]
#61
tardy on these heaters
Post rating: ~

babyhueypnewton posted:

yes what the naxalites need is more honest academics and the support of historians to publish dense studies of land reform in 19th century India.

this isn't whats wrong with marxism, this is mccain writing about why he wants to be a marxist academic and why he considers actual politics unimportant compared to historical research. thats fine for him, but if you don't know mccain personally why would you care what he thinks about his own project as a marxist PHD candidate?


lol! Youre such a silly goose

#62
Post rating: +

babyhueypnewton posted:

yes what the naxalites need is more honest academics and the support of historians to publish dense studies of land reform in 19th century India.


actually it probably wouldn't hurt

#63
Post rating: ~

babyhueypnewton posted:

yes what the naxalites need is more honest academics and the support of historians to publish dense studies of land reform in 19th century India.

this isn't whats wrong with marxism, this is mccain writing about why he wants to be a marxist academic and why he considers actual politics unimportant compared to historical research. thats fine for him, but if you don't know mccain personally why would you care what he thinks about his own project as a marxist PHD candidate?




lol this is fucking stupid man

#64
Post rating: +
"actual politics"
#65
tardy on these heaters
Post rating: ~
He's an adorable little munchkin man with hardcore political opini ons, hide ypir daughters!!
#66
tardy on these heaters
Post rating: +++++
The one true revolutionary badass whos not afraid to Tell It Like It Is. Watch out labor aristocrats and revisionists, you better know what time it is... Its huey time bitch, actual politics in command cocksucker!!!
#67
Post rating: ~
mustang post

Edited by jools ()

#68
Post rating: ~
dazo maybe if you came up with a better username they wouldnt instantly know it was you!
#69
Post rating: ~
point by point i don't see anything remotely objectionable in that piece because it boils down to "don't be wrong, be right" but otoh i don't really get how one could look at actually existing marxism in 2013 and conclude that What Is Wrong With Marxism is that it isn't sufficiently academically analytical

but then what do I know? I'm a liberal now
#70
UNUSUALY COOL
Post rating: ~

thirdplace posted:

point by point i don't see anything remotely objectionable in that piece because it boils down to "don't be wrong, be right" but otoh i don't really get how one could look at actually existing marxism in 2013 and conclude that What Is Wrong With Marxism is that it isn't sufficiently academically analytical

but then what do I know? I'm a liberal now



well then you should probably know that almost every economist in the world concludes that what is wrong with Marxism is that it isn't sufficiently academically analytical

#71
Post rating: ~
maybe some worked examples of what is discussed might help
#72
corey "of "fail aids" fame"
Post rating: +++++
aaaaa after ten thoused years of contemplation i'm free: marxism needs more painstaking deliberation of irrelevant minutiae. time to conquer earth!
#73
UNUSUALY COOL
Post rating: ~
the real argument of course is that people need to gather information and analyze it and draw conclusions. but what if empirical investigation leads right the fuck away from Marx. what then
#74
Post rating: +

thirdplace posted:

point by point i don't see anything remotely objectionable in that piece because it boils down to "don't be wrong, be right" but otoh i don't really get how one could look at actually existing marxism in 2013 and conclude that What Is Wrong With Marxism is that it isn't sufficiently academically analytical

but then what do I know? I'm a liberal now


that's not what he's saying at all or even an unfair characterization. you completely missed the point. maybe mccaine's title is too provocative and he probably made a mistake starting out with a critique of marxist historiography, but he's not even attempting to give a political and historical analysis of the weakness of the western left. this is a description of how self-proclaimed marxist academics and sects can't even get marxism right and thus can't produce competent theorists and agitators, let alone undertake a project of political, social and economic revolution. if the working people of the left rose up tomorrow these people wouldn't have a clue of what to do, they wouldn't be capable of assuming a leadership role, and even if they somehow managed to bumble their way into power they'd immediately squander the opportunity because they don't know anything. so in short he's completely right that "the problem with marxism today" is this absurd clown troupe of know-nothing scholars and parody jacobins endlessly rehashing ideological battles that were won and lost decades ago or more, while the rest of the world ignores them. if you want to explain about the broader causes of the decline of the western (and to some extent global) left and the broad international socialist movement you'll have to look at more structural economic and class issues, if you're interested, and in that respect i'd direct you to the youtube channel of Ms. Shubel Morgan.

of course you can answer that with "well these issues need to be resolved ~in practice~" but a) i've yet to see an analysis along those lines that says anything and b) it might be a good idea to have some concept of what you're actually try to change ~in practice~ and what you want to see ~in practice~ before you actually go out and do it.

#75
UNUSUALY COOL
Post rating: ~
this is incidentally why i try to imagine ways of tricking the current apparatus into doing the heavy lifting for us

they have cash, time, incentives etc. that will never be lent to Marxists
#76
UNUSUALY COOL
Post rating: ~
what a lot of Marxists dont seem to get is that all analysis & planning & strategy in the world is now farmed out to dedicated roving mercenaries.

the best thing a Marxist group could do would be to figure out how to pool resources and pull down expertise from the Bainies/vainies/brainies or at least one of the Big 4 conflict-of-interest monsters
#77
Not Your S.H.I.E.L.D.
Post rating: +
if youre trying to come up with examples of groups that are effective not in spite of, but directly due to their radicality, why would you pick NoI and Alex freaking Jones and not, i dont know, al-Qaeda, the only group to successfully deal America a heavy blow on its home turf, and maintain enough influence and pull to convince Americans to give up their poisonous first world lives, join the cause, and engage in the most direct of actions against their former motherland
#78
Kurdt
Post rating: ~

getfiscal posted:

roseweird posted:

who the fuck is mccaine

mccaine is a pseudomaoist brezhnevite homosexual who moderated the something awful forums debate sections for a long period. he is a phd student and committed to a scientific understanding of marxism as a unified social theory.

mccaine is gay

#79
[account deactivated]
#80
Kurdt
Post rating: ~

corey posted:

aaaaa after ten thoused years of contemplation i'm free: marxism needs more painstaking deliberation of irrelevant minutiae. time to conquer earth!