Hello!

I’ve been lurking in Lemmygrad for awhile and I decided to finally bite the bullet and join in. The main reason I joined was to learn more and ask questions about the movement. As well as get book recommendations!

I would probably describe myself as a Marxist-Leninist.

I don’t have any particularly crazy takes that I can think of. Perhaps I think American food is far worse than British food. But I can hardly cook despite my best efforts so I can’t talk too much. 😄

I’m still learning frankly, but I have always loved history. After moving more left (that’s an understatement) I feel the need to examine everything I’ve learnt again under a more materialistic lens. Despite that, my main focus was the first world war. I got depressed reading about that and instead decided to explore other areas, such as Weimar Germany. My love for history and paired with learning about the period of the Weimar Republic - particularly about Rosa Luxemburg- I began to slowly question my political beliefs and slide further left.

Generally I don’t feel like I know enough. There’s so much to learn and so little time to do it. I’m open to exploring all avenues of Marxist thought and stealing all of your book recommendations. I’ve accumulated quite the reading list and I’m more than happy to add to that collection.

Other than that I love cooking despite it not loving me back. I’m a bit of a caffeine addict and I have a tendency to ask too many questions. I’m very interested in learning about and exploring different cultures as well.

Otherwise I’m happy to be here and I wish you all a pleasant day!

  • 矛⋅盾@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
    0·
    7 days ago

    hi hi hi!

    The main drive behind my own further moving left/being less vibes&unserious was also related to me further investigating history, though, on the Chinese end, since my formal education had only like a single paragraph about both opium wars, brief mention of boxer rebellion, and a page or two of “communism evil and killed lots of people”.

    It’s also very interesting to think of history, globally, in terms of coeval and similar temporally relative terms

    • Marx gave his speech “On the Question of Free Trade” in 1848, only 6 years after the first Opium war ended and HK was signed away to Britain in the Treaty of Nanjing (the British used “free trade” as liberal ideal justifying the opium wars; however in the speech Marx makes no mention of China but does speak of the English mercantile economic extraction of its colonies).
    • Lenin’s October Revolution (1917) heavily influenced the founding of the Communist Party of China (1920) of which, before, the left-leaning “anti-Old Ways” intellectuals were more predominantly either in the camps of republican democracy models exemplar of America/France, or anarchist social experimentation (particularly big “fandom” of Kropotkin’s Mutual Aid)
    • Less directly related: Indonesian mass killings (detailed in Bevins’ Jakarta Method #CIA interventions) were 1965-66 (iirc prior, Mao & others had advised the PKI to arm themselves); Chinese Cultural Revolution started 1966 and among the main currents of it was to denounce and destroy anything possibly liberal or bourgeois.
    • And a similar vein (also not directly related) – decline and eventual fall of Soviet Union, particularly exacerbated by internal popularity of liberalization late 1980s :: official govt reaction to the june sixth incident (1989) in China, where many of the student protest leaders and some urban workers demanded liberalization similar to that of USSR.

    TBH my history knowledge about WWI is somewhat in a similar state (not quite as dire but definitely many holes) as my former knowledge base regarding modern Chinese history, do you have recommended readings or media on that end?

    • Nyx@lemmygrad.mlOPEnglish
      0·
      7 days ago

      Hello!

      It seems we had a similar beginning then. My education was much the same, it drove me to learn more myself and I ended up learning a lot more that way.

      It is very interesting! It’s a bit like seeing all the pieces of a puzzle and how they interact with each other like a chain reaction. I will definitely take a look at some of the events you mentioned because I am actually not familiar with all of those, particularly the happenings in Indonesia.

      On the first world war I would highly recommend ‘Passchendaele: Requiem for Doomed Youth’ by Paul Ham. I have not read it in awhile but I do remember I did enjoy reading it. It’s very detailed.

      Otherwise The Great War channel has a series with Indiana Neidell where they go through each event of the first world war. I remember I enjoyed that too however in some other related shows they have been pretty anti-communist. I can’t remember if that series in particular has the same stance but just keep that in mind if you decide to give it a go.