Welcome again to everybody. Make yourself at home, just please pick up after yourselves. In the time-honoured tradition of our group, here is the weekly discussion thread.
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Watching more Zeta Gundam.
Hello!
The meme “Stalin shouldn’t have stop at Berlin” turns him into a follower of Trotsky. It seems the intellectual condemnation of Stalin makes him morally bankrupt at the same time. Giving him the characteristics of a barbarian at the intellectual level puts Stalin at a primitive level regarding morality as well. Those communists who see Stalin as a violent badass are turning him into Trotsky… It was the red army leader who was a disturbing piece of shit, extremely violent and severely stupid.
Edit: damn… a lot of people here hate Stalin ig? Mmm, I wonder how many downvoters believe if labor is entitled to all it creates? Hint: labor is not entitled to all it creates.
Weird outburst aside, it’s actually kinda funny that the “shouldn’t have stopped at Berlin” line sorta touches on the OG key theoretical divergence of Trotsky vs Stalin over permanent revolution. Trotsky was firmly a “shouldn’t have stopped at Brest-Litovsk” guy in WW1 and if he were still alive by 1945 he would probably repeatedly point at “not stopping at Berlin” as proof of the USSR being a “degenerated worker state” and allying itself with capitalists.
I understand that the argument presented here was more moralistic and personalistic, but I like that it shines a light into the fact that, yeah, Trotsky wouldn’t have stopped at Berlin. He would’ve also probably gotten the USSR invaded and completely destroyed in the early twenties.
Its about hindsight. Its not about exporting revolution to europe but wishing Stalin had struck a crippling blow to fascist that they couldn’t recover from.
USSR thought incorrectly that the end of the 3rd reich would be the end of fascist aggression, at least for long enough that they could take care of domestic concerns without distraction.
Taking Berlin was only the first leg of defeating the threat of fascism. If Stalin knew what “peace” would look like maybe he would have just kept going instead of letting the fascists regroup and change tactics.
Fascism was on the ropes in 1945. Peace allowed them to turn USSR’s allies into enemies and change tactics to asymmetrical warfare, economic war and dirty war.
I think you’re reading too much into a joke line.
Removed by mod
Ohh yeah. You’re that user who was defending nazi US soldiers and saying they were just following their material interests. Your deterministic materialism is just a form of bio determinism, aka neo eugenics. But whatever…
Not only is this not relevant but that’s also not what I was doing nor is it my position.
If you’re going to attack me then you should at least make sure you understand my actual position first.
It is relevant. It’s the lens that you use to analyze the world. Your deterministic worldview makes everything permissible on the grounds of “material interests.” But it’s exactly like liberalism since it always comes with an exclusionary clause. So a person can do anything to improve their material conditions at the expense of others. Morality is then completely gone.
til analyzing material conditions is liberalism, apparently
You would need to read Losurdo’s book on liberalism to understand the inherent exclusionary clause of liberalism, which is the dominant ideology of the West. It infects materialist thinking, including yours and mine. It’s something you have to consciously fight on a daily basis.
Let’s go back to the beginning: you accused comrades making jokes about Western powers being sympathetic to fascism of being Trotskyists. When I pointed out that this was silly you basically called me a liberal and insinuated I was pro-US imperialism.
I don’t think it’s me who needs to self-crit here.
Downvoters care to explain why you suck ass?
I gonna need the names of every user who downvoted this. Labor aristocrats are a social danger to everybody. Nietzschean leftists don’t even deserve to be here in the first place…
Some dude with a fake account replied to an insta comment of mine calling me a cancerous left wing dog and told me to accept his follow request (I assume to insult me or something) so for fun I accepted and messaged him first but he won’t reply lol
What is it with these fascist cowards
They need to get authorization to engage from their CO.
Shit, I’ve been so focused on Venezuela I haven’t heard shit about Iran, what the fuck’s going on?
Not only Iran has been attacked lately. Burkina Faso had a coup attempt the same day that the US kidnapped Maduro.
What in the- shit, this is why I need regular updates on all of the theaters of imperial bullshit. Same applies to Yemen and Palestine, so much shit’s going under the rug bc of the media cycles, I don’t even know what’s happened in Indonesia or Brazil since Bolsonaro finally went away.
You can stay in tune with c/worldnews ! Lots of comrade try to post as much updates as possible in that community to keep everyone up to speed.
As for Brazil, the last update was this one produced by comrade, Conselheiro -> https://lemmygrad.ml/post/10076452
US-backed color revolution aimed at regime change. The 12k death toll is fabricated by the US group “Human Rights Activists in Iran”, an NED cut out. That’s really all I can say.
We’re always somewhere, constantly doing shit, ain’t we? I shouldn’t be surprised but Venezuela’s captured so much of my attention that I can’t really track it all. That and I’ve seen very little direct material analysis of conditions on the ground besides general national feeling in Venezuela, lots of protests against the U.S., tons of mobilization, but not too much else besides trying to recuperate without Maduro.
I need to study a lot for school in a short time, but it’s hard because I feel lonely. It’s impacting my studying. I keep thinking about these people that I was somewhat close to a year ago, but don’t speak to anymore. I want to be more social and go to gatherings to stop these feelings, but then I have less time for studying so I can’t win.
Anyone you might study with? That would cover both bases.
Ngl but that clavicle (“looksmaxxer” slop creator) interview with the guy from daily wire is hilarious.
Recent events feel like I’m just waiting for disaster to happen any time while pretending everything is fine. But then again stuff has happened before without no consequences.
Say what yo will about trump he knows how to manage a crowd. Everyone is so distracted waiting for the other shoe to drop they aren’t talking about the Files.
Would files saying he was there doing illegal shit matter at this point, you think? At best it would impeach him but I fear the Republicans would just continue doing whatever and maybe move Miller forward. Like they invaded Venezuela without permission.
Who knows. I do know that whatever is in the files Trump doesn’t want it out.
if there’s proof so ironclad that even his cult can’t deny it one of them will try to shoot him
proof to the standard of normal people is probably irrelevant since we all already think he’s a pedo
We’re talking about people who considered injecting bleach here lol I have little hope for them
I hope you all have a nice week :D
You too Comrade! Also happy birthday!
You Too Oppo!!! Alsp just so you know its still January
I hope you had a nice birthday!
Thank you
I hope you have a nice week too! :D
You too comrade!
The top gusano actually went through and gift Trump her fake award in one of the cringiest images ive ever seen.
she’s sucking up to him so hard and it’s so apparent nothing’s gonna come of it. it’s so pathetic
Have a good week everyone! Stay safe, comrades, keep it up.
As always, communism will win.
New edition of the introductory Marxist-Leninist reading list in the works?
Lemmy user Cowbee is well-known for their tireless efforts in educating the wider Lemmy community on Marxist-Leninist positions and theory. They are also the author and maintainer of the renowned “Read Theory, Darn it!” introductory Marxist-Leninist reading list.
The reading list has received much praise from long-time MLs, newcomers, and curious liberals alike, earning the recommendation of prominent users such as Lemmy developer and .ml admin Dessalines. At the time of writing, the reading list has amassed over 320 upvotes on Lemmy.ml.
It was first published on November 12th 2024 and has undergone significant changes since then. It has undergone two major revisions, the latest of which was in August of 2025. For comparison, one of the earliest versions can be found on a crosspost to lemmy.world from November 29th 2024.
We have recently received information from credible sources that a third major revision of the reading list might be just around the corner.
What can we expect from revision 3?
We can only speculate in this section, but Cowbee has previously provided hints as to what changes we might expect. Cowbee has expressed on multiple occasions that they would like to bring the reading time down to 50 hours[1][2]. The list currently sits around 60 hours total reading time. They have also hinted at possibly splitting the list, creating a separate history-focused list[3][4]. This idea has however faced some pushback from the community[5][6].
It is difficult to predict the exact changes that will be made, but in a more general sense, according to Cowbee, the goal of the third revision would be “to make the guide more lean, readable, and remove overlap as much as possible.”[7]
We have reached out to @Cowbee@lemmygrad.ml for a Lemmygrad exclusive preview of the much-anticipated third revision, and will continue to provide new information as it becomes available.
P.S.
This comment is just for fun, don’t take it too seriously :)
Comrade Cowbee has been doing truly wonderful work 🫡
Thanks, comrade!
This is a very cute idea comrade, thanks!
For starters, why make a rev 3? There are a number of reasons, but it primarily boils down to 2 contradictory feelings I have:
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The guide is too long for a “basic” reading list. Anyone wanting something a few hours long will see it and likely bounce off.
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The guide is too incomplete for areas I think are necessary, such as new sections on history, culture, art, propaganda, AI, hard skills, soft skills, and more.
These two competing goals leave the guide as an incomplete but long basic list that feels like it occupies a limbo space. My main solution, therefore, to do the following:
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Trim and reduce redundant works, making each minute spent as efficient as possible
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Split it into sections:
a. A true beginner list that will allow anyone to keep up with the basics of Marxism in conversation, and make following the main guide easier
b. A true “cadre training” list that goes far more in-depth, without skimping on any areas, like an expanded version of the current list post-trimming
c. A section on history, especially on settler-colonialism, liberalism, and socialism in practice
d. A section on skills, like how to start a reading group and party from scratch, how to agitate, first aid, light guerilla warfare (maybe too fedbaity?), simple evasion, language learning, diet and fitness, OPSEC, OSINT, gardening, repair, self-defense, etc.
-Essentially, I think any revolutionary needs to actively train and prepare for revolution, not just simple organizing. I also want anyone to be able to follow this list, urban or rural, global south or global north, and take away core skills for self-sufficiency, community organizing, and better surviving the day to day both pre-revolution and during revolution.
-Every revolutionary should, therefore, be multilingual (dominant language + most locally relevant secondary language at a minimum), physically and mentally fit (within reason), capable of defending themselves (with whatever is necessary), capable of leading small groups, performing simple first-aid, practice community self-sufficiency (such as covert communication, gardening, cooking, power generation, survivalism, etc), all sorts of useful tools for any cadre. If a revolutionary doesn’t meet those areas, that’s fine! It just signifies what they should be working towards passively, on a regular basis.
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A spanish version. In the imperial core, english is the most spoken language, but within the US Empire spanish is heavily spoken as well. Being able to better reach these comrades would dramatically aid organizing
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A QR code link. Being able to place a sticker in prominent spaces and have people see it in public would be great for outreach!
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Making sure everything is convenient to read on the phone natively, but also on eReaders or via audiobooks. My target will always be reading on a smartphone during breaks. One of the bigger obstacles is longer books, Prolewiki has a newish “reading view” for some works but not all. I like ComLib from comrade @Edie@lemmy.ml for ebooks, but I can’t use ComLib for everything. This is an ongoing effort for me to try to make them more readable in every preferred format (eReaders, web reading, and audiobooks are the big 3).
The biggest obstacle, however, is my own reading. I need to develop myself more before I try to expand the guide to my own ambitions. I’d like it to also be hosted primarily off of Lemmy eventually, and without my own username attached to it, as a sort of anonymized, generalized guide that can be QR coded anywhere and be applicable and useful all over the world, without such a Statesian focus.
All this is to say that it’s probably late 2026-2027 by the time the next rev genuinely comes out, and will likely be the “finalized” list.
Essentially, I think any revolutionary needs to actively train and prepare for revolution, not just simple organizing. I also want anyone to be able to follow this list, urban or rural, global south or global north, and take away core skills for self-sufficiency, community organizing, and better surviving the day to day both pre-revolution and during revolution.
Fucking yes, please! =D
I also liked the idea of having two lists. Like a first semester, second semester of college thing.
Thanks! It’s a lot though, so that rev is a good while away. The current list is good as-is, despite the issues I have with it.
No problem. I hope I can finish the current list so as to be able to contribute at least with feedback.
Thank you so much! I’d love feedback, if you can offer any!
Thank you for the very in-depth response! This has me even more hyped up :)
I think you have a great read on how to make the list(s) as useful and accessible as possible for different audiences (though I do share your worry on the potential ‘fedbait’ aspect of some sections).
Once you are comfortable with a more-or-less ‘finalised’ version of the list, would you like to see this turn into more of a team or community project?
Less so in terms of changing the content, rather having contributors with different skills and focuses such as localisation, hosting a website or a wiki, collecting and digitising books, ‘marketing’ so-to-say by designing posters, stickers, or even shareable memes, etc.I wonder if it could become a canonical list for something like Prolewiki as it would already mesh well with things Prolewiki already does such as the library and collecting ebooks, as well as adding editor’s notes to existing works. Maybe @CriticalResist8@lemmygrad.ml could share their thoughts on this.
We easily rehost reading lists as category pages, and then located inside https://en.prolewiki.org/wiki/Category:Reading_lists. The upside is they can directly contain links, the downside is after that it’s up to people to find them in the midst of all our pages. I am actually (very slowly) in the process of making a bunch of reading lists based on our absolute beginner’s; very short lists but lots of them on all sorts of different topics instead of every topic all at once.
Interesting! I might end up doing that. If you’ve seen my list, it’s kind of like what you describe, one large list but with a dozen smaller sections like imperialism, colonialism, feminism, party work, etc. It’s meant to build up over time, but can be skipped around to specific sections.
My goal is to eventually let anyone do anything they want with it, so the community aspect is nice! I want to finalize it, maybe make minor tweaks and edits, but essentially step away from it any let people use it for their own local conditions, make changes, tear it apart, etc.
What I don’t want is a competitor to Prolewiki. I like Prolewiki as it is, and if the team there wants to include my guide, then that’s great! That’s why I link Prolewiki more than any other work. The problem is that Prolewiki doesn’t have everything I want, and I also really like the epubs from ComLib when applicable.
All that being said, yes, my goal is to let people localize, do whatever they want, use it as a template, and then do whatever it is they want.
0·2 months agoI would love to make more ebooks, but besides not having energy and adhd, I keep wondering how to do (e.g.) footnotes and end up in a rabbit hole of trying to look into it. This is the Nth time I have ended up on this exact fucking thread EDIT: it I have it bookmarked ffs! And I just end up with “fuck it, just do something” in the end.
There is a longer rant about EPUBs and HTML and CSS that if we had been irl I’d probably done, but I don’t have it in me to do in text. I’m sure you already have an idea, you can practically track the times I’ve opened up an EPUB to work on it by just looking for when I complain about this shit.
I would love to have others help me do EPUBs… but as you can see it’s difficult.
In short, what’s the best practices for EPUB? I have no fucking clue, and I only keep becoming more
I empathize with your pain, comrade. Even in my reading list I’m still not sure what “best practices” would be, be it formatting, commentary, what to include, what to exclude, the finer nuances are hard to come up with! For what it’s worth, the way you have them in Dialectical Materialism are my preference: bottom of the page the footnote appears on, trailing onto the next page if necessary without extending to the next paragraph until the page after the footnotes are done, and with the footnotes stored at the end of the book.
I’m not sure if it’s standard or not, but it’s very readable on mobile and on an eReader, with easy-to-find references, so I like it!
I’d be of little help other than a springboard for HTML and CSS discussions, but if I can help, please let me know!
Also if I were absolutely evil I would love it if Rev 3 could be entirely comlib works, but that’s an incredible amount of work to ask of volunteers and entirely unreasonable. If you find yourself wanting to do more books and are looking for examples, I can always give suggestions from the list I make, but I’m never going to ask you outright to do that because that’s an awful lot of work.
bottom of the page the footnote appears on, trailing onto the next page if necessary without extending to the next paragraph until the page after the footnotes are done, and with the footnotes stored at the end of the book.
This is not me (per say), this is… I think you use KoReader? I do and I make my EPUBs with it in mind, and if I’m unsure I’ll test things on it. But it’s nothing more than the internal structure being tagged correctly for this to work in e.g. KoReader. Calibre will do a popup, and I mention that because these two are in my mind in one category of how readers deal with footnotes, the other category (at least that I know of) is that they… don’t, the user has to click the footnote (which is a link) and be taken to the footnote (and the somehow get back to the previous location). And I try to keep both in mind, and make something that will hopefully work for both of them. And then there is pandoc in the back of my mind, which understands footnotes (again when correctly tagged) but with at minimum the caveat that the footnote has to be internally in the same file (epubs are just ZIP files with primarily html files inside) and so should I keep the footnotes at the end of each chapter like I’ve done sometimes, but then in that mobileread thread someone was complaining “If there is anything I can’t stand, it is getting to the end of a chapter’s actual content and finding page after page of footnotes clogging it up before the next chapter” asdasjidbsoidjfhgasdoiufghasdoiufha<sdlfkhsidlofhjvasodufhiasdlifuh
And this is just footnotes, don’t get me started on other shit. Like, say you want to make a leader, you know, a thing that has existed for probably decades in print, support for some kind of it exists in CSS3, but KoReader does not support that IIRC. And that leads me to one of the problems, HTML/CSS engines
because (for example) KoReader uses the CoolReader engine, which is a custom engine rather than like Chromium or Firefox or Safaris engines, which one the one hand is good, but leads to incomplete and differing completenes of implementation of HTML/CSS stuff. It’s like what I’ve heard the fucking 90s were all over again! And I have no idea what other weird HTML/CSS engines are out there in other readers, so who knows what I am doing that is actually not working on someones tablet.Okay, fair enough, I’m far out of my depth on this one lol. The point is that I am deeply empathetic to the struggle, and that’s why I can’t rightly ask for anything.
Only other option (if this even helps) is doing it like Standard Ebooks does it, with multiple formats of epub.
Standard Ebooks looks like they have some idea of what they’re doing, I can probably learn something from them.
It’s where I check first for public domain fiction! Seems it’s run by liberals, but the fiction is great and well-formatted. I dunno about behind the scenes though.
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is sepultura lib?
From Mexico
