Talk about whatever, respecting the rules established by Lemmygrad. Failing to comply with the rules will grant you a few warnings, insisting on breaking them will grant you a beautiful shiny banwall.
A community for comrades to chat and talk about whatever doesn't fit other communities
Sorry forgot to add this to the post:
I mainly dislike BE because of his "beef" with bayarea415, his "enlightened anti-campism" and his tendency to get into and escalate internet fights for very little reason (see the bayarea415 thing). So I think a lot of leftists give him a lot more slack than others would get for similar behavior
His left bashing is ridiculous. Like I can appreciate his research but going after bayArea and Hasan is crazy. Like yeah I get that Hasan is a demsoc, but unlike other demsocs, Hasan lets his audience move further left than himself.
Badempanada also attacked Ben Norton
I remember he made a video called something like The Only Correct Position on the War in Ukraine where he takes a neither Washington nor Moscow approach. He said that the take that Russia invaded out of legitimate security concerns is dumb and wrong because... well it just is, okay!?
Reminds me of his Xinjiang vid, where he agreed with every western slander only to say at the end "that's still better than the west!". I facepalmed so hard.
he's delusional when it comes to venezuela also, but that's probably because of him being in Argentina.
Badempanada is a content creator and like many, he likes to dive into internet drama. A little Internet drama is good to pump up numbers and engage his audience.
kkkontrapoints
The Depgrogram guys. I was much more hopeful about them back when they started out, but over time It's become apparent that they're way too afraid to say anything that would scare off their extremely broad "leftist" audience. They've ended up cultivating what seems like a bizarre coalition of ultras, revisionists and U.S libs as a result. I'd say Yugopnik's channel is probably the one that's least affected by this, but overall I feel like all three of them used to be way better individually before they started the podcast.
Yeah. Very nice if you’re new but you outgrow it eventually.
I've also been feeling this lately. That podcast was what originally pushed me to be ML, but over time I have noticed that they avoid taking firm stances on anything too controversial. I think they still have a bit of value for getting people started, but they also have the risk of getting people stuck in a sort of watered-down marxism.
All leftist video creators are overrated, leftist authors less so but there's still a huge contingent of them that are just co-opted by their main topic of critique. I don't think this is a failing on the creators themselves but a feature of the market.
When you get down to it, no matter how ideologically 'pure' you manage to be, once you're earning money for something - even if it's not your primary income - your ability to affect the change you're talking about becomes limited. You don't want to risk your income. You don't want to get 'cancelled' by your peers. For some this comes down to mindful self-censorship, but for most they don't even realize that they've started down the algorithmic intellectual death spiral.
But! I think this is very okay and for our purposes can be leveraged. I absorbed endless amounts of this content when I was feeling the full effects of alienation. Alone all day, underappreciated and working my body to the bone in a warehouse. The reason I read ML theory at all is because of some of these chucklefucks - ThoughtSlime, The Deprogram, even broader liberal-types like Hbomberguy. They were friendly voices to listen to and fueled an inherent rebellious nature most of us have within.
But content cycles, your interests peak and change, and if you walk away from ""breadtubers"" having absorbed any actual theory, your admiration turns somewhat to scorn, and you begin to feel frustrated with the endless complaining and no actionable solutions. You'll either fall back into liblight or your exposure to theory will grow into a larger revolutionary sprout.
That's when you're pushed out of the content mill and become exposed to the dreaded ideas that YouTubers can't actually say due to ad revenue concerns. Getting to this stage of radicalization, especially in the west, used to be like pulling teeth. You'd need serious organizational power to spread the education needed.
Now it can be achieved by listening to freely accessible (and even semi-mainstream) content slop and letting well-known parasocial elements play out in a listener. Learning, admiration, surpassing the teacher, and finally finding your revolutionary spirit.
True anon is annoying as fuck.
Trillbillys is boring
Redscarepod hosts should be in prison
Trashfuture try too hard
Ik it's supposed to be about video creators or authors, but damn the shade on those leftist podcasts. (Redscarepod and trash future, may be warranted)
You chapos are on something. I tell ye hwat
Never seen redscarepod, but occasionally been linked to their subreddit and it seems like a bunch of terfs.
It is terf, indeef
Are true anon even leftist? Or are they ‘leftist’ in the same way cumtown is leftist?
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
What have you ever listened to an episode?(beyond the first 5 minutes where they may crack a joke or two) I think you a free wrong view of what it is
And their actual podcast(as in they actual cover a topic whereas cumtown is just 3 people talking about being gay with their dads for an hour)
covering geopolitical and parapolitcs(and then maybe one out 40 episodes they cover something more cultural instead) from a Marxists perspective,
There guests include Marxist economists, lefty journalists, members of foreign(to the US where the hosts are from) communists parties, Gaza activist(as in people from the region not Americans)
Idk anything about TrueAnon thought of start listening, why're they annoying? Also what's up with redscarepods? Just looking for podcasts to listen to while working out, if you guys got any, send them my way.
What did the Redscarepod hosts do?
I have literally watched zero BE content but always read his posts. Top tier attacker, one of the best haters in the business, but that's about all I get from him, and what ive seen of his own conclusions are far from watertight.
I don't expect much from broader leftist YouTubers like hbomberguy, Shaun, philosophytube, so it doesn't disappoint me when they do a liberalism, and their content is otherwise fine.
But I actually really dislike the couple "actually socialist" ones like Second Thought because they do the exact same thing as the previous ones (pointing at the problem with no perspective for solution) but are lauded as some heroes of Marxism-Leninism. The only video of his that I find minimally ML is the one telling people to get organised. He barely advertises US parties (keeping in mind that's his main audience) or points to what can be done, and wastes too much effort on "production values" over agitation. If he refuses to join any party, the very least he could do is make a video explaining all of them to help out his followers. Effectively, he's an anti-capitalist/pro-China agitator at best, and I'm tired of USAmericans hopefully waiting for China to fix everything. The other deprogram lads fit the bill too, but I don't even bother watching them.
English-language YouTube is generally really bad at agitation (clarifying the contradictions of singular notable events), specially due to the "monthly video" model. There's a huge space for short daily news analysis being ignored. But there are some really good propagandists, so I'd like to recommend RevLeft Radio for current events and Red Pen for understanding theory. Besides that there's also Socialism for All for commentated reading of theory, though he is MLM.
One little thing, isn't second thought a member of the CPUSA. At least I thought he was, but its been a while so maybe that changed
No idea, but if he is, the fact that it never comes up is exactly what I'm complaining about.
There’s a huge space for short daily news analysis being ignored.
they tried with a channel called "first thought" but it doesnt perform very well (mostly because it has the same problem that you mentioned, they hesitate to say anything too radical on there for their audience)
I don't really like to listen to anyone, to be honest.
V*ush
I don't think anyone considers Vaush to be leftist
No one here, but I'm acquainted with a few...revisionists, let's call them.
Spill the tea, if you wish
They're just personal acquaintances of mine who happen to watch and seem to appreciate Vaush
I dont get too much into the podcasting sphere because most of them just shit me off.
I have issues with Roddric Day of Redsails but most of that is an issue with his personality/writing style. He does "acktchewallly" arguments way too often and sometimes feels like he starts with his conclusions and works backwards. Sometimes I disagree with his conclusions but most of those disagreements are irrelevant because the truth of the matter will work itself out in practice. Other times his analysis is right on the money.
Underrated podcaster/writer I have to give a shout out to is Justin Podur and his substack The Anti-empire Project. His Civilizations series is a really good in-depth leftist analysis of modern geopolitical history. His Gaza sitreps were also really good during the active fighting phase. The whole Tankie Therapy crew are based as fuck.
I dont really watch people like this much but i was reading it and seeing names i dont know and thinking "man if only this were a list of good ones instead of over rated ones."
So instead i will include a source i like. Idk if exactly leftist but very good source for info on the US empire. Ken Klippenstein. https://www.kenklippenstein.com/
Does some pretty decent reporting. Altho these days in the west that bars extremely low.
I've been reading him since the beginning and I haven't read a single word he's ever mentioned about how Trump candidly, not admitted but fucking bragged, about how Musk cracked the election that he knew that there was no way he had won. That, in the inauguration speech. No body ever talks about this.
If you already know it was not with money but with Trump, given real data leaks over the real Burn Notice that went even up on fucking reddit, then nothing about Ukraine/Russia was ever what the leak made obvious about how the CIA woreaked shit out with the NeoNazis in east Ukraine to want to be back with and as Russian.
So real, it's a lil useful to read but he's an asset and no expectation of any truth on any future that matters. He's a tool like everyone else mentioned thus far.
Im not sure how to reply to this. Im having trouble processing what your trying to say. Sorry.
Then don't reply if you have no content to provide and don't even have an explination for such.
Maybe you would have a question about what you fail to understand if you should in any way care to achieve such.
Hence having so little respect for you folks here in Lemmy. Every time I express anything more than a paragraph, that is exactly the sort of reply about 66% of the time, give or take.
I ain't mad or nothing but after reading your post, I don't know what to do to help you. Hence not doing anything of any real value beyond maybe amusing some folks coming by.