Depends, many seem more receptive to theory as of late.

Lenin is a huge yapper, he has tons of fantastic quotes. Another good one is “There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.”

Here’s a little “intro to Marxism-Leninism” list I threw together, modified a bit. It’s critically missing Queer Theory, Feminist Theory, and National Liberation theory, so any additions on that matter would be excellent. I am working through intersectional theory right now, which is why it is missing from this present list, the goal is to be as straight to the point as possible.

A good intro for someone with no familiarity is Engels’ Principles of Communism and if you are anti-AES but willing to read I recommend Parenti’s Blackshirts and Reds.

From there, it becomes more important to understand that Marxism-Leninism is broken into 3 major components:

1. Dialectical and Historical Materialism

2. Critique of Capitalism along the lines of Marx’s Law of Value

3. Advocacy for Revolutionary Socialism

And as such, I recommend, in order:

1. Politzer’s Elementary Principles of Philosophy

By far my favorite primer on Dialectical and Historical Materialism. By understanding DiaMat first, you make it easier to understand the rest of Marxism.

2. Engels’ Socialism: Utopian and Scientific

Further reading on DiaMat, but crucially introduces the why of Scientific Socialism, essentially explaining how Capitalism itself preps the conditions for public ownership and planning by centralizing itself into monopolist syndicates.

3. Marx’s Wage Labor and Capital as well as Wages, Price and Profit

Best taken as a pair, these essays simplify the most important parts of the Law of Value.

4. Lenin’s Imperialism, The Highest Stage of Capitalism

Absolutely crucial and the most important work for understanding the modern era and its primary contradictions.

5. Lenin’s The State and Revolution

Excellent refutation of revisionists and Social Democrats who think the State can be reformed, and not replaced. Also a good call to action to cap off the intro.

After reading all of this, whoever has completed these works should have a good grasp of the basics of Marxism-Leninism and be equipped to do their own Marxist-Leninist analysis, though tons of excellent and fairly critical works were dropped for the sake of limiting the scope to an intro reading list.

For your specific question regarding modern, easier to get into theory, I really love this person’s essays on Marxism. They are more advanced, but focus on modern Marxist analysis. I think Why Do Marxists Fail to Bring the “Worker’s Paradise?”, Socialism Developed China, Not Capitalism, and Why Public Property? are 3 of the best modern essays and primers on Socialism. The first goes over the Materialist theory of Democratic Structures and how they can be built while critically analyzing AES through an AES-positive viewpoint, the second goes over misconceptions about the PRC, and the last helps explain why Marxists advocate for public ownership and central planning, and why Capitalism makes way for this through decentralized markets coalescing into monopolist syndicates.

Let me know if you have any questions!

Dangerous, as a Communist living in America.

Despair is typical of those who do not understand the causes of evil, see no way out, and are incapable of struggle.

-Vladimir Lenin

Very applicable today, there’s no better time than the present to read theory and get organized. If anyone wants, I can post a short introductory reading list on Marxism.

That’s a bit of a misanalysis of the electoral situation. The Greens are that party, and failed to get a dent. PSL is a revolutionary party, but they are still picking up steam. Electoralism will not destabilize the Democrat/Republican duopoly.

Simply being aware is not enough, we must identify the way out and struggle for it.

Why? The Greens haven’t seen widespread success, to me it seems like we need to look more critically at the failures of electoralism.

I put together a little list that I think will be helpful for others, because little about what I do personally is going to change.

1. Get organized. Join a Leftist org, find solidarity with fellow comrades, and protect each other. The Dems will not save you, it is up to the Workers to protect themselves. The Party for Socialism and Liberation and Freedom Road Socialist Organization both organize year round, every year, because the battle for progress is a constant struggle, not a single election. See if there is a chapter near you, or start one! Or, see if there’s an org you like more near you and join it, the point is that organizing is the best thing any leftist can do.

2. Read theory. A good primer is Blackshirts and Reds. It will help contextualize what fascism is, what causes it, and how to stop it. I can offer a good introductory reading list for Marxism if you’d like, but this is a good starting point.

3. Aggressively combat white supremacy, misogyny, queerphobia, and other attacks on marginalized communities. Cede no ground.

4. Be more industrious, and self-sufficient. Take up gardening, home repair, tinkering. It is through practice that you elevate your problem-solving capabilities. Not only will you improve your skill at one subject, but your general problem-solving muscles get strengthened as well. Theory guides practice, which sharpens theory to be reapplied to better practice.

5. Learn self-defense. Get armed, if practical. Be ready to protect yourself and others. The Democrats will not save us, we must save each other.

Re: Hexbear

The people who run into issues with Hexbear largely aren’t Hexbear’s target demographic, namely Marxists and Anarchists.

The bit on Hexbear is that they are Marxists and Anarchists, which can draw ire from liberals.

Marxism, depending on the audience.

Appreciate the kind words! It’s a tender time, liberals are both more open and more closed to radicalization, depending on how they are interacted with. Lenin has a fantastic quote:

Despair is typical of those who do not understand the causes of evil, see no way out, and are incapable of struggle.

In shining light on the causes of evil, illustrating ways out of these darker times, and in teaching how to properly struggle against evil, we can radicalize numerous liberals and strengthen solidarity.

Liberals are ripe for radicalization and joining Leftists. Not all, of course, some are shifting rightward, but many are disillusioned and shifting left.

For anyone reading, I can give a basic intro to Marxism reading list if you want. For starters, I recommend Blackshirts and Reds. To know fascism, who it serves, how it rises, and how to stop it is immensely useful.

To ignore political struggle is a privledge the vast majority cannot afford.

Why do you believe it is stronger? The fact that Capitalism’s decentralized markets result in centralized monopolist syndicates is exactly why Marx predicted Socialism to be the next stage in Mode of Production. Marx said it best in the Manifesto of the Communist Party:

The essential condition for the existence, and for the sway of the bourgeois class, is the formation and augmentation of capital; the condition for capital is wage-labour. Wage-labour rests exclusively on competition between the labourers. The advance of industry, whose involuntary promoter is the bourgeoisie, replaces the isolation of the labourers, due to competition, by their revolutionary combination, due to association. The development of Modern Industry, therefore, cuts from under its feet the very foundation on which the bourgeoisie produces and appropriates products. What the bourgeoisie, therefore, produces, above all, are its own grave-diggers. Its fall and the victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable.

Lenin further analyzed these monopolist syndicates and described why we are seeing dying, decaying Capitalism in his work Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism. Once competition begins to die out, the Rate of Profit sinks and these Monopolist Syndicates strangle each other. The only way to fight this rate of falling, other than further automation which further lowers the rate of profit, is joining each other in ever larger syndicates, which is not infinitely replicatable. Capitalism is in its death throes.

A good, quick read if you don’t want to dive into books is the article Why Public Property?

Absolutely. It always has been, to be clear, but it is always a good time to start. The Party for Socialism and Liberation and Freedom Road Socialist Organization both organize year round, every year, because the battle for progress is a constant struggle, not a single election. See if there is a chapter near you, or start one! Or, see if there’s an org you like more near you and join it, the point is that organizing is the best thing any leftist can do.

To be clear, electoralism cannot and will not save us, Revolution is necessary. Luxemburg’s Reform or Revolution and Lenin’s The State and Revolution have remained correct to this day, and are only further proven correct with the passage of time and the accumulation of confirming evidence.

A good primer is Blackshirts and Reds.

I am not advocating “spontaneous” organization or random revolution. I am arguing for joining orgs and building Dual Power. As for revolution, the US is a pot of an unknown liquid constantly heating up as Capitalism decays. The boiling point is unknown, but the fact that conditions are worsening and contradictions are sharpening at increased rates means it still is likely to come.

The first chapter of Blackshirts and Reds is the most important for understanding fascism, it will take maybe 20 minutes and would be far clearer than any Lemmy comment string. However, the broad running theme with fascism is that, similar to to Communism and Socialism, it rises with Capitalist decay. The difference is that fascism is supported by the Capitalist ruling classes against the rising organization of workers, and as such has institutional support. It isn’t a hard and fast ideology to be adopted, but a defense mechanism the ruling classes deploy to retain power, violently.

Depends on the purpose. For organizing? Yes, I agree. For agit-prop? Lemmy instances vary in security. Some instances have Matrix rooms as well.

In this critical time, I do think it is important for well-read leftists to channel the defeat liberals are feeling right now and try to push them to read more and take a more active role in politics. That becomes harder in Matrix rooms vs open federated servers.

That’s an interesting point! I agree that Capital does a great job of subverting, de-fanging Leftist theory, co-opting it and churning out opportunism. “Hollywood Resistance,” if you will. I think Lenin said it best in The State and Revolution, at least with respect to Marxism specifically but applicable broadly:

What is now happening to Marx’s teaching has, in the course of history, happened repeatedly to the teachings of revolutionary thinkers and leaders of oppressed classes struggling for emancipation. During the lifetime of great revolutionaries, the oppressing classes constantly hounded them, received their teachings with the most savage malice, the most furious hatred and the most unscrupulous campaigns of lies and slander. After their death, attempts are made to convert them into harmless icons, to canonize them, so to say, and to surround their names with a certain halo for the “consolation” of the oppressed classes and with the object of duping the latter, while at the same time emasculating the essence of the revolutionary teaching, blunting its revolutionary edge and vulgarizing it. At the present time, the bourgeoisie and the opportunists within the working-class movement concur in this “doctoring” of Marxism. They omit, obliterate and distort the revolutionary side of this teaching, its revolutionary soul. They push to the foreground and extol what is or seems acceptable to the bourgeoisie. All the social-chauvinists are now “Marxists” (don’t laugh!). And more and more frequently, German bourgeois scholars, but yesterday specialists in the annihilation of Marxism, are speaking of the “national-German” Marx, who, they aver, educated the workers’ unions which are so splendidly organized for the purpose of conducting a predatory war!

Also good point with respect to Self-Defense!