Recently I had been going on Twitter a lot instinctively when I was bored. I guess I liked the interactions but tbh it’s so bad. Left Twitter has 3 kinds of people: (1) Acts like they are the embodiment of Marxism, nobody else knows anything and nobody else reads according to them. (2) Doesn’t care about theory or material conditions, just looking for a controversial side to join and loves posting about Russia and Jackson Hinkle/Haz. (3) Wreckers (on purpose or not makes little difference) who want to shut down any and all acts of popular resistance because “nothing ever happens”. “What are these campus protests even doing for the people in Palestine?” They say while ignoring Yemeni and Lebanese rallies with posters addressing students to continue their protests. And I would add the folks trying to become a “character” or something or like the voice of Left Twitter, but usually they fall into of the previous 3 categories (feel free to add any that you think I missed). And that’s just the Left. At LEAST they have decent takes to start with that they can ruin slowly over time. Then you get to the libs who have all been scratched. Then you push further right and you get people with usernames I can’t even say here and yet they aren’t banned from Twitter. Not to mention all the incels putting Ancient Rome on a pedestal when they would probably be slaves or merchants at best. I tried to quit Twitter a week ago and it was tough at first, but now I wanna make it like 3 weeks. If I’m still not missing Twitter I’ll prob just keep it for when friends and family send me posts from it but I probably won’t scroll thru.
The first person is kinda right though. People really don’t read, or at least it’s very unpopular among opinion-sharers.
In my experience fewer than 1/4 of members of any Marxist org have actually read Das Kapital. Sure it’s not necessarily the most fun read but also they seem to think they should have opinions about what Marx says about commodities and alienation and I’ve gotta say they should really not have those opinions until they go read the material at least once. Or at least a companion guide!
Though I will say that that kind of “only I read anything” person should also read up on how to organize and to disagree in a way that is constructive and draws people to you because they also tend to be insufferable.
Anyways Twitter rewards engagement and annoying people like these are very engaging! Gotta get in and get out before they rot your brain.
I can definitely agree that too many Marxists don’t actually read the works 100% and I definitely agree that the good way of emphasizing that point is to explain small points and say “if you want a deeper dive, make sure to read X Book by Y Author” instead of telling people to shut up bc they read Economic Manuscripts of 1844 once 8 years ago.
Yes absolutely. We are all trained to be way too snarky online and it is much more effective to give people a chance - even if they don’t take it right away - to hear welcoming advocacy for our positions and what knowledge is valuable to acquire.