For me, a few come to mind:
- “You’re imagining everybody in this story way more attractive than they actually were.”
It was posted somewhere on one of those spicy subreddits under some affair threesome story. And it sort if clicked with me. Like look around, normal people on the street don’t all look like supermodels. And supermodels don’t lurk around in reddit comment sections. It really put things into perspective for me.
- “Life isn’t short, it’s the longest thing you’ll ever do.”
It is a bit uplifting to realize that no matter if you have bad or good period in your life, it is only a short chapter contained in the longest time period possible for you to experience.
There were a few others that I probably can’t remember of the top of my head right now.
Actually this one and I just saw it on Lemmy too. As a life long Trek fan I have this quote in my head quite often.
I love the French saying “C’est la vie”.
Shuts down a lot of people nagging.
No one can change everything but everyone can change something.
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.
Thank you. Been thinking about finding good leftist quotes to as my phone wallpaper. Are there more, shorter quotes?
I’m curious about the intro reading list. I’ve tried the manifesto and listened to some audiobooks by Dessalines. Are there newer articles that are recommended, that summarise/improve the pre-existing content? Especially ones that talk about how the things were/are to be applied.
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.”
“Without Revolutionary theory, there can be no Revolutionary Movement.”
- Vladimir Lenin, What is to be Done? | Audiobook
It’s time to read theory, comrades! As Lenin says, “Despair is typical of those who do not understand the causes of evil, see no way out, and are incapable of struggle.” Marxism-Leninism is broken into 3 major components, as noted by Lenin in his pamphlet The Three Sources and Three Component Parts of Marxism: | Audiobook
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Dialectical and Historical Materialism
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Critique of Capitalism along the lines of Marx’s Law of Value
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Advocacy for Revolutionary and Scientific Socialism
As such, I created the following list to take you from no knowledge whatsoever of Marxism, and leave you with a strong understanding of the critical fundamentals of Marxism-Leninism in an order that builds on itself over time. Let’s get reading!
Section I: Getting Started
- Friedrich Engels’ Principles of Communism | Audiobook
The go-to FAQ of Communism. Quick to read, and easy to reference if you ever want to clear up a misconception you see or have.
- Michael Parenti’s Blackshirts and Reds | Audiobook
Breaks down fascism and its mortal enemy, communism, and their antagonistic relationship. Understanding what fascism is, where and when it rises, why it appears, and how to banish it forever is critical. It also helps debunk common anti-Communist myths, from both the “left” and the right.
Section II: Historical and Dialectical Materialism
- Georges Politzer’s Elementary Principles of Philosophy | Audiobook
By far my favorite primer on Marxist philosophy. By understanding DiaMat first, you make it easier to understand the rest of Marxism. Marxist states have historically taught Dialectical and Historical Materialism before Political Economy for that very reason.
- Friedrich Engels’ Socialism: Utopian and Scientific | Audiobook
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.
Section III: Political Economy
- Karl Marx’s Wage Labor and Capital as well as Wages, Price and Profit | Audiobook
Best taken as a pair, these essays simplify the most important parts of the Law of Value.
- Vladimir Lenin’s Imperialism, The Highest Stage of Capitalism | Audiobook
Absolutely crucial and the most important work for understanding the modern era and its primary contradictions.
Section IV: Revolutionary and Scientific Socialism
- Rosa Luxemburg’s Reform or Revolution | Audiobook
If Marxists believed reforming Capitalist society was possible, we would be the first in line for it. Sadly, it isn’t possible, which Luxemburg proves in this monumental writing.
- Vladimir Lenin’s The State and Revolution | Audiobook
Excellent refutation of revisionists and Social Democrats who think the State can be reformed, and not replaced.
Section V: Intersectionality and Solidarity
- Vikky Storm and Eme Flores’ The Gender Accelerationist Manifesto | (No Audiobook yet)
Critical reading on understanding misogny, transphobia, and homophobia, as well as how to move beyond. Uses the foundations built up in the previous works to analyze gender theory from a Historical Materialist perspective.
- Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth | (No Audiobook yet)
Decolonialism is essential to Marxism. Without having a strong, decolonial, internationalist stance, we have no path to victory nor a path to justice.
Section VI: Putting it into Practice!
- Mao Zedong’s On Practice and On Contradiction | Audiobook
Mao wrote simply and directly, targeting peasant soldiers during the Revolutionary War in China. This pair of essays equip the reader with the ability to apply the analytical tools of Dialectical Materialism to their every day practice, and better understand problems.
Congratulations, you completed your introductory reading course!
You are now educated on the fundamentals of Marxism-Leninism, and are equipped to do your own Marxist-Leninist analysis, comrade! Don’t think you can stop here, though. To be a revolutionary is to be a constant student, to be industrious, to have solidarity, to test theory and meet it with practice. Our struggle is a winnable one!
Next, I would continue to read intersectional theory. Leslie Feinberg’s Trans Liberation: Beyond Pink or Blue, J. Sakai’s Settlers: The Mythology of the White Proletariat and Juno Mac and Molly Smith’s Revolting Prostitutes are all excellent next steps in your journey.
“Everything under heaven is in utter chaos; the situation is excellent.”
- Mao Zedong
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!
I’d rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy.
-Tom Waits !
Your dog might not be your entire life, but you are the entire life of your dog
Thats a good one, also along the lines “In our dogs eyes we are the immortal elves.”
Yeah, that’s a good one too.
Every time I think about how important we are to them and how loyal they are, I end up thinking about the “Jurrasic Bark” episode in Futurama 😭
Lol F you, I’m not clicking on that 😢
That is exactly the same for your kids, it is not until their world expands a bit when they are 3-5YO; before that you are literally everything to them.
"How active you are in middle-age determines how active you will be able to be in old age. And that applies to any given decade of one’s life.
Meanwhile, on Lemmy, we got people whining about sore backs and knees once they turn 30.
Work with elderly. Use it or lose it.
Amount of people who struggle to walk because they got in a wheelchair at some point is fucking high
Maya Angelou: “Do your best until you know better, then do better”
“I’m a leaf in the wind.”
Said by Wash the pilot in the movie Serenity. I tend to whisper that to myself when things aren’t going my way and I need a reminder to just go with the flow.
I’m surprised that works for you, given what happens to him immediately after
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“Some people deserve to be punished.” - Amos Burton (actor Wes Chatham), The Expanse season 2, in reference to an opportunist who had been enriching himself during a humanitarian crisis; comparing him to pimps that force kids and vulnerable people into prostitution.
Full quote
(after beating up an uncooperative person and threatening him at gunpoint, then getting confronted about it)
I didn’t kill him. Not yet. He’s a bully, and where I come from, bullies take desperate young girls like your daughter and force them into prostitution. And when they finally get knocked up, they peddle them to johns who get off on that. After they have the kid, they push them right back out on the streets even before they have a chance to heal. And those kids, they use them, too. Some people deserve to be punished.
The Expanse has so many memorable quotes.
- “You’re not that guy. I am that GUY.”
- Amos - “What is it you’re think you’re doing?” “WHATEVER I GOD DAMN LIKE.”
- Avaserala answering to the council - “You look like shit.” “You look amazing.”
- Avaserala and Amos on Luna - “I’m just gonna take my pet nuke for a walk.”
- Miller on Ceres Station
And Amos was so great. Both the actor and the character. The books are possibly even better
- “You’re not that guy. I am that GUY.”
“Be excellent to each other”.
The standard you walk past is the standard you accept
“May I have the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”
it’s a variation of the serenity prayer and it’s helped me immensely for the last 40ish years
Happiness is for pussies.
Frankie from The Goon comics.
In my twenties life was a continual slog in a cycle of disappointment and desperation. That gave me something I could “steel myself” with.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
The whole poem by Dylan Thomas is fantastic but that line in particular often pops into my head during difficult times, like these.
This is my favorite reading of it. Gives me goosebumps. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESWzPhZWYeI
Hope is the first step on the road to disappointment.
Cynical is a word used by the frightened to describe the realistic.
