epicspongee

joined 2 years ago
[–] epicspongee@hexbear.net 0 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (3 children)

I mean no, it's not. The main anti-colonial group left in Gaza, which is massively popular, is an organization whose primary driving force is Islam. Religion is an incredibly important cultural force that is a key driving factor for Gazans and other Palestinian people in this fight. That is a materialist analysis of the situation lol because that is what the Palestinians themselves are saying. Just look at the wording used by the people there: the dead aren't the dead but 'martyrs', and this isn't just a conflict but a 'jihad' (righteous fight).

Hakim is very correctly noting the obvious here in that a vast majority of the Palestinians are Muslim and that their faith is a primary driver of this conflict for them. Painting in broad strokes isn't denying that there aren't any secular Palestinians, but talking about how Palestinians are fighting back and resisting in aggregate / at a zoomed out level.

[–] epicspongee@hexbear.net 2 points 2 years ago

Too much reading /j

[–] epicspongee@hexbear.net 13 points 2 years ago

Is this written by ChatGPT

 

It's a nonbinary person and their brother discussing different leftist theory and history each week. They start from first principles and the nonbinary person not knowing anythinggg about communism. They start out reading the communist manifesto, then state and revolution, then some anarchist literature, and so on and so on. I think they lean a bit ML, but they cover both anarchist and Marxist literature.

They've done this completely free for the past 3+ years, almost every single week. There's more than 160+ episodes. They have notes on their Patreon that they write and they donate all the money from their Patreon to a mutual aid fund. They literally earn nothing from it.

I started listening to it when the pandemic came out (was one of the earlier listeners) and it turned me into a leftist faster than any book or Twitch streamer or YouTuber ever has. The format of one person not knowing anything and asking questions while the other person 'teaches' in a chill way works wonders and makes me understand everything so much easier.

It's such a huge resource and not enough people know about it!! I wish more people would recommend it to newbies or folks starting out.

[–] epicspongee@hexbear.net 7 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I don't hate philosophy tube etc to be clear, I just find their videos to be self indulgent slop

I don't disagree, but I think she and contra hold a special place in my heart cause they were really the start to my radicalization. Contra's earlier videos really got me thinking outside of a capitalist mindset and got me to think "oh, there's alternatives to capitalism, and gender, and blah blah blah", then I read the manifesto, then I started listening to Teach Me Communism, and then I became a chronically online tankie lol. I feel like I'm not the onlyyyy one that did this (I have friends who I think consider themselves socialist and anticapitalist who still like some of Contra's newer stuff), but I definitely feel like the vast majority of her fanbase is annoyingly liberal to a fault. In her recent 'anti-JK Rowling' lane she's been pretty decent I think except for when she steps even slightly out of it.

[–] epicspongee@hexbear.net 5 points 2 years ago

I find most video essayists exhausting. Critiquing culture and media is incredibly easy.

One of my favorite and only exceptions to this is Alexander Avilla, his videos on autism self-diagnosis and queerbaiting were legitimately life-changing for me. The way he focuses on theory more and actually understands it is just so refreshing.

[–] epicspongee@hexbear.net 6 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Can someone explain what happened? Been gone for a few days. From my understanding the admin of Blahaj didn't handle some stuff well and so Hexbear defederated from Blahaj, but that's the last I heard. Did we refederate or...?