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We can be friends until the revolution
(lemmy.ca)
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this post was submitted on 10 Dec 2025
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Lefty Memes
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Definitely an interesting video, I already see where I need to go back throught and take a few more notes. I thought he put forward an interesting if a bit simplistic view of coalition building.
But it has a few problematic areas. For one, this should not be considered an even glancingly accurate depiction of Marxism. And I'm not complaining about his unwillingness to engage with any historical subjects, only theoretical ones. And I won't say that some of his criticisms might apply to certain vulgar Marxist tendencies. But as far as Marxism being out of date, he is fundamentally a pre-marxist, not a post Marxist. The fundamental insight of Marxism, that material analysis should be human-centered, conceiving of a unified subject and object rather than separate categories of analysis, is completely lost. For all his talk of "the people," any strip of humanity is sacrificed for engagement with a method. As Marx said of Feuerbach, he can conceive of "single individuals and civil society" but can't place the individual in society, nor society in the individual. His early idea that change starts with the individual is sort of correct, but he doesnt advance a step beyond this insight, and instead engages with theory instead of "the people." As such, he's an idealist, even if he is the kind to imagine a better world he won't be able to change himself or anything else.
Other limitations that I noticed, is that he spends a lot of time talking about Gramsci's theories of hegemony superficially, then spends a lot of time talking about language and post - structuralism. But the fundamental insight of Gramsci, the whole basis of his theory of hegemony is language. His theory of hegemony is based on the risorgiamento period in Italy, which allowed Gramsci to concretely develop his theory by paying close attention to the way that the Florentine dialect spread across Italy, replacing local dialects with The Florentine one, which is what we now know as the Italian language. Through analysis of the spread of language he was able to trace the spread of the ruling class superstructure, which included other things like politics, culture, and finally, power.
The fact that he avoided concrete analysis in order to talk about postmodern theories is pretty glaring imo. As an organizer I'm a bit at a loss for what to do with these theories, but like I said, I wanna go back and review. Its def a perspective I haven't heard before, and maybe if Marx's fundamental insights were included, then the method could have some practical application. But as it is described by him, I think its impractical and idealistic.
Otherwise, its a good video, very informative, but if he bothered to actually understand Marx then it could be so much better. Instead, he'll be stuck using very advanced forms of flawed bourgeois reasoning, which leads nowhere.
Thanks for the share!