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  • Most people - including Marxist thinkers and people here on Hexbear - do not understand what idealism is and subscribe to a critique of it that says that Platonism and most versions of religious idealism - probably the most popular examples of idealist schools of thought - are not idealist schools of thought.

    People also seem to unfortunately like to come to a conclusion first, and then try to fit the facts to match that conclusion, like when people try to argue that the PRC's economy is currently socialist despite it featuring significant private property (and, thus, profit motive). (Going to note here that there is a room to argue that it isn't capitalist on the grounds of the capitalist class not being sufficiently dominant, which I am not equipped to discuss right now, and why I do not call it such.)

    • most versions of religious idealism - probably the most popular examples of idealist schools of thought - are not idealist schools of thought.

      This. I notice this is way more problem on reddit than here, a deprogram user once told me straight up that religion is materialist. I mean i know that human mind can hold conflicting ideas, but c'mon at least admit those are conflicting. More troubling result is support people give for let's say liberation theology which is just old class collaboration idea don't even pretending it will do any liberation whatsoever - if it was not religious, the same people would bash it heavily, but it's a new version of clerical socialism from a Communist Manifesto - a holy water which priest sprinkles on heart of bourgeois.

    • like when people try to argue that the PRC's economy is currently socialist

      The easiest counter to this is that the PRC itself does not consider its economy to be socialist.

      People also seem to unfortunately like to come to a conclusion first, and then try to fit the facts to match that conclusion

      Exhibit A: The whole "Western Marxist" debate. A whole lot of people will look for someone else to blame before they blame themselves or their group.

      • What leads you to say that the PRC doesn’t consider its current economy socialist? I’ve only seen it referred to in official sources as the “socialist market economy” which they specify is a specific stage of socialist development but still socialist due to predominance of public ownership

    • Do you have any resources or examples that might clearly demonstrate what idealism is and isn't?

      • Right now, I don't have any sources ready, and I know for certain that the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy article on idealism explicitly excludes non-recent branches of idealist schools of thought.

        There are at least two definitions of ontological idealism (and two corresponding ones for ontological materialism) that I have seen. One of which characterises idealist schools of thought as positing that (some) non-material things have some sort of primacy over material things (note that non-material things are not limited to thoughts). Another definition is broader and simply requires idealist schools of thought to posit that non-material things exist (while the corresponding definition for materialism requires those schools to posit that only material things exist).

        Contrary to popular perception, idealism does not require you to believe in magic, including that we can psychically change matter. Simply, for example, subscribing to the idea that math does not depend on matter is idealist.
        Also, while religious idealism (most prominently Christian idealism) does require you to believe in magic, it also doesn't require one to believe that it is thoughts that have any sort of primacy over matter.

        I am also pretty sure that I'm not alone in considering relevant disagreements to be at least mostly linguistic in nature. I have heard that Wittgenstein said something to the same effect, but have not checked.

  • Harbouring sentiments that do not unconditionally support NATO, NAFO or uKKKraine here in Estonia are well...

    "Controversial" is putting it VERY mildly, to say the least.

  • Bottomless Pit is Death Grips' worst album. It feels like it brings nothing new to the table, like if you hear that album first and The Money Store second, you'd think Money Store shows great progress.

    • respectable take even if i like gov plates and year of the snitch less. i like BP but it's an aggressively safe album.

      • Government Plates is definitely an odd one out but I think if they hadn't made GP they probably wouldn't have evolved that style into the first half of TPTB. I think YOTS is fantastic though.

  • Drew Carey is just as good of a host of The Price is Right as Bob Barker. They're very different in their approach, but they are both just as entertaining.

  • The SANDF should intervene in Gaza at least to airdrop food and medical aid from Egypt, as well as provide armed security for convoys. IDF aren't going to attack a South African MRAP and Gauteng is literally too far away to bomb.

    South Africa should also criminalise the SAZF, SAJBD and SAFI, in addition to the Herzlia and Theodore Herzl schools for providing material and financial support to the IDF directly. Aside from the obligations set by the ICJ ruling and more vocal demands for South Africa to take more punitive actions against the Nazi entity a continent apart, the listed organizations are also directly advocating for terrorist attacks against other South Africans, especially humanitarian workers and refugees, including those who already escaped to safety in South Africa.

    I personally recommend a lawsuit against the SAJBD in the area of R2 Trillion ZAR

  • I've essentially never seen anything from the sphere of "parapolitics" that actually appears to impart any useful practical knowledge for understanding the past or predicting the future, at best it appears to be a masturbatory hobby that lets you be smug about JFK for 50+ years straight, at worst it makes you some annoying asshole who goes around saying shit like "denying the existence of snuff films is leftist flat earth" for attention.

    Also Programmed To Kill is a very stupid book.

  • “Enlightenment” is a real physical human possibility (but not necessarily how religious people describe it) that is compatible with dialectical materialism.

    • We talking ego death? Because that was a big inflection point in my journey leftwards. Parenti may have been bigger though.😅

      • You could call it “ego death.” I’m no arbiter of truth but generally I’d consider such by means of entheogens only a temporary glimpse, while it is possible to more constantly see reality past illusions. The “spiritual journey” is actually quite dialectical and in a way the internal or perceptual counterpart to Lenin’s idea of constantly getting closer to reality in the realm of ideas and science.

215 comments