It is a principle of dialectics that "contradictions are inherent in nature, the struggle between the old and the new is the process of development". Mixing religion with Marxism is a fundamental contradiction (idealism vs materialism, as pointed out by RD) that many of us leftist struggle with due to our own unique material upbringings, but one that we will ultimately overcome and unfetter ourselves off the idealism that comes with religion.
RD take is the correct one here but this is not the way to address it, it is simply unempathetic to Hakim (we don't know the source of his spirituality, might be related to his upbringing during war?). A private conversation + follow up post would've been the way to address this.
I wonder what it would take for people on this website to realize that their parasocial daddies can be and often are incorrect. Roderic took a poor communicative tact, but it's obvious to any Marxist that what Hakim wrote is, well, rather silly in its implications. Being charitable, Hakim's view is likely skewed by personal favoritism and this error would be much less likely to come up if he was discussing other religions. Otherwise, one would be forced to conclude that he was catastrophically ignorant about the political functions of religion and the social basis for its creation, and completely oblivious to this ignorance.
I do think Hakim's take is pretty bad here. It's a very idealist belief that's fundamentally not compatible with trying to understand the situation trough a materialist lense.
Implying he's a reactionary opportunist is just such a massive overreaction though. You're allowed to criticize other socialists without being insufferable about it.
i love red sails, but RD needs to shut the fuck up on twitter. or maybe focus on promoting theory and engaging in legitimate, helpful criticism instead of smearing other socialist content creators on the pettiest straw man shit
Last sigh of the oppresed? how bout you do class analysis
Gaza is a bunch of lumpenproletariat and kids, jesus christ mate, they don't have anything else to be strong outside of hope of religion. they dont control their lives in any way, israel is the camp guard counting their calories like the fuck
This is just regular Roderic, he takes things to peak seriousness and is allergic to not standing his ground on shit he thinks are fundamental matters of principle and theory.
Pretty much all his other recent posts are about the Palestinian genocide, he just thinks for whatever various reasons that this kind of thinking is opportunism and harmful rather than helpful, and because he is the way he is he feels he has to stand his ground on that point of theory.
We should unite with all progressive forces including religious ones. My full critical support is with the PIJ. It totally makes sense for us to look into Islam to understand that perspective and the role it’s played in history and the present. However, ultimately we are materialists and it’s kind of weird to evangelize to Marxists. In this instance Day is principled, but kind of annoying.
Edit: I don’t think Hakim is proselytizing anymore
Religion is the opiate of the masses. Opiates are good medicine to help people get through pain
People in the middle east have alot of pain to endure. Hakim as a doctor would understand this
I feel like Day could've been a bit more tactful, but that doesn't detract from the fact that he's right. Instead of outright rejecting what he's saying, we should examine what he's saying more carefully instead of outright rejecting beliefs we don't like.
Roderic has always been a pseud. I don't get why people take him seriously. His takes are passable if he like spends 90% of his time organizing, but as a take-giver-with-no-real-life-organizing-to-show-for-it, they're complete ass. So much mid analysis.
I used to think he has good takes until I saw him railing against Modern Monetary Theory (MMT), on Twitter (funnily enough, it is also somehow brought up in the bottom screenshot of this post).
These people think they understand Marxism, yet they don’t even recognize that Stalin’s economic policies were not only strikingly similar to the principles of MMT, but possibly the only time the core principles of MMT has been put into practice.
Why do you think the USSR was the only country that achieved remarkable success in state planning? It was the financial system put into place by Stalin, which was immediately thrown into dustbin as soon as Khrushchev took power. Not even China could achieve that without relying on foreign investments and cheap labor.