you gotta read theory

Oh, hey, this was what got me to first join the CTH subreddit. Someone on the breadtube sub said, "At least we're not like those tankies at /r/chapotraphouse" and I went to go see how bad it was.

lol same here! i was thinking it would be a 4chanlike den of depravity and quickly was like "omg everyone here is funny, welcoming, very much not like normal redditors, and the politics are good"

none of that personal responsibility fallback that every socdem/liberal subreddit was oozing with that constantly alienated me.

i didn't understand marxism/communism but was like "it can't be as bad as i thought if i agree with most everything here".
"At least we're not like those tankies at /r/chapotraphouse"

Translation: "I have reactionary opinions and got verbally slapped around for them by the mean chapo users."
Imagine being proud of being ignorant like that. Chinese peasants literally had to learn to read, the communists literally had to reorganise their entire written language so people could learn it, and these latte sipping westerners brag about how watching a Contra Points video makes them wiser and more worldly than people who actually read.
haunting everyones minds is a hobby of ours
what a mood. i got called a chapo for posting about the fash on /politics and you could track my radicalization from there. No wonder they shut it down

no all of my analysis is vibes-based tequila-sunset

: "Read? Read a... book? Why would you read theory when you FEEL theory? Hell, you ARE theory! Living, breathing theory! Onward, Mazovian soldier. You're the vanguard. The Revolution depends on YOU!"

replace the "innocent left libs" with hexbears and breadtube with yellow parenti

Me, being extremely mad at Natalie Wynn: "Arghblargle Countra-pukes! Ruining leftism!"

Natalie, releasing one piece of content in the last two years: "Controversial opinion, but J.K. Rowling is a bit transphobic. That's it. That's all I've got."

She was too busy girl bossing it up with

A lot people are willing to do a lot of mental gymnastics to try and excuse themselves from reading theory. Which, frankly, I understand. It's hard and sometimes it's boring. But there's just no substitute for it, sorry. You can settle for a bunch of second-hand information regurgitated for you, in which case hopefully you don't make the mistake of picking some debate streamer grifter to do the regurgitating, good luck

Reading theory is absolutely a cool thing to do, and while everyone can and should read it, I do wonder if it's unfair to expect everyone to read it. I'm not convinced everybody's mind is conducive to that.
- If someone can't do it, they can't do it, of course. But I also think the expectations for what an average person is capable of, in terms of engaging with complex intellectual ideas, has been dramatically lowered and some people are happy to be let off the hook.