I have a few things including ADHD that make it very difficult to sit and read. I have a very difficult time processing information I’m looking at, and have to read a section over and over and over to even know what it’s saying then trying to dissect what it means... it’s very difficult. podcasts/listening to RUclips videos are what help me most. Audiobooks are still a bit much to digest, but better for me than reading a book. I’m 22 and I’ve only successfully finished a handful of books in my life. And I most definitely do NOT say that proudly. It makes me feel dumb. I know I’m not dumb, but still- I could probably count on one hand the amount of books I’ve finished... and do I even know what those books were about or what they said? Sadly, not really.
I feel the same way. I have a really hard time reading books as well, and feel guilty that I haven't read more. I watch a lot of RUclips to digest leftist thought, and that typically works a lot better for me.
I'd also like to add that for people that are from non-english speaking countries (like I am) it can be a lot harder to get access to books that were originally written in English. So, for me, while I've read books since, it was a lot easier to get into leftism through youtube and other resources on the internet. p.s. my favourite activity rn is watching patches & parley videos while sewing on patches myself :D Today I sewed a pink triangle on my denim jacket's sleeve.
that makes a lot of sense !! sometimes the anarchist library has translations of works, and i believe marxists.org does as well? (also, now we have matching jacket sleeves !)
As someone with ADHD I have a very difficult time sitting and reading or even listening to a book if it’s going too slow for me so when I was just getting into leftism and leftist work I’d often watch video essays about certain topics and even listened to debates by leftists to get a good grasp of the ideology and tried to make sure to find works by poc leftists to get a good idea of the intersectionality of it
This was an amazing video!! My biggest problem with the left, is the amount of gatekeeping from other lefties, for ‘not being a true leftist/anarchist’ bc you didn’t read alot of Marx or Kropotkin. Not everyone will have the energy, mindspace or time to read so much theory (especially the working class). Its crucial to read theory as much as you can of course, but doing praxis and familiarising yourself with theory and leftism is good enough - it’s a journey for everyone, not a competition
honestly your point about "not wanting other kids to feel intimidated" just makes me think about how schools (at least mine) really drilled into a lot of brains that you are in competition with your peers, hell you are in competition with everyone, and if you "fail" (funny enough how the metric always changed depending on who was judging) then you are "lazy" or "a bad kid" or "are being difficult". I legit think that around 85ish% of both bullying and school related stress comes from this notion, and hoo-boy the more years I exist the more I see why that was such a common theme (thanks for nothing capitalism, ya asshole)
As a disabled poc leftist whose first language isn’t English, I personally dislike when people treat us like were stupid and can’t understand theory. Because most of us can understand theory, we literally LIVE theory. But at the same time I feel like I HAVE to almost prove myself to white leftists so they don’t treat me like an idiot. It’s just such a difficult conversation to have, that I mainly find myself just discussing leftist theory with only poc leftists. But that’s just me personally.
i think people underestimate how draining reading can be, because it's one of the few mediums that relies almost entirely on the audience to make sense of it. plays, movies, podcasts, comic books, graphic novels, tv shows, music, all have at least one element that for a lot of people doesn't require effort to absorb. even if im extremely tired, i can still consume any of those types of media, but reading requires me to turn a bunch of squiggly lines into complex thoughts, ideas, and images, and sometimes that's just too much for my brain. and this is coming from someone who reads shakespeare for fun. reading is a LOT, y'all
You should consider adding The Anarchist Library to the description. Some book stores I recommend are Firestorm Books which is a co-op. Their store can be found at www.firestorm.coop Little Black Cart has more experimental anarchist literature. They can be found at littleblackcart.com
I loved this video! I saw another comment that said something about not speaking english and traductions etc, that can totally be an issue! I'm from Argentina and I recommend a few things for any leftist latinos that are just starting: - usually independent book editorials? (idk how to say it lol) have great traductions!, cant speak for every country in latinamerica but for the most part if you find a leftist book editorial they will have the basics covered. - If you dont know anything about classics European centered leftist, maybe start with a latino ones! Im sure we were all tougth at school about our local revolutions like la revolucion de mayo, and el che guevara! Many of the people involved in those revolutions had a lot in common with marx, lennin, etc. Anti colonialism is the base of our letftist thougts as latinos. - And lastly, reach out to your local leftist organizacions! Even if they are not all that great, they sure have amazing resorces! A great way to better understand these leftist concepts that may seem complicated is to relate them to our own history as Latinoamerica. Find leftist authors from your country, there are way more than you think. There are soooo many resources, podcast and books in spanish, as well as organizations and movements!
i think a lot of the "reading more than one book a year..." etc. comments are more based around the fact that many people find it difficult to focus on books, to actually gain the motivation to read or like you mentioned: reading has been ruined for them. i personally love reading, i love learning, i love educating. although, i find it extremely difficult to actually pick up a book and focus on it. it's difficult, my lack of motivation directs itself towards things i love and things i hate. i'm a leftist punk, i'm not new to leftism, but i have not at all read a lot of leftist books. i educate myself, i educate others, i learn theories. i care so much about the theories, and i'm trying, all of us are, but we cannot all learn in the same way. this is not something that is easy to navigate, and there's really not a yes or no answer. i think we should be allowed to ask questions, even if we've not read anything about it, because some of us cannot physically bring ourselves to read. but, when someone asks a question that contradicts what someone has said (prison abolition: but what about the racists?) they're not asking a question in good faith. they're asking the question as a contradiction, despite knowing absolutely nothing about the topic, which is a dick move. there's thin lines, very thin lines between everything! there will never be a peak way of learning, because it's different for all of us (i know that that's what you said, i'm accentuating it), it's not something that's one size fits all. learning is not something that is one size fits all.
also! thank you for being who you are. i've always been punk, but i went through a phase of being unsure about where i was in my political beliefs, aesthetic choices and really just life in general. i'm slowly getting back on track, and your videos have most definitely been a big help in getting back to being myself. you're looking great and your videos have always been a joy to listen to, keep doing what you do, you're helping a lot of people :)
Personnaly, I have hard time reading because it requires being focused on one thing, and also its difficult for me to not listen to something while im doing things but I cant read and listen to a video/music at the same time. Overall, I find learning from videos much more accessible
pro tip: look up a learning styles quiz and find what kind of learning best suits you. it will help you a lot in absorbing information and finding what works best for you
Let's also not forget that some people learn leftism from life experience rather than a book, and those are the people we should listen to most in my opinion...
I was talking (more like arguing) with my dad about protests and calls to defund the police in the summer last year and he brought up/asked what i thought about the idea of abolishing the police and i said something like "i dont know that much about it, but im open to researching more about it" and he said "how could you say that??" like he is a boomer and a fox news sheep and brainwashed by the capitalist system, but i had always thought he was generally open to things especially to things he hasn't learned about yet, and it just kinda shocked me. Since then Ive been less inclined to get into "debates" with him, especially since discovering that im shit at "debating" and i just dont have the mental energy to try to convince him to be more open to just generally just being wrong. its frustrating, but im more coming to terms with it and trying to focus my energy on reading and videos and documentaries and stuff instead. ty for the video also, i love the patches and parley talks
I LOVE the smell and paper from books, I love getting lost in the pages and the story, I can't believe there are "anti-book" people out there! It's so relaxing to read a physical book, nothing online or on a kindle... It's actually almost "grounding" to actually have a real book in your hands, physical touch, turning pages, and the wonderful artwork on the hardcover and softcover books... I could go on, but I will admit I'm a VERY tactile person! I feel bad for people who haven't experienced reading a real physical book. Nothing wrong with kindle or audiobooks/listening to books online, but I really think it takes away from some of the sensory input from a real book... I'm done ranting lol
I'd say if you want to talk about personal opinions that you have personal experience with it can be more informative to hear from their view rather than someone who had researched it but never experienced it.
definitely !! i feel like that’s why i love so many memoirs... it’s nice to learn something and get a new perspective from something that isn’t theory.
children are punk as hell you tell them not to do something you do something they are gonna do it more YEP hahahhaha truer words have never been spoken! your so cool ashton i wanna be like you someday!
I actually want to push back on this idea a bit. Yes, if you tell someone not to do something a lot of kids will do it, but a lot of kids won't. Whether that's because of a strict childhood (such as one with punishments for disobeying), feeling insecure in the situation or feeling like they can't say no, or just naturally seeking adult praise for obedience, there are reasons why a lot of kids just do what they're told. The main reason I'm arguing with you on this is because this idea can be used to justify some actions that shouldn't be justified and to dismiss good ideas that might be suggested in their place. Like, if you think your kid is just going to disobey you because that's what they do, you might not take the time to try to get then to understand where you're coming from when you tell them to do something, because "it won't matter, they won't do it anyway". Or you might use it as an excuse not to teach kids to behave kindly towards others because if you tell them to do something they'll do the opposite. But also, I wasn't that type of kid, I think mostly because of a not great home life. As I've grown up I've had to unpack a lot, including that, but I know as a kid if someone had told me not to do something I would have obeyed them because doing otherwise could have set them off, so the statement doesn't feel like it rings true to me. Sorry for the long reply, it's just been something I've been thinking about.
My main occupation is learning how to be a better parkour athlete; that zaps the majority of my time and energy. When I rest from training, there are so many other things I like doing other than reading. Like watching your videos! Other left tubers engage in debate, and my tired butt sits on the sideline and observes the arguments and how they play out so I can understand what works and what doesn't. There is an endless amount of bigotry you can counter post against online that doesn't require reading. I can spend all day engaging with sexist people online. Some people see that as a waste of time, but the internet is a wonderful place to have 50 conversations in a day. That's 50 people's sexism I can counter. That's 50 more people than I can challenge without the wonders of the internet. Engage Engage Engage. That's my strategy. Over the years I will have tried to reach 1000's of people with counters, And that seems so much more powerful than doing nothing at all. I ain't read shiiiit so far.... but I know I'll benefit if I can get it done. Audio books would do me well. I love listening, I love learning, but being with a physical book isn't my favorite thing, and there are other things I know give me more joy.
Personally, as someone who cannot read more than a few paragraphs, I go by the sentiment that so long as you get the right ideas, it doesn't matter how you get to that conclusion. It seems strange to me that some leftists think there's this barrier of entry of reading, then turn around and be against ableism and classism... Like, I think reading theory is important if you can, but some people can't and there's other ways to learn. And (not that this video said this) I'm not the exception because I have ADHD, because I have autism. If nuerotypical people also have genuine trouble reading, they can't be held to some seperate standard that coddles me.
I'm not very far in rn so i might edit this comment but for me it isn't a thing of being too cool to read-- i actually highly value reading and books, and I'd love to read lots like i did when i was younger. but i struggle to actually focus on a book for so long - not being able to multitask really screws me up
Hey Ashton! Loved this video. As someone who used to be huge reader but then life shit happened (depression (tm)) I’ve been trying to get back into reading and the way you present the resources and leftist literature has been (personally) very helpful for me and I have definitely gotten back into reading (slowly). I genuinely love learning I just takes me more time these days to focus
Yes, thank you! I hate 'To Kill a Mockingbkrd', but it was taught to us by a teacher that let us know it was her favorite. Everybody felt pressured to agree with her on it because this teacher was already finicky and flippant in how she would grade. She graded our notes for some sections. Like the notes just for our own use. She graded the content and not just that we had some. I got docked for writing Charles "Suck My" Dickens in my private notes about 'Great Expectations' (which I also hated, so thank fvck for South Park, which was fairly accurate up to the Genesis Machine run on tears). This teacher also straight up complained about not liking 'Animal Farm' and not wanting to cover it, but having to. So the other students weren't as engaged with it, which was a shame.
Not to mention expecting ppl to read theory is ableist. Not just to ppl with ADHD and so on that make it hard to focus, it's ableist to ppl with literacy issues.
i love books, i literally work at a library, but as a student i have no time or energy to actually read, and haven't had either since i have gotten into leftist ideas and punk culture, so i have to watch videos about it and thats why i like your content (also youre just really cool and i look up to you as a transmasc and your voice is nice)
i miss reading tbh :( ur recs are getting me back into it. i stopped because of my depression and the past couple years i probably havent read more than 3 books. but now im getting into leftist literature and its been a massive help tbh. thanks sm
School ruined my attention span for books. Now even if I pick up a book I *want* to read ill kinda read while thinking of other shit and all the info just wont sink in and ill have to read it ten more times.
For me the best way of (un)learning is talking w other ppl be it in a workshop where different ppl talk about stuff or me just listening/reading to thoughts of other people. But workshops!! So great and also talking w other people :)
I think people gatekeeping leftism because someones hasnt read theory is very ableist and ironic. I havent read theory, i cant. I dont have access to theory i can actually digest. Maybe if i could find a free audiobook that might work but even then i get lost in the words and only retain a bit. Plus if i talk to leftists who have already read theory chances are im gonna learn the same things from them as i would from reading theory. And growing up in the world in an array of marginalized groups has radicalized me quite a lot already with my own experiences. I think activism and helping your community is way more important than reading theory. Just my thoughts.
I have a lot of anxiety over reading. I have adhd and was diagnosed at 17. I've always been really slow at reading, and since I've always gotten good grades in literally everything else, I've been shamed a lot for being a slow reader (i take about 20 minutes for 2-3 pages). I listen to a lot of podcasts, watch a lot of videos and so on instead. I really wanna read "are prisons absolete", i just need to find an audiobook version of it.
i had to read a book in 10th grade "der schlund" (im from germany) and if i actually had taken that book seriously i think i would have really liked it, but my teacher never told me how good that book was (for me) so i read like half of it and like a few weeks later i heared from few of my classmates the stuff that happens in the second half of the book and i was kinda stunt that my teacher would even let us read a book like that and i was kinda angry that, that teacher didnt told me what to expect from the book and got the excited for it. i was like 14 to 15 years old so, books at that time were really nothing i was interested in, but i think i could have been...
Just a rec, if you ever see this: *Marxism: Philosophy and economics*, by Thomas Sowell. Granted, Sowell is a libertarian economist, but this was my first read of any Marxist/Communist/Socialist literature that perfectly covered Marx's philosophy and economics, without dumbing it down.
I read To Kill a Mockingbird my freshman year (what a waste of time) and it was really uncomfortable hearing my classmates and teacher say the n word in the classroom
I struggle to read or research anything outside my specific interests and even then I can't really do it from a book for some reason (no clue why) so the only books I use are either really simple or for looking stuff up quickly. Being nd is just weird with the stuff you can't do tbh
your outfit looks dope by the way, i love that it shows off your tattoo. as for the vid, i call myself a leftist and this has inspired me to do more reading. i‘ve read a bit as well as watched documentaries and podcasts and follow leftists online especially on youtube. though theory isn’t my ultimate favorite reading and i‘m better with reading more modern leftist books or explanations and stuff online, hopefully i can find theory that’s good to engage with.
So.... I do appreciate that you posted resources. But I do think there is a problem with ableism in leftist spaces, especially when it comes to theory, especially theory with heavy academic language. I am dyslexic with some other learning disabilities. But I do enjoy reading. But because of my Dylexia there is a lot of things with heavy academic language that is hard for me to understand because besides it being a thick book, its also written in a language that I don't understand and will take me a long time to be able to understand. I've been in a lot situations where people who are college educated in a way where they understand this language would get mad at me for not knowing the language even though I was able to understand the concepts once they were explained in a language that I could understand. And these have all been real life spaces. Even with the essays and podcast, I end up spending the majority of the time looking up vocabulary words to the point that its difficult to actually digest the concept. Unless I reread the entire thing multiple times, which is exhausting for my brain and takes up a lot of time that I don't have, especially because we live under capitalism and I have to work a lot. I remember going to a prison abolition talk, and it was advertised as like explaining the concept, but I noticed people were mad at me for asking questions about the topic and like the only reason I asked the questions is because there was not an accessible source for me, and I thought that was what this meeting was supposed to be. It can come across as stuck up sometimes, especially when I get the concept, but people cannot or refuse to engage in the discussion because I dont have the vocabulary. It can also come across as stuck up when college students will talk down to people who actually experience the oppression that they have merely been educated on. Not saying that you're doing this, but it does happen a lot and it does happen in real life spaces and it can be incredibly stressful to navigate that. And I do feel like a lot of people are really dismissive about the ableism and like I get not wanting to answer a bunch of questions. But there needs to be a truly accessible resource that isn't so heavy with academic language, or at least will explain the academic language while explaining the topics. Im gonna check out your resources in hopes that some of these will be helpful. But as far as my education goes, it's taken years for me to understand the basic academic language that people around me use and all this time, it just feels like I was missing out on these concepts that would of been easier for me to understand if it was made accessible in the first place. I hope this makes sense, I'm not like against reading or learning, I enjoy these things quite a bit. I just think that its just factual that it isn't always accessible and that we need that.
I also think that it depends on if your country/area has actual politically active leftist groups/ communities. You learn a lot talking and discussing face to face with people on varied issues and acting on it. I feel like a lot of American leftist (mostly white ngl) throw around theory, trying to play who’s the smartest in the room, instead of effectively discussing the subject, find real world solution and then doing what’s need to be done. Opinions can be nourished by literatures but most leftist around the world get their opinions from their lived experiences, not an old dead racist man. Privileged Americans needed to read to become leftist, the rest of us just never had the choice. And often they feel really disconnected from reality, like yeah you’re discussing theory on the internet (not targeting debate bros at all here 👀) but it doesn’t actively help anyone.
I like this video but i would like to add this. People on the all side of the political spectrum should read the opposite lit,because i think that it would change people mind and all would know were people get there train of thought to lead to chage in world.
personally the "I can't read" joke is a way for me to joke about my own academic trauma i was basically discouraged from talking to my classmates because i was "too smart" and so i read a lot to cope with having like one friend (that the teachers didn't approve of) so as soon as i got to middle school i slowly stopped reading because i was able to actually make friends lmao i love reading still, but i never want to sit and read a physical book because #trauma so instead i use ebooks, audiobooks, video essays, etc. because i still love learning
It's easy for my brain to approach educating myself as a time commitment and be scare of doing it. Once I get into a book I love it, but since reading (and most other ways of learning) is something you have to focus into and not really multitask during, it's really difficult to motivate myself to do.
As a kid I used to read a lot as a form of pure procrastination or out of boredom, not curiosity. Since then I read mostly guides, textbooks and similar stuff where I can pick a single chapter covering an interesting topic. Follow someone's mind through hundreds of pages? meh...
I used to love reading and I still love it when i get my hands on a book thats like part 13 of a long series i love and i swallow that in a day, but other than that once a year moment i just dont have the enErgy to read anything out of uni (or the things i have to read for school either), because uni just requires you to read so much and a lot of it is overly wordy bullshit. because of school, i dont have the focus or time to read anything else anymore. and honestly i always understand "i cant read" jokes as coming from that place of being unable to focus, not having the time etc. and not "reading isnt cool", at least online. so especially for theory where reading it isnt necessarily fun i just cant get myself to do it as of rn. it's not that i dont wAnt to, i rlly do, my brain just says no
Tw discussion of ableism, school related trauma and panic attacks I have, ever since I had learned how to read, read novels at a fast pace in my free time. I just fell in love with books and read way too much at the expense of other stuff like homework and sleep. I suppose it’s a case of ADHD hyper fixation and hyperfocus for me. But being assigned books to read at school has most of the time ABSOLUTELY SUCKED. There are some examples to the contrary. In 6th grade we read this novel which is just a random novel with teens as it’s target audience, but I LOVED that book and the teacher told us to not read ahead of the other students and leave our books at class, but I was already far beyond the point to which she had said we should read, and I was HOOKED. This book exactly fit my interests at the time. So I secretly took it home with me and read half of it in a day. On the next day, I forgot the book at home and that’s how I got my only one of this kind of angry letters sent to parents when a kid especially misbehaves, where you are thrown out of school when you get 3 in one year, in my entire time at school. However, that was a sole example of a book I liked we read in school. After that I absolutely HATED having to read them and I physically couldn’t. Like my eyes just moved over the words and my mind refused to interpret them, while I spaced out without noticing. I’m from Germany and I absolutely HATE Goethe and Schiller because of this. Like they probably were very good authors or else they wouldn’t have gained this fame, but the german they used is this weird older version which is like half a different language because the books are so old and language changes. I especially hate Schiller because his books were especially bad and the points he was making with them were very often shit takes. Goethe has kinda redeemed himself because die leiden des Jungen Werther is a pretty good Book which is actually not as terribly hard to understand and I kinda liked the beautiful descriptions of nature and related to some scenes where the main character talked about daydreaming (I think one quote that I especially related to was “I create a world within myself” or something along these lines, the teacher we had (who was a shit teacher that messed up my mental health extremely because she basically bullied me for my ADHD symptoms and caused me to have panic attacks in class regularly because she loved to humiliate me in front of the entire class and that’s a trigger for me) ranted about how she thought this quote was absolutely weird and that it was proof of how Werther (the main character) was going crazy or sth (and have I mentioned that she absolutely hated fantasy and sci-fi? She seemed to think that stories set in a fictional world are somehow absurd, which kinda explains her thinking that the quote about Werther daydreaming and building a fictional world was absurd)). Idk getting older has decreased my ability to read a lot. School has basically trained me to hate learning and to an extent reading, and now uni is draining me of energy so that I’m too exhausted to do any of my hobbies like reading and I rarely read anything other than comics and manga, or visual novels, or listening to podcasts. I really wish I had the time and energy to read, I miss getting lost in some fictional universe and epic story, I just wish I could read novels again.
Completely off-topic but as someone whose native language is German I love how you pronounce German words. Like first off all your pronounciation is super, super good but it's also kinda cute and unique and idk I just love it.
In 7th grade the whole grade HAD to read A Christmas Carol and now I realize how fucked up that is. If that happened now I would probably refuse to. As an athiest who also practices non religious witchcraft I guess (it's confusing) that's so gross to me to be forced to read a Christian book. Like fuck that. That's fine if you celebrate Christmas but I don't! I celebrate Yule to celebrate nature and the beauty of Earth - not Jesus.
I'm doing my best to make school reading fun by thinking of it as "I'm only reading it because I want to learn". I love to learn and am going to do my best to read a lot more leftist works by non-white people because that's definitely something incredibly important that I haven't spent enough time on. Thanks for making this video, it brought that to the front of my mind :)
I'm young, I'm on my path to leftism but I don't understand a lot. Yeah, school's biased, many things on the internet are biased, and I'm bad at talking to people without being afraid of being judged. What I'm trying to say is that I don't know where to start, no one is teaching me, and I'm lost. Everything is so overwhelming and there are lots of gatekeepers that scare me off. What I'm trying to say is that, any recommendations??????
Good video! I would also recommend for baby leftists and veterans to do study circles. A lot of good leftist works like the works by Lenin, Mao & co have been written in the context of study circles.
my quarantine project is (finally) reading marx' kapital and while i love him, this video is a nice break because hooo boy it's a Big Book (or, three books, but ykno) also, that audiobook playlist is 👌🏻👌🏻👌🏻
I'm just hoping I get a random boost of motivation to finish this book thing bc man I just can't focus that long like I tried a bit ago but I didn't retain any of it
I think a big thing for me is that when i read a book especially if its long and written difficult and/or not in my first language i dont remember shit after a few weeks/months if i dont take notes on every chapter? And that rly frustrates me i can read the same book as other ppl bjt when we talk abt it it feels like i havent read it at all? I know/think its "just" my dissociation and untreated adhd and it will get better when i get (more) help for that but yeah. Also fuck you @ all the elitist leftists i know i used to feel inferior bc i didnt finish school and most of them are in academics but i think its more important to be open to critique from other ppl ESPECIALLY ppl that are opressed in a way youre not? And as you said no one is ever "done" learning but i feel thats a thing im "better" at? I know lots of white older men who just refuse to listen let alone believe anyone when they are confronted w their racism,transmisia,sexism,ableism etc etc but they still have so much power(tm) in the leftist scene we share.
Honestly im a big fan of books but in an unexpected way i guess. I own quite a few books i absolutely love and plan to read. I feel like books are more satisfying and more straight to the point (no need to do researches through keywords and being sure its viable source), with a book you know what you get. The problem is i have quite a lot of disorders that cause me to have a low attention span and i also have a slightly lower iq than most people which, i believe, causes headaches when i intensively focus. I try to read books from time to time but its always a page or so. I managed to only finish 3 books in my entire life which, ngl, pained me in school. I wish i could read some leftist theory but its both physically and mentally tiring and at times painful for me. I'm glad to see you address this issue!! (I still plan on finding a friend who's willing to read the books i own out loud for me. Its easier for me to take in information verbally for some reasons)
Ok now i finished watching the video and it might seem dumb but i never really knew what audiobooks were and such and since you recommended/mentionned them in this video quite often, i looked into them and it seems like theyd be the perfect thing for me! Ill probably read (listen? Haha) to some audiobooks from now on :D
I don't think it is an unpopular opinion for people to dislike(or think it sucks) To Kill A Mockingbird, The Chrysalids, Of Mice And Men, all those books people read in school. A lot of people I know who enjoy reading didn't like To Kill A Mockingbird especially. I liked it though.
Omg, I used to watch this channel alot back when I was trying to figure out who I was. I was a tomboy my whole life and felt mentally like a male, I begged my mom for T and never got it. Its weird how I felt and how things changed over the years. My mom knew I was a lesbian and she also knew "most women want other women." she talked that shit for awhile till it stuck in my brain. I was like a dom, always wanted to be in control and on top. I cried when I was four because santa didnt give me a peen, i mean c'mon. But now, i figured i'm just a masculine female who dont take anyones shit. So like i was really confused, even more so the fact I went from binding, boy clothes and being a "touch-me-not" trans to being submissive in ripped up grungy girl clothes, begging my gf for cuddles and pettings. I'm glad i didnt get on T, cus i dont really like guys too much now and it wouldve been hell to turn into one. Like nah, i like my tits and vag. Weird.
I have a few things including ADHD that make it very difficult to sit and read. I have a very difficult time processing information I’m looking at, and have to read a section over and over and over to even know what it’s saying then trying to dissect what it means... it’s very difficult. podcasts/listening to RUclips videos are what help me most. Audiobooks are still a bit much to digest, but better for me than reading a book. I’m 22 and I’ve only successfully finished a handful of books in my life. And I most definitely do NOT say that proudly. It makes me feel dumb. I know I’m not dumb, but still- I could probably count on one hand the amount of books I’ve finished... and do I even know what those books were about or what they said? Sadly, not really.
same. tysm for saying this
I feel the same way. I have a really hard time reading books as well, and feel guilty that I haven't read more. I watch a lot of RUclips to digest leftist thought, and that typically works a lot better for me.
Wao, thank you for make me realize im not alone. I learn very fast through videos but i often dont understand what i read. I thought i was dumb.
I'd also like to add that for people that are from non-english speaking countries (like I am) it can be a lot harder to get access to books that were originally written in English. So, for me, while I've read books since, it was a lot easier to get into leftism through youtube and other resources on the internet.
p.s. my favourite activity rn is watching patches & parley videos while sewing on patches myself :D Today I sewed a pink triangle on my denim jacket's sleeve.
that makes a lot of sense !! sometimes the anarchist library has translations of works, and i believe marxists.org does as well? (also, now we have matching jacket sleeves !)
As someone with ADHD I have a very difficult time sitting and reading or even listening to a book if it’s going too slow for me so when I was just getting into leftism and leftist work I’d often watch video essays about certain topics and even listened to debates by leftists to get a good grasp of the ideology and tried to make sure to find works by poc leftists to get a good idea of the intersectionality of it
This was an amazing video!! My biggest problem with the left, is the amount of gatekeeping from other lefties, for ‘not being a true leftist/anarchist’ bc you didn’t read alot of Marx or Kropotkin. Not everyone will have the energy, mindspace or time to read so much theory (especially the working class). Its crucial to read theory as much as you can of course, but doing praxis and familiarising yourself with theory and leftism is good enough - it’s a journey for everyone, not a competition
illiterate pride 😔✊🏽
honestly your point about "not wanting other kids to feel intimidated" just makes me think about how schools (at least mine) really drilled into a lot of brains that you are in competition with your peers, hell you are in competition with everyone, and if you "fail" (funny enough how the metric always changed depending on who was judging) then you are "lazy" or "a bad kid" or "are being difficult".
I legit think that around 85ish% of both bullying and school related stress comes from this notion, and hoo-boy the more years I exist the more I see why that was such a common theme (thanks for nothing capitalism, ya asshole)
thank you for blessing us with an upload
As a disabled poc leftist whose first language isn’t English, I personally dislike when people treat us like were stupid and can’t understand theory. Because most of us can understand theory, we literally LIVE theory. But at the same time I feel like I HAVE to almost prove myself to white leftists so they don’t treat me like an idiot. It’s just such a difficult conversation to have, that I mainly find myself just discussing leftist theory with only poc leftists. But that’s just me personally.
i think people underestimate how draining reading can be, because it's one of the few mediums that relies almost entirely on the audience to make sense of it. plays, movies, podcasts, comic books, graphic novels, tv shows, music, all have at least one element that for a lot of people doesn't require effort to absorb. even if im extremely tired, i can still consume any of those types of media, but reading requires me to turn a bunch of squiggly lines into complex thoughts, ideas, and images, and sometimes that's just too much for my brain. and this is coming from someone who reads shakespeare for fun. reading is a LOT, y'all
You should consider adding The Anarchist Library to the description. Some book stores I recommend are Firestorm Books which is a co-op. Their store can be found at www.firestorm.coop
Little Black Cart has more experimental anarchist literature. They can be found at littleblackcart.com
I loved this video! I saw another comment that said something about not speaking english and traductions etc, that can totally be an issue! I'm from Argentina and I recommend a few things for any leftist latinos that are just starting:
- usually independent book editorials? (idk how to say it lol) have great traductions!, cant speak for every country in latinamerica but for the most part if you find a leftist book editorial they will have the basics covered.
- If you dont know anything about classics European centered leftist, maybe start with a latino ones! Im sure we were all tougth at school about our local revolutions like la revolucion de mayo, and el che guevara! Many of the people involved in those revolutions had a lot in common with marx, lennin, etc. Anti colonialism is the base of our letftist thougts as latinos.
- And lastly, reach out to your local leftist organizacions! Even if they are not all that great, they sure have amazing resorces!
A great way to better understand these leftist concepts that may seem complicated is to relate them to our own history as Latinoamerica. Find leftist authors from your country, there are way more than you think. There are soooo many resources, podcast and books in spanish, as well as organizations and movements!
i think a lot of the "reading more than one book a year..." etc. comments are more based around the fact that many people find it difficult to focus on books, to actually gain the motivation to read or like you mentioned: reading has been ruined for them. i personally love reading, i love learning, i love educating. although, i find it extremely difficult to actually pick up a book and focus on it. it's difficult, my lack of motivation directs itself towards things i love and things i hate. i'm a leftist punk, i'm not new to leftism, but i have not at all read a lot of leftist books. i educate myself, i educate others, i learn theories. i care so much about the theories, and i'm trying, all of us are, but we cannot all learn in the same way. this is not something that is easy to navigate, and there's really not a yes or no answer. i think we should be allowed to ask questions, even if we've not read anything about it, because some of us cannot physically bring ourselves to read. but, when someone asks a question that contradicts what someone has said (prison abolition: but what about the racists?) they're not asking a question in good faith. they're asking the question as a contradiction, despite knowing absolutely nothing about the topic, which is a dick move. there's thin lines, very thin lines between everything! there will never be a peak way of learning, because it's different for all of us (i know that that's what you said, i'm accentuating it), it's not something that's one size fits all. learning is not something that is one size fits all.
also! thank you for being who you are. i've always been punk, but i went through a phase of being unsure about where i was in my political beliefs, aesthetic choices and really just life in general. i'm slowly getting back on track, and your videos have most definitely been a big help in getting back to being myself. you're looking great and your videos have always been a joy to listen to, keep doing what you do, you're helping a lot of people :)
Personnaly, I have hard time reading because it requires being focused on one thing, and also its difficult for me to not listen to something while im doing things but I cant read and listen to a video/music at the same time. Overall, I find learning from videos much more accessible
whovian 💙🖤
pro tip: look up a learning styles quiz and find what kind of learning best suits you. it will help you a lot in absorbing information and finding what works best for you
Let's also not forget that some people learn leftism from life experience rather than a book, and those are the people we should listen to most in my opinion...
I was talking (more like arguing) with my dad about protests and calls to defund the police in the summer last year and he brought up/asked what i thought about the idea of abolishing the police and i said something like "i dont know that much about it, but im open to researching more about it" and he said "how could you say that??" like he is a boomer and a fox news sheep and brainwashed by the capitalist system, but i had always thought he was generally open to things especially to things he hasn't learned about yet, and it just kinda shocked me. Since then Ive been less inclined to get into "debates" with him, especially since discovering that im shit at "debating" and i just dont have the mental energy to try to convince him to be more open to just generally just being wrong. its frustrating, but im more coming to terms with it and trying to focus my energy on reading and videos and documentaries and stuff instead. ty for the video also, i love the patches and parley talks
I LOVE the smell and paper from books, I love getting lost in the pages and the story, I can't believe there are "anti-book" people out there! It's so relaxing to read a physical book, nothing online or on a kindle... It's actually almost "grounding" to actually have a real book in your hands, physical touch, turning pages, and the wonderful artwork on the hardcover and softcover books... I could go on, but I will admit I'm a VERY tactile person! I feel bad for people who haven't experienced reading a real physical book. Nothing wrong with kindle or audiobooks/listening to books online, but I really think it takes away from some of the sensory input from a real book... I'm done ranting lol
I'd say if you want to talk about personal opinions that you have personal experience with it can be more informative to hear from their view rather than someone who had researched it but never experienced it.
definitely !! i feel like that’s why i love so many memoirs... it’s nice to learn something and get a new perspective from something that isn’t theory.
ADHD makes me unable to read, I used to read huge books in a day and now it takes me hours to absorb a paragraph which really sucks
children are punk as hell you tell them not to do something you do something they are gonna do it more YEP hahahhaha truer words have never been spoken! your so cool ashton i wanna be like you someday!
I actually want to push back on this idea a bit. Yes, if you tell someone not to do something a lot of kids will do it, but a lot of kids won't. Whether that's because of a strict childhood (such as one with punishments for disobeying), feeling insecure in the situation or feeling like they can't say no, or just naturally seeking adult praise for obedience, there are reasons why a lot of kids just do what they're told.
The main reason I'm arguing with you on this is because this idea can be used to justify some actions that shouldn't be justified and to dismiss good ideas that might be suggested in their place. Like, if you think your kid is just going to disobey you because that's what they do, you might not take the time to try to get then to understand where you're coming from when you tell them to do something, because "it won't matter, they won't do it anyway". Or you might use it as an excuse not to teach kids to behave kindly towards others because if you tell them to do something they'll do the opposite.
But also, I wasn't that type of kid, I think mostly because of a not great home life. As I've grown up I've had to unpack a lot, including that, but I know as a kid if someone had told me not to do something I would have obeyed them because doing otherwise could have set them off, so the statement doesn't feel like it rings true to me.
Sorry for the long reply, it's just been something I've been thinking about.
My main occupation is learning how to be a better parkour athlete; that zaps the majority of my time and energy. When I rest from training, there are so many other things I like doing other than reading. Like watching your videos!
Other left tubers engage in debate, and my tired butt sits on the sideline and observes the arguments and how they play out so I can understand what works and what doesn't. There is an endless amount of bigotry you can counter post against online that doesn't require reading. I can spend all day engaging with sexist people online. Some people see that as a waste of time, but the internet is a wonderful place to have 50 conversations in a day. That's 50 people's sexism I can counter. That's 50 more people than I can challenge without the wonders of the internet.
Engage Engage Engage. That's my strategy. Over the years I will have tried to reach 1000's of people with counters, And that seems so much more powerful than doing nothing at all. I ain't read shiiiit so far.... but I know I'll benefit if I can get it done. Audio books would do me well. I love listening, I love learning, but being with a physical book isn't my favorite thing, and there are other things I know give me more joy.
Personally, as someone who cannot read more than a few paragraphs, I go by the sentiment that so long as you get the right ideas, it doesn't matter how you get to that conclusion. It seems strange to me that some leftists think there's this barrier of entry of reading, then turn around and be against ableism and classism... Like, I think reading theory is important if you can, but some people can't and there's other ways to learn.
And (not that this video said this) I'm not the exception because I have ADHD, because I have autism. If nuerotypical people also have genuine trouble reading, they can't be held to some seperate standard that coddles me.
I'm not very far in rn so i might edit this comment but for me it isn't a thing of being too cool to read-- i actually highly value reading and books, and I'd love to read lots like i did when i was younger. but i struggle to actually focus on a book for so long - not being able to multitask really screws me up
Hey Ashton! Loved this video. As someone who used to be huge reader but then life shit happened (depression (tm)) I’ve been trying to get back into reading and the way you present the resources and leftist literature has been (personally) very helpful for me and I have definitely gotten back into reading (slowly). I genuinely love learning I just takes me more time these days to focus
Yes, thank you! I hate 'To Kill a Mockingbkrd', but it was taught to us by a teacher that let us know it was her favorite. Everybody felt pressured to agree with her on it because this teacher was already finicky and flippant in how she would grade. She graded our notes for some sections. Like the notes just for our own use. She graded the content and not just that we had some. I got docked for writing Charles "Suck My" Dickens in my private notes about 'Great Expectations' (which I also hated, so thank fvck for South Park, which was fairly accurate up to the Genesis Machine run on tears).
This teacher also straight up complained about not liking 'Animal Farm' and not wanting to cover it, but having to. So the other students weren't as engaged with it, which was a shame.
naw dude when people say "imagine being able to read" theyre self deperocating
Okay, but what if you sewed patches and cooked and it was Patches and Parsley?
Not to mention expecting ppl to read theory is ableist. Not just to ppl with ADHD and so on that make it hard to focus, it's ableist to ppl with literacy issues.
i love books, i literally work at a library, but as a student i have no time or energy to actually read, and haven't had either since i have gotten into leftist ideas and punk culture, so i have to watch videos about it and thats why i like your content (also youre just really cool and i look up to you as a transmasc and your voice is nice)
i miss reading tbh :( ur recs are getting me back into it. i stopped because of my depression and the past couple years i probably havent read more than 3 books. but now im getting into leftist literature and its been a massive help tbh. thanks sm
School ruined my attention span for books. Now even if I pick up a book I *want* to read ill kinda read while thinking of other shit and all the info just wont sink in and ill have to read it ten more times.
For me the best way of (un)learning is talking w other ppl be it in a workshop where different ppl talk about stuff or me just listening/reading to thoughts of other people. But workshops!! So great and also talking w other people :)
my reading list currently has 132 books 😔✌ help
I think people gatekeeping leftism because someones hasnt read theory is very ableist and ironic. I havent read theory, i cant. I dont have access to theory i can actually digest. Maybe if i could find a free audiobook that might work but even then i get lost in the words and only retain a bit. Plus if i talk to leftists who have already read theory chances are im gonna learn the same things from them as i would from reading theory. And growing up in the world in an array of marginalized groups has radicalized me quite a lot already with my own experiences. I think activism and helping your community is way more important than reading theory. Just my thoughts.
I have a lot of anxiety over reading. I have adhd and was diagnosed at 17. I've always been really slow at reading, and since I've always gotten good grades in literally everything else, I've been shamed a lot for being a slow reader (i take about 20 minutes for 2-3 pages). I listen to a lot of podcasts, watch a lot of videos and so on instead. I really wanna read "are prisons absolete", i just need to find an audiobook version of it.
the sixth link in the description, the playlist, has one on RUclips !!
@@graveyardpansy oooo thank you! I'll check that out for sure✨💜
i had to read a book in 10th grade "der schlund" (im from germany) and if i actually had taken that book seriously i think i would have really liked it, but my teacher never told me how good that book was (for me) so i read like half of it and like a few weeks later i heared from few of my classmates the stuff that happens in the second half of the book and i was kinda stunt that my teacher would even let us read a book like that and i was kinda angry that, that teacher didnt told me what to expect from the book and got the excited for it. i was like 14 to 15 years old so, books at that time were really nothing i was interested in, but i think i could have been...
Theanarchistlibrary.org and marxists.org are great places for theory online. Just a fair warning, there is A LOT.
Just a rec, if you ever see this: *Marxism: Philosophy and economics*, by Thomas Sowell. Granted, Sowell is a libertarian economist, but this was my first read of any Marxist/Communist/Socialist literature that perfectly covered Marx's philosophy and economics, without dumbing it down.
The alternate timeline of diy & discourse... I wonder if anything wouldve changed
I read To Kill a Mockingbird my freshman year (what a waste of time) and it was really uncomfortable hearing my classmates and teacher say the n word in the classroom
thank you so much for the links! I wouldn't know where to start with theory
I struggle to read or research anything outside my specific interests and even then I can't really do it from a book for some reason (no clue why) so the only books I use are either really simple or for looking stuff up quickly. Being nd is just weird with the stuff you can't do tbh
your outfit looks dope by the way, i love that it shows off your tattoo. as for the vid, i call myself a leftist and this has inspired me to do more reading. i‘ve read a bit as well as watched documentaries and podcasts and follow leftists online especially on youtube. though theory isn’t my ultimate favorite reading and i‘m better with reading more modern leftist books or explanations and stuff online, hopefully i can find theory that’s good to engage with.
So.... I do appreciate that you posted resources. But I do think there is a problem with ableism in leftist spaces, especially when it comes to theory, especially theory with heavy academic language.
I am dyslexic with some other learning disabilities. But I do enjoy reading. But because of my Dylexia there is a lot of things with heavy academic language that is hard for me to understand because besides it being a thick book, its also written in a language that I don't understand and will take me a long time to be able to understand. I've been in a lot situations where people who are college educated in a way where they understand this language would get mad at me for not knowing the language even though I was able to understand the concepts once they were explained in a language that I could understand. And these have all been real life spaces.
Even with the essays and podcast, I end up spending the majority of the time looking up vocabulary words to the point that its difficult to actually digest the concept. Unless I reread the entire thing multiple times, which is exhausting for my brain and takes up a lot of time that I don't have, especially because we live under capitalism and I have to work a lot.
I remember going to a prison abolition talk, and it was advertised as like explaining the concept, but I noticed people were mad at me for asking questions about the topic and like the only reason I asked the questions is because there was not an accessible source for me, and I thought that was what this meeting was supposed to be.
It can come across as stuck up sometimes, especially when I get the concept, but people cannot or refuse to engage in the discussion because I dont have the vocabulary.
It can also come across as stuck up when college students will talk down to people who actually experience the oppression that they have merely been educated on. Not saying that you're doing this, but it does happen a lot and it does happen in real life spaces and it can be incredibly stressful to navigate that.
And I do feel like a lot of people are really dismissive about the ableism and like I get not wanting to answer a bunch of questions. But there needs to be a truly accessible resource that isn't so heavy with academic language, or at least will explain the academic language while explaining the topics. Im gonna check out your resources in hopes that some of these will be helpful. But as far as my education goes, it's taken years for me to understand the basic academic language that people around me use and all this time, it just feels like I was missing out on these concepts that would of been easier for me to understand if it was made accessible in the first place.
I hope this makes sense, I'm not like against reading or learning, I enjoy these things quite a bit. I just think that its just factual that it isn't always accessible and that we need that.
I also think that it depends on if your country/area has actual politically active leftist groups/ communities. You learn a lot talking and discussing face to face with people on varied issues and acting on it. I feel like a lot of American leftist (mostly white ngl) throw around theory, trying to play who’s the smartest in the room, instead of effectively discussing the subject, find real world solution and then doing what’s need to be done. Opinions can be nourished by literatures but most leftist around the world get their opinions from their lived experiences, not an old dead racist man. Privileged Americans needed to read to become leftist, the rest of us just never had the choice. And often they feel really disconnected from reality, like yeah you’re discussing theory on the internet (not targeting debate bros at all here 👀) but it doesn’t actively help anyone.
I enjoy books (I wanna be an English major!) so the whole “imagine reading” jokes to me is about mourning my loss of enjoyment for the activity
Love your aesthetic!!!
I like this video but i would like to add this. People on the all side of the political spectrum should read the opposite lit,because i think that it would change people mind and all would know were people get there train of thought to lead to chage in world.
personally the "I can't read" joke is a way for me to joke about my own academic trauma
i was basically discouraged from talking to my classmates because i was "too smart" and so i read a lot to cope with having like one friend (that the teachers didn't approve of) so as soon as i got to middle school i slowly stopped reading because i was able to actually make friends lmao
i love reading still, but i never want to sit and read a physical book because #trauma
so instead i use ebooks, audiobooks, video essays, etc. because i still love learning
they didn't let you read bc it was above your reading level? WHAATT??
What an interesting video. I watch booktube a lot because I like reading, but I’ve never come across a video like this
Oh also you make lots of great points on reading in general
thank you !! rly glad you enjoyed it :)
It's easy for my brain to approach educating myself as a time commitment and be scare of doing it. Once I get into a book I love it, but since reading (and most other ways of learning) is something you have to focus into and not really multitask during, it's really difficult to motivate myself to do.
The Srsly wrong podcast did a really good episode on this topic (ep 215) that everyone should check out!
As a kid I used to read a lot as a form of pure procrastination or out of boredom, not curiosity. Since then I read mostly guides, textbooks and similar stuff where I can pick a single chapter covering an interesting topic. Follow someone's mind through hundreds of pages? meh...
I used to love reading and I still love it when i get my hands on a book thats like part 13 of a long series i love and i swallow that in a day, but other than that once a year moment i just dont have the enErgy to read anything out of uni (or the things i have to read for school either), because uni just requires you to read so much and a lot of it is overly wordy bullshit. because of school, i dont have the focus or time to read anything else anymore. and honestly i always understand "i cant read" jokes as coming from that place of being unable to focus, not having the time etc. and not "reading isnt cool", at least online. so especially for theory where reading it isnt necessarily fun i just cant get myself to do it as of rn. it's not that i dont wAnt to, i rlly do, my brain just says no
Tw discussion of ableism, school related trauma and panic attacks
I have, ever since I had learned how to read, read novels at a fast pace in my free time. I just fell in love with books and read way too much at the expense of other stuff like homework and sleep. I suppose it’s a case of ADHD hyper fixation and hyperfocus for me. But being assigned books to read at school has most of the time ABSOLUTELY SUCKED. There are some examples to the contrary. In 6th grade we read this novel which is just a random novel with teens as it’s target audience, but I LOVED that book and the teacher told us to not read ahead of the other students and leave our books at class, but I was already far beyond the point to which she had said we should read, and I was HOOKED. This book exactly fit my interests at the time. So I secretly took it home with me and read half of it in a day. On the next day, I forgot the book at home and that’s how I got my only one of this kind of angry letters sent to parents when a kid especially misbehaves, where you are thrown out of school when you get 3 in one year, in my entire time at school.
However, that was a sole example of a book I liked we read in school. After that I absolutely HATED having to read them and I physically couldn’t. Like my eyes just moved over the words and my mind refused to interpret them, while I spaced out without noticing.
I’m from Germany and I absolutely HATE Goethe and Schiller because of this. Like they probably were very good authors or else they wouldn’t have gained this fame, but the german they used is this weird older version which is like half a different language because the books are so old and language changes. I especially hate Schiller because his books were especially bad and the points he was making with them were very often shit takes. Goethe has kinda redeemed himself because die leiden des Jungen Werther is a pretty good Book which is actually not as terribly hard to understand and I kinda liked the beautiful descriptions of nature and related to some scenes where the main character talked about daydreaming (I think one quote that I especially related to was “I create a world within myself” or something along these lines, the teacher we had (who was a shit teacher that messed up my mental health extremely because she basically bullied me for my ADHD symptoms and caused me to have panic attacks in class regularly because she loved to humiliate me in front of the entire class and that’s a trigger for me) ranted about how she thought this quote was absolutely weird and that it was proof of how Werther (the main character) was going crazy or sth (and have I mentioned that she absolutely hated fantasy and sci-fi? She seemed to think that stories set in a fictional world are somehow absurd, which kinda explains her thinking that the quote about Werther daydreaming and building a fictional world was absurd)).
Idk getting older has decreased my ability to read a lot. School has basically trained me to hate learning and to an extent reading, and now uni is draining me of energy so that I’m too exhausted to do any of my hobbies like reading and I rarely read anything other than comics and manga, or visual novels, or listening to podcasts. I really wish I had the time and energy to read, I miss getting lost in some fictional universe and epic story, I just wish I could read novels again.
Completely off-topic but as someone whose native language is German I love how you pronounce German words. Like first off all your pronounciation is super, super good but it's also kinda cute and unique and idk I just love it.
In 7th grade the whole grade HAD to read A Christmas Carol and now I realize how fucked up that is. If that happened now I would probably refuse to. As an athiest who also practices non religious witchcraft I guess (it's confusing) that's so gross to me to be forced to read a Christian book. Like fuck that. That's fine if you celebrate Christmas but I don't! I celebrate Yule to celebrate nature and the beauty of Earth - not Jesus.
I'm doing my best to make school reading fun by thinking of it as "I'm only reading it because I want to learn". I love to learn and am going to do my best to read a lot more leftist works by non-white people because that's definitely something incredibly important that I haven't spent enough time on. Thanks for making this video, it brought that to the front of my mind :)
I'm young, I'm on my path to leftism but I don't understand a lot. Yeah, school's biased, many things on the internet are biased, and I'm bad at talking to people without being afraid of being judged. What I'm trying to say is that I don't know where to start, no one is teaching me, and I'm lost. Everything is so overwhelming and there are lots of gatekeepers that scare me off. What I'm trying to say is that, any recommendations??????
ok, not related to the video, but I just love your style hrhr
Good video!
I would also recommend for baby leftists and veterans to do study circles. A lot of good leftist works like the works by Lenin, Mao & co have been written in the context of study circles.
my quarantine project is (finally) reading marx' kapital and while i love him, this video is a nice break because hooo boy it's a Big Book (or, three books, but ykno)
also, that audiobook playlist is 👌🏻👌🏻👌🏻
I'm just hoping I get a random boost of motivation to finish this book thing bc man I just can't focus that long like I tried a bit ago but I didn't retain any of it
I think a big thing for me is that when i read a book especially if its long and written difficult and/or not in my first language i dont remember shit after a few weeks/months if i dont take notes on every chapter? And that rly frustrates me i can read the same book as other ppl bjt when we talk abt it it feels like i havent read it at all? I know/think its "just" my dissociation and untreated adhd and it will get better when i get (more) help for that but yeah. Also fuck you @ all the elitist leftists i know i used to feel inferior bc i didnt finish school and most of them are in academics but i think its more important to be open to critique from other ppl ESPECIALLY ppl that are opressed in a way youre not? And as you said no one is ever "done" learning but i feel thats a thing im "better" at? I know lots of white older men who just refuse to listen let alone believe anyone when they are confronted w their racism,transmisia,sexism,ableism etc etc but they still have so much power(tm) in the leftist scene we share.
you should start a podcast I would literally listen to it
Honestly im a big fan of books but in an unexpected way i guess. I own quite a few books i absolutely love and plan to read. I feel like books are more satisfying and more straight to the point (no need to do researches through keywords and being sure its viable source), with a book you know what you get. The problem is i have quite a lot of disorders that cause me to have a low attention span and i also have a slightly lower iq than most people which, i believe, causes headaches when i intensively focus. I try to read books from time to time but its always a page or so. I managed to only finish 3 books in my entire life which, ngl, pained me in school. I wish i could read some leftist theory but its both physically and mentally tiring and at times painful for me. I'm glad to see you address this issue!!
(I still plan on finding a friend who's willing to read the books i own out loud for me. Its easier for me to take in information verbally for some reasons)
Ok now i finished watching the video and it might seem dumb but i never really knew what audiobooks were and such and since you recommended/mentionned them in this video quite often, i looked into them and it seems like theyd be the perfect thing for me! Ill probably read (listen? Haha) to some audiobooks from now on :D
I been reading a lot of books and more books. I love your style
I don't think it is an unpopular opinion for people to dislike(or think it sucks) To Kill A Mockingbird, The Chrysalids, Of Mice And Men, all those books people read in school. A lot of people I know who enjoy reading didn't like To Kill A Mockingbird especially. I liked it though.
I really enjoyed tkam as a "fun" sorta book
Thank you, comrade. am adding to list. Sent you message on Twitter in mentions.
What good do you see in radical leftism?
Omg, I used to watch this channel alot back when I was trying to figure out who I was. I was a tomboy my whole life and felt mentally like a male, I begged my mom for T and never got it. Its weird how I felt and how things changed over the years. My mom knew I was a lesbian and she also knew "most women want other women." she talked that shit for awhile till it stuck in my brain. I was like a dom, always wanted to be in control and on top. I cried when I was four because santa didnt give me a peen, i mean c'mon. But now, i figured i'm just a masculine female who dont take anyones shit. So like i was really confused, even more so the fact I went from binding, boy clothes and being a "touch-me-not" trans to being submissive in ripped up grungy girl clothes, begging my gf for cuddles and pettings. I'm glad i didnt get on T, cus i dont really like guys too much now and it wouldve been hell to turn into one. Like nah, i like my tits and vag. Weird.
What is this thing?
Stop telling me what to do
My physical copy of Spinoza's Ethics finally came in today, nice timing lol.
I never read cause school ruined books for me. Im really sad about it
I thiught I was a fast reader but damn 60-100 pages per hour. I can do 50 or 60 on academic text and a lot more on like fun B rated YA books
Honey I love you but why are you wearing two mesh shirts?
why not
OMG ASHTON YOU LOOK SO COOL!!!!!!
Superficial af
read the bible