Firstly, I will say I have read enough to understand that the the “Thesis-Antithesis-Synthesis” stuff is nonsense peddled by Fichte, and isn’t really relevant to Marxist studies (or even Hegel for that matter).
However, when I’ve discussed this very thing in various circles online, as an outspoken ML, there are some attitudes I’ve noticed that seem to indicate many “left coms” hold very different views and interpretations of dialectics and therefore dialectical materialism in comparison to MLs, and I’m very curious as to what this disagreement is?
Especially, what part of dialectics do they believe that MLs such as Stalin and Mao are misunderstanding or misconstruing? How does this tie into Marx and Hegel’s proposition of the dialectic (idealism and materialism being the only obvious one with Hegel). I’ve been searching a bit lately and haven’t been able to find anything incredibly solid in the literature, so I thought I would consult here.
Thanks!
Where do you think their misunderstanding comes from? Like, what part of it is it that they misunderstand or disagree on?
Mostly propaganda. I think a lot of us younger folk forget how ridiculously programmed the content of the 80s was. I mean the 90s was counter-cultural for all the reasons you could think of and then some; you just saw it go into overdrive. I mean Red Dawn, Rambo, They Live (all great movies, sure, but let us not ignore the heavy-handed messaging behind them. Besides They Live; but we know how people from that era took it, mostly.) and then later on they saw the collapse of the USSR combined with a very short period of “economic bliss” in the late 90s.
Their minds have been entirely warped to dismiss the idea of AES countries being a conceivable place of actual liberty and their accomplishments getting there darkened by all the over-exaggerated lies or not bothering to apply actual materialism in the mistakes that they did make and how AES countries learned from them. For example, China freeing Tibet or 850 million lifted out of poverty. They point to what Mao did nearly 70-80 years ago and screech about the sparrows and don’t understand that context of the people at the time (e.g, it was generally accepted that sparrows were vectors of disease and cause ruin and a lack of understanding of ecosystems that plenty of other nations lacked too). They don’t understand that the viewpoint reinforces the hegemony of U.S imperialism; which should be one of their main concerns instead of purity and baseless value systems.
More often than not, it’s always redundant too. “Hurr, red fash tankie; go suck Xi-bears dick!” This is personal experience in America, however; results may differ elsewhere. Lenin’s ““Left-Wing” Communism: An Infantile Disorder” is very harsh, but cuts right to the chase.
Hope this helps, comrade.
I see, so it’s not even a debate on theory or dialectics, it’s just a debate on AES?