This small essay by Janine Brodie called “Power and Politics” has several other issues, but their most frustrating one is their outright DISMISSAL of Marxist class analysis for the stupidest reasons. Economic determinism? I guess if you yearned to softly dismiss marx by misrepresenting him.

God I fucking hate poli sci majors.

The previous page:

The next one:

I’m not the brightest crayon in the box but is it just me or does Doctor Brodie somehow make politics and power some sort of vague, unsolvable mystery? Like fr I don’t want just an echochamber of nodding heads plz help am I in the wrong?

I need help putting words to my issues with it.

  • IceWallowCum [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    3 months ago

    It’s always the exact same middle-school reading of Marxism, holy shit. Somehow none of these experts figures there’s something wrong with comparing an inflammatory political pamphlet for a party and a fully fleshed out technical publishing.

    I wonder why these geniuses never criticize the actual technical works Marx did 🤔 it’s ALWAYS just the manifesto for a party, and that’s it.

    Anyway, a rule of thumb: this person doesn’t take their own work seriously, so I’m not gonna take their work seriously either.

    • heggs_bayer [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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      3 months ago

      Not only is the manifesto the only work they touch on: they only mention history being class struggle and more people being pushed to either bourgeois or proletarian. While it’s been awhile since I’ve read the manifesto, I’m pretty sure that even in that pamphlet Marx briefly goes into how and why that is the case. It’s like this Brodie person didn’t even read beyond the first 3 pages.