As the new year approaches, now's as good a time as any to reflect on what's important and how we get there. Maybe 2024 is the year you realize you're a socialist! Why You Should Be A Socialist In 2024 – Second Thought SUBSCRIBE HERE: http://bit.ly/2nFsvTS New video every other Friday! Citations and Further Reading: Covid wealth transfer https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/16/richest-1percent-amassed-almost-two-thirds-of-new-wealth-created-since-2020-oxfam.html https://www.oxfam.org/en/research/survival-richest https://inequality.org/great-divide/updates-billionaire-pandemic/ Wealth transfer since 1975 https://www.businessinsider.com/wealthiest-1-percent-stole-50-trillion-working-americans-what-means-2020-9 PTO statistics https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/pto-statistics/#:~:text=Twenty%2Deight%20million%20Americans%20don,vacation%20days%20and%20paid%20holidays. Ten richest double their wealth while bottom 99% of humanity’s fall/would still be richer than 99% of the world after 99.99% loss https://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/ten-richest-men-double-their-fortunes-pandemic-while-incomes-99-percent-humanity Nearly 100 million fall under $1.90/day during COVID https://blogs.worldbank.org/developmenttalk/covid-19-leaves-legacy-rising-poverty-and-widening-inequality#:~:text=About%2097%20million%20more%20people,less%20than%20%245.50%20a%20day Bosses bet on workers getting COVID https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-55009228 Layoffs during COVID ​​https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2021/temporary-layoffs-remain-high-following-unprecedented-surge-in-early-2020.htm#:~:text=Hover%20over%20chart%20to%20view,End%20of%20interactive%20chart.&text=In%20April%202020%2C%20the%20number,and%20efforts%20to%20contain%20it Why Socialism? - Albert Einstein https://monthlyreview.org/2009/05/01/why-socialism/ 45% of new created wealth goes to top 1%/CEOs make 350x what their workers do/Wages are lower than 50 years ago/half of Americans live paycheck to paycheck/$50T transfer of wealth from bottom 90% to top 1% since 1975 https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/sep/02/the-us-has-a-ruling-class-and-americans-must-stand-up-to-it Vacation days & paid time off https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/05/heres-how-many-paid-vacation-days-the-typical-american-worker-gets-.html Maternity leave https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jan/27/maternity-leave-us-policy-worst-worlds-richest-countries Legal & societal changes growing the gap between productivity and wages https://www.epi.org/productivity-pay-gap/ Follow and Support Second Thought! Twitter: https://twitter.com/_SecondThought Patreon: https://patreon.com/secondthought BuyMeACoffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/secondthought CashApp: $JTChapman Watch More Second Thought: Latest Uploads: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6SJktA-ecJR_Fq2hhYVEFS11cf1YzG27 Spaaaaaace!: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6SJktA-ecJQRpqT-hMTTFx8A6VVH3m6v What If...: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6SJktA-ecJRI7VrWf_-mT0z6lrN--Cvi Popular Videos: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6SJktA-ecJRx7ZaO9J04Kbob_u5baHxN About Second Thought: Second Thought is a channel devoted to education and analysis of current events from a Leftist perspective. Welcome! Business Email: secondthoughtchannel@gmail.com
  • Munrock ☭@lemmygrad.ml
    10·
    10 months ago

    The audience of the Gotha Program was essentially the same as JT’s audience.

    I really don’t think the working class of 1875 Germany viewed the political landscape through the same Overton Window and culturally endemic Red Scare as JT’s audience.

    • quarrk [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
      21·
      10 months ago

      The proletariat as a class is materially unchanged, for the most part, since the time of that party. The particular political situation does not change the basic theory and the necessity for revolution over reform.

      • Munrock ☭@lemmygrad.ml
        5·
        10 months ago

        It changes how you effectively educate. It affects how receptive people are to an idea.

        And the delivery methods are materially different. If you pointedly espouse revolution over reform on YouTube you’ll get the video deleted or suppressed and/or your account suspended.

        But if the proletariat really is materially unchanged, you could always bypass YouTube and distribute pamphlets. The proletariat’s relationship to the means of production is unchanged, their material conditions have changed dramatically in the past 150 years.

        • quarrk [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
          21·
          10 months ago

          There are plenty of Marxists on YouTube who do not concede revolution. Maybe some are too small to grab attention, but there are larger channels like Geopolitical Economy Report who routinely talk about current events from a Marxist perspective, and occasionally talk theory, without such compromise.

          The need for revolution is more or less standard Marxism, so it feels backward that I should be explaining that perspective — why do you think we must educate from a social-democratic perspective? Blaming the Red Scare seems like an excuse to me. If someone clicks a video about socialism, they’re either open to learning, or they’re not. At that crucial point you have to be convincing, not wheel out the usual arguments about fairness that every single Westerner has heard for decades.

    • voight [he/him, any]@hexbear.netEnglish
      11·
      10 months ago

      Who cares how you view the Overton Window differently? Sorry but I must quote Lukács

      In contrast to Germany, the U.S.A. had a constitution which was democratic from the start. And its ruling class managed, particularly during the imperialist era, to have the democratic forms so effectively preserved that by democratically legal means, it achieved a dictatorship of monopoly capitalism at least as firm as that which Hitler set up with tyrannic procedures. This smoothly functioning democracy, so-called, was created by the Presidential prerogative, the Supreme Court’s authority in constitutional questions, the finance monopoly over the Press, radio, etc., electioneering costs, which successfully prevented really democratic parties from springing up beside the two parties of monopoly capitalism, and lastly the use of terroristic devices (the lynching system). And this democracy could, in substance, realize everything sought by Hitler without needing to break with democracy formally. In addition, there was the incomparably broader and more solid economic basis of monopoly capitalism.