Seriously. I don’t know if it’s because it’s the summer but these breadtube kids are popping up everywhere these last few weeks.

And they consistently have ignorant, bad takes to share. They don’t understand anything about everything but think that because they’ve watched some guy yell at his screen for a few hours they’re suddenly

They’re people who don’t want to read theory because it’s boring (I think it requires time but it’s very interesting, just needs some motivation to get started) but they will happily watch 3 hours long debates that turn into random shit halfway through.

I don’t mean to rant but I’ve just had a Destiny stan tell me “holocaust denialism on the left” for not believing the uyghur thing. Destiny despises communists and anarchists, the latter of which that person identifies as. They don’t understand what holocaust denialism even is, they don’t understand how people could come to different conclusions than them, they literally just want to feel superior because they’re pure and we’re not, somehow.

They think this will score them points with libertarians and neolibs (and maybe even fascists, as they don’t even understand fascism), by pushing under the bus the only other people who are tangentially related to them. But the libertarians don’t give a shit. They’ll line up anarchists against the wall all the same. We’re all godless commies to them, it doesn’t matter your specific brand.

When was the last time an anarchist called you a Marxist-Leninist? They just say tankie now, as if it had any useful meaning (everyone has their own definition). It’s clear that they they acquired this word through memetic usage and don’t even know what it means. In some cases, I kid you not, people will say tankie but then ask “What’s ML mean?”.

Breadtube was a mistake, cancel that whole shit and get people back in books. Or at least watching important people, not some random bloke from a big city who started a youtube channel.

^ if it’s not high-effort or serious enough for c/communism please tell me where to repost, I’m not sure where else it can fit. Maybe my own c/comradelyrants lol but it’s dead :(

  • FireAxel@lemmygrad.ml
    1·
    4 years ago

    Destiny is a bad example cause he isn’t really breadtube or a leftist. He’s a self-described neoliberal.

    And I disagree, you need YouTubers and internet personalities for this shit. You’ll never get a big percentage of the population to your side by just them “reading theory.” That’s one of the reasons the right has been so successful online, they had a bunch of content creators just pushing people into that fascist pipeline, while leftist had just books for the longest time.

    Sure, not all of them are ML communists, but I still think having more normie socialists is better than just having a bunch of nazis online.

    Like, I started as a simple dem-soc who liked Bernie and occasionally watched Destiny debate Nazis and shit, then eventually I grew out of that, started getting exposed to some more radical lefty views and started following some actual lefty content creators, etc. And eventually, I came to where I am now – very unlikely to happen if someone just said “read a book” to me.

    You can’t relly on just books in this day and age.

    • SovietIntl@lemmygrad.ml
      1·
      4 years ago

      Right, I supported Vaush for a while until I started to read a lot and have since only supported Vaush as the necessary opposition to the radicalized right kids today because of the over saturation of the “anti sjw” crap you always see, as well as the political apathy of major youtubers who “don’t want politics in games”. I’m not afraid of the millennial generation I belong to because I know a lot of them are left leaning but the next generation is more at risk of apolitical apathy than right wing radicalization. As Kreia once said “apathy is death”.

    • TeethOrCoat@lemmygrad.ml
      1·
      4 years ago

      You can’t rely on just books in this day and age.

      Correct. Capitalism is highly adaptable and as such we require a diversity of tactics. I should know, because I wasn’t introduced to ML via reading books, but by long form ML arguments on relevant topics (usually on a country targeted by US imperialism) and relentless, fiery take-downs of evidence free narratives. Before that, I was introduced to Marxism proper via Abby Martin’s interview with Richard Wolff.

      Then again, I consider myself somewhat lucky to have started on that particular video rather than the rest of breadtube. Once I got a taste of Marxism, my consciousness expanded tenfold. All the usual lib nonsense, like the contradiction of being told that you get paid more due to hard work, I no longer had to bother with.