If you enjoyed this, toss a euro/dollar over on Patreon: www.patreon.com/MarxistPaul Or a once-off tip on Ko-Fi: ko-fi.com/marxistpaul Apparently it’s not normal for youtube videos to take 10 hours to render (it takes others about 10 minutes), so I’m going to build a computer capable of editing faster and using things like After Effects to make fancy animations like you saw at the beginning of the Che Guevara video. But it’ll be expensive, so if you’re able to, then please consider sending a one-off tip on Ko-Fi to go towards this. Go raibh míle maith agat!
so true takes three hours for a 40 min vid for me even when it's not edited that much like your videos are (lot's of diffrent pics,music ect) enjoy the quicker renders and the nice animations. love your videos
I swear, the “fuck you fuck you fuck you” was pure gold. It reminds me of this old joke about high school valedictorian speeches where they’d say “fuck you fuck you you’re cool fuck you too, I’m out”. 😂
I'm sure many of us already self-criticise But none of it is constructive "I can't believe im lactose intolerant" "I'm so dumb, how could I ever become lactose intolerant" "My parents would be ashamed to have a lactose intolerant son" Anyway love the video!
@@fun_ghoul B. This made me feel upset. C. I want you to ignore when broken people who might be bots post botty comments, because D. there is far too much work to be done in the real world.
This is excellent. Lots of people need to learn how to be productively assertive. The ruling class has little interest in imparting these lessons on the masses. They'd prefer the people be meek following for the most part.
I was raised to be the opposite of this. Hold your tongue. Being silent is being safe... I'm better at criticisizing now, but it's an uphill struggle. I'm gonna check out the book. Thanks for your work🚩
Think a lot of us were raised this way, though especially so for women. It's not easy to break out of that - definitely an uphill battle that I've struggled with, too. Great to hear you're better at it now. For me, this video is still very much aspirational - ("Do what I say, not what I do", etc.) - hopefully one day this will all come more easily and naturally
apparently people in eurocentric countries werent allowed to have conversations with each other unless it was about complete nonsense or platitudes. religion, politics, personal problems, family problems were all taboo to discuss with others. look where it led... most people get abused, starved and sometimes worse, growing up. those are crimes against the most vulnerable humans on the planet. that leads to lots of problems for those who have to endure it. thats a hell of a lot of the worst possible criminals getting away with some of the worst crimes in the name of state loyalty and loyalty to wealthy people..
I can't believe marxism already covers "how to do constructive criticism/self criticism", something the bourgeois society is beginning to preach (not in the way that threatens capital of course) And I love that the marxist definition is based on "social/individual change", not like the bourgeois criticism that is often essentialist (you ain't good enuff/you ain't deserved to be loved/you are a mistake to this world) Edit: when you say "form is secondary but still important" I think it's from our bourgeois upbringing that centers the individual in every interaction. In my unrefined arguments of youtube comment, it made every criticism of the individual is an attack to the individual itself, the attack of said individual's existence in a capitalist environment
great vid! being able to give and receive constructive criticism is so important, not just in political activity but for most any sort of relationships between people
with a side note about the scientific advancement made (in a top-down, planned way) in capitalist countries DURING the peak periods of advancement in the socialist countries. Growing up in the wake of the USSR dissolving, I've always been fascinated with how AES countries were able to keep capitalist countries 'honest' in a certain way. Not in ALL their deeds, of course, but by presenting an alternative to their populations. For instance I don't think there would be so many unhoused people in the US if their was still a Soviet Union that could publicly criticize the US and provide an alternative way of doing things to an interested listener.
@saturationstation1446 what makes u say that? There are millions of people struggling to find housing in China. It's an oppressive state like any other. When people throw out random, unchecked stats like this, it makes me feel frustrated and embarrassed. I don't want leftists to be idol worshipers. Go learn from, and help solve problems in, your communities. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homelessness_in_China
Wow this video is very well done and very easy to follow along. So much so that I'm probably going to be able to share it with non Marxists because it's an essential skill for everyone to just overcome their aversion to criticism. Side note I'd really like to see you on the deprogram! JT make it happen!!
Your verbage regarding criticism from class enemies is so helpful. Almost all bad faith discussions of class in America can be attributed to an attempt at solidarity with someone who is a class traitor.
I would love to see a follow-up to this with a real-world example of constructive criticism of a comrade guest, breaking down each step and explaining it, and show the guest's side, receiving and interpreting the criticism. Or vice-versa.
One major difficulty I've been having in trying to create a culture of healthy crit/self-crit is that a lot of the western left (at least in the spaces me and mine have encountered) have largely abandoned the idea that changed behavior matters; which to be blunt makes crit/self-crit useless since the entire point is to change behavior and belief. These pockets of the western left over-corrected from the "let it slide" mentality you correctly call out and have embraced the idea that mistakes are permanent (which is cop mentality). I'm trying to create a counter-culture to disrupt that, but the sheer gravity of the influence of both these sides makes it tough.
a lot of the western left is just well off people who adopted the language specifically to avoid criticism. they dont actually believe in allowing the world to not be controlled by ultra rich people. their actions make right wingers more rich and powerful, far far more than their words do anything to help the vulnerable.
I would like to state that educational content pairing theory and practice with a detailed explanation of the mechanics of the given practice is an incredibly help resource. Thank you
For me, I was surprised by just how much I do many of these things, and a lot of it seems like I could place it on autism. Because SO MANY people just don't understand that I am not trying to criticise the point and not them, and I am almost never hostile, my attitude is to learn or teach, never to attack. Am I perfect? Of course not, I sometimes can get unreasonably frustrated and I can snap, but these are so few and far between. If we are talking about online discussion I have the most fucking ridiculous example, and given the fact I am an ADHD August you can imagine how I got hostile... It was a Reddit poll asking if the R-Slur is a slur... Of which the majority of respondents said... No. I kept my head cool for a few dozen responses but after they all started of tag teaming me I grew more frustrated and snapped on a dude who then preceded to say that my anger is them winning the argument. I think I quite literally died on that hill because that was a lazy day where I didn't do anything so I was stuck in my bed the whole day trying to convince people that the r-word is a slur... Without being hostile. On Reddit. If that isn't patience, I don't know what bloody hell is. But yeah, my story is mostly about how many Neurodivergent people might already think the way I do... However worth noting, if they don't share this mindset it's likely they are struggle struggle struggle, because when we are growing up we can choose to be people who concede to fight, flight, or freeze, and depending on that we will have our perceptions of criticism determined by how we react. I am use to dismantling points not people, because dismantling people makes them hostile and useless, but getting at the point at hand itself makes them have to be respectful as well unless they wish to be an asshole. However notably bullies aren't affected by either approach and my just get a kick out of it because they know I will try and reason with their bullshit. Idk, I just find it amusing I can now have a Marxist analysis of my own personality. :P
thank you for this video and the book recommendation from Vicki Legion, i became fascinated with this topic from reading Paulo Freire’s book “Pedagogy of the Oppressed”
Reminds me that a couple years back, I was involved in this socialist organization that I will not name. The lead guy got in touch with me and gave me some task of downloading marxist books. So I tried doing my best but when I started asking questions like why is this not working, is the file correct etc., he just got really pissed off and said something to the effect of you're the most petty petite bourgeois I've ever seen and you should just try clicking every single button in the program before asking anything. He later dismissed me and wanted me to apologize and self-criticize, I'm like I don't even know what's going on. Afterward I never had anything to do with them again. I don't know if I made the right decision or not, but it sure is a bizarre experience.
its only well off goobers "leading" any organizations these days. i dont trust anything that puts any measurable amount of power over others into the hands of a few people. history gave me too many reasons to not trust those who seek power over others regardless of what organization they are in or what cause they are fighting for
Top video as usual. Good breakdown and explanation of criticism etc that I could've done with when learning. Always good to go over again too. Much appreciated by this viewer! Solidarity as always comrade ✊✊✊
We are going to be testing a 10 week course on the book mentioned in our local chapter that will be heavy in practice. Looking forward to see what’s its effects will be in helping build unity through struggle.
@@bigusj absolutely! I know of at least 5 DSA chapters that have started courses with the same book. Ours will be an experiment in attempting to deepen comrade’s knowledge and comfort with the practice.
This Buddhist passage came to mind while listening to this video: "[1] In the case of words that the Tathagata knows to be unfactual, untrue, unbeneficial (or: not connected with the goal), unendearing & disagreeable to others, he does not say them. [2] In the case of words that the Tathagata knows to be factual, true, unbeneficial, unendearing & disagreeable to others, he does not say them. [3] In the case of words that the Tathagata knows to be factual, true, beneficial, but unendearing & disagreeable to others, he has a sense of the proper time for saying them. [4] In the case of words that the Tathagata knows to be unfactual, untrue, unbeneficial, but endearing & agreeable to others, he does not say them. [5] In the case of words that the Tathagata knows to be factual, true, unbeneficial, but endearing & agreeable to others, he does not say them. [6] In the case of words that the Tathagata knows to be factual, true, beneficial, and endearing & agreeable to others, he has a sense of the proper time for saying them. Why is that? Because the Tathagata has sympathy for living beings."
5:34 YES YES YES YES SO GOOD BRO. in my opinion this unity unity unity atmosphere is just plain boring and i rather go to sleep. If I agree all the time with a comrade I just go to bed. Disagreement and coming to a better objective truth conclusion is the most exciting and objectively best way to discuss or debate or however you want to call this casual talk with one another.
Absolutely incredible book, instantly applicable, and useful in any and every organization (and it finds perfect analogy in interpersonal relationships)
Like if you weren’t aware of it, go buy or print it out rn and discuss it with all your comrades. The antidote to cointelpro and lib nonconfrontationalism
This video is great. Tho I must say, what happens when the person In question denies concrete observations? Like, I got people in my life who can be presented with irrefutable proof of bad financial habits, but then just, denies it. What do we do with them?
Denial is one of the stages of grief before acceptance. It’s possible this particular person in your life has also observed these habits, but is “grieving” their former vision of themselves. To try to paint a picture, imagine they have realized that they need to give up these habits but those habits also filled some sort of need so they could be grieving that loss of the need being filled. Now, all of that is difficult to know for sure unless you ask! I think the best thing to do is say, “I’m noticing you reacted in x way when I mentioned those habits. How does it feel to hear those habits brought up?” That will maybe give the other person an opening to talk about their struggles with discussing the topic. Try to figure out what the need is that they feel is being threatened. And then see if you can honor that need in some way! “Thank you for being so open about how this makes you feel. It sounds like you’re really hesitant about x need. I know change can be hard so I’m here to help you! (Or you can direct them to a source that can help).”
No fucking way. We just had a discussion whether or not to bring back criticism and self criticism in our meetings. We decided against it because it often became a hollow point or a brow beating moment in the past. Would you say criticism and self criticism should be something you apply in the moment when applicable or should it be a specific moment of every meeting?
Apply when applicable. Leave 5 minutes aside at the end of every meeting to bring up whether people have criticisms they'd like to air, just to note that the comrades would like to get the process going, and that will get the ball rolling. Accommodations for the crit can then be made, such as arranging a Zoom/Jitsi call with all those involved to work through the process at a time that works for everyone
I would say 'Honest criticism' is a better description of the process you layed out than 'ruthless' Also what is your perspective on group criticism as opposed to criticism one-on-one; I imagine group criticism is more difficult for several reasons
Self-crit: I'm veeeeery tit for tat when it comes to criticism. I can be very gentle and adhere to the principles laid out here, if the other person strikes me as calm and nice. If the other person strikes me as rash or if they themselves have so many flaws that I think they seriously should first work on themselves before criticizing others, I can get pretty irrational, reject even valid criticisms, respond with tu quoque ("whataboutism") or get really really angry. At least, I noticed this by now. It was a journey for me that began by quitting facebook and immediately enjoying emotional benefits from that. I only really understood what was going on though when I started wondering why I'm not the person I want to be when I argue with certain people that get loud or insulting or self-righteous before they point out what really bothers them. I'm trying to work on that and I hope it also helps me to get my points across when I write UA-cam comments.
No fucking way. We just had a discussion whether or not to bring back criticism and self criticism in our meetings. (We decided against it). Would you say criticism and self criticism should be something you apply in the moment when applicable or should it be a specific moment of every meeting?
If we accept that people's beliefs and allegiances fall on a egalitarian-authoritarian spectrum, my experience suggests that the further one moves toward authoritarian, the less likely the individual is to be receptive to any criticism.
What happened to your “silly liberals” video? I use to forward that video for educational purposes. Now I have no access or do t see it anywhere. I think it shows as deleted in my library folder. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
Fun thing: youtube greeted me with an ad about how much my state is investing in the police, cool stuff huh?. Ideological disclaimer: armchair revolutionary, no pretension of being a Marxist but enjoy this kind of content, I believe vanguardism can play a revolutionary role, but the very economical base and ideological hegemony that sustains it, lead revolution to a regressive social-technocratic stage. I find the topic in the video useful as self help to improve communication, but if the purpose of csc is to solve conflict within a political unit, while maintaining unity under a particular line, I fail to find any useful substance. First, when it comes to the flows of internal struggle, both and S-S-S and U-U-U are caricatures, no political unit (which I'll use interchangeably with polity) can exist under the former, and Kami-sama I wish liberals behaved as the latter, ¡that way class consciousness in numbers alone would convince them to join the revolutionary struggle! The U-S-U circuit is the process every honest thinker and polity tries, and believes itself, to follow. If U-U-U were to exists, it would be as the illusion of U-S-U born from hegemony, it's easy from revolutionary perspectives to point at the liberals for falling into such a trap, but it would be naive to believe "proletarian" ideologues are immune to the seduction of blissfully ignored interests and superficial disagreements. What does Mao have to say about the actual objective process through which conflict within the polity is resolved? I don't know, this is just idealist thinking about personal discipline. Mutual education could solve a conflict if the source of it is just asymmetry of knowledge preventing an egalitarian polity to achieve a shared conclusion, but such are not the usual conditions of struggle, particularly not in polities with professional revolutionaries and jefaturas. Finally, as is usual with this kind of ranting to the void critiques, I don't have a constructive conclusion, ¿maybe actually apply csc to the criticisms of people like the Rejectionist? Even if they failed to form a coherent independent movement, they're in a way better position to criticize today's struggle than me. And that's it, thank you for entertaining me dear reader. I'm totally open to recommendations in pamphlets, essays, videos and podcasts, I can't finish a theory book to save my life. Have a nice day.
I feel like the reason this kind of criticism has never worked on a long timeline or at a large scale is because it fundamentally ignores human nature. It's a system predicated on people giving and receiving criticism in good faith and holding the collective good as their highest ideal while doing it. Neither of those things have ever happened, and a case could be made that such behavior is beyond our capabilities completely. It's a lovely idea, but like so many lovely ideas that are good for society, it doesn't take into account how people actually think or behave.
Human nature is determined by the material conditions within which we find ourselves. The human nature of today is a human nature that's been shaped by capitalism and its individualist ideology. But for most of humanity's existence (>95%), we lived in pre-class communal society, and this produced a drastically different human nature. There's a video on the channel going into this subject a bit more if you're interested: ua-cam.com/video/IUQwUJyMCOQ/v-deo.html
Well done! Receiving criticism or giving it in a constructive way are really lost arts. Marxists have produced a lot of writing on the subject, but rarely do I see it practiced well, especially when it comes to Marxism itself. That's the movement's core weakness that leads to dogmaticism and a situation where we remain niche. My very first suggestion here is to let go of the labels "Marxism" and "Marxist", but not of Marx. Whenever you say that you're a Marxist or that "x is a core believe of Marxism", it makes me feel like I'm listening to a religious person talking about the dogma. What I would prefer you to do is trying to justify the idea in its own right and point out where to read more - and if the source is Marx or someone inspired by Marx, so be it. I don't want you to hide that there's a huge corpus of literature of people who were primarily inspired by Marx's work. The point is to mimic what natural sciences have done so we avoid dogmaticism at the language level. If we don't label ourselves as "Marxists" to begin with, then we don't ever run into the ideological pitfall that adhering to Marxist beliefs becomes more important to us that testing beliefs and believing in those ideas that remain after testing. Physicists don't call themselves "Einsteinists" or "Schrödingerists", Mathematicians don't call themselves "Gaussians". At best, they name certain tools or theories after people. "Your ideas conflict with Einstein" is only a valid objection if we have data available that confirms Einstein's particular belief in question and rejects yours. Einstein has been proven wrong though on many things, for instance, the ER and EPR papers were intended as general objections to quantum mechanics, but later, Bell transformed Einstein et al. arguments into testable predictions which then were found violated (while quantum mechanics made the correct prediction). The people closing the last loopholes in that debate just got the nobel prize. Lesson: just because someone with a big name has some opinion, that's not a proof. And given how laughable many of Aristotle's writings are with 2000 years of hindsight, I imagine that the same will happen to Einstein's or Marx's writings. But that can only happen if we preemptively treat those writings as laughable, except we just didn't get the joke yet. Of course, that shouldn't prevent us from correctly attributing ideas to their originator just like we do for a lot of Aristotle's ideas.
"Well done! Receiving criticism or giving it in a constructive way are really lost arts. Marxists have produced a lot of writing on the subject" - can you recommend me any books about the critique from Marxist perspective?
I'm a Marxist, but reading on Mao, it's clear that this method was, for him, a tool to weed out political opponents, and create an atmosphere of fear to keep others in line. Struggle sessions was famously a way to have revenge for personal grievances, disguised under a witch hunt of past "errors", never lifting the cloud and providing fodder for purges. I'm all down for criticism, so here's some: don't shy away from discussing the history of those you quote in the direct context of what you try explain, or it seem you're not trying to "learn from past mistakes". Vicki's book is good though, and I agree with your video in general.
If you enjoyed this, toss a euro/dollar over on Patreon: www.patreon.com/MarxistPaul
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Apparently it’s not normal for youtube videos to take 10 hours to render (it takes others about 10 minutes), so I’m going to build a computer capable of editing faster and using things like After Effects to make fancy animations like you saw at the beginning of the Che Guevara video.
But it’ll be expensive, so if you’re able to, then please consider sending a one-off tip on Ko-Fi to go towards this. Go raibh míle maith agat!
so true takes three hours for a 40 min vid for me even when it's not edited that much like your videos are (lot's of diffrent pics,music ect) enjoy the quicker renders and the nice animations. love your videos
I swear, the “fuck you fuck you fuck you” was pure gold. It reminds me of this old joke about high school valedictorian speeches where they’d say “fuck you fuck you you’re cool fuck you too, I’m out”. 😂
I'm sure many of us already self-criticise
But none of it is constructive
"I can't believe im lactose intolerant"
"I'm so dumb, how could I ever become lactose intolerant"
"My parents would be ashamed to have a lactose intolerant son"
Anyway love the video!
"Unprincipled self-criticism" - there's a Marxist term for everything 😅
@@Marxism_Today and many "anti-communists" dont know any of these terms
@@Marxism_Today Would that make beating myself up revisionist? 👀
@@fun_ghoul Sib, I think you’re arguing with a bot.
@@fun_ghoul B. This made me feel upset. C. I want you to ignore when broken people who might be bots post botty comments, because
D. there is far too much work to be done in the real world.
This is excellent. Lots of people need to learn how to be productively assertive. The ruling class has little interest in imparting these lessons on the masses. They'd prefer the people be meek following for the most part.
That thinking unironically helped me in both life and fixing my ideology.
I was raised to be the opposite of this. Hold your tongue. Being silent is being safe... I'm better at criticisizing now, but it's an uphill struggle. I'm gonna check out the book. Thanks for your work🚩
Think a lot of us were raised this way, though especially so for women.
It's not easy to break out of that - definitely an uphill battle that I've struggled with, too.
Great to hear you're better at it now.
For me, this video is still very much aspirational - ("Do what I say, not what I do", etc.) - hopefully one day this will all come more easily and naturally
apparently people in eurocentric countries werent allowed to have conversations with each other unless it was about complete nonsense or platitudes. religion, politics, personal problems, family problems were all taboo to discuss with others. look where it led... most people get abused, starved and sometimes worse, growing up. those are crimes against the most vulnerable humans on the planet. that leads to lots of problems for those who have to endure it. thats a hell of a lot of the worst possible criminals getting away with some of the worst crimes in the name of state loyalty and loyalty to wealthy people..
@Fight4Liberation
*_Man_* do I feel like I relate to this comment 😂
Legendary, I'm going to borrow heavily from this in my future cadre education
I can't believe marxism already covers "how to do constructive criticism/self criticism", something the bourgeois society is beginning to preach (not in the way that threatens capital of course)
And I love that the marxist definition is based on "social/individual change", not like the bourgeois criticism that is often essentialist (you ain't good enuff/you ain't deserved to be loved/you are a mistake to this world)
Edit: when you say "form is secondary but still important" I think it's from our bourgeois upbringing that centers the individual in every interaction. In my unrefined arguments of youtube comment, it made every criticism of the individual is an attack to the individual itself, the attack of said individual's existence in a capitalist environment
great vid! being able to give and receive constructive criticism is so important, not just in political activity but for most any sort of relationships between people
I think an interesting video topic could be the scientific advancements made in socialist countries
with a side note about the scientific advancement made (in a top-down, planned way) in capitalist countries DURING the peak periods of advancement in the socialist countries. Growing up in the wake of the USSR dissolving, I've always been fascinated with how AES countries were able to keep capitalist countries 'honest' in a certain way. Not in ALL their deeds, of course, but by presenting an alternative to their populations. For instance I don't think there would be so many unhoused people in the US if their was still a Soviet Union that could publicly criticize the US and provide an alternative way of doing things to an interested listener.
This was the top comment under jts video today. Coincidence?
@@refoliation there are near zero homeless people in china right now.
Only physical sciences? Social sciences?
Humanities? Law? Medicine? Technology? Etc.?
@saturationstation1446 what makes u say that? There are millions of people struggling to find housing in China. It's an oppressive state like any other.
When people throw out random, unchecked stats like this, it makes me feel frustrated and embarrassed. I don't want leftists to be idol worshipers. Go learn from, and help solve problems in, your communities.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homelessness_in_China
Unity-Struggle-Unity. Criticize-Self-criticize-Criticize.
Wow this video is very well done and very easy to follow along. So much so that I'm probably going to be able to share it with non Marxists because it's an essential skill for everyone to just overcome their aversion to criticism.
Side note I'd really like to see you on the deprogram! JT make it happen!!
Glad to help comrade!
Hopefully the dialectical materialism stuff won't present a barrier to non-Marxists finding this video useful
Also, it would be a ton of fun to go on the Deprogram - get that pressure on the lads if you want to see it happen 😁 haha
Your verbage regarding criticism from class enemies is so helpful. Almost all bad faith discussions of class in America can be attributed to an attempt at solidarity with someone who is a class traitor.
I would love to see a follow-up to this with a real-world example of constructive criticism of a comrade guest, breaking down each step and explaining it, and show the guest's side, receiving and interpreting the criticism.
Or vice-versa.
One major difficulty I've been having in trying to create a culture of healthy crit/self-crit is that a lot of the western left (at least in the spaces me and mine have encountered) have largely abandoned the idea that changed behavior matters; which to be blunt makes crit/self-crit useless since the entire point is to change behavior and belief.
These pockets of the western left over-corrected from the "let it slide" mentality you correctly call out and have embraced the idea that mistakes are permanent (which is cop mentality).
I'm trying to create a counter-culture to disrupt that, but the sheer gravity of the influence of both these sides makes it tough.
a lot of the western left is just well off people who adopted the language specifically to avoid criticism. they dont actually believe in allowing the world to not be controlled by ultra rich people. their actions make right wingers more rich and powerful, far far more than their words do anything to help the vulnerable.
I would like to state that educational content pairing theory and practice with a detailed explanation of the mechanics of the given practice is an incredibly help resource. Thank you
For me, I was surprised by just how much I do many of these things, and a lot of it seems like I could place it on autism. Because SO MANY people just don't understand that I am not trying to criticise the point and not them, and I am almost never hostile, my attitude is to learn or teach, never to attack.
Am I perfect? Of course not, I sometimes can get unreasonably frustrated and I can snap, but these are so few and far between. If we are talking about online discussion I have the most fucking ridiculous example, and given the fact I am an ADHD August you can imagine how I got hostile...
It was a Reddit poll asking if the R-Slur is a slur... Of which the majority of respondents said... No.
I kept my head cool for a few dozen responses but after they all started of tag teaming me I grew more frustrated and snapped on a dude who then preceded to say that my anger is them winning the argument.
I think I quite literally died on that hill because that was a lazy day where I didn't do anything so I was stuck in my bed the whole day trying to convince people that the r-word is a slur... Without being hostile. On Reddit.
If that isn't patience, I don't know what bloody hell is. But yeah, my story is mostly about how many Neurodivergent people might already think the way I do... However worth noting, if they don't share this mindset it's likely they are struggle struggle struggle, because when we are growing up we can choose to be people who concede to fight, flight, or freeze, and depending on that we will have our perceptions of criticism determined by how we react. I am use to dismantling points not people, because dismantling people makes them hostile and useless, but getting at the point at hand itself makes them have to be respectful as well unless they wish to be an asshole. However notably bullies aren't affected by either approach and my just get a kick out of it because they know I will try and reason with their bullshit.
Idk, I just find it amusing I can now have a Marxist analysis of my own personality. :P
You are incredibly helpful in understanding and therefore properly spreading Marxist theory.
Thank you so much!
Greetings from Germany!
Marxist Paul deserves so much more attention.
Love this video! Reminds me of Non-violent communication. 1: Observation 2: Feelings 3: Unmet needs behind feelings 4: Request to meet need
thank you for this video and the book recommendation from Vicki Legion, i became fascinated with this topic from reading Paulo Freire’s book “Pedagogy of the Oppressed”
This video could've saved some of my friendships if I found it earlier
Reminds me that a couple years back, I was involved in this socialist organization that I will not name. The lead guy got in touch with me and gave me some task of downloading marxist books. So I tried doing my best but when I started asking questions like why is this not working, is the file correct etc., he just got really pissed off and said something to the effect of you're the most petty petite bourgeois I've ever seen and you should just try clicking every single button in the program before asking anything. He later dismissed me and wanted me to apologize and self-criticize, I'm like I don't even know what's going on. Afterward I never had anything to do with them again. I don't know if I made the right decision or not, but it sure is a bizarre experience.
its only well off goobers "leading" any organizations these days. i dont trust anything that puts any measurable amount of power over others into the hands of a few people. history gave me too many reasons to not trust those who seek power over others regardless of what organization they are in or what cause they are fighting for
Top video as usual. Good breakdown and explanation of criticism etc that I could've done with when learning. Always good to go over again too. Much appreciated by this viewer! Solidarity as always comrade ✊✊✊
We are going to be testing a 10 week course on the book mentioned in our local chapter that will be heavy in practice. Looking forward to see what’s its effects will be in helping build unity through struggle.
Can you share any updates with what you learn in the process? (Like anything the book isn’t clear enough about)
@@bigusj absolutely! I know of at least 5 DSA chapters that have started courses with the same book. Ours will be an experiment in attempting to deepen comrade’s knowledge and comfort with the practice.
@@MarvinRoman absolutely love it. My SRA chapter wouldn’t have fallen apart & fizzled if we had done the same.
💖
good advice, both for politics and for life generally
How timely, a message I really needed to hear at this time. Did you read my mind?
Ha ha, get out of my head! Get out of my head!
This Buddhist passage came to mind while listening to this video:
"[1] In the case of words that the Tathagata knows to be unfactual, untrue, unbeneficial (or: not connected with the goal), unendearing & disagreeable to others, he does not say them.
[2] In the case of words that the Tathagata knows to be factual, true, unbeneficial, unendearing & disagreeable to others, he does not say them.
[3] In the case of words that the Tathagata knows to be factual, true, beneficial, but unendearing & disagreeable to others, he has a sense of the proper time for saying them.
[4] In the case of words that the Tathagata knows to be unfactual, untrue, unbeneficial, but endearing & agreeable to others, he does not say them.
[5] In the case of words that the Tathagata knows to be factual, true, unbeneficial, but endearing & agreeable to others, he does not say them.
[6] In the case of words that the Tathagata knows to be factual, true, beneficial, and endearing & agreeable to others, he has a sense of the proper time for saying them. Why is that? Because the Tathagata has sympathy for living beings."
Ahhh nice to see yugo on your patron list ❤
5:34 YES YES YES YES SO GOOD BRO. in my opinion this unity unity unity atmosphere is just plain boring and i rather go to sleep. If I agree all the time with a comrade I just go to bed. Disagreement and coming to a better objective truth conclusion is the most exciting and objectively best way to discuss or debate or however you want to call this casual talk with one another.
yea haha. Just as you say then 10 seconds later im just extremely smart no doubt about that.
Viki Legion, I need to read his book
Absolutely incredible book, instantly applicable, and useful in any and every organization (and it finds perfect analogy in interpersonal relationships)
Like if you weren’t aware of it, go buy or print it out rn and discuss it with all your comrades. The antidote to cointelpro and lib nonconfrontationalism
Eye opening Video. Thank you very much ❤...
Thank you Paul for the incredibly informative video!
I'm so committed to the dialectic that I'm in constant war with the version of myself from last week, who is a clown and a coward
This remind me a lot of Michael Rosenberg's Nonviolent Communication book
Paul, man you are a blessing to the working class!
This video is great. Tho I must say, what happens when the person In question denies concrete observations? Like, I got people in my life who can be presented with irrefutable proof of bad financial habits, but then just, denies it. What do we do with them?
Denial is one of the stages of grief before acceptance. It’s possible this particular person in your life has also observed these habits, but is “grieving” their former vision of themselves. To try to paint a picture, imagine they have realized that they need to give up these habits but those habits also filled some sort of need so they could be grieving that loss of the need being filled.
Now, all of that is difficult to know for sure unless you ask! I think the best thing to do is say, “I’m noticing you reacted in x way when I mentioned those habits. How does it feel to hear those habits brought up?”
That will maybe give the other person an opening to talk about their struggles with discussing the topic. Try to figure out what the need is that they feel is being threatened. And then see if you can honor that need in some way!
“Thank you for being so open about how this makes you feel. It sounds like you’re really hesitant about x need. I know change can be hard so I’m here to help you! (Or you can direct them to a source that can help).”
Damn, that would be useful in all aspects of life, not just activism
No fucking way. We just had a discussion whether or not to bring back criticism and self criticism in our meetings. We decided against it because it often became a hollow point or a brow beating moment in the past.
Would you say criticism and self criticism should be something you apply in the moment when applicable or should it be a specific moment of every meeting?
Apply when applicable. Leave 5 minutes aside at the end of every meeting to bring up whether people have criticisms they'd like to air, just to note that the comrades would like to get the process going, and that will get the ball rolling.
Accommodations for the crit can then be made, such as arranging a Zoom/Jitsi call with all those involved to work through the process at a time that works for everyone
I would say 'Honest criticism' is a better description of the process you layed out than 'ruthless'
Also what is your perspective on group criticism as opposed to criticism one-on-one; I imagine group criticism is more difficult for several reasons
Ruthless criticism means criticism of all things, without any subject out of the realm of critique. It comes from Marx.
Self-crit: I'm veeeeery tit for tat when it comes to criticism. I can be very gentle and adhere to the principles laid out here, if the other person strikes me as calm and nice. If the other person strikes me as rash or if they themselves have so many flaws that I think they seriously should first work on themselves before criticizing others, I can get pretty irrational, reject even valid criticisms, respond with tu quoque ("whataboutism") or get really really angry. At least, I noticed this by now. It was a journey for me that began by quitting facebook and immediately enjoying emotional benefits from that. I only really understood what was going on though when I started wondering why I'm not the person I want to be when I argue with certain people that get loud or insulting or self-righteous before they point out what really bothers them. I'm trying to work on that and I hope it also helps me to get my points across when I write UA-cam comments.
omg legit this video is just bolstering my ego up to mount everest levels because Im doing this all so right in the past without even noticing.
So non-violent communication method + political purpose haha. I like it.
Amazing vid, you're writing is very good paul
Thanks Deme, glad you enjoyed it
This was beautiful. I love your work
Thanks AMDtoon - that's very kind of you to say
The reactionaries around the world hate him. See how this Irish man educates the revolutionary movement with 1 simple trick ... Read more
Important topic and well done as always, comrade
Cheers Paul, appreciate it comrade
Absolutely love your content, keep it up comrade!!
No fucking way. We just had a discussion whether or not to bring back criticism and self criticism in our meetings. (We decided against it).
Would you say criticism and self criticism should be something you apply in the moment when applicable or should it be a specific moment of every meeting?
How did therapy,restorative practice, and my thoughts about Reddit get into my feed in the same video?
Jokes aside, thanks for the video, comrade!
Algo comment.
Go raibh míle maith agat
Fantastic video, as always 🔥
Thanks Conor, glad you enjoyed it!
If we accept that people's beliefs and allegiances fall on a egalitarian-authoritarian spectrum, my experience suggests that the further one moves toward authoritarian, the less likely the individual is to be receptive to any criticism.
Thank you! Great video!
What happened to your “silly liberals” video? I use to forward that video for educational purposes. Now I have no access or do t see it anywhere. I think it shows as deleted in my library folder. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
We need to dicuss marxism with non-marxists in a less defensive way.'\
Really helpful topic!
Fun thing: youtube greeted me with an ad about how much my state is investing in the police, cool stuff huh?. Ideological disclaimer: armchair revolutionary, no pretension of being a Marxist but enjoy this kind of content, I believe vanguardism can play a revolutionary role, but the very economical base and ideological hegemony that sustains it, lead revolution to a regressive social-technocratic stage.
I find the topic in the video useful as self help to improve communication, but if the purpose of csc is to solve conflict within a political unit, while maintaining unity under a particular line, I fail to find any useful substance.
First, when it comes to the flows of internal struggle, both and S-S-S and U-U-U are caricatures, no political unit (which I'll use interchangeably with polity) can exist under the former, and Kami-sama I wish liberals behaved as the latter, ¡that way class consciousness in numbers alone would convince them to join the revolutionary struggle! The U-S-U circuit is the process every honest thinker and polity tries, and believes itself, to follow. If U-U-U were to exists, it would be as the illusion of U-S-U born from hegemony, it's easy from revolutionary perspectives to point at the liberals for falling into such a trap, but it would be naive to believe "proletarian" ideologues are immune to the seduction of blissfully ignored interests and superficial disagreements.
What does Mao have to say about the actual objective process through which conflict within the polity is resolved? I don't know, this is just idealist thinking about personal discipline. Mutual education could solve a conflict if the source of it is just asymmetry of knowledge preventing an egalitarian polity to achieve a shared conclusion, but such are not the usual conditions of struggle, particularly not in polities with professional revolutionaries and jefaturas.
Finally, as is usual with this kind of ranting to the void critiques, I don't have a constructive conclusion, ¿maybe actually apply csc to the criticisms of people like the Rejectionist? Even if they failed to form a coherent independent movement, they're in a way better position to criticize today's struggle than me.
And that's it, thank you for entertaining me dear reader. I'm totally open to recommendations in pamphlets, essays, videos and podcasts, I can't finish a theory book to save my life. Have a nice day.
ty comrade
This video would have saved my marriage if it was published a year ago.
💔 Hope you're doing okay buddy
@@Marxism_Today I'm not, but I appreciate the support comrade!
¿can you stop doing such banger videos?
Hmmm. The next one's going to be about the ongoing revolution in India, so with source material like that, it's going to be tricky 😕
4:22 Aaaand you've lost me.
How are you lost?
@@AwesomeSheep48 well, I listened for 10 seconds and laughed. Thank you for reminding me I made this comment, I needed that.
@@masscreationbroadcasts Oh, I thought you were talking about a certain thing they said at that timestamp
@@AwesomeSheep48 I was.
@@masscreationbroadcasts so you're suffering from a skill issue then.
7:50 family guy reference
Lol nice
algorithm comment
💯👍🎯
💚🐾✊🏼💚🌏✌️💚
👍
I feel like the reason this kind of criticism has never worked on a long timeline or at a large scale is because it fundamentally ignores human nature. It's a system predicated on people giving and receiving criticism in good faith and holding the collective good as their highest ideal while doing it. Neither of those things have ever happened, and a case could be made that such behavior is beyond our capabilities completely.
It's a lovely idea, but like so many lovely ideas that are good for society, it doesn't take into account how people actually think or behave.
Human nature is determined by the material conditions within which we find ourselves.
The human nature of today is a human nature that's been shaped by capitalism and its individualist ideology. But for most of humanity's existence (>95%), we lived in pre-class communal society, and this produced a drastically different human nature.
There's a video on the channel going into this subject a bit more if you're interested:
ua-cam.com/video/IUQwUJyMCOQ/v-deo.html
Well done! Receiving criticism or giving it in a constructive way are really lost arts. Marxists have produced a lot of writing on the subject, but rarely do I see it practiced well, especially when it comes to Marxism itself. That's the movement's core weakness that leads to dogmaticism and a situation where we remain niche.
My very first suggestion here is to let go of the labels "Marxism" and "Marxist", but not of Marx.
Whenever you say that you're a Marxist or that "x is a core believe of Marxism", it makes me feel like I'm listening to a religious person talking about the dogma. What I would prefer you to do is trying to justify the idea in its own right and point out where to read more - and if the source is Marx or someone inspired by Marx, so be it. I don't want you to hide that there's a huge corpus of literature of people who were primarily inspired by Marx's work. The point is to mimic what natural sciences have done so we avoid dogmaticism at the language level. If we don't label ourselves as "Marxists" to begin with, then we don't ever run into the ideological pitfall that adhering to Marxist beliefs becomes more important to us that testing beliefs and believing in those ideas that remain after testing.
Physicists don't call themselves "Einsteinists" or "Schrödingerists", Mathematicians don't call themselves "Gaussians". At best, they name certain tools or theories after people. "Your ideas conflict with Einstein" is only a valid objection if we have data available that confirms Einstein's particular belief in question and rejects yours. Einstein has been proven wrong though on many things, for instance, the ER and EPR papers were intended as general objections to quantum mechanics, but later, Bell transformed Einstein et al. arguments into testable predictions which then were found violated (while quantum mechanics made the correct prediction). The people closing the last loopholes in that debate just got the nobel prize.
Lesson: just because someone with a big name has some opinion, that's not a proof. And given how laughable many of Aristotle's writings are with 2000 years of hindsight, I imagine that the same will happen to Einstein's or Marx's writings. But that can only happen if we preemptively treat those writings as laughable, except we just didn't get the joke yet. Of course, that shouldn't prevent us from correctly attributing ideas to their originator just like we do for a lot of Aristotle's ideas.
"Well done! Receiving criticism or giving it in a constructive way are really lost arts. Marxists have produced a lot of writing on the subject" - can you recommend me any books about the critique from Marxist perspective?
:)
you can't even critique your own ideology let alone the world
I'm a Marxist, but reading on Mao, it's clear that this method was, for him, a tool to weed out political opponents, and create an atmosphere of fear to keep others in line. Struggle sessions was famously a way to have revenge for personal grievances, disguised under a witch hunt of past "errors", never lifting the cloud and providing fodder for purges.
I'm all down for criticism, so here's some: don't shy away from discussing the history of those you quote in the direct context of what you try explain, or it seem you're not trying to "learn from past mistakes". Vicki's book is good though, and I agree with your video in general.
The heritage foundation isn’t a good source for your info on Mao lol
mashallah daddy Marxist Paul has uploaded