Apparently Ben Burgis is going on his show to hopefully hand him his ass.

Marxists actively read theory, that we’re not unlike preachers reading the bible

This makes no sense - not your fault - there's, when ML are nominally agnostic/atheist, appose hierarchy. It would take some real mental gymnastics to arrive at this.

Most Marxists I know who’re well-read did their reading while at their job. I used to work with someone who operated heavy equipment while reading theory.

There's even audio books & podcasts that dissect theory or where you can passively absorb ML theory - many of these sources are available on youtube et al., so fucking galling and ridiculous!

Also, damn I suspected I might have come off as salty. I even added that ‘previous’ word there just in case.

All good.

Did you not intend to imply they had some special insight beyond what they identified as that could act as a better bridge than whatever Marxists have to say?

ABSOLUTELY NOT!

If it seemed like that was implied than maybe I should apologize! However, what I am saying is Marxism is extremely taboo here (USA) anything written is treated as some black magic book of necromancy, people fear what they don't understand - in my case it was just pure ignorance - not until I read Marx (especially Lenin) did I see the value & incite in it. BUT I first became politically aware of deeper left politics through Chomsky, which lead me to protest in the second Iraq war, become more class conscious etc.

wow, why the salt buddy? were you born with a copy of State & Revolution in your hands? Each and every one of us came to left politics in their own way, I don't care if someone gets put on to left wing politics because they liked a rage against the machine song or read chomsky or howard zinn - as long as they get there.

I want to be angry, I really do, but this is capitalism and "woke" politics reduced to farcical caricature.

speaking about Chomsky specifically, his bone fides is well known viz. organizing, protest & critique of capitalist imperialism. Not to get too bogged down in labels describes himself as "anarcho-syndicalist" he often aligns with the left but dose not describe himself as socialist, communist etc. He's a gateway for further study into more genuine/left radicalism & agitation, that was my experience & has been for many others I've spoken to.

I wouldn't throw out all of "anarchsim" Bakunin, Chomsky and a few others have some things to say about capitalist feudalism, propaganda etc that can be a bridge to more organized left politics, socialism, ML etc., Lenin in particular could be pragmatic in this way while never sacrificing the core of the method or message.

That's right, while the masses are fighting over whether "Joe's Radical Leftist agenda" (L-O-FUCKING-L) will destroy Murica, accerlationism may be the truly unstoppable force we need, like a hurricane blowing all those who don't truly have the stomach for revolution aside.

I would ask, how far does one have to go from defending their fellow in the streets of Portland to participation in revolution?

I would argue it's not far at all.

You're right and even if diagnosing them as Trots seems harsh it's not wrong.

I'm reading 'What Is To Be Done' for the first time & came across this passage (one of many) that highlights the problem quite plainly:

"However, the Bernsteinian and “critical” trend, to which the majority of the legal Marxists turned, deprived the socialists of this opportunity and demoralised the socialist consciousness by vulgarising Marxism, by advocating the theory of the blunting of social contradictions, by declaring the idea of the social revolution and of the dictatorship of the proletariat to be absurd, by reducing the working-class movement and the class struggle to narrow trade-unionism and to a “realistic” struggle for petty, gradual reforms. This was synonymous with bourgeois democracy’s denial of socialism’s right to independence and, consequently, of its right to existence; in practice it meant a striving to convert the nascent working-class movement into an appendage of the liberals."

South Carolinian here; 43% FUCKING 43%! In a deeply Red state where our Governor just got in trouble for trying to shift almost all the education budget through the back door to private charter schools while leaving almost nothing for public, a state that has one of the highest COVID infection rates and a state where minority/poor communities feel all these impacts disproportionately this is a ticking time bomb.