I’m so tired of my US History class. We’re approaching WW1, and my teacher is talking about communism. Firstly, he’s a hardcore liberal, but oh my goodness for him to teach AP, he doesn’t even SOUND like he knows what he’s talking about. His articulation and the way he talks, along with his word choice just shows he doesn’t know shit about communism.
Today he was talking about communism and I told him “communism is a moneyless, stateless, classless society.” Then he said “no, communism is where EVERYTHING is equal.” Then I proceeded to tell him that there’s different types of communist ideologies apart from the one he’s talking about, such as Anarcho-communism who believe that “true” communism is accomplished by dictatorship of the proletariat, however without a class and state. He ignored that then went back to his flawed point where communism is where “everything is equal” and that the “government controls everything, not a market.”
Then he proceeded to ask the class “What if I graded you all like a communist? Everyone in here would have a B.” And everyone was like “OH NO NO NO!!”
It’s just so ugh… He sounds so dumb it pisses me off, and the students just gobble that bullshit up, which pisses me off even more.
Unfortunately, you’re going to have to keep engaging with people like this for what will feel like forever. It will only get more frustrating, unfortunately. But you’ll also get better at navigating it.
(As an aside, who wouldn’t say yes to a free B? Is that a bad grade? Sounds like a bargain to me if it’s automatic.)
There’s a possibly useful book by Bertell Ollman, How To Take An Exam: https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/H/bo33810559.html.
It’s got it’s problems, but Ollman explains how to navigate bourgeois education as a radical. As cathartic as it would be to challenge your teacher(s), you’re unlikely to change their mind(s), and hardly anyone is going to read your assigments so you won’t prove much by taking a radical stance; it’s not the place for starting a revolution.
I’m not saying don’t highlight the contradictions in class. Just be careful with jeopardising your grades. You won’t do yourself any favours even if you’ll sleep better.
This applies to all levels of education, right up to and including a PhD if that’s where you want to go (you might not, which is entirely acceptable): if you want to learn, you better learn to teach yourself, because the great teachers are few and far between, and even they can’t sit watching while you read, and it’s the reading that makes the difference (whatever the subject and whether the student is orthodox or a radical).
In class, it may be more useful to apply historical materialism to the sources rather than bringing up revolutionaries (without saying that that’s what you’re doing). Because if there is any error in your explanation of Marxism, it will be taken as evidence that you’ve not learned anything, that you failed to pay attention when the teacher was telling you what communism really is. Even typos could be used against you in that scenario.
As Parenti warns, when you go against the current, everything you say will be challenged. In my writing, I’ve been challenged for ‘being biased’ by mentioning that liberal democracies are capitalist, or for quoting government policy, in context (apparently, most people don’t like to see evidence of how totalitarian are liberal democratic states). I.e. it’s okay to regurgitate the government’s summary of what it’s doing (which makes the government look good), but it’s ‘not okay’ to unpack the real implications (increased inequality) even if that is admitted somewhere in the fine print.
Unless you have a great teacher, you won’t make them read Marx, Engels, Lenin, etc. If you’re asked to criticise sources that claim communism is about making everything equal, criticise it and say how that kind of system would not work. Just leave out the bit where you would say, ‘… and that’s why no communist believes that.’
I’m sorry I don’t have more a positive response for you, but I hope this helps.
Thank you, this was enlightening and very humbling.
You’re welcome, and I hope there’s something useful in what I said. Please don’t take it as me telling you not to speak up. There will be plenty of people who do that, and I don’t want to chorus them. This is more of a pick-your-battles kind of thing.