cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/2331989

I don’t really think he knows this site’s culture at all. No one is dissuading people from reading theory lol

Yey or ney for him?

As someone said in the post

As far as I can tell, he’s a guy who spends all his time posting about how all leftists do is post.

And this ain’t the first time, Roderick’s a bit terminally online, arguing against other progressives like JT (Second Thought) and Michael Hudson…

Edit:

Ok I’ve made a right-deviationist mistake in saying that Michael Hudson is a progressive, and indirectly agreeing with the views of the former…

I’ve not investigated into JT’s MMT videos nor looked carefully into Hudson (I thought he was also against capitalism, turns out, only finance and feudalism…, just cares for industrial capitalism)

  • CriticalResist8A
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    7 months ago

    I like Roderic. He reminds us (communists) that it’s not all memes and fun, there’s serious effort that needs to be made and the course this effort should take is found in theory.

    Yes you could say he’s sometimes a bit too harsh in his criticism, but he also makes tons of good points and we need people like him too, with or without their flaws. Nobody’s perfect. He’s harsh, but he’s not insulting (that I’ve seen) and in the end he does it to reach a better understanding of the matter with the people he struggles with. It took me a while in my life to detach from “neutral language criticism” and not see it as harsh criticism because it didn’t have a word of praise in it (like “you’re partly correct” or “you’re on the right track but”). This is what he does, is neutral criticism. He doesn’t go out of his way to insult or demean you but makes you see his point.

    He spends a lot of time on Twitter, sure why not, but he’s also one of the only people there that will talk to you in DMs and answer your questions there, and even if you have 2 followers – many do not bother to talk to you either because they have too many notifications (he has a big account so I’m sure he has the notifs too) or because you don’t have followers. Also anyone can have a Twitter account, and I know many big accounts like Roderic’s that are not half as good at Marxism as he is.

    His thing, from what I can tell, is to engage with the points and the criticism. Many people dismiss criticisms because they see it as wrong from the get-go, and don’t even want to try and falsify it on that basis. He pushes us rather to engage with it, even if it’s wrong, in order to show why it’s wrong or doesn’t apply, thereby reaching a higher level of understanding from both parties. He can be wrong too and doesn’t claim to know everything.

    • TeezyZeezy
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      7 months ago

      The neutral criticism piece I actually disagree with. I think it’s equally on the people’s perception as it is on the person delivering/intention, and in a society where most people are going to be much more likely to be responsive to a positive languaged critique, there is no reason not to. We don’t have to be logic-lords or Spock, we’re humans and we like to be reassured and talked to nicely even when we are wrong. This is all assuming the person is good faith ofc.

      It probably differs based on who you’re talking to, y’know, other comrades can probably take a little more direct language compared to some random newbie but I think it stands regardless, you have to frame it in a way that is digestible because of the large possibility that it could be blocked by your tone and their response to it. If we want to be practical, we need to consider this.

      Personally I still agree with you lol, and am working on/getting better at taking direct criticism as not personal. But that doesn’t mean we should expect everyone to take it that way, it’s just not the way most people think.

      Edit: everything else you said I agree with though, I still just have my own issues I listed above lol ^