lindsi’s Comments (group member since Jan 13, 2021)

lindsi’s comments from the Reading with Comrades group.

i’m starting mine tonight!

I’m gonna be reading Blackshirts & Reds by Michael Parenti 😎

i’ve also read the entirety of it, and i cannot possibly understand how anyone would NOT be appalled by its contents.

not only from a historical reality perspective, because there has never been a successful leftist revolution that didn’t center anti-white supremacy & anti-imperialism, but also as someone who immigrated to the US from a former british colony, anti-imperialism is the center of my politics and will ALWAYS come first. frankly, i do not consider anyone who doesn’t center anti-imperialism to be worth listening to, because the compulsion to defer to the status quo of settler colonialist violence will always infect their politics even if otherwise decent. orwell was an imperialist, a literal colonial cop, and a white supremacist. i can’t say he’s not a part of socialist history because of course he is - but this should tell us something very important about socialist history, ie that many of the western left’s heroes are actually vile and are today invoked to bolster the continuation of exploitation of the global south.

This month’s topic is: Communism!

What work of fiction or nonfiction are you reading/planning to read that fits this theme?

and let’s not forget he was a cop in british occupied burma: https://twitter.com/Louis_Allday/stat...

wait are we still talking about george orwell? because that man was a straight up while supremacist. there’s no amount of ideological overlap in other areas that will make me sympathetic to white supremacists 🤷🏻‍♀️

https://twitter.com/louis_allday/stat...

Per the group poll https://forms.gle/PxwTbNi915nxBRCh8, the top 12 chosen themes have been put in random order to create the following monthly thematic reading schedule:

January: Communism
Feburary: Colonialism & Decolonization
March: Pan-Africanism & Black Liberation
April: Police & Prison Abolition
May: (Anti)Racism & White Supremacy
June: Labor
July: Climate Change
August: Globalization & Neoliberalism
September: Left History
October: Political & Social Theory
November: Imperialism
December: Propaganda & Mass Media

Each month, instead of reading a specific book, we'll each pick a work we feel fits the theme of that month. It doesn't have to be nonfiction either - works of fiction can absolutely fit into any of these themes! We'll create a post in this folder every month where folks can share what they selected and discuss :)

Alright yall, here are the results!
The top 12 themes voted on were:
#1. Colonialism & Decolonization
#2. Communism
Tied for #3. (Anti)Racism & White Supremacy
Tied for #3. Pan-Africanism & Black Liberation
Tied for #3. Propaganda & Mass Media
Tied for #3. Left History
Tied for #7. Police & Prison Abolition
Tied for #7. Political & Social Theory
#9. Imperialism
#10. Climate Change
#11. Globalization & Neoliberalism
#12. Labor

To avoid having a super front-loaded year, I am going to randomize (https://www.random.org/sequences) the order of this options to create a monthly thematic schedule for 2022:


January: Communism
Feburary: Colonialism & Decolonization
March: Pan-Africanism & Black Liberation
April: Police & Prison Abolition
May: (Anti)Racism & White Supremacy
June: Labor
July: Climate Change
August: Globalization & Neoliberalism
September: Left History
October: Political & Social Theory
November: Imperialism
December: Propaganda & Mass Media

i truly despise when anything remotely dystopian is compared to 1984, as if that imperialist asshat (orwell) was even that good of a writer to begin with lmfao

wrt the memory police, i will say it starts out very slow but ends up absolutely horrifying. also, i read it right after reading the shock doctrine so the use of the word “disappear” definitely hit different

Thanks for mentioning Twitter - made me realize we should have a place to trade social media handles! Started a thread here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

And can I just say how fking awesome it is reading all y’all’s posts and seeing all these comrades across the world come together? I’m truly so grateful for each and every one of you. ❤️

If anyone would like to connect on social media, drop your links here!
The only one I really use is Twitter, follow me @lindsi_rae :)

Hey folks! Here is the Google form where you can vote on which themes you want us to cover in 2022! https://forms.gle/zSfYvJU9ufQpZHf99

Thank you so much to everyone who shared their suggestions!! I’ll get the Google form made this week so we can vote ❤️

These are the themes I have so far!

(Anti)Racism & White Supremacy
Borders & (Im)migration
Climate Change
Colonialism & Decolonization
Democracy
Education
Environmental Justice
Gender & Sexuality
Globalization & Neoliberalism
Housing
Imperialism
Labor
Pan-Africanism & Black Liberation
Policing & Prison Abolition
Propaganda & Mass Media
Social Media & Digital Surveillance

respectfully, i think a google form would be way easier for all parties lol

How about we solicit input for themes, then make a poll (not on Goodreads, would have to be external bc you can’t select more than one option in Goodreads polls) and the top choices, in random order, will be the themes for the next 12 months?

Happy Turkey Day to those who celebrate!

I wanted to float the idea of choosing a theme for each month and everyone reads a book they feel fits that theme, be it fiction or nonfiction. Themes could be like: labor, housing, environmentalism, etc.

What do y’all think of that?

My favorite fiction book from this year was ‘The Memory Police’! Super creepy and beautiful magical realism, kind of reminded me of Kazuo Ishiguro. Highly highly recommend.