Do I really have to read all these books to become a true leftist...

Read leftist literature in your mother tongue then.
If you ever want to be an asset for communism you're going to have to understand what you're fighting for and why you're fighting for it.
Everyone needs to be politically educated.

Just fake it until you make it.

Read this one. It's relatively short and easy on the big words. It's about how you can teach yourself and how you can learn anything. Hopefully this will convince you that you are not a brainlet.

Educating yourself is an important facet of leftism, yes. You don't need to read every single book but if you don't have even a passing knowledge of them or what they're about then you're doing it wrong. You don't even need a dogmatic, encyclopedic knowledge of these things, but especially since your brain has been absorbing capitalist dogma and thought your whole life it's important to understand and develop new ways of thinking, which you aren't going to do by not reading.

Just have a .pdf in one tab, and google translate in another. You're not a brainlet, you're just lazy.

i love the "simple english" feature in wikipedia, why can't they use that for books too?

To be honest, becoming a hard leftist is more than just reading books. Books give you an understanding why things the way they are, and how they came to be, and perhaps, what might come to pass. And many of these predictions made in the past have now come true.

But, what makes a hard leftist is something you pepe types unfortunately crowd to the aut right. It's your own material conditions. Nothing they say is going to improve the issues with your quality of life, especially in America. There is no left in America anymore, so there is nobody looking out for your interests as everyone misguided as a collective.

You get encouraged to vote en masse for Republicans who want to strip away our economic rights, what does voting for standard lobbying cock sucking Republicans make you any better than a Liberal Democrat?

No, becoming a leftist is realizing that nobody is on your side, we are growing drastically economically unequal, by time we're 50 many of us will be homeless if things aren't changed. Ten men own more wealth than all human beings on Earth.

It is not the Jews who did this, what Holla Forums likes to call the problem, but Capitalism. The Free Market. Even if "The Jews" were everything like it, then you wouldn't just exterminate them because someone else would take their place. That's how things work.

In order for our own survival as a community of like minded individuals, you have to come to the correct conclusion without books. And that is if we don't fight for hard left positions we lose ground, and the future looks increadibly bleak.

For example

1) Global warming will ravage entire swathes of the world, by our 60's, 70's, dust storms will ravage the south. This creates more refugees who simply cannot live in those regions anymore, the soil isn't fertile, the animals cannot be fed, the gangs take advantage, what are they to do?

2) More global military intervention. Creating again, more refugees. The market heavily relies on defense, it's the biggest thing next to banking. Ever since after the Cold War, and the first Soviet War in Afghhanistan, we realized something. Well, at least to a larger extent. Funding groups that are heavily reactionary in places we don't like, or maybe even don't care about, is easy as fuck and brings home the cash? How? Jobs for Lockheed Martin, Northropp Grumann, etc, etc. Government gave em damn $35 trillion, that's enough to house every man woman and child in America. They do this, despite the ballooning debt, because without this blood money, this human sacrifice, everything would collapse; that's how big the defense industry is to Capitalism. As things get worse because of global warming, and more terrorist groups rise in desperation over the West doing nothing intentionally (they wouldn't be wrong), I imagine, we would go not just to war with the Middle East, but Africa, Indonesia. That creates those pesky refugees you hate.

The only people who are giving you fucking solid answers on politicians and policies are us. Stop voting for people who lie about wanting to get out of the war. Stop voting for Obama. Stop voting for Hillary. Stop voting for Trump. Stop voting for the Torys, stop hoping that nonce fucking Boris Johnson becomes PM, and stop wanking over Farrage

And realize they want to perpetuate the very things that will destroy this world and rip communities apart, and create global poverty abroad and inside our own nations the likes we haven't seen in over a century.

You do not need a book to realize the reality we are facing if we can't stop it is beyond grim.

No.

All these people saying yes are fucking morons. If you actually think coal miners and welders and farmers are gonna need to read Capital and Hegel and The State and Revolution, then you have zero understanding of socialism or working class uprising.

Thanks. I identify as leftist now, I just used an example in the OP. I feel like I understand the point of leftism, and all that I really need is a crash course on things, and some stats to confirm that capitalism isn't ethical and understand how dependent we are on slaves in foreign countries (Here in Norway most people just barely know that some people in India make clothes and gadgets, but they don't know the large scale of exploitation).

Hmmm I wonder if there's a correlation.

discard anybody who says those words
also most activists you'll meet in your life has read less than 1 full book of theory
read books if you want to understand theory, dont read them if you dont want to

Considering how many Democrats in America call themselves leftists, I would be hesitant to discard anyone who wants to separate themselves from the lot

God bless you user.

To be a "true leftist" all you have to do is oppose capitalism. The only negative of not being very well read in theory is you probably won't be able to argue your positions very well with people irl and shit.

try something short like "principles of communism", it's literally 2 pages

If you aren't willing to read, you should at least lurk enough to be able to judge all opinions and not adopt an ideology, as if it's a clothes brand.
(shilling for my favourite book anyway)

Read a chapter a day, take it slow and break it into parts so you don't overwhelm yourself. Here is a short book

someone should cap this post

Done and Done

You know how they say Communism has killed eight million trillion people

They leave out that little detail where they don't account for their own death toll, and won't publish it the same way they did Communism in the height of Red Fever during the beginning of the Cold War

I think a big convincing point is just the numbers of people killed by Capitalism gives us no right to boast about how secular and humanitarian we are. We are far from it. This is all particularly in America, a cruel place under the facade of freedom, the facade of justice, and the facade of opportunity.

It's all lies. And for all these homeless people who die who thought they could make it, tragedy.

Preventable death like this while smug fucks in NYC high rises mock them is enough to make anyone's blood boil red hot and consider some gulags, if not guillotines.

the 6 mill figure is probably true, but 12 is a hyperbole and you know it.

It probably is. Maybe it's not just counting Jews but other ethnic groups, Slavs, the polish, people with "degenerative lifestyles", the disabled.

A lot more were culled than just Jews.

You should at least read the easier books. Not all leftist literature is dry theory.

6 million is for just the jews, though

But here's a more palatable infographic I suppose

jewishjournal.com/news/nation/214283/remember-11-million/
supporting the "5 million extra" thing is supporting the holocaust industry.

just why

At this point I don't care if I'm slandering the Nazis, fuck the Nazis

Getting hung up on that part isn't the point, the point is if we were to look at industry ethically the same way we look at communism in hindsight, and during, we would come with a far grimmer answer.

That Capitalism isn't at all what it seems, it is just as much a death cult. Preventable human deaths are just a scratch off the surface.

not really. if you know the basic concepts you're pretty much good. go out and do something you're proficient at.

You should read books, if you can't read books go for audio books.

If you can't do that at least watch the documentaries by Adam Curtis.

Saging because I don't want to doublepost-bump

These ones I think are essential viewing:

BitterLake:
youtube.com/watch?v=VRbq63r7rys

Century of Self:
youtube.com/watch?v=eJ3RzGoQC4s

The Trap:
youtube.com/watch?v=y97Ywl7RtUw

He was an anarchist, not a Marxist. Not everyone on the left sucks Marx's dick 24/7.
libcom.org/library/anarchy-errico-malatesta

Can you chant
FOUR LEGS GOOOD
TWO LEGS BAAHHDD
?

Orwell was a socialist and fought alongside leftcoms, Trotskyists, and anarchists.

you can do whatever you like. i'm not gonna read all those books. i know what i'm going to vote tho

Chans ruined my attention span too. The instant gratification of the internet IMO will be the real reason we will all be driven extinct by capitalism instead of rising up.

Books and theory are only important if you want to be a Marxist. Anarchists are against theory and intellectualism, so you can still be a leftist and ignore reading. Just be an anarchist.

It's really just because this place is full of /lit/ users and absorbed their memes. You don't need to read Capital in its entirety to grasp that the wage system helps porky at your expense.

There is no "true leftism". Except Nazbol
You should read because it seems you have legitimate attention/learning issues and need the stimulus.
You honestly don't need to understand arguments for Socialism. Contrary to belief, we aren't all going to be Fidel, Marx, etc… You probably should, but I'm biased because I find them fun. Just don't be a retard, think you are super smart, and become an autright again because of your lack of theory.

you seem like a fucking armchair idiot.

It's like you want people to think that commies are retarded

Yeah I seem pretty armchair, I better go and berate this guy for not being a good enough Socialist.

Nah, not really. Check out Richard Wolff's youtube channel and in particular his courses on Marxian economics.

Hey you fuck, I've been meming with pepe since long before Holla Forums got ahold of him and I don't appreciate you giving them free reign to lay claim to him.

Yes. This isn't Holla Forums. No retards allowed. Read.

there

ok. right now im playing terraria whilst listening to finnish bolshevik. its a start.

gross

i'm busy and don't have much time to read. even less time to synthesize everything and form coherent theories by myself.

is there some indoctrination class on youtube or something that can help me out

youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfAcMaw6bP_8jvZMoB_wPnnFFrUsFboWL

this looks interesting but a bit too shallow

Go on YouTube and watch Michael Parentis videos. Look for "the war on Yugoslavia" in particular

Not just imageboards it's everywhere on the internet. 9gag, reddit, facebook, etc. They are all a danger to us simply because it is too much fun. It is addictive.
I'm thinking of going off the grid for a while. Just to be able to focus on things once again. But it feels like a chore already.

No leftist is just a position, anyone can have it you just wont be that educated.
Then just do that, there are plenty of leftist youtube channels and podcasts n shit if you're too lazy