The Deprogram

A lot of people don't, it's not unique to marxism of course but you'll also see the type of person who quote-mines a lot (posting quote after quote after quote), just unable to make their own analysis/synthesis outside of what marx et al. precisely said.

marxism is a living science and must be properly placed back in its social component. People endlessly arguing over the minute meaning of a single word that might have been mistranslated and takes away from Marx's 'intent' are just splitting hairs imo, practice will look different to the theory regardless in any social situation. Even early Christians synthesized aspects of 'pagan' beliefs/rituals to make conversion easier, and they're the dogmatic ones! But that's Western Marxism^TM^ I guess.

That’s typical of people who are hyper-specialized.

It’s not enough to read theory, but you also need to connect that theory with the world around you through research. Which also means you need to learn how to do research.

Extreme purist obsessiveness and a big ego does wonders. If you cling to every word, even if you preach against dogmatism specifiically, you become dogmatic because now you are merely parroting phrases rather than analysing the material reality around you.

My first interaction with him was basically, "hey thanks for doing these audiobooks, I've recently become interested in Marxism and Buddhism and you've taught me a lot on the former." He then preceeded to over the course of 4 or 5 days argue with me over my personal choice to believe in reincarnation and no-self. It was pissing me off how superior he was trying to be to me in return so I kept arguing back (I shouldnt have bothered really). I tried to be respectful while holding my own and I told him let's agree to disagree three or four different times until he eventually stopped.