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The ABCs of Jacobin

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Re: The ABCs of Jacobin

#11

Post by shanghaiaway »

abvdasker wrote: post #9

The quality and depth of the writing in Jacobin's stories is what keeps me coming back. They go very in-depth in each story and aren't afraid to use a diction that's probably a bit more academic than the average American is comfortable with. Each piece is exactly as long as it needs to be, and they don't dumb down the content or try to soften their ideological views the way most mainstream publications do. I especial…

It's a leftist publication, of course it's not reactionary. It's Marxist, of course it uses obscure language.

Re: The ABCs of Jacobin

#12

Post by Ar-Curunir »

ghostcluster wrote: post #5

To name your magazine after the frenzied murderous excess of the French Revolution reminds me of how rabidly violent the far left is. And when we have so many examples of radical collectivism leading to mass suffering (much of humanity's gains in the last 40 years can be traced to China's rejection of it in the late 1970s), and an intellectual foundation based on patently false dogma like Marx's 'labor theory of valu…

If you'd bother to read the linked article or to do a moment's research, you would have learned that the magazine is not named after the French Jacobins: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacobin_(magazine)#Title_and_l...

Re: The ABCs of Jacobin

#13

Post by Synaesthesia »

ghostcluster wrote: post #5

To name your magazine after the frenzied murderous excess of the French Revolution reminds me of how rabidly violent the far left is. And when we have so many examples of radical collectivism leading to mass suffering (much of humanity's gains in the last 40 years can be traced to China's rejection of it in the late 1970s), and an intellectual foundation based on patently false dogma like Marx's 'labor theory of valu…

Yeah the Kingdom of France didn't have mass suffering or murderous excesses ... That wasn't shocking to the elite at the time, but people taking power were.

In principle, a democracy with mistakes is better than an enlightened monarchy.

Look at how the US has done business with tyrants, their foreign policy has a terrible record.

Re: The ABCs of Jacobin

#14

Post by Dowwie »

While I think it is important to consider arguments across the entire political spectrum, reading Jacobin takes effort. It promotes a fictional world view where a command and control society makes purely altruistic, utilitarian decisions to maximize economic and social equality. Good and evil are too quickly ascribed to actors without consideration of attribution error. There is too much black and white thinking..

Re: The ABCs of Jacobin

#15

Post by djrobstep »

Dowwie wrote: post #14

While I think it is important to consider arguments across the entire political spectrum, reading Jacobin takes effort. It promotes a fictional world view where a command and control society makes purely altruistic, utilitarian decisions to maximize economic and social equality. Good and evil are too quickly ascribed to actors without consideration of attribution error. There is too much black and white thinking..

If your version of "across the political spectrum" stops short of democratic socialism, perhaps it's time to try harder to expand your mind.

Re: The ABCs of Jacobin

#16

Post by rustyboy »

tuxmascot wrote: post #10
Ar-Curunir wrote: post #3

This article gives me the feeling that the folks who run Jacobin have a "holier-than-thou" attitude towards the rest of the left. I get the feeling that they look down upon more idealistic leftists, and think of themselves as pragmatic and grounded, a quality they deem that the rest of the left lacks. Might be the way the article is written (it seems to try hard to portray Jacobson's success as a demonstration of cap…

A large portion of the radical left feels this way about Jacobin. I enjoy some of their articles, but it doesn't come without critique. Famously, a post-leftist, anarchist organization called "Crimethinc" published an essay called "Your Politics Are Boring As Fuck"[0] which addressed some of the problems with the attitudes of "Jacobin Leftists". I really like this quote: > The truth is, your politics are boring to th…

While I agree with Crimethinc and that quote, I can't seem to get into their writing anymore. Most of their writing comes across as defeatist or exhausting, but it's understandable because they've been promoting leftist ideals for decades now while the world slides into more and more authoritarianism.

Re: The ABCs of Jacobin

#17

Post by orhmeh09 »

Ar-Curunir wrote: post #12
ghostcluster wrote: post #5

To name your magazine after the frenzied murderous excess of the French Revolution reminds me of how rabidly violent the far left is. And when we have so many examples of radical collectivism leading to mass suffering (much of humanity's gains in the last 40 years can be traced to China's rejection of it in the late 1970s), and an intellectual foundation based on patently false dogma like Marx's 'labor theory of valu…

If you'd bother to read the linked article or to do a moment's research, you would have learned that the magazine is not named after the French Jacobins: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacobin_(magazine)#Title_and_l...

I think it’s a bit disingenuous to attack that presumption, given that the magazine sells posters of guillotines. They definitely play on it. https://jacobinmag.com/store/product/1

Re: The ABCs of Jacobin

#18

Post by testrun »

djrobstep wrote: post #15
Dowwie wrote: post #14

While I think it is important to consider arguments across the entire political spectrum, reading Jacobin takes effort. It promotes a fictional world view where a command and control society makes purely altruistic, utilitarian decisions to maximize economic and social equality. Good and evil are too quickly ascribed to actors without consideration of attribution error. There is too much black and white thinking..

If your version of "across the political spectrum" stops short of democratic socialism, perhaps it's time to try harder to expand your mind.

What is democratic socialism?

Re: The ABCs of Jacobin

#19

Post by eadmund »

Ar-Curunir wrote: post #12
ghostcluster wrote: post #5

To name your magazine after the frenzied murderous excess of the French Revolution reminds me of how rabidly violent the far left is. And when we have so many examples of radical collectivism leading to mass suffering (much of humanity's gains in the last 40 years can be traced to China's rejection of it in the late 1970s), and an intellectual foundation based on patently false dogma like Marx's 'labor theory of valu…

If you'd bother to read the linked article or to do a moment's research, you would have learned that the magazine is not named after the French Jacobins: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacobin_(magazine)#Title_and_l...

If anything, the Haitian Jacobins were worse: the Haitian Revolution entailed systematic genocide: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1804_Haiti_massacre

Re: The ABCs of Jacobin

#20

Post by rauhl »

orhmeh09 wrote: post #17
Ar-Curunir wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you'd bother to read the linked article or to do a moment's research, you would have learned that the magazine is not named after the French Jacobins: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacobin_(magazine)#Title_and_l...

I think it’s a bit disingenuous to attack that presumption, given that the magazine sells posters of guillotines. They definitely play on it. https://jacobinmag.com/store/product/1

> … the magazine sells posters of guillotines.

Sounds like glorifying political mass-murder to me. That seems in profoundly poor taste.

Every person who died under the blade of one of those guillotines was a human being, with hopes & fears, good & evil in his soul. The great number of them weren’t murderers, rapists or thieves: they were just people who had the unfortunate bad luck to be born into the wrong caste.

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