Favorite theorists on and off Revleft

[Leftsolidarity]

I closed the previous thread of this topic that was started by GourmetPez because it was completely derailed and people were not making quality posts.

I want to see this be a good thread because it can be very interesting seeing where we all come from theoretically. If people start being disrespectful and off-topic again I will close it so please put thought into your posts here.

[Ostrinski]

I agree with Lenin on most issues other than the national question on which I agree with Luxemburg. I definitely agree with Trotsky's conception and views of permanent revolution among other things, and I also find Bordiga's The Democratic Principle to have an interesting perspective and critique on communist attitudes toward organizational means.

[Yet_Another_Boring_Marxist]

Alexandra Kollontai is one of my personal favorites. I know her feminism is a bit primitive but I still find reading her a breath of fresh air. Luxemburg's history of the Russian labor movement was probably one of the best and shortest I've seen, she could easly beat out Howard Zinn in writing a people's history of russia. Though I always thought her critiques of Lenin and Trotsky were quite infantile. Jame's Connolly wasn't really much of a theorist but he is my personal hero, and the fact that his political thought was basically Leninism Irish Style is helpful as well. Recently I've been reading a bit of Huey Newton and Franz Fannon. When I am done with that I want to study the theorization of "Proletarian Feminism" that my Canadian comrades go on about. Then I want to study the Libertarian Maoism of Comrade Kobad Ghandy. Plus I just found two articles on dialectical materialism from Karl Korsch that I think I am going to read before bed tonight. And eventually I ought to read some Gonzolo.

I bet you are surprised that I didn't say Mao, the funny thing is that most of us MLM types aren't really that fond of reading him.....

[Brutus]

Engels is a good writer. Trotsky's biography is like a novel, and brilliant.

[GiantMonkeyMan]

Paul Mattick has become a favourite theorist of mine for his indepth critique of Keynesian economics and he also put me off reading Trotsky. However I started my exploration of marxism from Althusser's 'Ideology and Ideological State Apparatus' and Adorno & Horkheimer's 'The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception' as I studied film and my lecturers recommended them and those two essays/theses will always remain amongst my favourites.

[La Guaneña]

It's Pez, not Prez.

[Capitalist Octopus]

On Revleft my favourite posters are Rafiq, Black Magic Hustla, bcbm, and maybe one or two more.

[Yuppie Grinder]

On Revleft my favourite posters are Rafiq, Black Magic Hustla, bcbm, and maybe one or two more.

one of these is not like the other

[Capitalist Octopus]

one of these is not like the other

I know. I guess Rafiq has helped me understand certain things, while BMH generally has funny/interesting posts.

[Leftsolidarity]

Off Revleft: Marx, Engels, Lenin, Trotsky, Marcy (yeah yeah can't wait for the cries against this one)

Those are probably the core of what my politics come from with bits and pieces contributed from others.

On Revleft: This would take me A LOT of thinking because there are a lot of good posters here that helped me develop politically. I can't think of any individually off the top of my head other than The Vegan Marxist. He pretty much stopped posting here around the time I joined, though. On other places online he was the main person to introduce anti-imperialism to me and discuss it with me in a way that I could understand. There are many things about his politics that I do not agree with but I give him a lot of credit for helping me develop to where I am today.

[Trap Queen Voxxy]

Vox Populi and Mikhail Bakunin.

[Yuppie Grinder]

Marx, Engels, Luxemburg, Gramsci, Bordiga. I'm hella boring. I've been trying to get into stuff outside of radical leftist orthodoxy like Foucault but I won't get around to reading those things for a while since the stack of yet to be read books I'm looking at right now is already quite daunting.

[Yuppie Grinder]

I know. I guess Rafiq has helped me understand certain things, while BMH generally has funny/interesting posts.

Rafiq likes to present his own rather unorthodox views, such as Communism not being a distinct mode of production, in a way that makes them seem like they're the norm. He's an unintentional shit-stirrer in the realm of theory. No offense to the guy.

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

I like Luxemburg, and Marx. In terms of Marxian historians (as I am an historian), I am very much a disciple of Rodney Hilton. The work of Schofield is also very impressive.

[l'Enfermé]

Marx and Engels most of all, naturally. And I don't add Engels merely as a junior colleague and life-long collaborator of Marx. He was an important theorist on his own. The merger of the worker's movement and socialism, for example, is his invention.

Then, Lenin and Kautsky. After them, a few more influences from other Marxists.

On RevLeft, my favorite theorist is comrade Gourmet Prez.

[Yuppie Grinder]

Marx and Engels most of all, naturally. And I don't add Engels merely as a junior colleague and life-long collaborator of Marx. He was an important theorist on his own. The merger of the worker's movement and socialism, for example, is his invention.

Then, Lenin and Kautsky. After them, a few more influenced from other Marxists.

On RevLeft, my favorite theorist is comrade Gourmet Prez.

I'm quite flattered and surprised, but the name is Pez.

[l'Enfermé]

I'm quite flattered and surprised, but the name is Pez.
Right, Prez.

[Yuppie Grinder]

Bro I think a total of three people on this website have gotten this name right since I got it. What the hell would "gourmet president" even mean?

[The Jay]

What the hell would "gourmet president" even mean?

I believe the answer would be Mitt Romney.

I have too many favorites to even have them considered favorites.

[bad ideas actualised by alcohol]

For revleft Q should get a mention.

Outside probably Engels. Reading Engels helped me understand Marx' writings a lot better.

[Art Vandelay]

For revleft Q should get a mention.

Outside probably Engels. Reading Engels helped me understand Marx' writings a lot better.

I second this, Q is my favorite poster on the site. I also quite like Rafiq, l'Enfermé, Ostrinski, DNZ. I've always had fairly good relations with Grenzer as well, although he's been inactive since his recent political shift. Blake's Baby is probably my favorite left-com.

As far as off revleft. I follow the line of Marx, Engels, Plekhanov, Kautsky, Lenin, and Trotsky.

[bad ideas actualised by alcohol]

I second this, Q is my favorite poster on the site. I also quite like Rafiq, l'Enfermé, Ostrinski, DNZ. I've always had fairly good relations with Grenzer as well, although he's been inactive since his recent political shift. Blake's Baby is probably my favorite left-com.

As far as off revleft. I follow the line of Marx, Engels, Plekhanov, Kautsky, Lenin, and Trotsky.

Rafiq, L'enny and Ostrinski are pretty high on my list of favorite posters as well. Grenzer too, actually.

[DancingEmma]

Emma Goldman, Kropotkin, bell hooks, Luxemburg (although inspired more by her whole life than specifically her theory), Bob Black, Patricia Hill Collins, Leslie Feinberg, Ursula K. Le Guin (not really a theorist, but reading her novel The Dispossessed was very formative for me politically).

[Os Cangaceiros]

Bob Black, that's an interesting choice.

[JPSartre12]

On revleft - Q, Worker-Control-Over-Prod, and Blake's Baby, in no particular order. I should also mention Brosa Luxemburg, who originally got me interested in left communism.

Off revleft - Marx, Luxembourg, Sartre, Pannekoek, Bakunin, Kropotkin, de Beauvoir, de Leon, and Bordiga, all in pretty much no particular order. I'd like to get out of the ultra-left and spend some time reading more mainstream, historical theory - say, more on Lenin, Mao, Hoxha, Tito, etc - but I have not gotten around to it as I've been quite busy recently.

[DancingEmma]

Bob Black, that's an interesting choice.

I like his ideas about the oppressiveness of "work" as a practice, even when it's not done in a specifically capitalistic context. And I admit I'm a bit of lifestyleist, which will probably get me into some problems here on Revleft. Oh well!

[Brutus]

l'Enfermé, Ostrinski, Q, Broody Guthrie is also one of my favourites. Ismail is the go to for anything Hoxha or Stalin related.
Outside: Marx, Engels, Lenin, Trotsky, luxemburg. Emphasis on Engels and Trotsky.
Forgot 9mm, who whilst not being my favourite theorist, does have interesting posts

[Comrade #138672]

I think everybody is equally awesome.

[Brutus]

I think everybody is equally awesome.

Taking Marxism to extremes

[goalkeeper]

Rosa Luxemburg, CLR James, Paul Mattick, Frank Furedi, Kenan Malik, Hal Draper

[Raúl Duke]

Off-Revleft: the situationists (Guy, Raoul), Monsieur Dupont, Bookchin, existentialists, etc.
On revleft: bcbm, ravachol, BMH, RedStar2000, etc

[Goblin]

Off Revleft: Karl Marx, Friederich Engels, Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky, Rosa Luxemburg, James P. Cannon, Duncan Hallas, Mao Zedong.

On Revleft: Ostrinski, Raul Duke, 9mm, Grenzer, Broody Guthrie, Q, Ismail, TheMza, Rafiq, Hatzel, Brosa Luxemburg, GourmetPez, #FF0000, Blakes Baby, coup d`etat, Majakovskij, Delenda Carthago, Vox Populi, Invader Zim, The Godless Utopian, BOZG, Zukunftsmusik, Caj, Quail.

[Zukunftsmusik]

^Woah. Thanks! Didn't see that coming at all.

[La Guaneña]

Off revleft, and on basic marxism I really like Marx, Lenin and Luxemburg. Engels is special though, he has something special in his way of writing.

On some more specific and local theorists, Marighella and the urban guerilla, Florestan Fernandes and general brazil stuff and Luiz Carlos Prestes for being awesome.

On revleft, I like Rafiq, l'Enfermé, DNZ, GourmetPez, Delenda for the info on greece and Luiz Henrique.

[Let's Get Free]

Kim Il Sung
Kim Jong Il
Kim Jong Un
Mikhail Gorbachev
Bob Avakian
Barrack Obama
Enver Hoxha
Pol Pot
Nicolae Ceacuescu

[Yet_Another_Boring_Marxist]

Kim Il Sung
Kim Jong Il
Kim Jong Un
Mikhail Gorbachev
Bob Avakian
Barrack Obama
Enver Hoxha
Pol Pot
Nicolae Ceacuescu

The sad thing is that this list describes the FRSO IRL

[Revoltorb]

On: Q, Blake's Baby, l'Enfermé, DNZ sometimes, Noxion, Jimmie Higgins, others?

Off: Marx, Engels, Kautsky, Debord, Bookchin (for his social ecology)

[Yuppie Grinder]

How anyone could like both Kautsky and Debord is beyond me.

Kim Il Sung
Kim Jong Il
Kim Jong Un
Mikhail Gorbachev
Bob Avakian
Barrack Obama
Enver Hoxha
Pol Pot
Nicolae Ceacuescu

You forgot Stalin, Blanqui, and the party from 1984. Other than that good liist.

[Revoltorb]

How anyone could like both Kautsky and Debord is beyond me.

Because I don't need to take everything each of them said as gospel?

[Yuppie Grinder]

Because I don't need to take everything each of them said as gospel?

That's cool dude. It's just that if you like Debord I don't see what you'd see in Kautsky that you couldn't find in Marx and Engels.

[Q]

I'm somewhat surprised I'm mentioned this often, despite that I really don't have much theoretical (in the proper sense of the word) work on me. But I guess these things are relative.

[Geiseric]

I like most of the founders of the 3rd international, excluding the bureaucracy that was in charge in the late 20s onward. James P. Cannon is also a huge influence. The black panthers and malcolm X are also really high on my list. Of course those along with Marx, engels, the Leibchnachts, bebel, Kautsky...

On revleft I like talking with a lot of people on here. A lot of them have been banned though :(

[Comrade Nasser]

I like bcbm his avatar is cool.

[human strike]

Some of my favourite posters (which isn't necessarily the same as theorists): Mari3l, blake 3:17, Ravachol, psycho, Raúl Duke, ed miliband, Quail, #FF0000, The Douche, and Species Being/StalinFanboy.


Rafiq likes to present his own rather unorthodox views, such as Communism not being a distinct mode of production, in a way that makes them seem like they're the norm. He's an unintentional shit-stirrer in the realm of theory. No offense to the guy.

If Rafiq really thinks that then it is one of the very few things I agree with him on.