There is a well-known internet proverb, the bullshit assymetry principle:
“The amount of energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than that needed to produce it.”
Anyone who has been in a few software chatrooms, a political communities, or any hobby groups has probably seen the eternal fountain of people asking really obvious questions, all the time, forever. No amount of patience and free time would allow a community to give quality answers by hand to each and every one of them, and gradually the originally-helpful people answering get sick of dealing with this constantly, then newcomers will often get treated with annoyance and hostility for their ignorant laziness. That’s one way how communities get a reputation for being ‘toxic’ or ‘elitist’. I’ve occasionally seen this first hand even on Lemmy, and obviously telling people to go away until they’ve figured out the answer themselves isn’t a useful way to build a mass movement.
This is a reason why efficient communication matters.
Efficient teaching isn’t a new idea, so we have plenty of techniques to draw from. One of the most famous texts in the world is a pamphlet, the Manifesto of the Communist Party, a way for the Communist League to share the idea of historical materialism to many thousands using a couple of dozen pages. Pamphlets and fliers are still used today at protests and rallies and for general promotion, and in the real world are often used as a resource when someone asks for a basic introduction to an ideology.
However, online, we have increased access to existing resources and linking people to information is easier than ever. I’ve seen some great examples of this on Lemmy with Dessalines often integrating pages of their FAQ/resources list into short to-the-point replies, and Cowbee linking their introductory reading list. So instead of burning out rewriting detailed replies to each and every beginner question from a propagandised liberal, or just banning/kicking people who don’t even understand what they said wrong (propaganda is a hell of a drug), these users can pack a lot of information into their posts using effective links. Using existing resources counters the bullshit assymetry principle. There’s a far lower risk of burnout and hostility when you can simply copy a bookmarked page, paste it, and write a short sentence to contextualize it. No 5 minute mini-essay in your reply to get the message across properly, finding sources each time, getting it nitpicked by trolls, and all that. Just link to an already-polished answer one click away!
There are many FAQ sites for different topics and ideological schools of thought (e.g. here’s a well-designed anarchist FAQ I’ve been linked to years ago). There are also plenty of wikis, like ProleWiki and Leftypedia, which I think are seriously underused (I’m surprised Lemmygrad staff and users haven’t built a culture of constantly linking common silly takes to their wiki’s articles. What’s the point of the wiki if it’s not being used much by its host community?).
Notice that an FAQ is often able to link to specific common questions, and is very different from the classic “read this entire book” reply some of you may have seen before - unfortunately when a post says “how can value com from labor and not supply nd demand?”, they’re probably not in the mood to read Capital Vol. I-III to answer their question no matter how you ask them, but they might skim a wiki page on LTV and maybe then read further.
(Honestly, I think there’s a missed opportunity for integrating information resources into ban messages and/or the global rules pages, because I guarantee more than half the people getting banned for sinophobia/xenophobia/orientalism sincerely don’t think anything they said was racist or chauvanistic - it’s often reiterating normal rhetoric and ““established facts”” in mass media; not a sign of reactionary attitude. The least we can do is give them a learning opportunity instead of simply pushing them further from the labour movement)
I see a lot of reading lists with a link to a dead group chat that put the onus entirely on the reader to sort through the books. There need to be more reading guides that include some responses or recent articles about a book along with chapter questions so readers learn not to slog through a book without knowing whether they truly learned anything.
A pamphlet, even offline, should be a doorway into the hypertext world of the history of socialist praxis. It should mention a book or a website for those interested in the message to continue learning about what they just read, but there needs to be something there to actually receive them. For instance entry level well-cited history books that deconstruct imperialist history or “international relations” or neoliberal “economics”. Helps back up a message. But websites and e documents are still not used to their full educational potential by much of the left.
I think ban messages should always cite and link to a rule, the banning interface should make that an easy task, letting you check off a few reasons, with an "Other: [text]” area. The ban message should contain the rule citations and a custom message. This would lead people to receive bans in a less arbitrary manner. Arbitrary bannings are likely to make people disregard rules entirely, in my experience.
There are plenty of ostensibly Marxist organizations that function as alt-media outlets and generic activist NGOs for liberal causes. There are few online spaces actually educating socialists rather than browbeating them. Best not to learn by example from contemporary activist organizations and online spaces frankly. Look at what works everywhere, not what exists, failing in the first world.
Have you checked out my reading list (linked in the post body)? I believe I did a good job within the constraints of a Lemmy post, character limit and all, but am open to suggestions.
I like that Jones Manoel article from Black Agenda Report. I will send you some books related to that when I am on PC. I think the formatting is great. I was focusing on expansion of this format of reading list, next step is to make this stuff usable offline or if posted somewhere without discussion/group chat, like a textbook with dicussion prompt questions, but obviously that is a lot of work so I will take it on myself and see how it turns out.
Basically I see no reason Marxists should have to turn to the few orgs that offer free online classes. Materials should permit people to form their own, not simply prepare them to be inducted into an online community.
Appreciate the feedback! Another comrade recommended the Jones Manoel article, and I had to fit it in. I see what you’re saying about adding prompt questions, I just can’t fit them in a Lemmy post, which was my goal, I think that’s a great move though and I wish you luck!
Oh yeah I mean like a little link to a syllabus practically, but I compare it to an online class because it’s a lot of work. It’s not justified in every situation, there is the rest of Lemmygrad around it still active
Oh, gotcha! That makes sense, like having a bit of Q&A on what constitutes a commodity, how to calculate value, etc might help guide the reader along.