There’s a spectrum of reliability and reactivity to all flavors of political leanings. I assure you that on the whole (without being perfect), I will always recommend ideas, frameworks, theories, people, organizations, news outlets, books and resources that come from folks who are big-hearted, well-read, historically educated, who care about the world and have thought through these ideas deeply.

People too easily assume ideas they aren’t familiar with are CRAZY or the people are emotionally unhinged or some shit. I assure you, those people are out there but a lot of DEDICATED, organized, and educated socialists and communists (and anarchists too!) are out there.

They’re mostly just loving nerds.

GLOSSARY

It can be SO FUCKING CONFUSING because so many people distort or misinterpret terms and labels based on their political position so here’s MY take.

• Communism - This is one of the most slandered and misunderstood terms in human history.
  • The Official Definition - A classless, stateless society where everyone’s needs are met and EVERYONE in society collectively owns the means of production and decides together how to run society for the highest wellbeing and potential of humans, animals and the planet. Karl Marx considered this the end goal. Yes, we can elect leaders to make decisions at varying levels of society, but they are immediately recallable by vote and personally I see it more like “project management” than the power-hungry abusive rule of the wealthy we have now. Hard rule: IF THE PEOPLE ARE NOT IN POWER, and the systems in place are not there to SERVE THE WELLBEING OF THE PEOPLE, it’s not communism, and it’s not socialism. If it’s an authoritative dictatorship, it’s not communism! No matter what the dictator said at the time. There’s also a pretty large internal disagreement between committed communists/socialists about whether to like or hate Mao and Stalin. I grew up in the “they are fuckheads” lineage.
  • The History-Twisted Definition - A lot of the world believes that communism is full state/government control, a dictatorship, a poverty-inflicted nation, a nation where it’s people are slaves. Partly because shitty dictators have claimed the language of Marxism and communism, and partly because believing true communism is anti-human is beneficial for the capitalist ruling class, to make sure no one gets interested in it. It’s a fucked up situation.
• Socialism - Again, depending on who you are, this term is used very differently.
  • The Official Definition - Marx considered socialism a transitional state between capitalism and communism, which kind of leaves it open to interpretation. But generally it is considered any major social change post-revolution that is actively re-organizing society to be what the definition of communism is.
  • The Casual Definition - A lot of anticapitalist people, myself included, kind of use socialism and communism interchangeably. When I say I’m a socialist, I mean I want a society where everyone has everything they need and everyone collectively makes decisions together about how society is run.
  • The Lazy Definition - A lot of people use the word “socialism” when they mean “welfare state”, which is actually “Democratic Socialism”, which is actually capitalism with a bunch of free shit like healthcare, education and so on. This is GOOD. But it is NOT a worker-run society. It’s still capitalism and has to compete with other capitalist countries, which makes it vulnerable to a lot of the same bullshit as any capitalist country.
• Democratic Socialism - Capitalism with welfare components like free healthcare, free education, affordable rent, etc. It is NOT a worker run society. The free market still rules and the society is still a for-profit society, but there are strong protections on human wellness.
• State Capitalism - This is where all the distorted ideas of “communism” come from - these are capitalist societies where the state/government owns and controls the means of production and the decisions in society. Usually with a fun evil dictator. The USSR under Stalin, after the Russian Revolution was crushed, and Maoist China fall into this category. Again, committed communists/socialists have a split around this.
• Anarchism - I am not as educated in anarchism, but my (possibly flawed) understanding is that it shares all of the same goals as communism/socialism - a world where everyone has everything they need, for free, and we take care of each other. But they have a hangup about hierarchy (I do too, but I don’t know how I would get my job done without project managers). They also seem more likely to be into disconnecting from society into communes and focusing on local and hyperlocal community, consensus and so on. Anarchists also have a spectrum of beliefs and strategies, and have historically been a major influence in strikes, gaining us the 8 hour day, eradicating child labor and so on.
• Capitalism - A system in which those who can afford to own the means of production (capitalists) exploit the rest of us (laborers) for our labor power, making profit off of the work we do simply because they already have the money to employ us. It’s a system where booms and busts are guaranteed, businesses are forced to compete to stay in business, and exploitation of people (paying them less for more work) must exponentially increase over time in order for companies to stay in business. It’s a system with a ruling class that enjoys exorbitant benefits, CEOs make 400x a working person for simply existing, and where the ruling class benefits from our division, from colonialism and imperialism, our depression, our distraction and disengagement, and our attention and energy being constantly taken up by simply trying to survive. If we all had the energy, no one would tolerate this shit.

This is the BEST simple overview of Marxism I've ever listened to:

https://open.spotify.com/episode/2vx8YWhjgi36uagrsRgKjs?si=aD02XjvvTYO6HDb1uoLxyA&context=spotify%3Ashow%3A4KwWOMp24P9cVVR6d0i7Zq

OVERVIEW OF SOCIALIST / COMMUNIST POSITIONS

Firebrand is a socialist organizing and educational group (with a lineage going back 50 years) and has a page describing the group’s values and positions - it’s actually a really great, quick summary of what I would consider the “pure” Marxist Socialist/Communist position these days and is quicker to read than a book (though doesn’t get into the details of Marxist theory or socialist/communist worldbuilding ideas:

https://firebrand.red/points-of-unity/