i’m sorry that you experienced something so unfortunate and uncomfortable. i hope you’re okay. i have a few thoughts for you:

1. sakai is fine, but frankly it doesn’t seem like a fantastic work to me. yes, it says a lot of things that people need to hear, but it just doesn’t seem very intersectional to me. there’s no monopoly on exploitation; you can be white and also be exploited. of course, whiteness generally implies a higher level of exploitation

2. socialism is not only more correct but feels better when it comes from a place of love. you should be able to love yourself and your class(es). apart from being able to distinguish the progressive forces in society, this love should even extend to your enemies to some extent because we can see the amazing potential for a unified humanity of which everyone will be a part.

3. it can be easy to get bogged down by the infinite knowledge of current events, or of economic exploitation and its horrors, or from alienation/pain/disability ultimately caused by capitalism. i think it’s necessary to have a correct philosophical foundation first and foremost, in order to give yourself a good framework to digest that infinite information. that framework should also be applied to your own personal life, which is the only way it can be solidified but also the only way you can truly understand yourself and your woes, thus providing you with revolutionary optimism. to the extent that you can, study dialectical materialism!

hollow knight, hades, and starcraft brood war are all timeless

monobattles was my life for a full year or two

just want to clarify that it wasn’t exactly mango press making that specific argument, but someone in telegram comments. and, the argument wasn’t that his english was fluent, but that he used specific idioms that only an american would use. mango press did make the argument that only a US citizen would be eligible for student loans.

one of the claims in that mango press thread was that hakim lies about being an iraqi, or at least living in iraq, for online marxist clout. the argument goes that because he was eligible for US student loans for medical school, he’s probably a US citizen. there were also some examples brought up about euphemisms he used that only a fluent or first-language english speaker would use. no idea how true this is and it’s not a lot to go on, and mango press has some fucking weird opinions sometimes, but i can’t deny that it’s possible.

hakim having weird, uninformed, or no opinions on present-day events is not totally out of character: i watched a conversation on present-day china between him and paul morrin (anti-china maoist), and was surprised at how lukewarm at best his defense was. no mention of like the NEP, him calling china bad because “state capitalism,” etc. anyone curious should watch it for themselves. let’s be honest, there’s no reason why we should all read theory and study historical trends other than better understanding the present, and consistently having not-great takes on the present makes me question what good his content can be except perhaps as an introduction for people who aren’t marxists or leninists.

also noticed recently that he’s put ads on his youtube videos. i’m sorry but this does affect the content, because at the very least it affects the purpose why the content was made. it also implies that the content is intitutionally-friendly enough for a company to buy advertising time from them. we should be extremely, extremely skeptical of theory youtubers and especially advertised content. if ben norton or BT news suddenly got sponsored by fuckin surfshark or expressvpn, i think we would all be very surprised. i haven’t unsubscribed yet, but just the title of this most recent video gives me “capitalist brainwashing” vibes, which ultimately gives ground to multiple anticommunist tropes. will perhaps edit after i watch.