Politics

Political texts thread

I recommend reading more than solely left-wing political and economic literature, which is basically what you've got. Nothing wrong with it, because the majority of what I have is like your collection (I've read eight Chomsky books, plus all the other thinkers), but I also make an effort to read liberal and conservative stuff like Leo Strauss, Karl Popper, Fukuyama, Keynes, Thomas Sowell, etc. Sorry if you weren't looking for feedback.

reading commie trash ayy lmao

>Fukuyama

Is End of History worth reading?

Cows Pigs Wars and Witches
What We Believe But Cannot Prove
War is a Racket

I read it. Of course his thesis in that book is now much more controversial, but it is a very thoughtful argument. Most people understand it to be a simplistic celebration of the collapse of communism and the triumph of the West, but Fukuyama's actual main question is, "Well, what now?" He says that liberal democracy seems like the best option for now, but he details its fragility and is much more ambivalent towards its eternal viability than his critics would have you believe.

It's a little dated on facts, but it's definitely worth a read, as are some of his other books.

Sowell Sowell Sowell Sowell. Even if you don't agree with him or find his examples belonging to past decades (common critique), every word is eye opening in some sense.

But then again, since you seem intersted in left-leaning attitudes you're probably to tainted and one-track minded to acknowledge anything contradicting that god awful, self-deceptive worldview.

What do I read as an absolute beginner? For example, I hardly know the difference between left- and right-wing.

A focus on the US is fine cause that's where I am, but I should probably learn pure theory before applying it to a given system.

i really wish we could have left 20th century political philosophy behind in the 20th century.

>For example, I hardly know the difference between left- and right-wing.

Don't bother, it's kind of a good thing that you don't know, the distinction is kind of dumb and these two tents often include different ideologies within them which are directly at odds with each other and sometimes are more amenable to ideologies in the other tent.

As for recommendations, if you want something US-specific, the debate between the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists is still a classic of political theory within the rubric of liberalism.

...

look at the brain on this guy reading pop-econ books

Capital in the Twenty-First Century.

A people's history of the united States

Do you genuinely believe Sowells work stands up to Das Kapital?

>Das Kapital
The field of of economics has laid waste to this book many times over. Including pop econ ones by Sowell.

>Capital in the Twenty-First Century.
TRASH

>balance left ideologue shit with right ideologue shit
>reading these types of books for any purpose other than learning the ideological framework the ruling class operates within
>the truth is a summation of opposing political views
>I balance my 2hrs of Fox News with 2hrs of CNN, so I'm well informed, you see

ISHYGDDT

This. Marxist economics is a joke.

Left/Right litmus test:

Free market capitalism is the most sacred of mans achievements. It is infallible, equitable, and superior in every respect. It is the height of human rationality and enables no room for improvement or criticism.

true or false?

There's no academic right winger who would agree with that statement, not even a consequentialist libertarian.

Maybe a really rabid Objectivist would idk. Reading too much Robin Hanson and Scott Alexander has made me numb to trying to group and defend complex ideologies.

>its an Americans think your place on the political spectrum is solely dependent on your opinions of economic liberalism episode

Sowell tries to prove too much, he writes about things that are frankly out of his element.

His books on behavioral economics are bad, his views on IQ and genetics are pseudoscience. He also tries to oversimplify things like types of people into neat little groups which is never a good idea.

He is sort of a right wing Chomsky although more economically literate and more philosophically illiterate, the opposite problem that Chomsky has.

>Chicago.
>Chicago.

>Its another episode where insecure (((Chicago school))) """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""intellectuals"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" can't come up with their own groundbreaking research so they shit on everyone else's episode.
>Its another episode where (((Chicago school))) economists only rely on rhetoric to debate and rebut left-wing economists.
>Its another episode where Americans argue that inequality is a prerequisite for entrepreneurial dynamism.

I'm a right wing anti-capitalist. Come at me