I tried to read Mein Kampf in the original Klingon years ago and couldn’t. It is so unbelievably badly written, often completely incoherent. It truly reads like something old Adi would yell at Rudi Hess in the cell in Landsberg and him just writing it down verbatim. I’m surprised there’s no smalltalk in there by accident.
Alternate between chapters of Mein Kampf, the Little Red Book, The Anarchist Cookbook, and Atlas Shrugged so that everyone assumes you’re a radical centrist.
Nah that’d be radical anti-centrist
Radical centrist
I don’t even know how I would respond to that. Would they just fire up the charcoal grill anytime something happens?
They are the most medium
Radical centrists are the arch enemy of Militant Nihilists
In 19th century France, there was this guy talking about « extreme center » to describe views intolerant to anything not in an arbitrarily proclaimed middle ground.
The concept has become quite popular to describe Macron and his quite authoritarian style.
Carbon monoxide could explain a lot of behaviour of some people
And chronic lead poisoning
My grandparents killed Nazis and were willing to nuke the Commies if they crossed the line. They had a lot of experience in fighting in urban combat so nobody dared to fuck them over. They were radical centrists were they not? Under radical centrism we achieved the peak of human prosperity.
Okay but “Kafka, Esq.” goes hard.
Best username I’ve seen on here by a country kilometre
Just get a jacket cover with a pornographic title.
Hiding The Fact That You’re Reading Mein Kampf On The Bus For Dummies
I’ve considered reading The Turner Diaries for the same reason.
I want to know just how stupid white nationalists are for being inspired by it.
I listened to the audiobook, read by the original author.
It’s… Something.
I read a chapter or two online years ago… Predictably, it was so poorly written
I’ve been reading academic books about white supremacy and for some reason I’m continually surprised just how dumb they always are.
It shouldn’t surprise me, obviously, but some part of my brain never expects them to be as stupid as they really are.
Summary of white nationalism: You’re special because your race is the best. The reason why things suck for you isn’t because you’re a loser. It’s because the bad races made you feel like you’re not special. But they’re liars. You don’t need to improve yourself, you’re special because of your race.
Related, Robot Chicken Dilbert vs Scott Adams https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6oyWvlUmXs
I like threads like these 'cause I always learn about some shit like that which I’ve never heard of before. Now I know when I see that book on someones shelves that I gotta do a double take and ask them about it
It also helps if every few minutes you point to the page your reading, and say very loudly, “UGH, this guy sucks!”
Totally. And an occasional, “this fucking guy, bro. Asshole.”
I read it (not all of it) on my eBook reader so no one knew what I was reading. Once a guy looked at me in a way that I felt he catched enough to know. He wasn’t angry or frightened, his eyes just said “poor soul” but maybe I was imagining it
How is it? I guess not that interesting, if you didn’t finish.
I read the autobiographical part where he describes his radicalization. At some point it’s about politics and that’s where he lost me (I mean the beginning is also about politics but you know what I mean)
And honestly it’s just bad story telling. It’s the same plot over and over again. He’s sympathetic and interested towards a group, be it Jews, Bolsheviks, social democrats, I think unions as well but I’m unsure. Than he encounters them, talks to them, reads newspapers both from and against them, and after considering both sides comes to the conclusion we all know.
My personal impression is that he didn’t radicalize in the period he describes (after being rejected from art school and living more or less on the street) but while writing the book. The book reads like a reenforcement more than a report. Reusing the same trope isn’t plausible. This can’t be the whole story either because the wrote it in jail and he wasn’t there for nothing.
It sounds exactly like the current “do your own research” bullshit.
When your problem is how it looks, well…
The thing is that the “do your own research” folks use the aesthetics of critical thinking to spread misinformation and thought terminating clichés to promote their view as unquestionable facts. I, on the other hand, gave my impression after being asked to and made it explicit that it doesn’t really add up. If you see other parallels, go ahead, share them. If it’s really only the aesthetics, maybe rethink what the problem is.
Oh no what I meant was how Hitler apparently looking at both sides and then came up with the horrific conclusions feel eerily similar to how people nowadays claim to have “done the research” and come up with some bullshit.
My comment was not intended to insult you in any way. Sorry if it came out that way. In fact, I think it’s impressive that you picked it up to study it because I certainly couldn’t handle it.
Ah, now I get it. In that case thanks 😊
True, I think it’s no coincidence that these people most often end up on the same end of the political spectrum as he did.
That’s an interesting point. As you said, that’s not all there is to it—after all, he was in prison for attempting a coup. However, your hypothesis that he got more radical over the duration of his sentence sounds plausible to me. If you’re stuck with your own thoughts and nothing to occupy your mind with, you create your own echo chamber in your mind. That’s part of the reason why I’m all for rehabilitation of prisoners.
I haven’t read it, but I imagine it is somewhat like reading the Bible cover to cover. Every once in a while you see something and are like “Oooh! That’s relevant to the narrative I’m familiar with!” But then 90% of it is talking about goat husbandry or family trees of people you’ve never heard of or taxes on imported shoe polish or something - things that were presumably relevant in a particular time and place, but which aren’t interesting in your time and place.
I think for these sorts of books, annotated versions are very useful for lay readers, since they can make these seemingly extraneous details feel more relevant by providing additional context that a reader would not be aware of unless they were a scholar in the subject matter.
Let me tell you, a lot of the Kama Sutra is bullshit, then a rare “Oh, that makes sense”.
Then it’s back to “you should never lay with a woman too dark or too light skinned”. STFU Vātsyāyana.
Maybe something was lost in translation? Original in Sanskrit maybe said “you should never fuck a woman that is too freaky or too prude”? 🤷♂️
“you should never fuck a woman that is too freaky or too prude”
Those are also on the list… It’s a long list.
A while back I bought one of the"Gor" books from a 2nd hand bookstore because I thought the blurb was good on the back, and the art was titilating in a “this will be fun fantasy bullshit book” way.
I mentioned as much to the teller, an older man. He reached through the ages and gave me what I expect is the exact same look you recieved, something mixed heavily with pity, a touch of scorn for my taste, light bemusement at the idiocy of youth, and the wisdom of silence.
He was right. I got through maybe 30 pages and tossed it. This qoute sums it up well:
The Encyclopedia of Fantasy has stated that the first several books are “passable exercises” of Edgar Rice Burroughs-style fiction while “later volumes degenerate into extremely sexist, sadomasochistic pornography involving the ritual humiliation of women, and as a result have caused widespread offence”.
extremely sexist, sadomasochistic pornography involving the ritual humiliation of women
Honestly, I know some women who might be into that
Well, 50 shades succeded and ticked most of those boxes, but the writing and handling of the topic was somehow even worse.
Its pulpy trash that isnt even good porno writing, but I assume its not hard to find if your friends want to give it a go.
isnt even good porno writing
The unforgivable sin
Why not just use a dust cover or something fun like a Hunter Fox novel?
Did the same with Industrial Society and it’s Future at 3am alone in my room
