8 Comments
User's avatar
Ryan Ward's avatar

Absolutely brilliant. Thanks for taking the time to make this accessible.

A. J. Horn's avatar

Thank you, I really appreciate the kind words!

Neural Foundry's avatar

Strong piece on why liberal democrcy absorbs dissent so effectively. The point about how formal equality coexists with material domination isnt just descriptive, it shows the actuall mechanism of legitimation. I've seen this play out in electrol cycles where transformative demands get reframed as tweaks to distribution rather than ownership. Gramsci's hegemony concept really clarifies why so much activism ends up negotiating within those boundaries.

Kate's avatar

A great read. Clear as a bell.

We need an explainer on how the dialectic operates now that we understand the relationship of politics culture and language to material conditions. It would not do any harm and I think it could be another area of fuzzy understanding.

A. J. Horn's avatar

Thank you very much!

I put out a piece one week ago explaining the dialectic and clearing up some of the confusion and misinterpretations that I think may be what you're looking for: https://simplifyingsocialism.substack.com/p/what-marx-actually-meant-by-dialectics?r=5b1rkf

Kate's avatar

I will read that. Thank you

Muzafar Talpur's avatar

Very nice description, I think relation of base and superstructure is organic whole each and every category working together.

A. J. Horn's avatar

Thank you, and you're absolutely correct. It’s a dialectical, organic relationship and not a one-way pipeline.