All the upper class socialists are jabbering away about what kind of party to form to lead the working class, parsing differences between the rhetoric of Sanders & Warren, swapping spit about Jeffrey Epstein. But not a one of them is talking about those on the front lines of oppression, including Kashmiris, Palestinians, Rohingya, & others facing genocide, the war against Black youth, or the crises of refugees. They aren’t talking politics at all because they think that would be divisive. Which is good because when they do, they’re often on the wrong side, especially in supporting Assad & Putin.
Some socialists think reading or writing imponderable books & thinking deep thoughts are where it’s at & that activism is for the plebes. Then there are those who don’t disdain theory but who think you learn the most from the struggles of those standing up against war, occupation, genocide. The latter can astutely distinguish the blithering of dilettantes from the insights of the oppressed. May the ‘deep thinkers’ be reminded that Marx & Engels were first & foremost activists in German politics. That’s why Marx said: “The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways. The point, however, is to change it.” Those words are inscribed on his tombstone.