this post was submitted on 03 Mar 2026
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You can definitely explain most of those in a way a 5 year old could understand in under 20 minutes.
Not dialectical materialism though. I've read about it and had it explained to me more time than I can count, and my brain refuses to hold on to what it means.
I wrote a basic guide on dialectical materialism. It's missing a ton, but should be enough to hopefully make it make sense to start off with.
Thanks. I'll try it, but I have zero faith it'll stick this time 😅
Haha, no worries! Really, it's about materialism in outlook, dialectics in method. The rest follows from there!
I read it. I've been reading a lot of complex systems science lately, and it seems to have a lot of overlap, so perhaps it will stick a bit harder this time. Thanks :)
No problem, glad it helped!
I had the same problem up in until I had Stalin explain it to me:
https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1938/09.htm
(It's short, to the point and when one "hence" paragraph after the other comes, you will start to understand)
Alternativly if you're not the reading type:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HAEgTPK-oiU
(Taken from a vietnamese schoolbook)
From a Marxist-Leninist: there are some Marxist authors contesting the emphasis on the "dialectics" part of dialectical materialism. Paul Cockshott is a good example, you can search for Cockshott's criticism of dialectical materialism, maybe if the concepts don't stick to you you could have a more Newtonian materialist view