I feel like anti-intelectualism has won. People can be given free audiobooks, the physical book, etc but they refuse to read because they view reading theory as bad or some bullshit. I have a friend and she thinks “its posh” to read theory. It seems like everyone has fallen for the propaganda that the only people who read theory are rich white college students. It fucking pisses me off.
Some people need to read theory. I believe most need little-to-none, beyond a shallow understanding of relevant history and class relations that you can get from word-of-mouth, two-page pamphlets, or even memes. That helps contextualize the practical lessons of being exposed to the operations and consequences of capitalists systems, rather than being led into a false conclusion.
But I don’t see what useful value most people will be getting from Capital. That also doesn’t mean no-one gets value from it! In the same way that most people here have no need to go to medical school but I sure am glad that some people did.
Absolutely agree. Would I like it if everyone read Capital? Absolutely. That is a dense, esoteric tome though. I don’t literally mean that nobody needs to read any theory. But as you say, a lot of it can be absorbed by osmosis from a leftist community.