I want to read radical works...but have the attention span of a flea.

March 23, 2017 9:56 PM

I am in the mood to read some radical works - on anything, from community organizing, to race relations, to feminism, to alternative economic models, to lgbtq, to anarchism to whatever...the more left wing, the better. But I have no time - nor an attention span for more than 500 words at a time. Can you help?

I'm in the mood to read about some interesting, radical, left-wing ideas...

But given my current lifestyle I have a very short attention span and/or time - 20 minutes here, 5 minutes there. I can't handle complex sentence structures, long articles/books etc. or even...big words.

Podcasts would be ok too - or audio books - but it would have to be really peppy and engaging, because...attention span.

Is there anything out there for me?

posted by Toddles to Media & Arts (4 answers total)

Best answer: Well, they have a 100% Australian context, but the ideas they talk about are universal, and I haven't read every single one of them so can't vouch for them 100%, but Black Inc.'s Redback imprint is one of the best things I came across in 2016.

The books in the series are short, punchy, and the six or so I've read were very well written, easily digestible, mind-expanding, and suitably infuriating. I would start with Econobabble, which is available on Amazon. They are definitely liberal, and I had no problem at all reading a page here and there.
posted by turbid dahlia at 10:07 PM on March 23, 2017 [2 favorites]

Twitter. You can find the "radical" people, read their tweets, and get links to their blog posts.
posted by salvia at 10:08 PM on March 23, 2017

Best answer: Communism for kids is book length, but is theory written for children (It's brand new, so I haven't looked at it myself)
It's Going Down on twitter
Anews podcast is doing a nice digest of news and articles of import
SJW podcast is kind of funny, as well as the Crimethinc podcast
People's History posters from Justseeds might be a nice way to digest different topics
Libcom has lots of short articles, but you have to dig for them

There are lots of zines and articles that might fit what you're looking for. I'd be happy to think more on this for you!
posted by libraryrat at 12:29 AM on March 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

Introducing Marx, by the Mexican cartoonist Rius.
Introducing Trotsky.
Introducing Feminism.
Introducing Fascism.
... and others in the same series.
posted by plep at 12:46 AM on March 24, 2017 [2 favorites]