reminds me of the headcannon where the reason that everyone uses PADDS and replicators so poorly (not sending each other documents, placing orders that taste poorly) is that everyone in starfleet does not know how to use computers.

guy in your English class who loves David Foster Wallace

I know precisely who you are talking about. And I agree with your assessment, though I would say that sci-fi and fantasy still have a (mostly white) male appeal, even if considerably less than in the past. To me there are two sides to this: the grindset mentality devaluing fiction, as well as fiction becoming for video game-y / marvel-esque in order to compete for attention. I will need to think more about it, media politics is a dear topic of mine.

I feel like books are still incredibly male-centric. Like the front section of the Barnes and Nobles is usually "10 steps to DOMINATE everyone in your life", "Manly WARRIORS of Saturn" and "Napoleon's (ALPHA MALE) biography" or something like that. And I actually see people reading it on public transport or whatever. Of course it's part of the grindset culture that you mentioned, I just don't think it's fair to say that men are completely absent from book culture. The grindset/video game culture spills over into the literature world.

As Cowbee commented, depends what you/the group likes. Leftist is a broad topic. If the group is interested in geopolitics, works on imperialism would be more suited, for climate change - ecosocialism etc. There are a lot of ways to approach socialist thought. Also I would recommend picking works from post-2000 since the language and context is usually easier to understand.

For recommendations (apart from the basics that Cowbee has mentioned) I had success with "Talking to my daughter about the economy" by Yanis Varoufakis. As you can guess from the title, it is geared towards youth and goes through the really basic tenets of exploitation under capitalism in clear and modern language.

Angela Davis also has a collection of essays called "Freedom is a constant struggle". It goes over a lot of topics, so I've found it very good as a discussion starter because people relate to it easily. She talks about abolition and connecting it to other struggled (Palestinian liberation for instance).

I would only suggest reading in a group if people don't have time to read on their own. In a group you would only have time to read and discuss one chapter, so it kind of limits how much you can cover, but it does make it a bit more accessible. If you do read in a group and want to read out loud, make sure that every one is comfortable with it. Usually there would be one or two people who are not, so I we just all read silently. It goes faster that way too.

I've been running a book club for a while so feel free to ping me if you have any further questions.

yeah rybar is an ultranationalist. the soviet narratives that he wants to rethink are internationalism and multiculturalism

might want to look up resources/books related to attachment theory

For real. I've had this experience recently with Cuba 1964. It is a fiction movie but still, so clear about its politics.

how are those two issues even remotely similar

Heavenly Bodies. You play astronauts on a space station doing menial tasks, but the difficulty is that you have to control all your limbs properly to move around in zero-g. It's tricky (has easier modes tho) but is really satisfying when you learn how to work together to fling screwdrivers around.

PSL seems to officially hold no stance on stalin or trotsky which is just...weird

this is not serious posting

I know libertarians who specifically vote for that so that the fed can’t do anything