Free Leftist Education Resources

Resources with a * are by POC.

Resources with a ^ are by trans or lgbt individuals.

Youtube channels:

^ https://www.youtube.com/@PhilosophyTube – what began as an attempt to “give away my philosophy degree for free” now is one of the most highly polished, provocative, and exciting channels on Youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/@InnuendoStudios – The series “The Alt-right Playbook” outlines how alt-right groups function and the tactics that they use so you can spot them yourself in the wild.

https://www.youtube.com/@PopCultureDetective – A channel dedicated to deconstructing media and understanding how it impacts our lives.

* https://www.youtube.com/@FDSignifire/videos – A black man does long-form essays about political topics from a leftist perspective.

* https://www.youtube.com/@T1J – A black man discusses politics and the world we live in through racialised lens. He tends to take on provocative topics in straightforward, calm, easily-digestible chunks.

https://www.youtube.com/@Shaun_vids – among other leftist videos, try his PragerU series, which talks about the famous online “university” and how they mislead and sometimes outright lie to your kids about history.

https://www.youtube.com/@FoldingIdeas – originally a media deconstruction channel (and those older videos are still worth watching), Dan now does long-form essays about technical topics that break things down for everyone. See for instance “Line Goes Up”, a documentary about NFTs that should be winning awards.

https://www.youtube.com/@LindsayEllisVids – Lindsay has stopped making videos but her videos are still up and are still brilliant deconstructions of books and tv shows that appeal to women.

https://www.youtube.com/@JohntheDuncan – A scottish man who talks a lot about leftism, liberalism, and UK politics.

^ https://www.youtube.com/@TheLeftistCooks –  A pair of queer folks put out long-form video essays about important leftist topics, often with recipes included as they cook and talk.

* https://www.youtube.com/@Andrewism – An Afro-Trinidadian dude discusses what he is learning about in his own journey into left-wing politics.Great overview of things like Solarpunk.

^ https://www.youtube.com/@JessieGender1 – A famous transgender youtuber who discusses topics applicable to the queer community

^ https://www.youtube.com/@HeyRowanEllis – Another famous transgender youtuber who talks about pop culture primarily

https://www.youtube.com/@feministfrequency – home to the internet-famous woman Anita Sarkeesian and her series “Tropes vs women”, which discusses tropes in media from a feminist lens.

https://www.youtube.com/@LastWeekTonight – John Oliver’s television show, broken into chunks for youtube and thus watchable for free

* https://www.youtube.com/@AccentedCinema – An Asian man (with an accent, hence the title) talks about media from his unique perspective

https://www.youtube.com/@donoteat01 – An expert discusses city planning and engineering from a leftist perspective. The gimmick he is doing is a history of a fictional east-coast town in a video game, called “Franklin”, and how it grows over the years, cataloging the forces at work in its city planning.

^ https://www.youtube.com/@RileyJayDennis – Another transgender media reviewer and youtuber

Specific videos:

Judaism and Whiteness in Wolfenstein– A great discussion of judaism and its proximity to whiteness.

Cookie Clicker Explained – purports to be about the free video game Cookie Clicker. Is actually about Capitalism.

When Can Mario Retire – Purports to be about video game star Mario. Is actually about millennials.

Our Lady of Perpetual Correctness– A video essay about the need for left-wing activists to always be “correct” rather than doing good.

Individualism vs Individuality – See title.

^ Decrypting the Alt-Right: How to Recognize a F@scist | ContraPoints – See title.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRIPhCOW5so - A short video essay about a video game that also discusses human psychology and how games tap into it as well as the difference between systemic and individual problems

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4ieMzbXiRA - a long-form video essay about mental illness and what constitutes reason

^ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCCnv9dWM0A - a video essay about HRT and how it affects athletes

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGDHX-85O11RRst9nUf5DEFgwv75PCb4X Trans etiquette 101  series -- a series by yours truly and some friends from church about how to talk to trans people.

Podcasts

Articles/Blogs

Blogs

The Slacktivist – a former-evangelical but still Christian man discusses where his faith is taking him, as well as reviewing the Left Behind books chapter-by-chapter. His motto is “test everything, hold fast to what is good”

^ Tell Me Why The World Is Weird – an asexual expat living in China blogs about life in China, Covid, and asexuality. One of the few sources I’ve found for on-the-ground coverage of life in China in English.

Articles

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/anxiousbench/2023/12/please-think-better-about-race/

https://juliaserano.medium.com/gender-affirming-care-for-trans-youth-is-neither-new-nor-experimental-a-timeline-and-compilation-b4bb8375d797 - A timeline of gender-affirming care for trans youth

https://www.wheresyoured.at/tss/ - the cult of shareholder supremacy AKA why businesses are all so terrible anymore

Zines

Helping your friends who sometimes want to die not die

Books

Settlers: The Mythology of the White Proletariat by J. Sakai [available online for free at the link]

Mutual Aid by Dean Spade Available online for free at link

The ABCs of Capitalism, written by Catalyst editor Vivek Chibber: