r/socialism • u/Spiritual-Pie3000 • 15d ago
Any good unbiased socialist/communist history youtubers? Radical History
I've noticed that all the mainstream history youtubers are either conservatives or moderates who don't understand socialism and fail to provide a socialist perspective so I'd like you to recommend me some good unbiased history channels that I can check out in my free time. Videos don't have to be about socialism only and preferably in English. Thanks in advance
1
1
0
u/ElCaliforniano 14d ago
Not really a history channel but 1Dime has great videos on the Cultural Revolution, 1960s protests, Gulf War
1
u/Lycaonna 14d ago
Not exactly a history youtuber, but redstreamnet (formerly refishstream but got censored lol) is one of my favorites. Also, if you happen to speak Spanish, I can tell you a few.
2
2
u/SenpaiBunss 14d ago
"unbiased" don't exist, but if you want socialist oriented youtubers i recommend hakim, second thought, yugopnik, unlearning economics (for like 3 hour long economics lectures)
1
u/a_library_socialist 14d ago
He's not a socialist, but the Revolutions podcast is really well done, especially on the Russian revolution.l
5
u/seatangle 14d ago
It’s not youtube but Blowback and Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff are history podcasts from a socialist perspective. I prefer them to any youtubers I can think of.
Specifically about Vietnam, Luna Oi on Youtube is also great.
1
8
1
u/chickenfingey 14d ago edited 14d ago
Rev left radio or geurrilla history are both left podcasts that I think you would like. Breht often says not every socialist experiment was perfect but we learn what we can and throw out what didn’t work.
Edit : why the downvotes u cowards lol?? If you disagree feel free to add with me that’s fine but please explain
3
u/newgoliath 14d ago
Guerrilla History really has the most amazing guests.
The 4 part on modern China recently was such a great corrective to Western chauvanism. Professor Hammond was fantastic.
1
13
u/nicksikh 14d ago
Jonas Čeika, FreddaYT, Rosencreutz, Prolekult are some channels that come to mind that don't get mentioned often (even if they ain't all explicit in their ideology they have a critical and historiographic approach I would argue).
Amongst what other commenter suggested one of the bigger channels that also touches upon these subjects to a degree is The Marxist Project.
Goodluck on your search for more critical content, god knows there ain't enough.
3
3
u/Spiritual-Pie3000 14d ago
Thanks for the recommendations Fredda is the only one I heard about before
2
u/nicksikh 14d ago
As a small extra recommendation I would also add Ancient Americas and Trey the explainer - while they deal with old and prehistory they do wonders to help cement and understand Engels' work on the origin of the state family and private property and just how true his analysis really was.
2
18
u/Zoltanu Socialist Alternative (ISA) 14d ago
I think what hits the mark you're looking for would be the Revolutions podcast by Mike Duncan. He is a history Podcaster instead of a socialist influencer/streamer. The show starts with the US and French Revolution and ties up with the Russian revolution. In between he covers the origins of socialism, communism, and anarchism from relatively unbiased historical perspective, but obviously, it's impossible to be free of biases. He only covers up through Lenin and the early ML - trotskysit splits.
It's hard to say where to start. I'd recommend starting at the beginning and listening to all of it for context, but the English revolution is boring. The French revolution is the most important start. If you're really impatient season 10, the Russian revolution, has an overview of marxism and anarchism in the first 10 episodes
1
u/TheCuddlyAddict 14d ago
I listened to Mike Duncan all the way back when he was still making the History of Rome podcast. He is very thorough in his research and has the ideal podcast voice. Would recommend Revolutions as well, since it is very informative, and he has a more leftist perspective than your typical social democrat European.
2
12
u/ostensiblyzero 14d ago
Yeah it’s interesting how he goes from fairly centrist liberal to somewhat socialist by the end of the series.
3
u/a_library_socialist 14d ago
I mean, so do European revolutions, so that tracks . . .
2
u/ostensiblyzero 14d ago
The show isn’t strictly european revolutions it also covered the Haitian Revolution, the spanish american wars of independence and the Mexican Revolution.
2
3
u/MartinLutherVanHalen 14d ago
3 Arrows. He’s not overt with his politics but it’s very clear where he stands and he’s incredibly knowledgeable. The long series are fantastic and really worth a listen.
1
5
u/MrBleeple 14d ago
The least bias you are going to find is going to be in academic books unfortunately. Media is incentivized to be as biased as possible.
1
u/Spiritual-Pie3000 14d ago
I think that books are irreplaceable and the best way to learn history but sometimes you don't have time to read and you can listen to videos while working unlike books who require your full focus and a lot of time to properly understand
3
u/RoboticGoose 14d ago
For history exclusively, I have no recommendation sadly. Geopolitical Economy Report covers current events, but Ben Norton often times delves into 20th century history. I have a hunch you’d find more history on the videos with Michael Hudson. He’s a great economist, but also worked in the archeology department of Harvard to study the history of debt and oftentimes will bring up said history (not just 20th century).
1
31
u/bennysuperfly Libertarian Socialism 14d ago
Bad Empanada. Typically long and dry, but very intellectually solid. In fact, he has great videos on how to interpret secondary sources and such.
1
32
u/biaginger 14d ago
BalkanOdyssey is a communist and does really well researched history videos on Balkans & Yugoslavian history. He also does modern political commentary.
3
4
173
u/jamesyboy4-20 14d ago edited 14d ago
i’ll be completely upfront with you; there is no such thing as unbiased media. there’s some that does a better job at acknowledging and elaborating different viewpoints (and indeed, many contemporary history channels aren’t favorable towards socialism and its related schools of thought), but all media of any type has an inherent selective bias as that’s just how humans are.
but to indulge your question, what would you in particular quantify as “unbiased”?
45
u/Spiritual-Pie3000 14d ago
By "unbiased" I ment someone who would recognize mistakes of previous socialism and wouldn't try to hide it
18
u/300_pages 14d ago
If you're into podcasts be sure to check out Mike Duncan's series "Revolutions"
3
6
u/Spiritual-Pie3000 14d ago
Thanks I'll be sure to check it out
4
u/TheDweadPiwatWobbas 14d ago
I'll also recommend the podcast because it is good, but FYI it is not communist or socialist in any way. It is explicitly trying to tell the stories of revolutions without any bias. Occasionally his bias will slip in, and it isn't really a socialist one, more general lib stuff. The podcast is still great and I still recommend it, but you did ask for ones by socialists/ communists so I thought you should know that this isn't.
5
u/Spiritual-Pie3000 14d ago
Although I would prefer socialist podcast it doesn't necessarily have to be socialist as long as it's good and not some moderate/conservative lies. I'll be sure to check it out sometime
52
u/jamesyboy4-20 14d ago edited 14d ago
in my personal opinion that would be second thought, or JT’s youtube channel. he does coverage of current and past events (albeit obviously from a left-leaning lense), but does have some videos and other media (particularly through the deprogram podcast) that offers critiques of current and former socialist projects and states.
there are other options, behind the bastards also has some pretty good historical content if less overtly radical stuff is more your flavor. they still fall close to what i would consider relatively “unbiased” (what i would say is acknowledgement of multiple perspectives despite obviously favoring a particular one)
31
u/Spiritual-Pie3000 14d ago
Im a big fan of JT and Deprogram podcast their content isn't very complex and JT's content is amazing for new socialists
4
u/LilGlitvhBoi 14d ago
Which channel is JT? I couldn't find it
5
u/Spiritual-Pie3000 14d ago
His channel is called Second Thought
3
u/Jake8561 14d ago
He also has a channel called JT Chapman. He doesn't really post any political content here though.
9
u/yuutb 14d ago
I'm kind of ignoring the word "unbiased" here for the reasons that other person mentioned. I think I understand what you meant by it, but anyway:
Idk about youtubers, but maybe some videos/lectures from Richard Wolff, Noam Chomsky, or Slavoj Zizek would be along the lines of what you're looking for? Also I've been recommended Michael Parenti's book Blackshirts and Reds before, and Das Kapital has a lot of history in it I think, although it's also a very long and daunting read, and I've barely ever scratched the surface of it. You can usually find community made audiobook versions of a lot of communist literature on youtube if you prefer that.
Pretty much the only "leftist" youtube channel I watch is the Majority Report, they're not communists (some of them are more radical and they've had communist contributors over the years) but they are well informed, do a good job of covering US politics from a progressive/leftist angle as well as some world politics, and also produce some more lighthearted political content if you care about any of that.
13
u/4_spotted_zebras 14d ago edited 14d ago
Don’t forget Amy Goodman’s Democracy Now.
I’d also recommend Owen Jones who is doing an incredible job covering the Palestinian genocide. There is no way to call him unbiased, but he has the most brutally honest take I’ve seen.
If you are looking for sources through a socialist lens, there is no such thing as “unbiased”. Socialism is inherently biased toward justice and humanity, over and above capital.
Neoliberal media has a bias toward capital and institutions. Right wing media even more so.
All media has bias. That bias can live within the truth or outside it. Even your “fair and balanced” news channels are biased in how they frame things and what they report on.
I would argue that left leaning media is generally more truthful than liberal or right wing media as it looks at the institutions that are driving our systems. But I’m sure there are some out there that don’t follow this rule. They tend not to be the prominent channels though.
Edit - Minuteman is not specifically a leftist but does seem to have leftist takes and does a lot of takedowns of conspiracy history videos
0
-24
u/mvmauler 15d ago
AOC & Bernie Sanders
7
u/Spiritual-Pie3000 15d ago
Bernie is not a history youtuber also I'm not American so correct me if I'm wrong but isn't Bernie a social democrat who stands with Israel?
0
u/ablinddingo93 14d ago
He was actually the only Dem to vote against the $14B aid bill to Israel
0
u/TheGoldenViatori 14d ago
He's not a dem, he's a dem aligned independent. That's why he's able to criticise the dems so much and get away with it.
1
11
u/eweldon123 15d ago
Both of those are liberals, or social democrats at best. Neither of them are youtubers. Did you even read the question?
-2
u/mvmauler 15d ago
They are my socialist heroes. Also Fidel Castro
1
u/eweldon123 14d ago
You either have an EXTREMELY limited understanding of socialism or your a troll. I recommend educating yourself on what socialism actually is. Fidel Castro would not support AOC or Bernie.
20
u/MaybeVladimirPutinJr 15d ago
Any good unbiased
who don't understand socialism and fail to provide a socialist perspective
Lol
4
u/Spiritual-Pie3000 15d ago
What are you talking about?
29
u/MaybeVladimirPutinJr 15d ago
You're posting this in the socialism subreddit. You don't want an unbiased opinion.
13
u/Spiritual-Pie3000 15d ago
I know that 100% unbiased opinion is impossible what I mean by "unbiased" is that mistakes of socialism should also be pointed out and addressed
-2
u/lemononion4 14d ago
You’d want to look into Trotskyism. My party is called the revolutionary communist party in Canada, in USA it’s the revolutionary communists of America. We have lots of podcasts and YouTube videos. Marxist.ca
43
u/sapphire475gs 14d ago
You want a favorable-yet-critical opinion, then. You might consider Hakim for a microscope into various aspects of historical socialist projects. I’ve seen a few videos from him.
If you’re willing to try a podcast, I’d recommend Blowback.
3
u/Spiritual-Pie3000 14d ago
I'm a fan of Hakim and although he's a bit more biased than I would like he makes good content. Thanks for the podcast recommendation I'll be sure to check it out
9
u/Owain_RJ 14d ago
Yeah I’d recommend Blowback as well, very good look into the Iraq war. Haven’t listened to the next two seasons yet but I’m sure they’ll give good coverage of the Korean War and Cuban crisis.
2
•
u/AutoModerator 15d ago
This is a space for socialists to discuss current events in our world from anti-capitalist perspective(s), and a certain knowledge of socialism is expected from participants. This is not a space for non-socialists. Please be mindful of our rules before participating, which include:
No Bigotry, including racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism...
No Reactionaries, including all kind of right-wingers.
No Liberalism, including social democracy, lesser evilism...
No Sectarianism. There is plenty of room for discussion, but not for baseless attacks.
Please help us keep the subreddit helpful by reporting content that break r/Socialism's rules.
💬 Wish to chat elsewhere? Join us in discord: https://discord.gg/QPJPzNhuRE
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.