Educating oneself on politics, where to start ?

[Loveeee]

https://www.actualized.org/insights/actualized-quotes-202

 

[Viking]

I think you do need to experience knowing news first if you don't already know

I'd start with your own country's news

[Puer Aeternus]

@Loveeee Leos response in the blog post discussion

 Q: 20 hours ago, Daniel Balan said:

How do I develop world class political education and understanding

A: Books, books, books!

You must read actual books.

Books on history, geopolitics, war, diplomacy, espionage, law enforcement, sociology, political science, international affairs, economics.

I will add 40 books about such topics to my book list soon.

 

Beyond this, my method is starting with my area of highest interest. This way you get the most momentum and motivation to discover things.

 

I like to research new topics on YouTube/documentaries or look for recommendations. I'll dive into this and start reading books if I'm really interested. Having a separate YouTube account so the algorithm can feed you novel things on politics you wouldn't have otherwise searched can be really nice too.

 

[Jacob Morres]

College courses have a lot of strong eye opening fundamentals

[Ulax]

Yeah I’d second the college lecture courses.

I think this is a great one!

Also edx have quite a few political science lecture series for free.

That said, I guess it would also depend on whether you prefer reading to watching lectures. Whether you have confidence atm to be able to get through a whole lecture series. 
 

If you are not so confident with your ability to go through a lecture course atm, maybe try the channel ‘crash course’. They do fun mini- lecture series made in engaging ways. They have a course on US government and politics and also one on Political theory!
 

So maybe start with what you are comfortable with and then build up over time :).

Edited June 7 by Ulax

[Deziree]

To understand politics deeply you will also need to understand history correctly. So start with history of that nation.

[Raze]

Edited June 7 by Raze

[Leo Gura]

Start with history books.

Start by reading the history of Communism and the history of Nazism.

Then keep reading more stuff.

Edited June 7 by Leo Gura

[Basman]

Vlad Vexler on his YT channel reacts to a lot of current news that relate to authoritarianism (Trump and Russia mostly), which I judge to be quiet insightful and educational when it comes to understanding the perspective of authoritarians and how it relates to democratic institutions.

[sda]

On 6/6/2025 at 8:24 PM, Leo Gura said:

Start with history books.

Start by reading the history of Communism and the history of Nazism.

Then keep reading more stuff.

Can you tell us the name of the book that explains the history of Communism and the history of Nazism as well as the author of the respective books?