
Marx was smart, and I appreciate what he wrote. But he was very idealistic, and I don’t believe he actually ever thought someone like Lenin would take his writings and try to make the reality. Lenin was very smart, but a psychopath and made many mistakes, I think you can appreciate him and his ideas as well, but to think that we should keep both of their ideas and move forward with them is why Marx-Leninist movements do not work. Not because they could never, but they’re from a different time
Well yeah I read that, I just disagree with your premise. Marx’s theories were largely only possible bc he happened to live in an area where the contradictions of capitalism were the most evident. And he synthesized german philosophy, English classical political economy and French (utopian) socialism. He lived right in the epicenter of all three of those movements and among all those thinkers to come to his conclusions. The contradictions of capitalism weren’t as nearly as evident elsewhere
See you’re not gonna believe this but Marx is not the end-all be-all, people have advanced on his ideas since he was alive. I know you already shit on him but Lenin, for example, wrote about imperialism, a thing whose impacts weren’t fully apparent (though they were very much happening) during Marx’s time.
i think that marxism in general attempts to present itself as a universal and comprehensive theory of society when it is far from that and that part of the reason communist projects fail so often is because they overlook all the other parts of history and society that have shaped the place they’re in
sure, you can makes everything work in new times, but we shouldn’t keep calling or relying on the writings and works of Marx, Engles, Lenin, Stalin, Mao, or any other communist/extreme socialist from many years ago. We need to look at the people we have now, who have good ideas, and proper conversations about what is good about the past and what was about it. And, maybe not prop up men who did cause the death and suffering of a shit ton of people(not Marx, but you know who).
It doesn’t present itself that way tho. Marx just developed various theories and frameworks almost 200 years ago that many theorists have expanded on since as society and material conditions evolve. Communism has failed bc of US intervention, not bc it doesn’t work. Eventually the contradictions in capitalism will lead to a collapse of the system in which socialism will be the next progression and improvement on society
Like, one thing to think about is how Lenin and his government handled disability. Does communism or extreme socialism in our experience, aka examples of the past, take into account disabled individuals, and how do we incorporate disabled individuals into a communist structure that relies on every citizen to contribute to society in some way, socialism helps take care of them, but in all systems like that, there are still issues, and how do address that?
yeah, but let’s not act that’s all they are or what they consider themselves, nor that any person you agree with or anyone who’s ideas are similar to Marx or Lenin are truly inspired by them. That’s a bit Eurocentric and ignores a lot about modern world and many philosophers and economists and politicians experience and background.
All it means is that they utilize the theories of scientific socialism, historical materialism and dialectics, and draw inspiration from the first successful implementation of those theories through a vanguard party. It doesn’t mean they worship the men like a god, that Marxist Leninism is at all dogmatic or that they never got anything wrong, holy shit lmao. They just utilize Marxism and Leninism 😭 those men just happened to develop those theories, it doesn’t mean they’re infallible
Marxism is just Europe’s answer to christianity after the French revolution. It just evolved into Christianity 2, Secular Edition. They have their prosecuted prophet, their canon, their priests, their nobility (the party), and their apocalypse/heaven (the revolution and communism). It’s the same system in a different package, which is why the Russian empire didn’t change all that much when they swapped out the Tsar for the Premier.
I believe in heavy government involvement in necessary base industries like transportation, some forms of manufacturing, and some forms of agriculture. But markets have shown themselves to be efficient, particularly in industries not really suitable for government operation (like recreation or consumer goods). The question therefore is how to prevent a market economy from exploiting people. I believe this is through a social safety net, strong unions, regulation, and worker co-ops.
^ I feel the same way. Furthermore, I think giving the government total control over the markets is a temptation too great for any government to resist, which is why we need democracy. Total government control of wealth leads to the rationalization that “l’etat c’est moi” among its leaders. They represent the people, so surely they should get the largest share of the wealth… (1/2)
This makes the impacts of European communism largely indistinguishable from European absolute monarchies in the 18th century - even down to a reputation for corruption and influence, and the political necessity of purges to kill politically undesirable ideological enemies (protestants, intellectuals, capitalists, and genuine leaders of the working class)
y’all grossly misunderstand what a free market is. the free market refers to a market free of royal interference, from a mercantile time where trade was done internally to consolidate a country’s wealth and power. this is contrary to what capitalists want: the ability to trade freely and with whomever will pay the most for the commodities produced. this is why the liberal revolutions happened, to relegate the power of the clergy and monarchy beneath that of capital and to place the state
and to pretend that capitalist governments do not engage in purges and repression greater than that of the absolutist monarchies that preceded them is absurd. you live in a surveillance state in a nation that has suppressed socialist, Black, indigenous, and all other movements that threaten white capitalism. we all gather around every two years to vote for one of two capitalist parties, yet somehow this society isn’t nearly as repressive or rife with corruption?
Nah. The systems produced the same outcomes because they’re the same system. The only difference is the ideology which was used to justify them. In the Russian Tsardom, the government relied on Boyars to keep power. A title of nobility was the signal of loyalty which justified a person’s place in society. It fell because the leaders badly mismanaged it. In the Soviet Union, the Premier relied on the Party. A party membership card was the signal of loyalty. And the same thing happened.
you just lack historical context, no one brought morality into this. the liberal revolutions which transitioned feudalism from capitalism were direct attacks on royal and clerical power as pursued by the bourgeoisie. even liberal historians recognize this… unless you’re saying that history developed in some alternative manner. do explain