this post was submitted on 05 Aug 2023
1 points (100.0% liked)
History
23101 readers
141 users here now
Welcome to c/history! History is written by the posters.
c/history is a comm for discussion about history so feel free to talk and post about articles, books, videos, events or historical figures you find interesting
Please read the Hexbear Code of Conduct and remember...we're all comrades here.
Do not post reactionary or imperialist takes (criticism is fine, but don't pull nonsense from whatever chud author is out there).
When sharing historical facts, remember to provide credible souces or citations.
Historical Disinformation will be removed
founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Hey, I get that you're defending your boy, but your post comes across a little as "you're just too stupid for Marx."
I think your post misses the point though. Lots of people are told to "read Marx" when they come into the movement. It is, like you said, a scientifically dense text. This makes it a challenge for most people. This is a frustrating experience. The meme you're complaining about is people venting a common frustration with a movement rite-of-padsage.
But also, Marx finds ways to be unclear in some of his less rigorous texts. There's a couple common sins:
run on sentences that cover whole paragraphs
Whole chapters where the evidence is laid out long before the argument and you have to read for pages without knowing where he's going.
Words that mean one thing in day-today speech and something else in Marx (reproduction, fetish, realization, valorize, sublimate, etc.)
Jargon that doesn't usually show up outside of Marxism: reify, proletarian, etc.
Marx is unclear for 99% of people and pretending it's easy makes you look like a big-brained elitist.
Factory workers understand Wage Price and Profit better than "middle-class" students because they are already familiar with the conditions.
Organizing a reading group is definitely useful though. Organizing in general is.
Thank you for making this point in a normal way