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[–] 11 points 2 months ago (7 children)
  • [–] 9 points 2 months ago (4 children)

    Except Marx laid out specific conditions for communism and none have been met by regimes who claim the title.

    No person should use the name communism as a slur, and no person should claim to be a communist until they have at least read Das Kapital and The Communist Manifesto.

    Both sides might just leave it alone.

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  • [–] 10 points 2 months ago (3 children)

    Ah, so the only real communism is marxism?

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  • [–] 6 points 2 months ago (2 children)

    Once again, Marx did not describe Marxism. Other people did for their own ends.

    All Marx did was examine capitalism and compare it to pre-capatalist societies. For instance, a shoemaker could once feed his family for a five day week on making two sets of boots. A factory owner sets up and employs him and he now makes parts of 22 pairs of boots - working 6 days a week for the same money. That is and observation and a critique. He said that all this did was exploit his labour and transfered his monetary value to the factory owner. Furthermore, this situation was unnecessary and society would EVOLVE away from capital-based labour to a social-based way of living. I'm not saying that he was right or wrong. Inherent in all this was seizing the means of production, but not necessary by or for state control.

    Marx also got a lot wrong by his own admission. He never understood why England didn't fall to revolution in 1848 (for instance) because he thought that the time was ideal.

    All I'm really saying is that throwing around these terms may not reflect the reality and that time must be spent coming to grips with them. It can be really rewarding, but that might be just me?

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