this post was submitted on 13 Mar 2024
4 points (54.5% liked)

Unpopular Opinion

6326 readers
23 users here now

Welcome to the Unpopular Opinion community!


How voting works:

Vote the opposite of the norm.


If you agree that the opinion is unpopular give it an arrow up. If it's something that's widely accepted, give it an arrow down.



Guidelines:

Tag your post, if possible (not required)


  • If your post is a "General" unpopular opinion, start the subject with [GENERAL].
  • If it is a Lemmy-specific unpopular opinion, start it with [LEMMY].


Rules:

1. NO POLITICS


Politics is everywhere. Let's make this about [general] and [lemmy] - specific topics, and keep politics out of it.


2. Be civil.


Disagreements happen, but that doesn’t provide the right to personally attack others. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Please also refrain from gatekeeping others' opinions.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Shitposts and memes are allowed but...


Only until they prove to be a problem. They can and will be removed at moderator discretion.


5. No trolling.


This shouldn't need an explanation. If your post or comment is made just to get a rise with no real value, it will be removed. You do this too often, you will get a vacation to touch grass, away from this community for 1 or more days. Repeat offenses will result in a perma-ban.



Instance-wide rules always apply. https://legal.lemmy.world/tos/

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

There's a lot to unpack with that quote, and a full analysis requires us to consider the functions that opium served at the time Marx wrote. Asprin would not be invented for another 15 years after Marx died. Laudanum and morphine, both opiates, were extremely common pain-management tools of the era.

The full quote (supposing you like this particular translation), sheds some light on the context:

Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.

While I feel that the modern interpretation of (the snippet of) his quote is apropos, I think it's also good to analyze what he was actually trying to say. These days I interpret Marx to be trying to essentially say "Religion serves as a painkiller for people exploited and/or alienated by a capitalist society."

But I'm interested in hearing other perspectives, if you disagree!

Here's some further reading on that particular quote. Bear in mind, I don't necessarily agree with all the perspectives presented by them:

https://law.marquette.edu/facultyblog/2015/01/karl-marx-on-religion/comment-page-1/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_of_the_people

https://cunninghamjeff.medium.com/karl-marx-was-a-capitalist-8a71138418fd#

https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2021/04/identity-politics-opium-of-the-people

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago

Agreed with you mate 👍👍