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To my American comrades,

Things are bad right now, but you can take some comfort in studying good Marxist theory to understand how and why the nation is in this state. Your local library likely has Marxist literature. Reading it is an act of defiance against fascism. Knowledge is power.

Mao and Lenin can also give insight into how late stage capitalism comes to a close.
@Nimbius666

> Your local library

Or must marxists.org has everything. Basically all of it.

> studying good Marxist theory to understand how and why the nation is in this state.

> Reading it is an act of defiance against fascism.

I don't think that anything I read stopped fascism. It's essentially a manual of failure written by the people that either lost to fascists or, once they got power, were indistinguishable from fascists.

The Federalist papers are a better read.
hungry_santa.jpg
@p @Nimbius666 Marx has glaring shortcomings in his thought (especially wrt LTV and certain economic presumptions) & his most notable adherents failed as well -- but I think part of the problem is that we take more modern (i.e. mid to late 20th century) Marxists at their word that his work is a singular, monolithic, coherent system of thought with clear correct interpretations.

Taken piece-meal, I think there's a lot of value though, especially in regard to concepts of commodification, reification, and estrangement/alienation -- basically I think the guy had more value on a traditional philosophical and even psychological register rather than economic or sociological.
@smithy @Nimbius666

> I'd say eschew the Marx of (most) self-proclaimed Marxists, but don't throw the baby out w/the bath water - good pieces to scavenge

There is baby-throwing and then there's buying a salad at McDonald's: if you wanted a salad, you should have gone somewhere else.

To borrow from :dmr:

> Here is my metaphor: your book is a pudding stuffed with apposite observations, many well-conceived. Like excrement, it contains enough undigested nuggets of nutrition to sustain life for some. But it is not a tasty pie: it reeks too much of contempt and of envy.
> Bon appetit!

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