This thread is not about Marxism, but rather about Marxists, the adherents of Marxism I have encountered, mostly in chat rooms and occasionally in person. To be clear, I don't mean liberals or even Bernie Sanders leftists. I'm talking ultra-hard leftists who advocate worldwide revolution and seizure of "the means of production" from "the capitalists." Almost every one of them I have encountered has the same problem: a bad personality. They are arrogant, quarrelsome, petulant, cynical, bitter, dogmatic, incurious, sarcastic, and condescending. Even towards their fellow Marxists. I don't know if it's because they are frustrated that communism never gets any traction (except in reverse), or whether only people with personality disorders become enamored of Marxism in the first place because it would give them an excuse to commit mass murder. Still it makes me wonder: does communism fail in part because the commies are so mal-adjusted? Or do normal people with good intentions wander in there and go crazy trying to reconcile Marxism with individualistic, competitive, liberty-loving human human nature? Some are quite intelligent and very well educated, to be clear.
I think a lot of it has to do with people hoping for a star trek like government system where people live in a perfect world where people can choose unpaid work and still eat, live in a nice shelter and so on. It's an idealist thing I think, but maybe your talking about more extreme people than I am.
I would be very interested to see what percentage of them have actually read Capital. My hypothesis is that they're snide because it's their only possible counter to their ignorance of their own world view. A good indicator of this is if they talk down to you and just parrot "go do a political science degree" at you over and over. Of course, there are plenty of intelligent, well informed Communists, just as there are plenty of we'll informed fascists, libertarians, Liberals, etc.
That will never work in the long run because those who work to pay for those who don't will soon get tired paying. They will soon quit and there will be nobody left to work and pay.
This one. Also keep in mind that guys are always looking for some way to be more "edgy" and make young, dumb women horny. Young women (and not so young ones if being honest) fall for platitudinous Edgelords every minute and always have... sad but true.
It is a romanticized political ideology. It is based upon an egalitarian communities, of which many villages have lived that way for thousands of years, but it does not scale up. Even the Che, after visiting mother Russia, was disappointed. He believed Soviet Communism had become corrupted.
Dysfunctional kids raised by disinterested parents. They can go a number of ways .. religion, drugs, crime, or progressivism. Basically, young adults with low self-esteem will be hyper-responsive to validation wherever they find it. They didn't get it at home, and the deficit is pronounced.
I used to think so as well. But my professions have basically disappeared twice in the last twenty years due to tech. changes. I can easily see the day when "labor" is replaced by mechanization and robotics and individual "work" will become unnecessary. I used to think that was a pipe dream - now, I think 50 years will do it. Then the communist "dream" - which has been so impractical to this point, might become a possibility.
577645. The daily number of posts on the internet by American right wingers whining about Marxism. 3. The number of Marxist holdouts left after everyone else ditched it in the 70's.
