Greetings everyone. Recently, I got into a discussion with RainbowDoubleDash, creator of the Lunaverse, on Marxism. At first, it was simply to defend his work from the charge of being Marxist as it comes off as generic anti-feudalism, but then we eventually got talking about Marxism and his perception of it as an ideology that doesn't work (or, at least, not to the extent that Communists hoped for). I thought it might be nice to put the discussion up as a possible education on ways to defend Marxism and, as far as I can tell, it is still ongoing, so it may provide even more to consider. Here it is:

http://www.fimfiction.net/blog/263872/shades-of-harrison-bergeron

Not-so-fun fact: If you search the comments by Oldest First, my original comment is #34 and my most recent comment is #69

I'm not sure you want the input of an anarchist, so I'll hold back, but I wasn't aware marxism was not a popular ideology within the communist spectrum, I thought it was the most popular, am I wrong?

2464245 afaik calling someone marxist is always the first ad hominem that comes from the capitalist pigs.

2464684
wait, calling someone a marxist is an ad hominem?? is being a marxist a bad thing???

2464743 Since communism was so demonized during the cold war a lot of people still see communism as evil. I personally think true communism would be a much better system than capitalism but it'll never happen.

2464743 anything non-capitalist is a bad thing for a capitalists. It threatens their wealth. You should watch the news more often.
Just like being an atheist is a bad thing in the eyes of religious people. Anything can be good or bad. It's a subjective value, and as such it only depends on the one passing judgement.

2464827
Uh, you're a communist..who supports nazi's..all my what.

2464834
I meant the matter of marxists within the umbrella grouping of communists because he suggested it was unpopular within the ideology

2464877 Keep in mind there are many kinds of communists, classical marxists are only 1 group among stalinists, leninists, trotskyists, maoists, luxemburguists and so on, the only thing were we are all marxists at is the materialistic view of the world.

2465226
I get that marxism isn't all of communism, but I thought it was the most popular sub-ideology, and many of those you listed were built upon a marxist framework..but i'm not trying to argue with anyone really, lol.

2465271 Well... the main reason why classical marxism is no longer the most popular is because of the rise of leninism and, in a larger way, stalinism, those 2 ideologies were against classical marxists (or "left-communists" as lenin called them), who said the russian revolution and the USSR were not a true example of a socialist/communist revolution and society, because of that classical marxists had a lot of problems during the 20th century.

Today, on the other hand, with the fall of the soviet union and the growing opposition against stalinism and leninism classical marxists have risen a little.

2465322
Interesting, I have been wondering what exactly constitues a ''left communist'' after hearing it get thrown around, good to know.

2465340 Yea, "left-communist" is a common term for those who want communism 100% exacly like what Marx said it should be.

2465352
I always was more interested in the writings of bakunin and kropotkin, but marx certainly was probably one of, if not the most influential theorizers

2465385 Good, just because you are a anarchist doesn't mean you can't take a few points and concepts from other writers, after all, communism is only a small part of marxism, I dare to say that you should even try a few capitalist books in order to better understand what you are fighting against.

I, despite being a socialist, also enjoy anarchist ideas and concepts from time to time

2464877 The avatar is actually of the Death Korps of Krieg, Warhammer 40k guys that are zealots and pretty much employ Soviet tactics, send a wave of flesh at the enemy until they die.

2464245

Actually, one of the points of RDD was that while I may be a Communist, at least I am not an Anarchist, which I feel is an insult to the intellectual arguments and history of that movement. RDD, after looking at the Spanish Civil War, blamed the Anarchists for the repression that the Fascist government would impose on the population while I pointed out that this is basically blaming the slaves for the brutality of the masters. I see the Anarchist critique of Marxism as something to take very seriously, although I still feel that Marxism (especially with the removal of Leninism) can hold up to such criticisms with a respect for the demands of Anarchists.

Of course, if I were to get power, perhaps I would be like Trotsky who, prior to having any actual power, promised to an Anarchist that they and the Bolsheviks would always be revolutionary allies and then a few years later personally sentenced that same Anarchist to death…but that would never happen to me because I am clearly a better leader type for this! That is part of the reason I could never see myself as a Trotskyist.

2465352

Ah, Left Communism, a term that allows me to avoid the question of Council Communism or Ultra Leftism. While I do take a lot from the work of these groups, especially Paul Mattick and his work on crisis theory, there are still issues that neither of these groups seem to resolve when you dive into them like the division between economic and political struggles (hence why Council Communists focus on economic issues and Ultra Leftists on political ones).

2464827

That is why I have the arguments contained in the link above, but, if you have other concerns, please let me know so I can try to address them.

2467897
>blaming the anarchists for the fascist repression
>when the anarchists literally fought them until the bitter end
lol what