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1. Karl Marx Revisited
Today is Karl Marx's birthday. He was born on May 5, 1818 in Germany and died stateless on March 14, 1883 in London, at age 64. Marx was ethnically Jewish.
Some people think Karl Marx had stupid ideas. Maybe.
Today is Karl Marx's birthday. He was born on May 5, 1818 in Germany and died stateless on March 14, 1883 in London, at age 64. Marx was ethnically Jewish.
Some people think Karl Marx had stupid ideas. Maybe.
2. I don't believe Karl Marx was stupid. He was a formidable intellectual.
Nonetheless, his work unleashed monumental evil in the world.
If only the humanity would learn the lesson that neat intellectual forays can lead to great evil just as easily as great good.
Nonetheless, his work unleashed monumental evil in the world.
If only the humanity would learn the lesson that neat intellectual forays can lead to great evil just as easily as great good.
3. For an economist or a scientist to be wrong is no sin. Evil are those who hijack a theory or an invention for their own evil political ends.
Will we retroactively deem Einstein, Oppenheimer, Fermi, et al stupid if a demented tyrant uses a nuke for evil purposes? We shouldn't.
Will we retroactively deem Einstein, Oppenheimer, Fermi, et al stupid if a demented tyrant uses a nuke for evil purposes? We shouldn't.
4. Marx was an economist. Blaming Marx for Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Kim Il Sung, and the like is letting these evil men off too easy. Blaming academics for the sins of the evil practitioners, who hijack whatever theory suits their evil designs, is putting the cart before the horse.
5. Truth be told, even Marx would be horrified to know that his name is being associated with evil men of history who never even drew upon anything he ever wrote or said.
6. While Lenin may have started the ball rolling with some degree of inspiration from Marx, Marxist socialism and Communism parted company in the former USSR in the mid-1920s. There is nothing in Marx's writings which supports state sponsored Communism. How many people know that?
7. Stalinism, Maoism, Castroism, Chavezism (as we have seen in Venezuela) — in other words, all forms of Communism since the mid-, to late-1920s, have very little to do with anything Marx wrote. Tyrants always make up their own shit.
8. Marxism (original) is an unworkable idea, but it is not synonymous with Communism as we know it today. Marxism is Utopian romanticism, an impractical dream. See my pinned tweet thread for why Marxist Socialism does not work and cannot work.
Communism, OTOH, is evil.
The END.
Communism, OTOH, is evil.
The END.
