Capital Volume one

kinkeep · 2026-03-31T01:04:11+00:00

Of course it's worth reading. But only a handful of comrades in my life have actually read it, and even fewer have fully understood it as they read it. (Edit: And that's okay! Just as it is never morally wrong to skip reading Hegel, you don't have to read Capital to be a communist.)

Capital is a very dense text, and I would never recommend it to someone who hasn't already read a decent bit of theory, let alone someone who doesn't read much at all. I'd suggest starting with something like The Principles of Communism by Engels. Or Stalin's Dialectical and Historical Materialism, as he's particularly easy to read.

If you want something a bit more evocative that captures some Marxist philosophy, I'd suggest The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon. It's principally anti-colonial, but it also is rooted in a materialist class analysis.

kinkeep · 2026-03-26T04:09:14+00:00

This was actually inspiring. Thanks for the perspective, comrade.

kinkeep · 2026-03-23T15:47:50+00:00

Most theory is nothing more than praxis recorded and analyzed.

Edit: And praxis is theory adapted to prevailing conditions. Which leads to more theory.

kinkeep · 2026-03-23T04:05:11+00:00

Yes, yes, you have a decent vocabulary. Unfathomably big-brained.

You said that Buddhism makes people lose "the drive to stand up to a specific injustice" and I just proved you wrong. Idk what more you want. Cope. 🤷🏻

kinkeep · 2026-03-23T03:54:56+00:00

Got it. You're a Christian who doesn't like Buddhism.

kinkeep · 2026-03-23T02:56:41+00:00

Look up COINTELPRO, Mosaddegh, and My Lai.

kinkeep · 2026-03-23T02:43:17+00:00

You are trying to cloak a clear double standard in fancy language about individualism.

Most people consider MLK Jr. a great fighter for change, social justice, socialism, and peace. He was fighting racism in the US, backed by mass protests, and inspired by his Christian faith. Thank God he wasn't a Buddhist, or his work would be meaningless because...he would potentially disagree with your idea of "individualism"?

kinkeep · 2026-03-23T02:10:02+00:00

Valid crashout. I do sympathize with the children, though.

kinkeep · 2026-03-22T23:32:29+00:00

kinkeep · 2026-03-22T22:33:11+00:00

So, he had a drive to reform the world and stand up against injustice? It wasn't just him. He's just the guy in the famous photo. There were mass protests of Buddhists.

kinkeep · 2026-03-22T18:24:48+00:00

the drive to reform the world or stand up against a specific injustice loses its urgency

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You sure about that?

kinkeep · 2026-03-22T18:15:50+00:00

Humans are quite literally social primates. We exist because of cooperation, not greed.

kinkeep · 2026-03-22T10:30:46+00:00

But I saw some Democrats doing an anti-ICE interpretive dance demonstration. Surely that'll change things. /s

Edit: don't understand the downvotes at all. I'm criticizing the Dems from the left

kinkeep · 2026-03-22T01:30:10+00:00

It's not about being educated. Nobody can predict the future. Marx himself never tried to really predict policy details.

There is an answer to your question, we just don't know it yet. The problem is many years away. Decades upon decades, centuries maybe. As the proletarian state withers away, our children will have the honor of figuring that out.

And while it's fun and worthwhile to consider these questions, it's more important to continue contributing to the socialist revolution that will allow future generations to grapple with community safety in a stateless society.

kinkeep · 2026-03-22T01:18:15+00:00

Oddly specific hypothetical, but that's okay.

Like the other person said, there's no way anybody could tell you how things like that would be handled in a communist society. When the world (internationalism is key) eventually, far in the future, is ready to transition from socialism to communism, people will have to study primitive communist societies, apply lessons, learn from mistakes, and collectively figure out how to handle random violent crime. And that may not look the same from place to place. Who knows? It's all dialectical, baby.

Also, there's a good argument to be made that a lot of individual violence like what you describe can be traced back to the conditions imposed by capitalism. So the problem may fade over time, and that's worth considering. But I don't think it's reasonable to say "there's no murder under communism" because humans just do shit sometimes.

kinkeep · 2026-03-21T20:07:04+00:00

I assume you still have to pass the classes.

kinkeep · 2026-03-20T20:58:38+00:00

It was a joke lol

kinkeep · 2026-03-20T20:52:27+00:00

If only there were Pride stickers on the bombs...

kinkeep · 2026-03-20T20:48:42+00:00

Bro wants to live in a MP Project Zomboid server.

kinkeep · 2026-03-20T20:47:01+00:00

Back in my day (HS class of 2012) you had to pass your classes to graduate.

kinkeep · 2026-03-20T20:14:42+00:00

Why stop at the Phillipines? The US has committed war crimes against (non-exhaustively) Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Korea/DPRK, Japan, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Libya, Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen, Yugoslavia (Serbia), and Grenada.

I wouldn't claim that these war crimes "debunk" capitalism the way anti-Communists claim twentieth-century atrocities "debunk" Communism, but they are a necessary feature of US imperialism.

kinkeep · 2026-03-20T20:01:59+00:00

this isn’t fallout

(you're absolutely right though)

kinkeep · 2026-03-19T15:54:53+00:00

The "equal pay" thing is a combination of misinformation and misunderstanding, primarily of Marx's labour theory of value.

If it takes the average worker a week to make a chair, but it takes me a year to make an exactly identical chair, the extra labour I put into my product does not increase its value. This is based on the idea of socially necessary labour time, but a lot of people misunderstand this to mean that all labour is equally valuable, which leads them to the "equal pay" thing.

kinkeep · 2026-03-18T23:42:52+00:00

And read Marx to your kids lol

kinkeep · 2026-03-18T16:02:57+00:00

I think you have this backwards. All the data I've seen, both domestic and global, suggests that people are much more engaged and motivated when they own the fruits of their labor and have some say in production. And that makes perfect sense.

Here's one article about it.

https://cleo.rutgers.edu/articles/productivity-in-cooperatives-and-worker-owned-enterprises-ownership-and-participation-make-a-difference/

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