this post was submitted on 11 Apr 2025
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Communism
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Marx predicted the invention of increasingly complex tools invented to facilitate the incredible complexity of production, which computers ended up playing a massive part in. Rather than going against Marx's general observations, the invention of computers affirms them.
You are correct in that Marx observed his world and not ours. That's why Marxists have continued to build on Marx's observations as they grew and changed, such as when Lenin analyzed how Capitalism turns to Imperialism when there's no more domestic markets to exploit.
Far from being rigid and outdated, Marxism is designed to be flexible, keeping what works and tossing what doesn't.
No psychiatrist today calls themselves a 'Freudian' and no scientist calls themselves 'Newtonian.'
Besides tradition, there's no reason to stick with antiquated terms.
There's a pretty big difference between those fields. Freud has been proven almost entirely wrong, while Marx has been proven almost entirely correct, as an example. Further, Marxists now have adopted different camps, by far the largest being Marxism-Leninism, but all consider themselves Socialists and Communists. Marx still forms the base of all Marxist branches of economics, unlike the realm of psychology, and further, Marxism refers to a stance within the broader field of Political Economy.
Have you actually engaged with Marx's material? A huge portion of economists globally are Marxists of some sort, less common in Western countries but absolutely the norm in economies like China.
You haven't given an actual reason to stick with the antiquated terms.
Most Americans hate Marxism and Communism.
If you want to get anything done in America, you'd do well to learn to read the room.
Again, give me one good reason to stick with the antiquated terms.
I'm not talking about program; I'm talking about presentation. Americans aren't going to rally around a Red Flag, so why bother with it?
You're changing the argument now, I feel. Either way, we can't hide from being Communists or try to "trick" people into becoming Marxists, we should be honest rather than duplicitous so as to gain genuine support. Parties like PSL are doing just that, and their numbers are gradually swelling over time.
Scientist would absolutely consider themselves newtonians, as his theories have been so thoroughly proven and tested, as to be accepted as fact.
The scientific outlook is exactly the opposite of what you describe, which is to build on and extend previous terminology as becomes necessary.
That's a lot of work to avoid dealing the actual issue at hand.
It looks like a lot of bloviating about nomenclature instead of practical matters.