|
I'm a communist, and maybe leaning toward what someone might call an "ultra" because I'm all about Marx and historical materialism, and especially materialist analysis and critique of so-called existing communist movements/states. That said I personally don't understand how someone can have metaphysical faith and call themselves Marxist, it seems like a silly contradiction. I'm fine with Catholic/Christian socialists, distributive leftists who have faith, etc. just don't be all tradical about it and try to be prescriptive about non-negotiable subjects (LGBTQ rights, abortion, etc) and we can be comrades, and this is generally the sentiment I find amongst peers as well, and I have peers of faith. Out-loud atheism and being hostile to religion is mostly a reactionary position and even conservative at times. Loving Life Partner fucked around with this message at 21:12 on Mar 7, 2017 |
|
#
¿
Mar 7, 2017 20:56
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 05:49 |
|
|
Religion and religious extremism is a product of the people's material conditions, their material conditions are a product of the capitalist society in which they live (or in the case of the ME, American/capitalist imperialism is a huge factor). Want to diminish the necessity for faith based tribalism and prescriptive/arbitrary rules on people's lives? Liberate the proletariat and see to their material needs, i.e. kill all the bourgeoisie Focus on the disease, not the symptom 
|
|
|
#
¿
Mar 7, 2017 21:09
|
|
twodot posted:I think ignorance remains an explanation. Particularly in this thread, which is about people who think literal magic exists. It's hard to overstate the extent of which false consciousness has permeated American thought, the "American Dream", belief in a 'just world', etc. America's nickname as THE GREAT SATAN is one apt cherry I love (from a line of leftism I mostly don't), I feel like we're uniquely in the history of the world a capitalist society the likes of which would have been Marx's nightmare final boss for the prole revolution.The conditions of our founding, expansion, the restructuring of the South IN A BIG WAY all have created this hellbeast of class blind angry exploited people who can't imagine or reach for much beyond vague tribalism and faith based reflexes
|
|
|
#
¿
Mar 14, 2017 06:20
|
|
|
Great listen, super pro click!
|
|
|
#
¿
Mar 14, 2017 09:39
|
|
|
Religion is just an expression of a group of people's cultural values, sociodynamics, material statuses, etc. at varying demographic scales (neighborhood, city, country et al). It's not in any way divorced or separable from humanity and power structures of civilization. It's silly to talk about it as if it's some disease that can be cured if you just yell at it hard enough, or a monolithic enemy where no allies can be found. Is the left hostile to religion or vice versa? Only insofar as much as any given religion at any time adheres to, propagates, reinforces and disseminates capitalist ideals, whether consciously or subconsciously. Patriarchy is bad. Capitalism is bad. Authoritarianism is bad. Tribalism is bad. Religion does not need to possess all or even any of these constructs to exist and be an expression of culture. How's the historical track record? Eh, not good. But in my opinion you fix that from the ground up, seeing to people's material needs, liberating them oppressive governments (whether religious in nature or not) and exploitative labor conditions rather than railing at the form their religion is currently taking to deal with all the previously mentioned issues. A lot of people misinterpret Marx's famous quote about religion being the "opium of the masses", in reading it today in the 21st century they fail to grasp that opium was a basic pain reliever and generally useful/valuable substance in his time, not the vector of an epidemic and stigmatized like heroin is today. He was basically saying "poo poo is hosed and religion helps people cope with their exploited lives", which I generally agree with. Like anything else, capitalism can use anything as a tool to further its own existence and does, that's where it gets tricky though.
|
|
|
#
¿
Mar 16, 2017 18:50
|
|