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Why isn't this website more popular?
(lemmy.world)
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this post was submitted on 30 Dec 2025
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Asklemmy
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Hey I'm not a communist !
you should really fix that
i'm content being a marxist informed anarchist :)
Where do you depart from Marx?
That's a good question! I wouldn't say I depart from marxism insofar as I don't feel an affinity with more state based communism (stalinism, Leninism, etc). As for marxism the only critique I can think of is how classic marxism lended to be historically and economically deterministic that didn't account for things like gender and such. Although as time has gone on and my dismay for identity politics has made me feel more economically deterministic than before. I also should say that there's only so much that I even know what I'm talking about. I've taken several courses in critical theory and marxism in undergrad and grad skill and I still only comprehend it on a basic level.
At the end of the day I just really care about being a good caring humble person and aligning myself with anti authoritarian, anticapitalist, communal based values. If you also care about those things it probably doesnt matter what you call yourself, were probably on the same boat :)
One thing I want to point out is that Marxism itself aconowledges the state as a transition between capitalism and communism, that's not something Marxist-Leninists invented. Further, Marxism also acknowledges the importance of gender, queer liberation, racism, and more. I think you may just have taken a peak into Marxism without going much beyond that, which isn't really your fault but instead is an opportunity. I made an intro ML reading list you can check out if you want!
thanks! I think i understand and have read enough. I'm probably discrediting how much i know. I'm currently getting my doctorate and a lot of my work involves critical cultural/ political economic theory. The basic division comes in the fact that i don't feel an affinity with the notion of the vanguard party and want more decentralization and communalism. Which is why i veer towards 'anarcho-communism' if you were going to put a label on it.
I suppose I understand, but I don't see why refusing to formalize and democratize whatever vanguard arises naturally is a better strategy, nor do I see any benefits of communalization over collectivization of production and distribution, especially because large scale industry already prepared the groundwork for this at great scale.
Good luck on your doctorate!
maybe youre right! we all don't really know until it happens yeah? My lived experience has found that local grassroots community based collectives that try and veer against anti authoritarian stances has brought me the most joy and have been the most formative to me. I have been very in awe of the horizontal based mutual aid networks ive been apart of or my friends have. i have seen a lot less beauty when things have become more top down. Maybe there are opportunities for a natural vanguard party! I dig a lot of Tiqqun stuff that is sort of like that. Ultimately though, i still am thinking about the here and now, and how my values can inform how i move about the world. For me anti authoritarianism and anti capitalism is the best fit for me. Whether things turn out to be a vanguard party or not.
I do think mutual aid in the context of filling in the gaps of capitalism works well, and both anarchist groups and Marxist parties tend to do that well. About the vanguard, though, all it is is the most politically advanced of the revolutionary class, it exists whether formalized into a party or left disorganized and informal. The Marxist argument isn't about whether to have one or not, but to formalize and democratize it. It also isn't really top-down so much as it is driven from the bottom-up, steered by the top. There are also several socialist countries where we can see this in action, and the tremendous results it has achieved for the working classes.
the reason i'm hesistent to go this far with labels is that some of these particularities come down to us (using "us" broadly) for a hypothetical situation of when the rev comes. Getting too in the weeds nitpicking our little image of what that looks like can get boring to me. So i tend to focus more on what i have politically in common with people on an everyday material level.
Theres this author called Wayne Price that I like. https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/wayne-price-what-is-anarchist-communism. Also for a take on the vanguard party sorta that i like. it kind of gets outlined here and in other stuff by the Invisible Committee [https://archive.org/details/ToOurFriendsByTheInvisibleCommittee]