Hi hello I have a question regarding Marx’s “opium of the masses” quote (hexbear.net)

submitted 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) by worldonaturtle@hexbear.net to c/chapotraphouse@hexbear.net

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People on the internet are saying it’s not a condemnation of religion and to Marx opium means medicine, Im confused help me bear website!

Edit: what did Karl Marx think opium was?

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[-] thirtymilliondeadfish@hexbear.net 8 points 8 months ago

What's your interpretation?

[-] worldonaturtle@hexbear.net 7 points 8 months ago

That religion will wither away once human suffering ends and hostility towards religion is a bad thing unless religion is acting as the state doing oppression on people. I dont know. Personally Im an atheist, Im kind of interested in atheistic takedowns of the r/atheism crowd, I guess Im interested in learning what bad atheism is.

[-] worldonaturtle@hexbear.net 3 points 8 months ago

My fault for not asking the question better. If he’s calling religion opium I need to know what his opinion about drugs was because it changes the meaning a bit of the quote.

[-] thirtymilliondeadfish@hexbear.net 10 points 8 months ago

This was written a year after the first opium war, and twenty years after confessions of an english opium eater. Opium has (and had) long been in the zeitgeist as seductive, panacea, dream-like, destructive.

I don't read it as supportive of either