People claim that i cannot be communist because my family is wealthy. This argument is just stupid in many ways, its as if you told a white person he cannot be against racism because he is part of a more privileged group. The people argumenting this pile of diarrhea which they interpret as a “gotcha” moment also seem to forget that a lot of revolutionaries were from wealthy families like Friedrich Engels, Che Guevara, Fidel Castro, Marx etc. Being communist has nothing to do with your class-background but your solidarity and the willingness to commit yourself to the liberation of the working class. Having petit-bourgeois, or even bourgeois parents does not make one hypocrit, you are a hypocrit the moment you exploit workers yourself. I myself met a lot of fake-intellectuals who made this argument which made me, as a baby leftist at that time, feel really insecure about the ideas i hold but at the end no true communist cares about wealth, power, luxury or anything as such. If somebody made me the offer that if i had to live the rest in my life in a small, cold, concrede apartment with no kithcen, bedroom or toilet in return all the people would be supplied with food, clothing and shelter…i wouldnt take a second to aggree.
Always remember Zhou Enlai quote on Khrushchev when he questioned him on coming from a priviledged family while he claimed to come from peasantry.
“True but we share a similarity. Each of us is a class traitor”.
Zhou Enlai go on hexbear
Was about to pull this up but I’m glad its well remembered on here, I like to think of it as one of the finest dunks of the 20th century.
Definitely up there lol. I also like Marx dunk on the writer of “the philosophy of poverty”, he called the critique “the poverty of philosophy” 😂 he then mentions his friendship ended after that.
this cartoon captures it perfectly
They use this argument to dismiss anything you say without thinking about it.
I’m quite poor, so I get the other end of this “You’re just a communist because you want to leech off of other’s hard work.”
They’re just empty thought-terminating cliches, it doesn’t matter who you are, if you’re a communist, people will say stupid shit to you in order to dismiss communism without ever thinking about it.
Often the same people who say this are the same people who think they can’t talk about racism because they’re white. Nothing is ever a them problem. Everything is a you problem. They don’t like it when other privileged people stand with the oppressed. It makes them look bad and the cognitive dissonance is uncomfortable.
I’ve heard it before and I’ll repeat it here: this is related to the reason why liberals hate communists so much; our very existence forcibly reminds them that their empty idealist rhetoric doesn’t fill bellies, build homes, or prevent hate crimes.
Edit: I knew I’d read it recently, it was Criticalresist8, who put it like this:
They can’t reconcile the fact that they are not actually the most progressive and tolerant person in the room.
Removed by mod
I have seen quite a few American Maoists and ultras practically worship poverty, acting like the only way a socialist nation can be “truly” socialist is if everyone is equally poor, which is just nonsense. No one should be rich due to the exploitation of others, but that doesn’t mean people can’t be well off.
The ‘cambodian farmer’ approach.
Yeah fuck those people. If they’re communists saying this then they’re only damaging the movement and should shut the fuck up for the benefit of the world in general. If they’re not and trying to “gotcha” you, they’re idiots, and should be treated as such. It’s a bad faith argument and an attempt to discount you by making you out to be a hypocrite.
When people attempt to do this to me in person I have no problem warning them that I’m prone to smacking people who piss me off.
That’s like saying you can’t be capitalist if you’re poor.
you can’t be both capitalist (bourgeois) and poor, but you can be liberal (pro-capitalism) and poor
That’s true. I hang around a libs too much and get my words mixed up.
I hear that. They are infectious.
Except that’s true
If you’re rich and a communist it’s because you’re pampered, if you’re poor and a communist it’s because you’re jealous, and if you’re middle class and a communist it’s because you’re lazy. We have something for everyone!
If you are rich and a communist then you have a duty to donate to leftist movements. Don’t just be a rich guy who reads leftist books to pass the time. Your funding might make a huge difference in the long run. Imagine if Engels never financed Marx.
If you don’t know where to start, then I suggest you help with leftist independent media. Breakthrough News do a lot of good work.
im still 15 sadly and dont have independant money yet, if id like to donate to something i would need to ask my parent first until im 18
Understandable.
but i try to educate as much people on socialism as possible and i give money to the poor whenever i can.
Anyone can be a communist, all it takes is your want to destroy capitalism and the inequality and oppression it brings, coming from rich or poor means nothing, as you said many famous marxists, including marx himself, were materially bourgeois, but they didnt oppress the proletariat and were genuine revolutionaries who actually wanted to end the oppression of the proletariat, these people were class traitors to the bourgeoisie and aided the proletariat against their class interests, calling these people anything but socialist or communist is plainly absurd to be honest.
And this is coming from someone who regularly deals with food issues.
Anyone can be a communist, all it takes is your want to destroy capitalism and the inequality and oppression it brings
And read theory.
theory is good but not entirely necessary lol, marxism is scientific not academic, you just need to know the basics and everything else is optional (but still good to know)
The amount of wealth is not the sole indicator and neither is individual choice. There are the material condition, economic relation, and desire to reform the flawed capitalist system with its hypocritical command economy that allow free riding by a few spoiled manchild.
I once got told that I was a hypocrite for being a communist while simultaneously using a username in english, which, I quote, “was the language of the bourgeoisie”.
I thought I had seen things hit rock bottom until I got told I could not be a communist and use money at the same time.
was told something similar once: “You cAnT bE ComMUniST, YoU dOnT SpEAk RuSSiAn” ???
oh we’re not millionaires tho just saying because where i live, millionaires are considered the point where you are officially considered “rich”. But the term rich has everywhere different meaning, i might be poor in Qatar but rich in South Sudan. Nothing is objective
deleted by creator