Lots of countries have done that. Has nothing to do with communism, so much as a leadership of the nation that was desperate to modernize due to fear of being invaded or falling into international irrelevancy.

life has always been inhuman. religion has been around forever, so has oppression, violence, and hate.

and we are still inventing new ways to hate, oppress, and do violence to each other over perceived differences. yay social media!

Precisely. He's genius at certain things, but just because of that, doesn't mean the other things he does are good or legitimate.

Communist manifesto was highly accessible, so are many popular texts that espouse simplistic and idealistic theories about the world, politics or not. That doesn't mean they are accurate, useful, or pragmatic today, or even at the time of their conception.

Agreed that the issue with Marxists generally is their limited understanding of Marx and their vast over use and generalization of his theories, but that's not exclusive to Marxists. Lots of followers of theories are complete morons and turn critique and insight into blind belief and rhetoric around which they then justify violence in the name of.

Marx 'positive' theory makes many social and psychological assumptions that are just... obviously untrue esp in regard to modern theorizing. At it's heart he replies on a modification of the 'noble savage' myth, that there is some 'true' or 'natural' state of individual human living that is being 'oppressed' by 'society' and his political system will 'liberate' us from it... which when you start to think about that you see how ridiculous that is. But that conception was deeply popular in the 18th and 19th centuries, because everyone was still queuing off of Hobbes. Modern (post WW2) political theories don't really by so much into any 'state of nature'. Their idealizing is more of a calculus assuming society already must and will forever exist.

I am not too familiar with modern marxists re-workings of his theories to try and fit 'reality' but from what I've seen they still heavily borrow a lot of his assumptions about human nature being one way and 'society/capitalism' 'corrupting' it. They treat his work and their theories more like as if it were religious revelation, rather than taking a more pragmatic approach or one based in the more modern economic and social science understandings we have, maybe of which are only a generation or two old.

right, so you buy a f150 instead and bitch there are no small trucks.

lose lose

you can go buy a used small body on frame truck. just expect to pay 30-40K for one, because they are highly desirable.

nobody cares about facts or details. they only care about marx = communism.

he was a better economist than he was a political theorist. but his economic works are long, boring, and technical, and his political works are far shorter and dramatic, so that's all the average undergraduate cares about.

the Ford Maverick has been on the market for 5 years now.

The F150 sold 150K units, the F-series sold 830K units, last year.

Folks overwhelmingly choose larger cars even when smaller options are available.

because his political theory is basically an outline. it's not substantial. the communist manifesto is an 80 page pamphlet. it's not a 1000 page detailed discourse.

how many people do you know who read Das Kapital? which is primarily an economic critique. you ever notice how communist manifesto doesn't touch much on economic details and sort of hand waves about them idealistically?

it isn't about need. it's about want.

no doubt you own many things other people don't think you need, but you think you do.

people buy what they want to buy. auto-makers respond to demand. the sales numbers over the last few decade show people overwhelmingly prefer SUVs and trucks to traditional passenger sedans or vans.

folks have decided they prefer larger and more expensive vehicles, and systematically do not purchase smaller or cheaper vehicles.

I'm the only person I know who owns a small sedan. everyone else has mid-large SUVs and trucks. they endlessly complain the cars are too large, and too expensive to drive... but to refuse to purchase anything smaller or cheaper. if you point out you can get a loaded civic for 30K that does 40mpg+, and costs $30-40 to fill up, or similar, they basically start telling you how 'tiny' those cars are and they couldn't possible ever drive one because it's 'not safe' and 'doesn't have enough space'. when they buy a new car, they buy a 50K+ SUV or truck that gets 25mpg or less, and often complain they wish they'd been able to purchase a larger vehicle but it cost too much.

nobody is forcing anyone to purchase these cars. they choose to do it. lots of wonderful are still on the market, but folks do not want to buy them, large sedans have basically disappeared apart from luxury brands.

the RAV4 sells double the units of the corolla now. the last time they sold equal units was 2015, a decade ago. in 2005, the corolla had 4x the sales of the RAV5. in another decade, Toyota likely won't even make the Corolla anymore because the sales numbers are falling year over year to the point in 2035 the rav4 will sell 4x the Corolla.

personally I don't see any value to buying buying a large suv/truck, but most folks do.

OP discovers adults are just tall children.

My office has quite a few fresh grads who own their own places.

Their parents bought it for them for a graduation present.

:þ

be more interesting than medieval sword making.

no, sex isn't the answer. probably reading a book on medieval history and telling him about it is.

it always baffles me how many women i have dated... have no interests or passions, and seem to look down on people who do.

and the women i have dated who did have passions and interests... were way way more attractive and more fun to spend time with, because they didn't expect me to entertain them.

rice doesn't grow outside of sub tropical climates.

wheat does

80K 30 years ago is is 175K today, probaby more if you think about purchasing power.

you were upper middle class dude.

but also where you live matters. 6 figures is nothing in a major city. it's a lot in a rural area or minor city. six figures in nyc/sf/boston/seattle is a necessity for a studio apartment. if you make like 60-80K you need roommates.

my dad made like 25K a year so we had to live 2-2.5 hours from a major city in order to afford a basic life. when he retired at 66 he was only making 50K a year in 2004, and we still lived 1.5 hours from a major city even though we had 'upgraded' from the crappy rural town to a exurb.

Bernie is the model of what a politician should be. And about the only one left in the USA that gives a fuck about actual justice and truth.

It's not harder, objectively.

It's just that people's expectations aren't realistic. And nobody is more bitter than average folks who think they are the top 1% of the dating pool, which is what the average person thinks. So many people in the dating pool make like 50k/yr and think you should be a millionaire to date them.

I've met so many women who are complete average looking, average income, etc. who think they DESERVE Don Draper and anything less is 'below them'. They'd rather be alone with their fantasy TV boyfriend then be in a real relationship with a person who is their equal with whom they can build a good life.

I'm a medium successful dude, and when I go out dating all I seem to encounter women who are worse than me in pretty much every metric who dunk on me for not being the top 1% man of their dreams. Like I can run a half marathon, no problem, but these ladies who can't even run a mile will dunk on me for not being in the Olympics. I have more wealth than 80% of other americans, and to most women I meet, I am 'poor'.

and if you go check out 'female dating advice' on social media... 99% of it reflects this crazy unrealistic attitude and it's SUPER popular.

there is also more diverse content than the crap that was on here six months ago.

when 50% of the frontpage is linux memes... you're not going to gain the interest of most new users. now it seems to be down to about 20%

killing/tortuing animals is psychopathic behavior. especially if it is done deliberately.

Maybe I'm gay, but I've never wanted a bone a woman so bad it got in the way of living my life.

Just jack it and move on bro. It's not that hard.