I feel like I understand communist theory pretty well at a basic level, and I believe in it, but I just don’t see what part of it requires belief in an objective world of matter. I don’t believe in matter and I’m still a communist. And it seems that in the 21st century most people believe in materialism but not communism. What part of “people should have access to the stuff they need to live” requires believing that such stuff is real? After all, there are nonmaterial industries and they still need communism. Workers in the music industry are producing something that nearly everyone can agree only exists in our heads. And they’re still exploited by capital, despite musical instruments being relatively cheap these days, because capital owns the system of distribution networks and access to consumers that is the means of profitability for music. Spotify isn’t material, it’s a computer program. It’s information. It’s a thoughtform. Yet it’s still a means of production that ought to be seized for the liberation of the musician worker. What does materialism have to do with any of this?
I agree with everything you just said and don’t see how it depends upon the stuff I disagreed with
If material reality (or, to hopefully bridge a terminology barrier, our perceptual interface) didn’t matter, that would mean that the struggle between the proletariat and bourgeoisie is fundamentally inane, and would suggest an entirely different approach other than communism is necessary.
I agree, however, I think our perceptual interface matters
If you think it matters, and I have repeatedly suggested how treating the perceptual interface with respect would be identical to the function of Marxist materialism, what are we even arguing about?
Idealism, the opposite of materialism, when translated to this new conception of reality, would just be believing that things we consciously make up matter more than our perceptual interface.
That seems to be moving the goalposts quite a bit.
Precisely, how on earth are we supposed to have any kind of debate about this when your chaos magic keeps altering reality!?
You’re just gonna have to keep up
You’re well past what I can keep up with here lol
I’ve read every word of this thread and understood maybe a third of it.
TL;DR: reality is bad and communism is good. Some communists think reality is part of communism. I think that’s wrong and I was confused why they thought that. I’ve arrived at the conclusion that they just like reality and need an explanation of communism that fits into reality.