I am interested in politics, and even tho i am not a communist, i am interested in what can be learned from it and i also want to learn more about political ideologies as a whole, instead of speaking out of my ass whenever someone mentions communism and potentially say some bullshit. What do you think?

Edit: thanks for all the answers! I swear i read them all, i just don’t know how to answer to each of them, but thanks for all the recommendations!

Practical effects are more informative than theoretical readings. Study the countries that implemented it and how things ran. That gives the most practical and unbiased reality.

Of course, but i feel that knowing the premise and where those countries took their ideals from would be ideal to have a better view

Sure, the Manifesto is a pretty short easy read. But being more politically educated is always good

Thanks, i just got tired of people yelling “communist” at anyone who’s progressive in any way (probably a thing of the place i live in lol)

Yep, that would be great! I think a good place to start would be this reading list I put together. You can just check out the first couple sections:

Of course, I recommend the whole thing. Alternatively, Prolewiki's Marxism portal contains a fantastic short list of articles that help explain the absolute basics quickly.

You have to understand both. Understanding why communist parties took the actions they have and do today is critical for understanding the courses different socialist countries have gone through. Theory and practice mutually reinforce each other.

Even if you don't agree with an ideology it's always best to read it's basis so you can accurately identify what you don't agree with.

Sure the Manifesto is short and easily understood so why not?

The holy scripture should only be read in the original German /s

If anyone is looking for it, here's one of many links to that manifesto:
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/index.htm

Of other possible interest, here's one of many links to Albert Einstein's Why Socialism? from 1949: https://en.prolewiki.org/wiki/Library:Why_Socialism%3F

I feel it's like reading many philosophical works.

You'll read some bits and go "Wow that's a profound observation!"

And then turn the page and be like "Lol that's a biiiiig stretch, my dude. You couldn't have been serious."

“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it”

— Aristotle

Economical books of Lenin may also be of interest, Henri Ford studied them while he never was a communist. It is a bit harder to read than the manifesto of Marx and Engels, but it doesn't require to be an economist.

sure. you're not going to be infected with some sort of horrible mind virus. if you're interested, read it

There are audio books.

Assigned reading in macroeconomics when I took it in college. Not a particularly left leaning course, nor cohort.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critique_of_the_Gotha_Programme also worth reading. note that because these are 19th C documents written in that particular context, it's also helpful to read about the docs in addition to their text

Back when I was still on reddit (and r/askreddit wasn't a cesspool of AI ragebait) someone asked if there were books people recommended, everyone should read, and I came up with this list of 6 if you want a good basis for reasoned philosophical thought:

• Plato's Republic

• Sun Tzu's The Art of War

• Marcus Aurelius's Meditations

• Machiavelli's The Prince (Machiavelli also wrote an "Art of War" and that's also worth reading)

• Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations

• Karl Marx's The Communist Manifesto

The Republic defines what society's goals should look like

The Art of War defines how to resolve conflict

Meditations teaches one how to remain objective under pressure

The Prince defines that what is OBJECTIVELY TRUE is not always what is MORALLY CORRECT

The Wealth of Nations lays out a case against Feudalism and how a functional economy should operate.

The Communist Manifesto details the natural rights of everyone to equality and shared prosperity.

Marxist Communism is a bit myopic as it really deals with factory work, and the failures of a Capitalist system to deliver on the promise of class mobility. He and Engels envisioned a classless society, and while that is a fine ideal, historically, achieving that though strictly amicable means is a bit pie in the sky, not to mention the arguments against it citing human ambition as a stumbling block aren't without merit.

The manifesto isn't even particularly long or difficult to read. Das Capital by Marx is really where his economic theories are actually presented. It is an extremely difficult read.

It's always good to read more! Just like, in general. You should read the communist manifesto and then go on to read other things too, anything you fancy

They derived their political ideology from their economic analysis, so it’s probably a good idea to read the context of world operating under the classical economic theories of those times.

The manifesto is just an ad for communism. You should read The Capital (part 1) if you want to interact with communism seriously.

It is not an extremely difficult read. But if you don't want to read it there's probably some youtuber or podcaster who could present the main points adequately

Someone suggested critique of the gotha program and someone else said capital (four volumes!).

Those are good alternatives to the communist manifesto which is basically a handbill for convincing people to go learn more.

Of course they’re both super old and many people have written about their contents since their publication.

Being interested in politics is maybe not the best reason to be reading about communism.

I'd say the first 3 chapters of Capital are the most difficult to get through, but if you can the rest goes pretty smoothly.

What stretches does Marx make, in your view?

Marxism did not deal strictly with factory work, but with proletarianized labor, which persists today as the dominant form of labor. Further, I am really not sure what you mean by saying communism is "pie in the sky" or that human ambition is in opposition to communism. The manifesto is a pamphlet for agitation, it isn't really the core of Marxism.

Michael Heinrich wrote a very helpful guide for Capital. Perfect for the first 100 pages.

All of Marx' writings are worth a read even if you're a dumbass capitalist.

Read principles of communism instead, it is the same content but better formatted

Oh, and watch Luna Oi's Marxism 101: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeaTLoy1C9rM

I prefer David Harvey, who sometimes misses the mark slightly. Heinrich is closely associated with the Neue Marx-Lektüre school of Marxism that deviates pretty heavily from Marx's actual ideas IMO, and quite far from Marxism-Leninism, which is where I stand.

I find Heinrich to be more stimulating over all. He is really unique in that he and his peers consulted some pretty obscure notes and unpublished corrections/refinements M&E made. They differ from the big editions that were historically published. I am an "agnostic" Marxist – as in I don't like to moralise about the USSR like a Trot and hate the present discourse around doctrinal purity and traditionalist legacy, who the real communists supposedly are and whether or not anyone today is allowed to call themselves a communist – I don't at all believe in distancing yourself from an author's work because other positions they hold don't conform neatly to one's previous politicisation.

My point isn't that I think people should never read anything by Heinrich or anything, nor that I am arguing for purity. I think Heinrich presents a very specific reading of Marx that lends itself to opposing practical action with respect to existing socialist states, and that this insistence on adhering to Marx and minimizing the contributions of Engels downplays Marx's lifelong agency and cowork with Engels. Harvey is more agnostic, in that sense, and defends the Fowkes translation, based more on the French edition that Marx developed latest than earlier Marx-only editions.

Really, this gets more into esoteric and usually trivial differences. Among modern Marxist economists, I am most a fan of Ian Paul Wright over others.

Hm, interesting. What do you think of Anwar Sheikh?

Unfamiliar, sorry.

The entire system depends on building a one world government with the hopes that the dictator of the proletariat, once they gain world domination, will simply step down and destroy government once and for all.

The fact you have such a shallow understanding of the material as to have this be part of your takeaway of what Marxists advocate for while speaking with such unearned confidence truly boggles the mind. A worse grasp of the material than your average Chinese school child. Not to mind the pure mind numbing nonsense of the rest of this word vomit.

Is that first sentence supposed to be a joke, or?

Ok, paper tiger

coping by projecting

Reading this original comment more is honestly incredible. If it’s not a joke I’m stealing it as a joke myself. Dude straight up started talking about fucking fantasy books what timeline are we in I’m scared

fair.

Harrypotterism/starwarsism unfortunately remains alive and well at the heart of the empire.

Learning is always worth it

Whatever you think of Marx, it's undeniable he has literary value. I'd say read him.

Truly don’t understand why we went to Lemmy to get away from pointless internet warrior kids/idiots and bots,

I don't know about you but I came to Lemmy because my friend recommended the communist side of it as an interesting place to practice English without the racial abuse of non self hating Chinese that is normalised on Reddit and RedditorLemmy.

When now we have pointless internet warrior kids accusing people of being bots.

Sorry to hear that but I did no such thing I simply found your comment to be far too wrong and completely divorced from the material at hand for how confidently you were saying it.

Do you have a fucking punching bag, because I am not it. Why write so much to literally say nothing? Is your life so bleak?

I think I said the main things that were on my mind when I saw your comment. Honestly I don't even know where to begin to try explain this to you given that you didn't seem to be able to grasp such a base concept as the difference between the state and government not toind the complete strawman invention of your mind of the one world government idea or complete lack of understanding of the USSR and it's many achievements compared to where it actually had issues.

It is meant to be an accessible reading, meant for working class people. Go for it. I personally recommend Rosa Luxemburg's writings.

I really don’t want to be mean about this but your thinking is very simple, in a bad way. I advocate for you to read watership Down it’s my favorite book. 🐇

Absolutely. It's short.

Do note that most of how communism worked, on paper and in practice, originated later, though. Marx, a German who mostly lived in England, wrote the Manifesto in 1848 and died in 1883, while the revolution was in Russia in 1917. And there's stuff in the manifesto that obviously didn't age well, like the bit about the invention of trains leading to the end of nationalism.

Still, it's great historical perspective, and obviously inspired how the Soviet Union looked at things pretty heavily.