Materialism>idealism

I’m not trying to get into a whole debate, it’s just interesting to me the way some people cling to these idealist philosophers. Same w the stoics imo. As a guy who used to read all of them… they’re useless to actually understanding life. Like it can be helpful to read them in order to understand how the Western worldview evolved, but they really shouldn’t be taken as some sort of handbook - which many seem to do. (reactionaries). People who read Nietzsche or Plato and think they have some sort of secret insight is my biggest red flag irt pseudo-intellectual who is just going to waste your time… same with Dostoevsky btw.

Confucius is based af though.

Edit: Also, yes these kinds of people exist- my former mentor/boss who spent decades at a white shoe DC law firm would accept any idea if you found a quote by Plato to justify it lmao.

    • Seanchaí (she/her)
      9•2 years ago

      This is a horrendous thing to say, and if you think Nietzsche was in favour of a society without class/sexuality/misogyny/racism then you didn’t read him. He has over 300 mentions in his works of slavery. And none of them are anti slavery.

      You’ve hitched your wagon to a dead guy whose writings influenced literal fascists and for some reason it is a personal affront to you that someone else disagrees. Do some self-reflection.

    • SpaceCowboyOP
      6•2 years ago

      I think you may not be a communist dude… or have understood the contradictions which need to be fixed from a logical perspective but not yet internalized them from an emotional one (which I identify with a lot because I am going through that process myself). This is why I really do recommend the essay by Kollontai

      The drive towards communism is one based out of love and hope, and wanting better for the human species my friend, not out of superiority or dehumanization of the people who are misguided and misled under capitalism. If in this post I have gotten harsh or rude it is not out of hatred of you or anything close to that but out of a sincere desire that we should all see and understand the beauty within each of us.

      The ideal of love-comradeship is necessary to the proletariat in the important and difficult period of the struggle for and the consolidation of the dictatorship. But there is no doubt that with the realization of communist society love will acquire a transformed and unprecedented aspect. By that time the “sympathetic ties” between all the members of the new society will have grown and strengthened. Love potential will have increased, and love-solidarity will become the lever that competition and self-love were in the bourgeois system. Collectivism of spirit can then defeat individualist self-sufficiency, and the “cold of inner loneliness,” from which people in bourgeois culture have attempted to escape through love and marriage, will disappear. The many threads bringing men and women into close emotional and intellectual contact will develop. and feelings will emerge from the private into the public sphere. In. equality between the sexes and the dependence of women on men will disappear without trace, leaving only a fading memory of past ages.

      This is what Che had to say on the matter and I agree wholeheartedly but am only now beginning to really feel it myself: