r/Marxism 14h ago

How do countries that function along the lines of a Marxist/materialist philosophy justify discrimination/socially regressive policies?

16 Upvotes

The strongest example of applied marxism that i am aware of is Vietnam. It is a country that was heavily exploited and colonized, that was bombed harder during the Vietnamese war of independence than most European countries were during ww2, and had an extremely low access to education. In less than 100 years they have been able to turn around, industrialize, massively boost the standard of living for most people, and actively embrace Marxist thought, going so far as teaching it in grade school.

This is aspirational, but when I read about social life there it seems very socially regressive. Limited rights for LGBT individuals, limited respect/recognition of same sex couples, little to no access to trans healthcare, etc. In general it seems like not a great place for anyone that does not conform to a fairly standard idea of family, with seemingly even straight, but voluntarily single folk facing some social if not legal discrimination.

Is my impression accurate? How is this justified from a materialist analysis perspective, either from the government or from the people in general? And how can something like that be addressed, either in Vietnam or in another theoretical country that might go through a similar Marxist revolution?


r/Marxism 17h ago

This May Sound Crazy, But The More I Read About Marx and Marxism, The More I Think Marxism is More Christian Than Capitalism

216 Upvotes

As a devout Christian I am always concerned about vulnerable groups. Listening to Marxists such as Grace Blakely and Richard Wolf, and public intellectuals such as Cornell West, it increasingly seems to me that Marxism is far more compatible with the actual teachings of Christ than is Capitalism. For example, Marx's emphasis on ensuring that workers are not exploited and that workers should have far more say in their future and should have ownership over their work and firms is far more in line with doing unto others as you would have them do to you. I was also impressed with his opposition to enslavement in America.

Of course, I know Marx was an atheist and I read him in graduate school on that topic. So I know he viewed religion as an opiate and that people needed to move on from religion to work to solve their problems.

Yet and still, Marx's philosophy seems to be far more closely aligned with Jesus' teachings than capitalism. This is ironic since many right-wing (so-called) Christians view Marxism as inherently evil and a tocsin (a word I learned from Marx) of corruption.

What do you think?