this post was submitted on 31 Oct 2025
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What's the Point of Studying Marxism-Leninism? (hexbear.net)
submitted 5 months ago by RedBear@hexbear.net to c/askchapo@hexbear.net
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I've read the Communist Manifesto and found myself agreeing with the ideas presented. However, I'm left wondering: what's the real point of studying Marxism-Leninism more deeply? It feels like the principles are clear, and it's unlikely that a deeper understanding of them will lead to significant change.

It seems to me that content creators, like those from podcasts like Deprogram, have a more direct influence on people's perspectives today. So, I'm curious, why should we invest time in studying these ideologies when there are more immediate ways to engage with and affect the world? What benefits can understanding Marxism-Leninism actually provide in today's context?

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[–] D61@hexbear.net 7 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

I'm going to say there is a difference between "learning ML theory" and "reading the source ML material" though. When I've tried to read the source material, I have a hard time sifting through the ... potentially... irrelevant stuff to get to the actual concepts. Marx's shorter works are okay and don't get me lost in difficult to parse grammar/paragraph structure but Das Kapital is physically hard to read for me. I do wonder how much of it is that Marx didn't write in English and it was others who handled the translations, maybe they wanted to keep more of Marx's personality in the works and chose to use a very light hand when editing?

The few works of Lenin that I've read, spend so much time mentioning (but not explaining) People, Places, Pamphlets, Articles that I lose track of whatever point he was trying to make. It very much feels like Lenin was not specifically writing for future readers.

The few items of Mao I've read, on the other hand, feel like they were written for future readers. Less name dropping with the assumption that you will just know who these people are and why they were important and more focused on encapsulating the concepts in the work you are currently reading.

So I'm kinda stuck trying to find explainers for things or skimming through the book club posts' comment sections. Which, while not great, is something.

Learning the concepts and history is important to keep from making mistakes that were solved in the past and being able to identify patterns of events to correctly anticipate outcomes.

An example we can look at: Right Libertarians when they do absolutely anything.

In every case where a recent right libertarian started a project, it winds up having to "reinvent" all the things they advocate against. 100% free speech zone online? "Oh shit, we've gotta start moderating/censoring content when things get posted that cause problems!" 100% freedom to do whatever you want on a large boat/city floating in international waters? "Oh shit, before you get settled in, you can't use all the potable water or set fires everywhere!"