China is starting to live in the future. And then I look out my window and America is literally crumbling apart brick by brick. Unused lots full of scrap and rotting metal skeletons. Broken glass windows. It’s depressing. So depressing. There’s no future here.
Talk to any male marxist and they will tell you that the way they experience oppression under capitalism is different than the way women do. Of course, there are differences between experienced oppression of say, for example, different minorities, but some of the common/shared ways that men experience oppression include things like mental health outcomes and incredible social isolation. These are factors that are contributory to the fascist pipeline.
So obviously, patriarchy doesn’t advantage men so much as it advantages wealthy men, or maybe perhaps it’s better to say it advantages well-off men. But for minorities, poorer men, neurodivergent men, or trans, it’s still a hell hole as they contend with a society that treats them as disposable, and failures for being unable to provide. This shuts them off from forming meaningful relationships and social opportunities. So it advantanges certain men, and disadvantages the rest.
I think being aware of that is very important and can help win over men to the cause of Marxism, and provide common ground with women and a personal cause for men to improve their material conditions, which is insanely important.
That being said I do think looking at countries that have won their revolution, that simply reclaiming the means of production does outright improve the material conditions of men by default by improving health care, better career opportunities, and lowering income inequality. Men (particularly white men in america) are already advantaged generally under capitalism and so therefore there will be some inequality inevitable during a socialist period of government (this is consistent with what Marx says about inequalities being inevitable as capitalist infrastructure remains during transition).
So I think my answer is similar to what some other people have said already - that the base form of Marxism/socialism does much already to help men. But yeah, at some level we do need to explore ways of bringing men into the fold by exposing how patriarchy works against men, and showing how socialism benefits men. I think it’s become a bit taboo discuss this stuff and that’s probably simply because of the efforts by the ruling class to divide us, using rainbow capitalism and the alt right as ways to smear any real dialogue.
Too bad capitalism creates so much anxiety that you’ll never be able to get to actually nap even if you try.
Honest feelings post warning
Im sorry but pretty much every person against veganism I’ve spoken to really just boils down to them wanting to eat meat while at the same time trying to maintain some form of moral high ground. There isn’t any real argument at this point against veganism aside from culture, which can be changed. Admittedly, veganism is one of the last things we should be concerned about (because animal liberation isn’t possible until socialism wins globally) but as a personal decision it’s like one of the few things within your power if you are able to support it financially.
As socialists, if we have a communist society we’re not keeping cows in cages so you can “feel full” after a meal. That’s bloody stupid. Nor are we committing valuable space so we can “ethically” raise cows to feed a growing planetary population of billions upon billions of humans.
And this is coming from someone who still eats meat. The way we consume it will have to drastically change (reduce) for multiple reasons. If you like meat, just say you like meat, but don’t google “veganism bad” when many of the highest level athletes in the world are vegan. You don’t have to justify yourself buying a cheeseburger because veganism or your lack of veganism is just a drop in the pond. Just admit your vegan friend is a tiny bit more morally superior than you are and enjoy your fuckin cheeseburger.
Too dim they needed more sun