The Formula of Capital | Chapter 4

[@forest-fairies]

Thank you so much, I was having such a hard time understanding this until I watched your video!

[@GolfBaller]

I was under the impression that Marx's antisemitism was an inversion of sorts. I felt that he was using the language of antisemitism almost to make the point that antisemitism is irrational and illogical, because it's not just Jews who hoard money and game markets, it's every capitalist regardless of ethnicity.

[@ChapterbyChapter]

The interpretations of Marx diverge on this one, we've decided to cover quickly what seems obvious when you read that part, which is also what academics like David Harvey seem to think. But yeah, some people may interpret this differently, thanks for pointing that out

[@jasonmehlhorn4359]

In Europe there were often laws preventing Jews from getting jobs in regular trades. A lot had to go into finance, business, and law to earn a living and, through jealously presumably, were often later vilified. There were many Jews in finance during Marx's time and that connection between money and Jews was quite strong and real, but stuck. Almost to be anti-capitalist at that time was synonymous with being anti-Semitic. Imo, Marx was anti-Semitic but I feel it was more born of an ignorance; the way some people ignorantly say anti-Semitic things when really criticising Israeli foreign policy. He would also privately say the n-word in a bad way in private letters but was publicly very against black slavery, i.e. it and he are complex. Marx wasn't born Jewish as the video claims, but was fully 'Jewish blooded', if one believed such a thing. Due to anti-Semitic laws his father converted to Protestantism to continue practicing law and Marx was baptised into it.

[@redswanmusic3627]

Was Marx himself not Jewish?

[@jamiebaird5750]

@@redswanmusic3627 Ethnically but not religiously

[@alexloomis2398]

You're correct. It was a response to another Hegelian named Bruno Bauer whose anti-Semitism was never in question. Unlike Marx. As far as using racial epithets? I know of none. Engles did. That's true. However , pointing out that Marx was publically against slavery while being privately racist is , to be honest, stupid. Lots of abolitionists were both racist and against slavery. Including Lincoln himself. So I fail to even see your point.

[@Draxtor]

Thank you fantastic. Reading along and checking with you and David Harvey right after if I gleaned the correct things 😅

[@misam2124]

Great job guys! Keep it up.

[@mr.cauliflower3536]

There might me some instances where a bought commodity isn't sold for desired price, and might even be sold at a loss or thrown away, for example if you buy too much food, and some gets spoiled, or you must sell it at a lower price due to ending commodity can end in a loss, because of spoiling, for example food which will expire in a short time, has to be sold at a lower price in some countries; another example is failing at speculation. However generally it's worth buying more than customers buy on average because of high average difference between cost of purchase and transportation and sell price.

[@Zach98506]

thanks

[@erikawhelan4673]

Vis-à-vis the anti-semitic remark: Marx is in part calling back to his remarks in Zur Judenfrage here, and by extension obliquely criticizing the common anti-semitic trope regarding Jews, greed, and money. It is anti-semitic, but is also an attempt to invert anti-semitic stereotypes about Jews.

[@chrismayhew4274]

Marx wrote a book called “a world without Jews” And no, I read a lot of philosophy and even the philosophers who are called anti semites such as neitzche (spelling) didn’t write two whole books on it….the second being “on the Jewish question” it’s one thing to have a quote but another to write two books on the topic :)

[@Pglarsen]

4:41 No reason to excuse Marx for anti-semetic remarks.

[@RedAnsyn]

It's a sarcastic remark. Marx is making fun of both capitalists and antisemites.

[@benjaminazra269]

@@RedAnsyn in a way you could say he was an anti-semite, but that's really just the byproduct of the cultural norm of his place and time, it was so normal in prussia and austria that even some Jews who felt more German had varying degrees of internalized antisemitism, but that was as far as it goes. In the other hand, he was against anything that stand against the struggle of the jewish people to attain emancipation, the details can be seen in his work The Jewish Question where he criticised Bruno Bauers argument that Jewish people must become Germans to emancipate themselves because their culture, ethnicity, and religion is the inherent obstacle for Jews to reach emancipation, Marx argued that it was rather socio-economic conditions bestowed upon them by society that prevents them from emancipation and acceptance from the German population.

[@RedAnsyn]

​@@benjaminazra269 I'd argue that The Jewish Question seems to clearly communicate a nuanced position which, as you pointed out, is definitively not anti-semitic. If you have some sort of analysis which clearly shows he was, I would love to see it. Pretty much all of the analyses I've seen are either not reputable or is ahistoric contemporary propaganda.

[@benjaminazra269]

@@RedAnsyn i wasn't implying that he was an outright antisemite who would support approaches that would damage the wellbeing of jewish people, i was saying that his antisemitism (that is occasional mentions of Jewish people in a distasteful way) is something that is normal for a person who live in 19th century prussia, definetly not as antisemtic as many intellectuals back then who argues for assimilation of the Jewish people both culturally and religiously like Bauer and even some jews like Friedjung. It's pretty much the same as him using the n-word even though he was very much a supporter of the african people's struggle against slavery.

[@RedAnsyn]

@@benjaminazra269 I suspect, if you're correct, that my understanding of anti-semitism is likely too colored by the post-nazi world to grasp exactly what pre-nazi antisemitism could mean. Do you have any suggestions of materials I could read that discuss pre-nazi history of antisemitism? Would the two authors you referenced be a good place to start?

[@chrismayhew4274]

So it’s okay for Marx to be antisemetic.....it’s not. It’s not okay for people you agree with and not for those you don’t. Now that I know Marx has made antisemetic remarks I am going to blow that shit up.

[@samuelscutella5647]

Marx was literally a Jew and wrote numerous texts about jewish people's seemingly greedy nature was in fact due to their socio-economic circumstances they had throughout history. To say he is an anti-semite is to completely ignore his refuting of hardcore Aryan nationalist's and assimilationist's anti-semetic logic.

[@a12475]

He was ethnically jewish and was making fun of anti semites

[@user-te1ot7ux7c]

fortunately, his analysis is objective enough that it would not matter if actually Engels wrote the whole "Capital" and not Marx