Topic: This is the quote which defines this election.

Anonymous A started this discussion 10 years ago #55,507

"The problem with political jokes is they get elected."
~Henry Cate, VII

Anonymous B joined in and replied with this 10 years ago, 2 hours later[^] [v] #718,115

'that' instead of 'which'

Anonymous C joined in and replied with this 10 years ago, 7 minutes later, 2 hours after the original post[^] [v] #718,116

@previous (B)
I hate people that make grammatical errors

Syntax joined in and replied with this 10 years ago, 5 hours later, 8 hours after the original post[^] [v] #718,133

I offer my opponents a bargain: if they will stop telling lies about us, I will stop telling the truth about them.
—Adlai Stevenson

The oppressed are allowed once every few years to decide which particular representatives of the oppressing class are to represent and repress them.

—Karl Marx

We stand today at a crossroads: One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other leads to total extinction. Let us hope we have the wisdom to make the right choice.

—Woody Allen

Digits !9558856406 joined in and replied with this 10 years ago, 48 minutes later, 9 hours after the original post[^] [v] #718,141

@previous (Syntax)

That second one was actually Lenin, who claims to have been quoting Marx. Thanks.

Syntax replied with this 10 years ago, 42 minutes later, 9 hours after the original post[^] [v] #718,157

@previous (Digits !9558856406)

"The oppressed are allowed once every few years to decide which particular representatives of the oppressing class shall represent and repress them in parliament."

This is under 'misattributed' and it says that Lenin actually wrote it in State and Revolution. I've just looked at the online text of State and Revolution at http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/staterev/ch05.htm, however, and it says this:

"Marx grasped this essence of capitalist democracy splendidly when, in analyzing the experience of the Commune, he said that the oppressed are allowed once every few years to decide which particular representatives of the oppressing class shall represent and repress them in parliament!" (Chapter 2)

Lenin doesn't give a reference here, so I'm not sure which of Marx's writings he's referring to. Surely it would be misleading to attribute the quote to Lenin, as it's simply a paraphrase of Marx. Obviously the best thing would be to find Marx's original phrasing, but I don't have the time to do that unfortunately.

Marx's original statement was "Instead of deciding once in three or six years which member of the ruling class was to misrepresent the people in Parliament" referring to the commune of Paris in his "The Civil War in France".

Source Wikipedia

Anonymous F joined in and replied with this 10 years ago, 24 minutes later, 10 hours after the original post[^] [v] #718,172

@718,141 (Digits !9558856406)

> That second one was actually Lenin, who claims to have been quoting Marx. Thanks.

Citation needed. Thanks.

Anonymous E replied with this 10 years ago, 12 minutes later, 10 hours after the original post[^] [v] #718,176

@previous (F)

Citation: Syntax

Anonymous F replied with this 10 years ago, 13 minutes later, 10 hours after the original post[^] [v] #718,177

@previous (E)
So you don't have a citation. Thanks.

Anonymous E replied with this 10 years ago, 24 minutes later, 11 hours after the original post[^] [v] #718,178

@previous (F)

It is just up there ^^^

Anonymous G joined in and replied with this 10 years ago, 6 minutes later, 11 hours after the original post[^] [v] #718,179

@718,141 (Digits !9558856406)
So Lenin's grand solution was to take away even that choice? The mad man.

Syntax replied with this 10 years ago, 11 minutes later, 11 hours after the original post[^] [v] #718,180

@718,172 (F)
http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/staterev/ch05.htm,

Buried in my reply and I said my source was Wiki
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Talk:Karl_Marx

@718,178 (E)

> It is just up there ^^^

YEP

(Edited 45 seconds later.)

Anonymous E replied with this 10 years ago, 17 minutes later, 11 hours after the original post[^] [v] #718,185

@718,179 (G)

Actually that was Stalin who was counter-revolutionary!

Anonymous G replied with this 10 years ago, 4 minutes later, 11 hours after the original post[^] [v] #718,187

@previous (E)
Okay, yes, the aim of communism was to reach a utopian society where the state was no longer needed, and people lived freely.

But still. Lenin never reached that ideal. Not even close. So all he did in practice was further deprive the people of choice.

Anonymous E replied with this 10 years ago, 8 minutes later, 11 hours after the original post[^] [v] #718,188

@previous (G)

He did more than others for the achievement of a communist society and if Stalin hadn't done that coup perhaps it would have continued on after Lenin's death. Nobody expects a single man to change everything, the revolution should have kept on afterwards.

Anonymous G replied with this 10 years ago, 9 minutes later, 12 hours after the original post[^] [v] #718,192

@previous (E)
Can you blame it squarely on Stalin? Communism, the world over, has cultivated the rise of many Stalins. Dictators who denied freedom to their people with no intention to grant it.

For sake of argument, maybe Lenin was a good guy with nothing but noble intentions for communism. But he's not the only time communism has been tried. Far from it. And it never leads to that stateless, free utopia. Not once. It appears to be a problem with the ideology, it never leads to freedom.

Anonymous F replied with this 10 years ago, 42 minutes later, 12 hours after the original post[^] [v] #718,198

@718,178 (E)

> It is just up there ^^^

That is not a citation. It gives absolutely evidence of the quote being Lenin's and not Marx's. Thanks.

Anonymous A (OP) replied with this 10 years ago, 58 minutes later, 13 hours after the original post[^] [v] #718,236

@718,192 (G)
Maybe you could try not being a greedy cunt. Jesus was a communist.

Minichan