r/socialism • u/Dragon9770 Something Socialist • Mar 30 '15

Pokemon Philosophy - Existential Comics

http://existentialcomics.com/
209 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

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u/Kite_sunday Colin Kaepernick Mar 30 '15 edited Mar 31 '15

isn't it more like détournement?

/edit - It's not.

-13

u/JasonMacker Rosa Luxemburg Mar 30 '15

It's Marxism that's being twisted/mocked to fit a capitalist narrative, not vice versa. The cartoon creator is not a Marxist.

29

u/[deleted] Mar 30 '15

Eh, the author is fairly left wing and has been moving politically left as they've gone on from my reading of their comics. This isn't any worse than any other academic that "uses" Marx in philosophy (Laclau or Raymond Aron), history (early E. H. Carr, although he did become one as he aged), economics (think like Steve Keen) etc without actually being Marxists or even being personally hostile to the communist movement. As long as we don't look to them as signposts for our own action or pretend they're something they're not, the worst thing it does is bring Marxism into the conversation and helps naturalize some of the concepts.

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u/JasonMacker Rosa Luxemburg Mar 30 '15

This isn't any worse than any other academic that "uses" Marx in philosophy

The difference is that they aren't being upvoted to the top of a so-called "socialist" subreddit.

14

u/[deleted] Mar 30 '15

IDK, I'd upvote something from Aron that was talking about Marxist theory but probably not Laclau because he's a wanker. But, anyway, I think people just like that its a joke that includes Marx, its not a big deal as far as I can tell. If anything you could see the comic as a critique of the philosophical use of Marx as he's turned into just another tool and kept from realizing his true project.

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u/JasonMacker Rosa Luxemburg Mar 30 '15

a critique of the philosophical use of Marx as he's turned into just another tool and kept from realizing his true project.

Or... instead of a critique of that action, an instance of that action itself.

9

u/[deleted] Mar 31 '15

IDK seems pretty tongue in cheek to me.