My parents are landlords of a medium apartment with a family of 4 living inside it. Is it hypocritical for me to be a Marxist-Leninist when my parents are landlords? especially considering what past revolutionaries have done to landlords (Mao). To clarify things, i do not agree with the concept of landlord-ism and how my parents (and me too from a broader view) are benefiting from someone else’s income while doing nothing except owning basic human needs
Jesus fucking christ. It’s the “Am I allowed to participate in society?” all over again. No, it’s not some huge hypocricy to have an extra flat that you rent out, or to work a high salary job. It’s also not a crime to want some comforts and even luxuries.
The landlords in pre-revolution China were essentially feudal lords, not people with a bit of extra wealth that still laboured for their living. There’s no point in looking down on people over what is little more than pittance for an actual capitalist today, those arseholes take trips to the bottom of the ocean for the money your parents accrued over their lifetime.
I feel I would’ve been a lot softer if I hadn’t read the comments. I also struggled with this when I was younger. If you truly can’t fathom being petit bourgeois, just sell it when you inherit it, though be wary that the buyer may be another leech looking for investments. Otherwise I’d say it’s sufficient that you keep in mind that as a human being your interests lie with the preletariat. It might be even better if you used your money to support revolutionary activity.
Amen
If you truly can’t fathom being petit bourgeois, just sell it when you inherit it, though be wary that the buyer may be another leech looking for investments.
I have a better idea: Rather than selling, aid the needy proles/your comrades with your inheritance.
Castro’s family owned a plantation but he expropriated his own parents during the revolution to give their land to peasants. His sister went to Miami and joined the CIA.
Che was born to an upper class family, so, no it’s not hypocritical for you to be in your situation being a Marxist Leninist.
You are not personally guilty for the sins of your parents. In fact, that you recognize your privileged status and wish to fix the contradiction is commendable.
Is it hypocritical for me to be a Marxist-Leninist when my parents are landlords?
Definitely not.
First off, you have no choice on what your parents do, that’s outside of your control. But even after that, divesting yourself of your class voluntarily is what liberals love advocating for, but has very little actual impact. If you look at many prominent socialists throughout time, you’ll see that they had the time, resources and privilege to advance the cause in large part because of a good material condition. Neither Marx, Engels nor Lenin would have had so much time to dedicate to developing socialism if they were labourers or lumpenproletarians. All that is asked is that when the time comes, you’ll fight so that landlords cease to exist as a class, rather than resist change for some attachment to your privilege.
My recommendation is instead for you to look into ways of making your “landlord-ism” the least exploitative you can. In the grand scheme of things, a single apartment of 4 is not gonna change society and still leaves you far away from the higher capitalist class, no matter what they tell you. And on the other hand, using that privilege to further the cause, educate yourself and fight the good fight can do a lot of good. You’ll probably have to figure out how to balance these ideas on your own, but beating yourself over it without a plan won’t do you any good.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Class_traitor
Additionally, Friedrich Engels, partner and lifelong friend of Karl Marx, the revolutionary socialist, was himself a son of a wealthy factory owner. Such people sacrifice their ability to be part of the capitalist upper-class for the sake of who they see as the oppressed, even if it hurts their status in the process.
I think it’s less about your specific status than about the ideas and the people your stand with.
Welp. Better pick a wall.
Jk. Tons of famous communists were class traitors.
I agree that others are saying you are not a hypocrite. YOU don’t control your parents’ means of earning income, you control the way that you make money, and depending on the work opportunity or laws in your area, sometimes that isn’t even the case.
I call them land parasites. The word lord pisses me off, and its more accurate to what they do.
I would say you are an exception because usually people with enough wealth to own multiple properties aren’t the ones that care about the working people.
landleech
My parents rent out an extended mobiles home on our property. My grandmother lived there and we took care of here for year and when she passed the property came back to us. If we just kept it as a second building our taxes would go up significantly. If we rented it out it wouldn’t cost us any additional taxes. I realized this is how they prevent you from forming communes by attacking you with additional taxes for sharing property instead of renting it out like a fucking landlord. They do it just to not have to deal with extra taxes. Charge super low rent for it.
One way of solving housing crisis in capitalist world is to monetize the f**k out of houses without caring for the perils of tenants to afford it. They can’t providing free/affordable housing without appropriately taxing the rich so they use this scheme that is appealing to liberals and makes rich richer leaving no one of significant importance to care if housing crisis still remains.
It’s not hypocritical because you are not your parents and you are not a landlord yourself and it’s pretty cool that you turned to ML regardless of earlier programming and assuming you are young, it’s better not to build your identity based on or in response to your parents’.
That last sentence is easier said than done.
Yeah I concur.
I grew up very poor and now both of my parents (they’re not together) are landleeches. My mother keeps avoiding work because of it. Parasitic entities…
What would an alternative be? If they aren’t price jacking or leaving everything in poor condition etc, then they’re providing a service (rental) for someone who may not be able to afford to purchase their own home. I can’t afford a house or apartment near enough to where I work so I have to rent. My alternative would be not having a job in my field (it’s pretty expensive to live anywhere it gets done) or commuting over two hours.
From my perspective as someone that relies on rented living situation, your parents provide a service that lets me keep my job and not be homeless
The property managers do the actual work, but the cost of managing the property is often significantly smaller than the total collected from the properties. Even in cases where it is not, they are taking advantage of their luck to buy a property, and have a government backed means of taking money from other people without doing work. If any given landlord did not do the landlord thing, another landlord would do the same thing, because that is the assumption within capitalism. I understand you think there are no other alternatives, but other arrangements like housing cooperatives can be built instead of landlords leeching off of others.
the alternative is having a land reform so you don’t have to pay 60% of your income increasing over time in rent every month
Landlording isn’t a service. It is simply being the owner of something. Simply being an owner of something doesn’t create value.
Also, landlordng takes homes off the market, making them unavailable for purchase thus creating false scarcity, raising the price to purchase a home, exacerbating the problem you are claiming it alleviates.
The “services” some landlords supposedly provide, such as maintenance, could be afforded by someone who owned a home. Landlords always seek to run a profit. This means they are going to charge more than their mortgage, maintenance, and taxes on the home. The monthly cost to rent is always going to be higher than the monthly cost to buy. Always. Not only will it be a higher cost, but it also builds no equity for the renter. The money you pay into a mortgage, aside from the interest, is partially an investment in yourself and your own assets. Rent, on the other hand, is basically money down the drain for the renter. No gains for the renter, only the landlord.
If you are a renter who believes landlords provide a service, you’re being deceived. They are stealing from you.
No you’re not inherently hypocritical because while you may be the beneficiary of capitalist exploitation and landleeches, but that doesn’t mean you must do the same. Not unlike what Engles did, there are pro worker movements that you could put your efforts toward especially if you’re in a more comfortable and need to work relatively less… After all it’s hard to teach theory and spread awareness/organize labour power, if you’re always having to work for the meat on your plate. We’re not a movement of meritocracy/individuality, we need as many people to understand and teach the horrors of capitalism as well the way forward.
That all said ensure you get your education and don’t waste this opportunity to ensure your own financial security (ideally with no reliance on labour value extraction). To become a capitalist is “bad” but there always will be capitalists so to be a capitalists that is pushing for revolution will be better than anti-revolutionaries exclusive holding the power. Additionally, many great members of the movement have benefited from or been themselves capitalists. Their self-awareness and efforts they made to write these wrongs is what set them apart.
TLDR; Not inherently hypocritical. You’re benefiting from workers being squeezed, don’t let them be sucked dry just so you can lick the cheeto dust off your fingers or else yeah that’d be pretty sour. You sound like you’re already on the right track by even asking this question. Good luck comrade.
Came to the comments looking for Chad Engels.
You don’t need to inherit the opinion or practices of your parents.
That’d be monarchy or smth xD
