Comment Replies: Marx Series

1. 

   @duderdude638

   November 4, 2025 at 7:08 pm

   exploitation is not contingent on emotion

2. 

   @agstinacueva1673

   November 4, 2025 at 7:08 pm

   The "capitalist freedom" is freedom under the rules of a few. No gender expression, no diversity, hence, no freedom.

3. 

   @erin1569

   November 4, 2025 at 7:08 pm

   8:17 it must've been George Soros.

   Come on, there's no way I'm leaving out the opportunity to make this comment.

4. 

   @erin1569

   November 4, 2025 at 7:08 pm

   Cultural Marxism comments yikes.

5. 

   @ecantu2600

   November 4, 2025 at 7:08 pm

   You still don’t understand cultural Marxism. You straw man the use of the phrase by only addressing the misinformed uses of it. According to how many people use the phrase, cultural Marxism refers to the Frankfurt School’s methodology of focusing on culture in order to reveal the full extent and nature of bourgeois hegemony. In other words, it is synonymous with neo-Marxism. This relatively heavy analysis of culture distinguishes cultural Marxism from classical Marxism. And, no, I am not from 4-Chan. Don’t be so snide and dismissive. Arrogance combined with ignorance is so cringeworthy.

6. 

   @owlbusdumbledork9966

   November 4, 2025 at 7:08 pm

   I think one of the key differences is that the greatest atrocities committed by capitalist regimes aren't necessary features of the capitalist system, though they have served to benefit and preserve it. In communist regimes, the atrocities seem to be more of necessary features to preserve the system (violently seizing the means of production, suppression of political dissent through coercion or violence) and they tend to be focused inward on their own citizens.

   However, what are often referred to as atrocities of the communist system are the famines of Mao and Stalin, which were actually failures of the systems in place, much more akin to the Great Depression, which was a failure of capitalism.

   The results of systemic failures of both systems are bad, but even during the great depression, things never got nearly as bad as in the Soviet Union, and mass starvation never occurred during the great depression (unless you believe Russia's claims which i haven't fully researched), but tens of millions starved under the communist famines.

   So both capitalist and communist systems can and probably will lead to atrocities, and both systems can and probably will fail, but from what we see in the historical record, when capitalism fails, it's often less catastrophic than when communism fails, in no small part due to the decentralization of power, productivity, decisionmaking, and distribution in a capitalist system.

7. 

   @despa7726

   November 4, 2025 at 7:08 pm

   Let's break the discourse!

   Stalin was democratically elected.

   Gulags were wrong, however. No one had realized that yet, though. (Also, the Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn is pseudo-historical and should not be taken seriously.)

8. 

   @cristianhurtadocabezas208

   November 4, 2025 at 7:08 pm

   Man, after watching your video about abusive relationships, and then watching this video, i sense thant your love for your channel, your videos, your art kept you going. Good thing you're in a better position right now. you're great, man!

9. 

   @dragunov815

   November 4, 2025 at 7:08 pm

   Yow!

10. 

    @oxitocin7718

    November 4, 2025 at 7:08 pm

    so one weird thing people say is that it's possible to reform something like ussr but we can't reform capitalism ? we should just destroy it

11. 

    @diddymelone2265

    November 4, 2025 at 7:08 pm

    666k subs! the devil is in the details I suppose xD

12. 

    @neatcool4770

    November 4, 2025 at 7:08 pm

    This guy doesn't realize a modern Socialist society would eventually exterminate white people after treating them like dirt. Modern Socialists are antiwhite, they love nonwhites so much I would never live with them. Most Socialists are nuts.

13. 

    @samleheny1429

    November 4, 2025 at 7:08 pm

    Ten people in a philosophical debate can invoke the term "freedom" and mean ten different things. Hell the history of The United States alone can be summarised as a tug of war between competing definitions of freedom. Sometimes ridiculous, e.g. freedom from slavery vs freedom to own slaves, and some of them a little more wooly, e.g. a right to life vs a right to bodily autonomy.

14. 

    @saeedbaig4249

    November 4, 2025 at 7:08 pm

    Am I correct in thinking that Marx views exploitation as basically getting "ripped off"? If (according to Marx) you are always underpaid (relative to the value of goods you produce), then you are getting ripped off and, thus, exploited. It doesn't matter whether you're happy or if you consent to it or not; getting ripped off is still being exploited.

15. 

    @jjgdenisrobert

    November 4, 2025 at 7:08 pm

    Marx’ view on exploitation is more that Capitalists exploit the labour of workers the same way they exploit their machines. It’s not a value judgement, just a statement of fact.

16. 

    @im19ice3

    November 4, 2025 at 7:08 pm

    Exploitation has to do more with fairness in my opinion than consent, is it really consent to engage in a system that gives you no other option?? i think a worker ceases to count as exploited when they are recieving fair pay and conditions and aren't under the threat of losing basic rights if they were to choose to leave such work
    while i personally don't think competition should be removed entirely i think freedom is more important, the competition between providers shouldn't have to equal a dichotomy for the worker of either you work or you die cause poverty, i hope it's not controversial to say that the best ideas are not the ones that a knife against your throat compell you to pop up with, if people's continued livelihood is assured then the stress and ensuing alianation from work they hate will turn into passion and dedication for the activities the individual is emotionally invested in and those result in productivity, if the studies about a state-issued living wage are to be believed, private property doesn't need to disappear either it just has to be more balanced in contrast to public property, what is necessary is public what is optional is private.
    i don't know how you are so calmly adressing the cultural marxism thing, to me that 's just a zero sum concept

17. 

    @robmckennie4203

    November 4, 2025 at 7:08 pm

    is it exploitative to offer a starving person food in exchange for sex, if they want to have sex with me anyway?

18. 

    @drarenthiralas1683

    November 4, 2025 at 7:08 pm

    It is very surprising how the videos on this channel can jump from wonderful and informative like the series on Marx, to terrible propaganda and back.

19. 

    @garymcnally6358

    November 4, 2025 at 7:08 pm

    Three years late to the party, but I recommend some complimentary reading for the first question. Frédéric Lordon's the Willing Slaves of Capital poses a fantasticly strong argument against the notion that people "willingly" enter into a worker-boss relationship. They just pick the roles available to them that are the LEAST unpleasant. But that at the end of the day, even when people are loving their jobs, they would likely rather be doing anything else other than that.

    Also, for a broader picture on the damaging effect of capitalist labour on the minds of the workers themselves. I would recommend György Lukács' Reification and the Conciousness of the Proletariat from the book history and Class Consciousness. he does a great job of explaining the way in which labour relations under capitalism force people to change the way they interact with eachother.

20. 

    @michaelsvoboda1024

    November 4, 2025 at 7:08 pm

    US interference is a consequence of statist expansionism, not capitalism.

21. 

    @michaelsvoboda1024

    November 4, 2025 at 7:08 pm

    Democracy doesn't mean freedom, geez…

22. 

    @bloodmachine6049

    November 4, 2025 at 7:08 pm

    I oppose capitalism because it fucks free expression badly, with econimic inequality and stuff. It's a really major thing.

23. 

    @hvp69

    November 4, 2025 at 7:08 pm

    i demand more information on socialism! and anarchy while you’re at it. :p

24. 

    @deerlordhunter

    November 4, 2025 at 7:08 pm

    I’d love to hear you talk about the worth and value of digitally creative works, like digital paintings, film, visual essays, graphic design, things that are easily copy and pasted but took a lot of work initially to create.

25. 

    @johnmaxwell1750

    November 4, 2025 at 7:08 pm

    What an incredible dilettante Oliver Thorn is! Divorced-from-reality theorists like this fellow become truly dangerous if they gain positions for exercising political power. Typically people who are ensconced in a make-believe theoretical world do not adequately consider the practical implementation of theories. Guys like Mr. Thorn, or the theorists he may inspire, may cause disasters and much misery should they ever get power.

26. 

    @rgaleny

    November 4, 2025 at 7:08 pm

    Marxism is the democratization of economics

27. 

    @BlingSco

    November 4, 2025 at 7:08 pm

    Famine and Guglags and anti-communist stuff in general was written by Robert Conquest, MI5, Willam Herst, Nazi, Gobbels propaganda. Look into it this is what they do to plp who best defy capitalism and most successfully build a better world, character assassination. In particular they've done it to Lenin, Stalin and Mao. Why wouldn't they since they own/control the media, government and education.

28. 

    @JG75011

    November 4, 2025 at 7:08 pm

    I couldn't tell you how much time I clicked to "pause" the video, ended up in another video trought the links and had to go back and found out where I had left. But great video, I really appreciated the Marx series !

29. 

    @petersmythe6462

    November 4, 2025 at 7:08 pm

    Well, also a good fraction of things can be FULLY automated at some point. No workers and the value will rapidly approach zero.

30. 

    @Cristobels-Green-Boots

    November 4, 2025 at 7:08 pm

    So glad to find this channel— thank you🙏

31. 

    @Doomte

    November 4, 2025 at 7:08 pm

    "Are we as keen to tie the United State's interfering in Latin Amrican democracies to capitalism – the protection of profits for US companies – as we are to tie the gulags to Stalin's version of Marxism?"

    Um. No? Why would we? Capitalism doesn't mean "US companies" or "US market". Government interfering with companies interests – good or bad – is intervention, therefore NOT free market. Setting it as something comparative to communist hideous crimes is ABSURD to say the least.

32. 

    @wotwot6868

    November 4, 2025 at 7:08 pm

    Do you think it's good to mention the names of your donators?

33. 

    @infamousplayer_2356

    November 4, 2025 at 7:08 pm

    People pretty much think I'm boring
    I never get replyed

34. 

    @evanmcginn4408

    November 4, 2025 at 7:08 pm

    Is he a Marxist?

35. 

    @notbadsince97

    November 4, 2025 at 7:08 pm

    Saying Marx is responsible for Stalinism is saying Jesus is response for the Spanish Inquisition

36. 

    @tomahwakthehawker8725

    November 4, 2025 at 7:08 pm

    Can you do a video on political relativism?

37. 

    @Phase4TheProphet

    November 4, 2025 at 7:08 pm

    So, if having to potentially work a job you don't like makes you not free under capitalism, how would it not be the same under Marx's model? There's always the possibility that you could want to produce some product that there is no demand for, forcing you to take another job to contribute labor to the economy. As long as the cost of goods is nonzero, even under non-capitalistic models there is an imperative to take part in economic activity.

    Also, I would say that while the initial cost of developing software is distributed among copies, the cost of support actually grows. The more users you have of any given piece of software, the more manpower it will take to assist people using it since we haven't reached that glorious stage of society where everyone is a software engineer. Additionally, as software picks up in use there are infrastructure and distribution considerations. Especially as we move to cloud applications, more and more network/storage resources have to be acquired by the software manufacturer in order to make the software available and functional. It seems like the flaw in this argument about information isn't that his appraisal of production cost is wrong, but rather a failure to note the changes that come with entering a service economy.

38. 

    @StephenMeansMe

    November 4, 2025 at 7:08 pm

    Someone (or more than one someones) asked for a follow-up video about Hegel and Marx, and I'd also appreciate it… the more I learn about Hegel (and read the parts of Marx that are most touched by German Idealism) the less I understand how anyone thought they understood what he was trying to say. Or if he actually "said" anything. Actually you could just make a video reading Schopenhauer's quotes about Hegel and I'd be okay with it 😛

39. 

    @bobsobol

    November 4, 2025 at 7:08 pm

    Olly; You do realise that, with imminently expiring patents which have, thus-far, retarded the development of 3D printers, cars, washing-machines, vacuum cleaners and even computers could (aside from the cost of 3D "ink") become "software" in the very near future?

    Laughably, as we also move into a time post-peak-oil, that 3D ink needs to also be easily recyclable or the expiration of patents will happen just as electricity becomes a luxury of the past. I'm not talking about oil as a fuel either, but as the means of making and transmitting electrical energy, including solar, wind, wave and hydro-electric. Without plastic which we make from oil we cannot insulate electrical wiring or circuits effectively … Solar panels are also, necessarily made with plastic from oil so solar electricity is doubly not a renewable energy source IMHO, but… YMMV, depending on how optimistic you are that we can switch from oil to something else for our primary manufacturing resource.

40. 

    @MikeDrumsIt

    November 4, 2025 at 7:08 pm

    I would argue that Marxists say people want social freedoms, whereas capitalists say people want economic freedoms.

41. 

    @eatyourcereal4903

    November 4, 2025 at 7:08 pm

    Hi Olly im applying for college soon and stuck between Majoring in Political Science or Philosophy. It seems to me that the only difference is (in the US) that the Poli Sci seems like its just more in depth of how our gov works rather than the actual Politics or Philosophy. How would you say the are similar and how they differ, and what would you recommend?

42. 

    @coolergman8629

    November 4, 2025 at 7:08 pm

    You should do the philosophy of Islam because that would be interesting subject. I Find that theirs alot of stuff people don't understand about Islam and it's prophet muhammad. If you do decide to tacwkle philosophy of Islam You should bring your fireProof underwear. because no matter where you Stand or how obective you are on the philosophy of Islam theirs bound to be a Flame war.

43. 

    @pbeeby

    November 4, 2025 at 7:08 pm

    Great video

44. 

    @TheRealisticNihilist

    November 4, 2025 at 7:08 pm

    exploitation is a technical notion, not a moral one where the surplus generated by one class is expropriated by another.

45. 

    @Scam_Likely.

    November 4, 2025 at 7:08 pm

    please do one in Hegel

46. 

    @nfsking2000

    November 4, 2025 at 7:08 pm

    Olly, how old are you?

47. 

    @rxscience9214

    November 4, 2025 at 7:08 pm

    I think that even if you're happy you're still being exploited, because regardless of your level of happiness or unhappiness, you're exploited fairly evenly. Lets say you come in one day, and you're as happy as can be. The day ends and you're still elated, well you were exploited to the same extent and with the same depth (assuming everything remains constant from day to day at your job) as you'd be if you came in unhappy. This also stems from the nature of exploitation and the cold-heartedness (per say) of the capitalist system. Being exploited has nothing to do with your level of happiness, Bernie Madoff tricked a ton of people into giving him money and they sure as hell were exploited regardless of their level of happiness towards anything. Capitalism also doesn't care if you're happy or unhappy, it's gonna keep exploiting you based on the way your job is set up no matter if you're on cloud 9 or in the 9th ring of hell.

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