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Pokémon Philosophy: Is Mewtwo MARXIST?

Philosophy Tube | October 29, 2025



What do Pokémon battles say about economics and philosophy? Is MewTwo a Marxist?
Check out BirdKeeper Toby’s video! http://tinyurl.com/gvq25jq
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Recommended Reading:
Karl Marx – Das Kapital
Pokémon: The First Movie

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Comments

This post currently has 44 comments.

  13. @KarolaTea

    October 29, 2025 at 6:14 am

    Is it just me or did this video turn up the energy in the presentation style by like 200% compared to the previous video? Seems like the people at YouTube did some teaching of "always shout and talk fast and be very expressive, that's what the kids like these days" xD

  18. @amberlee4536

    October 29, 2025 at 6:14 am

    Sounds like a typical Pokemon rights activist. You guys are like PETA, I swear. Listen, Pokemon like battling. They do it in the wild all the time. This is a safe, moderated way to engage in natural aggressive behavior that allows the Pokemon to grow stronger safely. Their lifestyles are improved because they become able to grow much stronger than they would naturally. Pokemon don't know how to use buses. They're naturally constrained by their environment. Why shouldn't they have the opportunity to see the world? We don't send ten year olds across the country on their own for shits and giggles. IT'S RIGHT THERE IN THE THEME SONG, OLLY. "TEACH POKEMON TO UNDERSTAND THE POWER THAT'S INSIDE." Gosh. What's next, euthanize captive Pokemon for their own good?

  26. @BrendanGasparin

    October 29, 2025 at 6:14 am

    A human character in the anime (can't remember who) states that Pokemon want to be captured and trained by humans because it helps them gain experience and levels and evolve and that uncaptured Pokemon are actually jealous of captured Pokemon because of this mutually beneficial cooperation. Of course, a human would say that.

  28. @lucasvega4216

    October 29, 2025 at 6:14 am

    If Mewtwo is a LIBERTARIAN, NOT A FUCKING MARXIST, this happends when someone that doesn't know other philosophy than the teached in school tries to play philosopher, they try to see marxism everywhere because they don know any other ideology.
    This is Mewtwo most famous quote: “I see now that the circumstances of one's birth are irrelevant. It is what you do with the gift of life that determines who you are.”
    THIS SOUNDS MARXSIT TO YOU?

  31. @axnasim

    October 29, 2025 at 6:14 am

    An argument that I heard is that pokemon cannot get as strong in the wild, and with a trainer, they would be able to reach their full potential and that interested them. Whether that be through training, trading, using a stone to evolve etc. It could be considered one of the reasons why pokemon challenge the trainer.

    They also were interested in the companionship that their trainers provided. In speculation, this might be a thing of culture that had been cascaded over time among the pokemon. Since Mewtwo was created, Mewtwo may not have understood this cultural phenomenon, nor did he see an interest in being controlled as he did not further evolve (although there are variations).

    I imagine some of the issues could have been if pokemon were actually used for labour (fighting and rock types working at a construction site, fire and water types working with the fire department, psychic types used to calculate stocks or used as alarms while dark types were used to avoid detection by psychics ) how where they paid? Do they enjoy being productive and benefit from shelter, food and companionship? Was there more they wanted? I always wondered if the idea was that they were submissive by nature.

    This made me ponder, thanks for the vid, Olly

  33. @Amy-zb6ph

    October 29, 2025 at 6:14 am

    I totally had this thought early on when I was playing Pokemon and I decided that it would be okay as long as it was a game and none of the Pokemon characters were actually alive. However, otherwise, it resembles slavery.

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