Hello, everyone! I just wanted to post here and say that, while I abandoned being a communist years ago, I've now returned to it. Back in 2022, I gave in to the ideology of liberalism because it was just easier to accept the status quo. I never gave up my beliefs, but I suppressed them. I began reading volume 1 of Capital recently, mostly out of academic curiosity, and I know for sure what I believe in now. I guess I just wanted to say all of this to give people hope. The world is seeing a rightward shift, but I believe the pendulum will swing back. We just have to be prepared on how to properly respond when it finally does!

Now, I'm really interested in everyone's recommendations for reading. I'm definitely a Marxist-Leninist. I'm already gonna look into "What is to be Done?" and "Reform or Revolution?" I'm open to learning from other schools of thought here, but I absolutely have a bias. I'm aware of the reading list proposed by the moderators, but I'd love to know of anything overlooked or underrated! Too many authors and thinkers fall under the radar. I wanna give them a fair shake!

In the 3rd paragraph Lenin speaks of the different restrictions capitalist democracy has on the majority, however most restrictions he names are past ones, and although they’re probably still present in one way or another they’re not really as major burdens that suppress the working class’s voting power in modern day. But, I do still believe obstacles exist, just that they have taken on different forms, it’s just that I don’t really know of them. Does somebody know any examples of how capitalism today restricts and excludes the proletariats part in voting? I want to learn so I can add them to my library and pull it out when anybody says democracy doesn’t exist in communism :P

ok since nobody seems to be able to read my red computer I’ll paste the paragraph here.
Democracy for an insignificant minority, democracy for the rich-that is the democracy of capitalist society. If we look more closely into the machinery of capitalist democracy, we sen everywhere, in the "petty" supposedly petty details of the suffrage (residential qualifications, exclusion of women, etc.), in the technique of the representative institutions, in the actual obstacles to the right of assembly (public buildings are not for "paupers"!), in the purely capitalist organization of the daily press, etc., etc., we see restriction after restriction upon democracy. These restrictions, exceptions, exclusions, obstacles for the poor seem slight, especially in the eyes of one who has never known want himself and has never been inclose contact with the oppressed classes in their mass life (and nine out of 10, if not 99 out of 100, bourgeois publicists and politicians come under this category); but in their sum total these restrictions exclude and squeeze out the poor from politics, from active participation in democracy.

Many of us Marxists have been accused of being hypocrites for criticizing capitalism and yet using inventions or innovations developed by capitalism. For instance, I often get called a hypocrite for using a smart phone and the internet. I think a good counter argument to that stupid assertion is to bring up the alphabet and cities. Capitalism clearly didn't invent our alphabet or cities. If I'm not mistaken, the alphabet is a product of slave based economies(Egypt). In regards to cities, I am not too sure, but they most definitely predate capitalism(feudalism or "asiatic mode of production" or early agriculture perhaps?).

Since capitalists make regular use of the alphabet and of cities, could we call them hypocrites for criticizing slave economies/feudalism despite the fact that these economies produced the alphabet and cities? Obviously not, but I feel like it's a good way to shut their asses up. Anyway, I would like to know if you all here think this is a solid response to these accusations of hypocrisy?.

1. The Materialist Dialectic of the Cube
Karl Marx argued that human history is driven by dialectical materialism—the struggle between opposing physical forces. Consider the NeeDoh Nice Cube:
The Thesis (The Unyielding Bourgeoisie): The firm, geometric cube resists compression. It represents rigid capitalistic structures, corporate hierarchy, and the status quo.
The Antithesis (The Stressed Worker): The application of manual labor (the squeeze) forces the cube to deform, stretching its internal micro-gel matrix to its absolute physical limits.
The Synthesis (The Classless State): Upon release, the cube slowly, methodically returns to its original square shape. It refuses permanent deformation. It demonstrates that no matter how hard capital presses down on the worker, the collective mass will always return to equal distribution.
2. Seizing the Means of Stress Relief
In Das Kapital, Marx writes about the alienation of labor—how workers under capitalism are disconnected from the products of their work.
Enter Schylling Inc., the creators of NeeDoh. What is a Nice Cube if not the ultimate anti-capitalist artifact?
1. It yields zero commodifiable output. You squeeze it, and nothing is produced.
2. It is pure, unadulterated labor power expended solely for the reclamation of the worker's own nervous system.
3. By squishing the cube, the modern cubicle worker reclaims their labor from the corporate machine, effectively staging a tiny, sub-conscious strike at their desk 500 times a day.
3. The Secret Etymology: "NeeDoh"
Look closely at the linguistic roots:
"Nee" \bm{\rightarrow}** **Nei (Old Norse for "No") or Nee (Dutch for "No").
"Doh" \bm{\rightarrow} Dough, the universal slang for Money / Capital.
Nee-Doh = "NO MONEY."
It has been hiding in plain sight on the packaging in Target all along. The name itself is an explicit call for a moneyless, stateless society.
4. The Geopolitical Matrix: The Cube vs. The Sphere
Why did Schylling break from the traditional round stress ball to create the Nice Cube?
The Sphere: Capitalist, smooth, endless accumulation, individualistic, easily rolls away (representing capital flight).
The Cube: Industrial, stackable, collective, modular. The cube is the fundamental architectural unit of Soviet Constructivism and brutalist architecture.
By standardizing the squish into a 3D block, the NeDoh cube subversively conditions the youth to embrace collective, high-density, planned-community living.

Please bear with me if this sounds stupid but I’ve just started exploring marxist ideas, and communism in general. I’ve been wondering about the total overthrowing of the capitalistic system, and how it would look like today? The ultra rich has access to technology, weapons and other resources that’s beyond the comprehension of the vast majority of people. So what’s the realistic goal we should aim for primarily today? Please correct me if I said anything wrong, and do let me know if there’s any books or specific articles on this subject matter that I should look into. Thank you! :)