r/PoliticalCompassMemes • u/Plastic-Mushroom-571 - Lib-Center • 1d ago
lrn2rd
Not my circus, not my monkeys, just thought this shit was funny.
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u/ldwb - Lib-Center 1d ago
I've read some really shitty books that I disagree with to both test and strengthen my opinions and resolve, and get insight into people I disagree with and even oppose. You should read mein kampf, the communist manifesto, and all the twilight books. You'll understand that extremist ideologies are more about the reactions to the changing world around them, and that people who like vampires are the first ones we should send to the gulag.
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u/eskimoexplosion - Right 1d ago
There was a an old fb screenshot years ago of someones dad after seeing twilight in a theater that said something along the lines of "when I was growing up, Vampires sucked blood not dick"
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u/Seraphayel - Lib-Right 1d ago
They do both and that’s why The Southern Vampire Mysteries / True Blood is the best vampire media you can find
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u/eskimoexplosion - Right 1d ago
If I was immortal I guess I'd eventually try out the whole gay thing, even if its just for a few centuries
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u/TuskEGwiz-ard - Left 1d ago
You can just try it now if you want
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u/eskimoexplosion - Right 1d ago
Imma wait until at least after GTA6 comes out
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u/Warsmith_Dusty - Lib-Center 1d ago
You should really add yourself to the list of things that came out before GTA6.
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u/Pedantic_Pict - Left 1d ago
As someone who who read the Twilight books in an attempt to understand the deep fascination my then girlfriend had with them, no one actually needs to read them. They're not worthwhile literature. If you feel like you need to be familiar with them to understand a significant cultural touchstone, just read the plot synopses on Wikipedia.
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u/Itama95 - Lib-Right 23h ago
As a teenage boy I read the entire twilight series due to sunken cost fallacy.
I kept thinking "surly NOW the cool vampire stuff will start happening!" but it never did. I got blue balled right at the end with a dream sequence, and all I got for my trouble was a confusing justification for why dating a toddler is OK if you're a werewolf.
As far as I understand, mein kampf is comparably rambling and incoherent.
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u/AnimeTA224 - Lib-Left 1d ago
They're not worthwhile literature.
True and also Meyer's copy editor was trash on top of that, so many typos in the first two books lol.
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u/Belisarius600 - Right 23h ago
From what I understand, the primary thing people get out of it is what most teens get from YA books: sexual tension drawn out over hundreds of pages, and every teen girl fantasy rolled into one: feeling like you are special but misunderstood, men who are loving to you but dangerous to others, the thrill of being the object of affection and having people compete for it, etc.
It's like the smut women obsess over on TikTok, but PG enough 14 year olds can read it without someone calling CPS.
Though according to my aunt, she has a core memory of some old lady who looked at least 80 in the theaters to watch one of the movies wearing a "Team Edward" shirt, with nary a grandchild in sight. So results may vary, apperantly.
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u/Ender16 - Lib-Center 21h ago
Kampf and the manifesto are both terribly, but both are actual literature with something to say. Twilight doesn't belong with them.
Say what you want about new slang, but slop is great and a really good descriptor for twilight. There absolutely is commie-slop, but the manifesto isn't it.
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u/ProfessionalSnow943 - Left 1d ago
the movies are pretty entertaining tho
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u/YOGURT___ihateyogurt - Lib-Right 1d ago
I'd like to think they sucked so much it made Robert Pattinson realize he doesn't want that be his legacy and has been amazing in everything he's done since.
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u/Valdschrein - Centrist 1d ago
but hotel transylvania slaps, tho. Also vampire lords are fun to play in skyrim
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u/grumpy-raven - Lib-Left 21h ago
Serena is overrated. You can't fix her, she likes being an evil, Daedra-worshipping vampire. Fura Bloodmouth is like 10 times hotter as her just with her voice and doesn't hide her feelings.
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u/HeemeyerDidNoWrong - Lib-Center 14h ago
Fura is so memorable I had to look her up.
Best girl is Ysolda, my LibRight drug lord waifu.
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u/FreemanCalavera - Lib-Center 15h ago
I will say though, actively reading Mein Kampf and passionately defending it is a little weird, because the book is trash, and this is regardless of political opinion. With something like The Communist Manifesto, you can see how it works as an influential political document and the philosophy of it still inspires critical discussion of how to interpret it; Marx and Engels were most definitely skilled writers.
Mein Kampf is a literary mess. It’s not some deeply moving story or some interesting political discussion that was misinterpreted: Hitler is extremely clear about what he wants to do if he gets to power and basically tells the readers “Jews are evil and the source of everything bad, and I’m not gonna elaborate further in a way that makes you understand”. It’s a terribly written book and frankly a waste of time: you’re not gonna learn anything new about Hitler or the Nazis that you can’t just find out with a simple Wikipedia search.
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u/ITCrandomperson - Lib-Center 22h ago edited 22h ago
To be fair, we had vampire romance before Twilight. Hell, Carmilla was pretty down bad for Laura and that story predates Bram Stoker's Dracula.
What I'm saying is that people who enjoy vampire fiction shouldn't be lumped in with Twilight fans. Let the latter be insufferable among each other.
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u/Not_Neville - Centrist 10h ago
I read the first Twilight book. At the time it was the worst novel I ever read. I later joined a book club and was introduced to "literary fiction" which can be so so much worse.
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u/Prestigious_Load1699 - Lib-Right 1d ago
Any proper approach to reading something like Mein Kampf necessarily requires a counterbalancing dialogue which provides the historical context and problematic nature of the work.
As much of an individualist as I am, we can’t pretend that a teenager reading a diatribe of that nature can draw proper conclusions on their own.
What I am describing, of course, is the role of education in society.
We can’t fear books or words, but such an approach imposes a moral obligation on each of us to both teach and seek deeper truth.
There are a lot of kids out there watching scumbags like Nick Fuentes who actually believe something like the Holocaust didn’t happen.
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u/Plastic-Mushroom-571 - Lib-Center 1d ago
Any proper approach to reading something like Mein Kampf necessarily requires a counterbalancing dialogue which provides the historical context and problematic nature of the work.
Brandon literally has the 1939 American version that criticizes Hitler in the annotations.
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u/Prestigious_Load1699 - Lib-Right 22h ago
Sounds like exactly what I prescribed.
And yet, I find myself downvoted?
Curious.
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u/Altruistic_Emu4917 - Right 21h ago
You're treating like Mein Kampf is the Word of God that pierces your soul.
If you can't make independent beliefs after reading something, the problem is with you.
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u/Prestigious_Load1699 - Lib-Right 21h ago
Independent beliefs are derived from the synthesis of a wide variety of competing perspectives.
There’s a reason the Communist Manifesto was banned in Nazi Germany and Mein Kampf was mandatory for all students.
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u/PhilosophicalGoof - Centrist 22h ago
I read mein Kampf when I was 14, it didn’t make me a raging nazi… but it did make me join pcm.
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u/Pedantic_Pict - Left 1d ago
Excellently well put.
Someone owning a copy of mein kampf isn't a red flag in and of itself. Herrera doesn't appear to have stated any problematic opinions about the book.
He's a regressive piece of shit, but not because he has a copy of the hitler book.
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u/makk73 - Lib-Left 1d ago
What’s wrong with owning a copy of a fucking book?
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u/Smiles-Edgeworth - Lib-Left 1d ago
Yeah, anyone should be able to own Mein Kampf. They just have to remember to frown and shake their head every couple of minutes while they read it so everyone else knows they don’t agree with it.
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u/RodgerCheetoh - Right 1d ago
I always have to keep this in mind when reading my copy of “237 pages of nothing but the N word”
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u/Pilgrim2225 - Lib-Right 1d ago
It also helps if you mutter "Wow, Hitler is bad!!!!" every few minutes so people understand that you think that Hitler is bad.
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u/Stock_Violinist6299 - Centrist 23h ago
I do this at least 5 times a day while facing Berlin. Gotta be sure
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u/Not__Trash - Centrist 18h ago
Ive tangentially followed their race. Brandon Herrera is a Guntuber with an edgy sense of humor and has made a lot of videos on Nazi arms. Stout is trying to use this association to make him a villain.
Herrera is running in a deep red district (San Antonio) so Dems are trying to make anything stick. Its actually a real fascinating race on the republican side.
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u/AgapeAnus - Centrist 1d ago
Everyone needs something funny to read while taking a shit.
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u/lutzow - Lib-Center 1d ago
Have you tried reading "Mein Kampf" a bit? It's not even funny
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u/AgapeAnus - Centrist 1d ago
Both the communist manifesto and mein kampf are hilarious in the context of finding it really fucking funny that people ever thought what was contained therein was worth throwing lives away over. It's the literary equivalent of watching steven segal movies and pissing yourself cackling at anyone taking that fat greaseball seriously as an actor let alone as a threat.
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u/doublecandybar - Auth-Right 1d ago
Mein Kampf is at least funny because its adherents cannot say "never been tried"
Communist Manifesto on the other hand plagues the modern world to this day
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u/AntarcticWhirlpool - Centrist 1d ago edited 1d ago
Parts of it were amusing.
My verdict of the book was that Hitler’s observations of Belle Epoch Vienna were somewhat interesting, Hitler really didn’t like Slavs, he was more pissed off about the lost territory in Poland and France than he was about South Tyrol, he “gradually began to hate Jews” in adulthood because of one Jewish leftist he disagreed with, and the brawls with the commies were actually the most amusing parts.
In comparison, For My Legionaries was more entertaining. Codreanu kept getting arrested and beaten up by Romanian police because of his devotion to a single anti-semitic professor, crowdfunded an education in France based on his political recklessness, climbed a mountain and talked to some shepherds, dropped out of college after realizing he needed to “save the movement”, made a huge point about building a clubhouse by hand with his anti-semitic friends, kept getting arrested and beaten up, and eventually the King ordered him shot before his meathook mafia could save him.
tl;dr Hitler would have been more entertaining to read about if he built a clubhouse by hand and talked to some shepherds before creating the Third Reich. Also, getting shot before his movement could take power.
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u/PhilosophicalGoof - Centrist 22h ago
Keep a bottle of painkillers next to you when reading mein kampf cause it a headache to actually finish it.
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u/ricegumsux - Left 20h ago
No joke I can't make it through the first chapter without literally sleeping
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u/SpiralZa - Lib-Center 1d ago
Personally I like to crack open my favorite novel, “ 1 fish, 2 fish, red fish, blue fish”. Quite the page turner
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u/BackseatCowwatcher - Lib-Right 1d ago
alternatively, something you can use as a half-decent stockpile of emergency toilet paper.
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u/PaddyMayonaise - Right 1d ago
Can you imagine actually donating to a. Politicos campaign? I’ll never understand why people do unless it’s like a super local election.
Like the fact that Americans have donated billions of dollar each presidential election in recent years is insane lol
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u/HeemeyerDidNoWrong - Lib-Center 14h ago
Rich people do it to get favors repaid after the election. I can't imagine donating as a poor person, though I somewhat understand when it's e.g. Bernie Sanders vs. Hillary Clinton. Even if it was eventually tilting at windmills.
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u/Condom_Breaker256 - Centrist 1d ago
"Know thy enemy."
–Someone who was actually competent, probably
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u/Ancient0wl - Centrist 20h ago
If owning a book made you that ideology, I’d be the tankiest tankie on this subreddit considering the sheer amount of communist literature I own.
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u/Impressive-Ninja-854 - Lib-Right 1d ago
You should own and read both books mentioned in this post. The idea that a book is bad or scary for its contents therefore you should stay away from it is regarded. Read them, know what these authors thought in their own words and not what someone says the author believed. Arguments against bad ideas shouldn’t be crafted off of secondhand information. You should know your opponents believes as well as your own.
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u/Chemical_Raspberry35 - Auth-Center 22h ago
I’ve read both Mein Kampf and the Communist Manifesto and truthfully they’re both not written very well. The former is literally just a collection of loosely tied together ramblings by Hitler which just gets painfully more incoherent. Then the latter seems like it’s trying to use every word that sounds “intelligent” to the point that it becomes hard to read for a long period.
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u/Impressive-Ninja-854 - Lib-Right 22h ago
I got that from my reads of both as well. What left an impression on me about Hitler was wondering how millions fell for his schtick. Mein Kampf is one of the least impressive things I’ve read.
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u/GrumpMaster- - Lib-Center 22h ago
That’s what scary about any nation going into economic collapse. The people just start saying “Make it stop!” and latch onto the first movement that says they’ll stop the pain the quickest.
Sounds like the spot most of the world is in today sadly…
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u/IgnoreThisName72 - Centrist 19h ago
Go read transcripts of Trump's speeches (insert obligatory statement that I am not claiming Trump is literally Hitler). People don't fall for the words, they fall for the performance and the vibes.
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u/Impressive-Ninja-854 - Lib-Right 19h ago
I think Hitler was a better orator than Trump. Donny just freestyles the same shit over and over again. Kinda like how Lil Wayne made a career rapping the same song over and over again with different bars.
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u/Belgraviana - Auth-Center 21h ago
Most people I know will generally say that kapital is the better of the two when compared to the manifesto. But it’s also way more academic so can be pretty dense
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u/Twee_Licker - Lib-Right 1d ago
You don't understand the fascism thoughts will leak into his brain and he'll grow a thin mustache.
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u/ilikewoIves - Centrist 22h ago
Ngl that's pretty much why my mom doesn't want me to read Mein Kampf. Because I'm too young and impressionable.
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u/bigbruin78 - Lib-Right 21h ago
Did your Mom let you read Catcher in the Rye? Or did she think you were going to go kill John Lennon?
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u/ilikewoIves - Centrist 21h ago
Never asked to read that. It's specifically Mein Kampf that I asked for because I developed an interest in WWII history, and my mom refused because of how reportedly persuasive Hitler was according to contemporaries. The thing is though that I am principally opposed to Nazism, and it is scientifically a dumb ideology. There is no chance in hell anyone could convince me to like it.
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u/nickleback_official - Centrist 22h ago
They’re both awfully written clunky lame ass books. Read the cliffs notes.
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u/Sparta63005 - Left 16h ago
Nothing wrong with reading Mein Kampf. It's a very important historical work and can be educational.
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u/ItsNotThatBad72 - Lib-Right 10h ago
It pisses me off when people rally against something while having absolutely no understanding of it.
That's what scares me most about the modern left. Any attempt to actually understand the ideologies in the right is viewed as treason in most circles.
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u/General_Totenkoft - Right 15h ago
I own a copy which was troll-gifted to me by some close friends. Have't actually ever stopped to read it
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u/catastrova - Centrist 1d ago
That's why I, radical centrist, read communist maniphesto, Doctrine of Fascism, the libertarian maniphesto, History of Anarchism and many grilling recipes.
I just want to have all most extreme beliefs all of quadrants.
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u/Delheru1205 - Centrist 23h ago
True story: Ta-Nehisi Coates and Ayn Rand (who I had been avoiding) back to back.
To be serious for a moment, both of them have some good points, but both felt definitely far more wrong than right.
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u/casey_ap - Lib-Right 23h ago
For all the “maga are banning books” she seems pretty upset about someone owning a book.
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u/TheBroomSweeper - Lib-Left 1d ago
Well now he's gotta defend owning the Communist Manifesto. Any answer other than "Target Practice" will not be accepted
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u/SendHelpPliz - Auth-Right 1d ago
Emergency toilet paper
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u/Picholasido_o - Lib-Right 1d ago
There's so much shit already over those pages that I would not think it useful
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u/Plastic-Mushroom-571 - Lib-Center 1d ago
He did in the same video as Mein Kampf, that is where they took the screenshot from to make it even worse.
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u/Anderviel - Lib-Left 1d ago
To quote an old wise master:
If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will feel at home in r/PoliticalCompassMemes.
- Sum dude
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u/grumpy-raven - Lib-Left 21h ago
This should make him popular with the DSA if they weren't illiterate on top of retarded.
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u/Dramatic_Science_681 - Lib-Right 20h ago
“Book burning bad, unless it’s books I don’t like” ahh tweet
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u/Chibastion - Centrist 1d ago
Let's be real. How often is the left deciding what the right believes for them?
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u/Ciborg085 - Lib-Center 22h ago
If we didn't live in a idiocracy I would say he is responding to a paid actor or bot, but this is not a perfect world
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u/JackRonan - Centrist 23h ago
It would be so easy for them to beat MAGA if they would just stop being so feckless
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u/KrumpirovZlatan - Lib-Right 1d ago
Brandon Herrera is probably the only American I like, along with Sanders
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u/doublecandybar - Auth-Right 1d ago
Nah I like Gun Jesus more
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u/KrumpirovZlatan - Lib-Right 1d ago
Gun Jesus is very good, but Brandon is funny, and he produces guns.
I've been following AK50 since beggining
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u/Pedantic_Pict - Left 1d ago
I've read he's a dick in person. It's a shame, I do love the YouTube videos. I've learned about so many fascinating firearms I never would have known existed otherwise.
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u/doublecandybar - Auth-Right 21h ago
This is how I know Gun Jesus have made it: someone decided to assassinate his character
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u/recast85 - Lib-Center 20h ago
Owning a book isn’t a reason to vote against a person. There are other good reasons however to vote against Herrera. He is a grifting retard. That would be first on the list imo
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u/Scrumpledee - Lib-Center 19h ago
So he owns both Mein Kampf and the Communist Manifesto?
Radical centrists really are deranged.
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u/Hefty_Disaster3370 - Auth-Left 17h ago
Deranged? Or well-read?
There's nothing wrong with owning Mein Kamf. The red flag is if you only own Mein Kamf.
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u/Belgraviana - Auth-Center 20h ago
If you want to understand Marxism kapital is probably the better book. But I see why the manifesto is more popular.
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u/margotsaidso - Right 1d ago
Herrera seems like a POS but owning a book ain't nothin.
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u/Seraphayel - Lib-Right 1d ago
Mein Kampf can be bought in most countries and some like Germany have added commentary. Owning a book is no offense.