it’s really easy when you imagine every delicate and bespoke part is a disposable piece of plastic designed to be interchangeable and taken apart and put back together in different arrangements then thrown in a box and stamped on by kids and pets and then to start again with nothing lost. nothing could go wrong with that analogy.

capital co opts everything it touches lol

it’s absorbed through osmosis by people living in capitalism and being surrounded by bourgeois media of all types .that and not being taught to think critically or creatively about anything. so people think population increase = more people within their personal space and possibly taking their resources.

the main referent is immigration and you know how that 's spoken about. unfortunately people would rather imagine themselves being a little fascist than imagine themselves challenging their hoarding employer / landlord / utility company / etc

you’re welcome. I’m thinking of taking a look at the reitter translation. if I can find the time, I’ll read it this year (assuming I’m not the only one who is treating 2025 basically to have started already-i don’t think I’ll get around to it in '24). I’ll make a post about it if I do

likewise , let me know what you think if you go with that version or read it later ; there’s a strong chance that you’ll read it before me lol (my reading list is always far too ambitious).

thanks, comrade, that’s a lot of mods!

Looks like this adds in a lot of nuance that isn’t in the vanilla game. I have enjoyed the vanilla version and never used mods . i should have a bit more time in 2025 and plan to play a bit more civ vi . I’ll give some of these mods a whirl

if i were to start with one or two mods, which of your list give the most oomf to a game? (If it helps, I don’t always have time for super long games .)

I read the Ben Fowkes penguin edition. It’s good. Some of the footnotes are a bit… meta - where you have footnotes from Marx, BF and Engels. This version is my preference , as I like to hold the book, especially if I have to study something carefully.

IMO it’s better than the Marxists.org copy because the online version contains errors. only minor typos, formatting issues and unclear footnotes but they are there. I do refer to that version and have skim read most of it because it’s handy to have an online, always-accessible, searchable version.

but for closely studying, i would go with the physical penguin version if you can afford it and can get along with handwriting notes, etc (if you work better online, the Marxists.org version will be fine.)

As for the reading order, you don’t have to read it from start to finish. Pick a later chapter that looks interesting and think about the general concepts that you already know about while you read it. . Once you see how Marx deploys his concepts in one of the…juicier chapters, you might find chapters 1-4 a lot more engaging. because you will know where Marx is going with them.

(I would suggest then eventually re-reading the later chapter when you read from chapter 1 chronologically - you’ll be able to re-evaluate it knowing Marx’s notion of commodities in more depth and things will start to make a lot of sense).

volume I penguin edition isn’t as long as it looks. the first 100, maybe 150 pages are an introduction by, iirc, Ernest Mandel.

The very last ‘chapter’ is a summary of the whole book intended to prepare readers for volume II but not really ‘part’ of capital vol I; it’s also about 100 pages.

If you focus on Marx’ s words, it’s still long but much more approachable. I would recommend reading the Marx and Engels front matter carefully, though - there’s a lot of important and concise detail in those (the postfaces, prefaces, afterwords to different editions, etc). that said, these might be better to read at the end.

you’re welcome. he mentions Klein’s book. i prefer some of the more theoretical work by e.g. John Bellamy Foster but Klein’s book is a good place to start. it’s full of detail and facts and relatively easy to read . if you don’t get as much as you like in the sense of ‘capitalism causes climate change’, take a look at Bellamy Foster or Hickel. Hickel is in some ways now specific . like , he will go into the details of carbon emissions and he has a lot on his website, including short blogs et c.

maybe this list will be useful : https://www.historicalmaterialism.org/ecology-marxism-andreas-malm/

ooh what mods and how do they make it interesting?

interesting thing about all this is in showing exactly how dependent on fossil fuels western europe is . without the Ukraine war ,gas usage would not be reported like it currently is.

in the west , rapid growth precipitates collapse because it means someone’s had their hand in the cookie jar

considering the nature of an encyclopedia - short, knowledgeable articles on practically every topic - what’s the difference except to invite errors and snazz things up ?

that’s not completely fair ; they could have done their research (using ai)

this might all explain macron’s actions. he’s the safe pair of hands and the scapegoat rolled into one if things don’t go to plan in sahel .

“billionaire … grassroots”

lmao but people will fall for it

the compradors hope the US will look after them specifically even if it’s bad for the average european . up till now, it has been and they can get rich in the US and in Europe. capital moves across borders . It’s more like the anglo european empire than the american empire but its imperial seat is in the US.

Realising they can get away with another genocide has whet their appetites

still not a great environmental impact but this is a better way of using ammo to keep the MIC happy

hmmm i have to admit i used to read more fantasy than sci fi and watch and play a little more sci fi than fantasy . not much time to do either now 😔

I enjoyed ‘the gods themselves’ by Asimov. i did read and enjoy a lot of kids sci do books but I can’t remember the names, except Halo . I only ever played a few matches at my friend’s place as I never had an Xbox but I read the first three books of that series and loved them. tried to read them as an adult and did not get very far into the first one. Maybe they pick up a bit. I might have time over Christmas to read a bit more of them if things go to plan (they won’t go to plan, though, lol, i already know it! )

what about you? Any recommendations?