> What's the difference [between Marxism and Communism]? You're unlikely to get a good answer to that here. HN is a site with heavy entrepreneurial/libertaria

> What's the difference [between Marxism and Communism]? You're unlikely to get a good answer to that here. HN is a site with heavy entrepreneurial/libertarian bent. Most of the people here (myself included) are chiefly going to be familiar with Marxism through the lens of mid-century libertarian polemics against central planning and histories of various brutal dictatorships that wrapped themselves in the "flag" of Marxism. For my part, I think we're going to have to distinguish, at least, between Marx's ideas, Soviet Leninist ideas, and generic anti-market central planning. For instance, I think Marx envisioned Communism emerging from an advanced industrialized capitalist society, while all historical "Communist" countries emerged from feudal unindustrialized ones. I think some "communist" thinkers envisioned an end-state that was something like a market economy, except the workers would own the factories in which they worked rather than some remote "capitalist." I would be extremely surprised (though grateful!) if many on HN had made a serious study of Marxism and could explain it, without succumbing to the biases I outlined above.