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Yes, I'd say that summarizes my statement well, where Marx's definition of progress is moving a society towards communism. This is why any time you see somebody

Yes, I'd say that summarizes my statement well, where Marx's definition of progress is moving a society towards communism. This is why any time you see somebody talk about "the right side of history" that's a flag that said person is a Marxist, they view their desired communist end-state as inevitable.

onionisafruit 5y ago
You may be right about the origin of "the right side of history", but the phrase has become popular enough that you can't use it to pin down the speaker's ideology. I think most people use it to mean that their ideas will be commonly accepted in the future. Whether their perceived future is a communist utopia or a libertarian thunderdome is irrelevant.
dekhn 5y ago
The right side of history was the US immediately after WWII.
- blacktriangle 5y ago
  I think everybody in Eastern Europe who got to live behind the Iron Curtain would disagree with that. Not dealing with the USSR immediately has to be one of the greatest screwups in US history.
rocqua 5y ago
> Yes, I'd say that summarizes my statement well, where Marx's definition of progress is moving a society towards communism. Thanks for the explanation! > This is why any time you see somebody talk about "the right side of history" that's a flag that said person is a Marxist, they view their desired communist end-state as inevitable. I think that is, at best, a gross generalization. Just because that is what a Marxist might say, does not mean that everyone who says that is actually a Marxist. Besides, I believe that "history is the story of human progress" is much more a modernist theory, than a Marxist one. It seems to me that someone being "on the right side of history" could just as easily mean, being part of the progress which modernists consider inevitable. Hence making it a modernist sentiment. Besides, when someone says "the right side of history" all that suggests to me is "back then people thought X was acceptable, now we no longer think that. Person Y was against X, and hence 'on the right side of history' ". The idea that our current morals are better than our previous morals is rather unsurprising. Most people probably hold that opinion, because otherwise, our current morals would change.

onionisafruit 5y ago

You may be right about the origin of "the right side of history", but the phrase has become popular enough that you can't use it to pin down the speaker's ideology. I think most people use it to mean that their ideas will be commonly accepted in the future. Whether their perceived future is a communist utopia or a libertarian thunderdome is irrelevant.

dekhn 5y ago

The right side of history was the US immediately after WWII.

blacktriangle 5y ago
I think everybody in Eastern Europe who got to live behind the Iron Curtain would disagree with that. Not dealing with the USSR immediately has to be one of the greatest screwups in US history.

rocqua 5y ago

> Yes, I'd say that summarizes my statement well, where Marx's definition of progress is moving a society towards communism. Thanks for the explanation! > This is why any time you see somebody talk about "the right side of history" that's a flag that said person is a Marxist, they view their desired communist end-state as inevitable. I think that is, at best, a gross generalization. Just because that is what a Marxist might say, does not mean that everyone who says that is actually a Marxist. Besides, I believe that "history is the story of human progress" is much more a modernist theory, than a Marxist one. It seems to me that someone being "on the right side of history" could just as easily mean, being part of the progress which modernists consider inevitable. Hence making it a modernist sentiment. Besides, when someone says "the right side of history" all that suggests to me is "back then people thought X was acceptable, now we no longer think that. Person Y was against X, and hence 'on the right side of history' ". The idea that our current morals are better than our previous morals is rather unsurprising. Most people probably hold that opinion, because otherwise, our current morals would change.