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offsite link North Korea Increases Aid to Russia, Mos... Tue Nov 19, 2024 12:29 | Marko Marjanovi?

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Human Rights in Ireland
Indymedia Ireland is a volunteer-run non-commercial open publishing website for local and international news, opinion & analysis, press releases and events. Its main objective is to enable the public to participate in reporting and analysis of the news and other important events and aspects of our daily lives and thereby give a voice to people.

offsite link Top Scientists Confirm Covid Shots Cause Heart Attacks in Children Sun Oct 05, 2025 20:31 | imc

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Lockdown Skeptics

The Daily Sceptic

offsite link How Small Wins Could Save the Government Sun Oct 19, 2025 19:00 | Joanna Gray
The Government is floundering like a sulky teen, but tackling small wins ? from tidying high streets to fixing DVLA chaos ? could help rebuild its confidence, suggests Joanna Gray.
The post How Small Wins Could Save the Government appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link No Kings, No Thrones, No Crowns? No Problem Sun Oct 19, 2025 17:00 | Dr Roger Watson
The US may be shut down, but in DC the National Guard outnumbers protesters, and as Dr Roger Watson notes, streets once full of tents and beggars prove Trump actually gets things done.
The post No Kings, No Thrones, No Crowns… No Problem appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Jewish Lawyer is Questioned by Police Over Wearing a Star of David Necklace That ?Antagonised? Pro-P... Sun Oct 19, 2025 15:16 | Richard Eldred
The Met Police are embroiled in yet another two-tier policing row after a Jewish lawyer was held for nearly 10 hours over alleged Public Order breaches for wearing a Star of David necklace at a Kensington protest.
The post Jewish Lawyer is Questioned by Police Over Wearing a Star of David Necklace That ?Antagonised? Pro-Palestinian Protesters During Demo appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Maccabi Tel Aviv Fans Must be Allowed to Attend the Aston Villa Game on November 6th Sun Oct 19, 2025 13:00 | Jack Watson
Aston Villa's ban on Maccabi Tel Aviv fans reeks of anti-Israel politics, not concerns over safety, argues Jack Watson, who says Birmingham officials and an MP with pro-Gaza ties have let prejudice trump fair play.
The post Maccabi Tel Aviv Fans Must be Allowed to Attend the Aston Villa Game on November 6th appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Labour ?Tears Up Islamophobia Definition? Amid Free Speech Concerns Sun Oct 19, 2025 11:00 | Richard Eldred
Labour has ditched its old Islamophobia definition after concerns it could curb free speech. The party now prefers "anti-Muslim hate".
The post Labour ?Tears Up Islamophobia Definition? Amid Free Speech Concerns appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

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Voltaire Network
Voltaire, international edition

offsite link Will intergovernmental institutions withstand the end of the "American Empire"?,... Sat Apr 05, 2025 07:15 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?127 Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:38 | en

offsite link Disintegration of Western democracy begins in France Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:00 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?126 Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:39 | en

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Marx And Morality

category international | anti-capitalism | opinion/analysis author Monday January 11, 2016 20:33author by Paddy Hackett Report this post to the editors

Morality based on materialist conditions

Society determines the character of culture.

Society determines the character of culture, consciousness and morality. Capitalism, then, determines the nature of morality. Consequently it provides the conditions that enable us to condemn the exploitation of labour power as morally wrong. If exploitation is morally wrong then there is a necessity to eliminate it and replace it with social conditions that are exploitation free. In this sense we can say that there is a materialist basis that justifies condemning exploitation and alienation as morally wrong.

author by Mike Novackpublication date Sat Jan 16, 2016 01:44author address author phone Report this post to the editors

To give a simple example (from what you said)

A is immoral (that given as true) is INSUFFICIENT all by itself to derive B is obligated to do something about A (assuming that B personally isn't doing A, etc.)

"A is immoral" is a statement.about fact, an "is" statement. "B should do something about that" is a "ought" sort of statement.

You need an "axiom" here, relating at "is" to the "ought". For example, you COULD have something like "If X is wrong, then even if personally innocent of X, ought to do something about it." Now I'm not going to argue for or against particular axioms of that sort, just going to point out that the moral philosophers of this world aren't in agreement. Lots of "schools" out there.

But you aren't going to get anywhere with pure materialism. All "is" statements". Even Marxist moral philosophy is going to need some "oughts". If this isn't making any sense to you, I suggest going back to Ethics 101. The necessary 'axiom" relating "is" to "ought" is NOT going to be a materialist statement.

.

author by Paddy Hackettpublication date Sun Jan 17, 2016 21:05author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Mike: But you aren't going to get anywhere with pure materialism. All "is" statements". Even Marxist moral philosophy is going to need some "oughts".

Paddy: It is not going to need “an ought” because the conditions for the elimination of a fact that is morally wrong already exist and are developed within capitalism as a social system. This means that objective conditions exist for the replacement of capitalism with communism. In a sense this is a socio-ontological matter.

Morality is just a form of condemnation –that capitalism is wrong. Once it's moral nature is established then the moral fact can be eliminated. The problem is a subjective one: the failure of the working class to develop this moral consciousness –class consciousness. The internal materialist or objective conditions already exist.

author by Mike Novackpublication date Tue Jan 19, 2016 19:47author address author phone Report this post to the editors

But really there may be no help for you but biting the bullet and taking a course of the Ethics 101 sort.

You think you can get from "X is bad" to a REASON why you should do anything about X just from the "X is bad"

WHY? WHY should something being bad be a REASON for you to do anything? Suppose instead we had a statement "X is blue". Does that give you a reason to do anything? Both are stating a factual condition. Neither sasy anything about your actions.

Now suppose you have a statement "If X is Z, you should eliminate X" Do you notice something about that statement, that it has BOTH and "is" and an ought"? That means if you have these statements:

1) If something is bad, you should work to eliminate it.
2) Capitalism is bad.

Conclusion: You should work to eliminate capitalism.

But while statement "2" above is a statement in the realm of factual statements, statement "1" was not. It states a relationship within the moral realm of discourse. It is NOT a "material" statement.

Could I make a suggestion. The left tradition did not come into existence with Marx, it pre-existed. And among the precursors were some who some in ethics. So why don't you look up "utilitarianism. Like I said elsewhere, I suspect you could base morality for Marxists with most schools. But historically, there was a relationship between the utilitarianism and the pre Marx left.

 
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