Reddit reviews The Communist Manifesto (Penguin Classics)

This is actually not exclusive to the US. A bunch of conglomerates own most media in the world.
For example, a big media outlet in europe is RTL Group. RTL Group has a shitload of tv channels all over europe, news, entertainment etc. BUT RTL Group is owned by Bertelsmann.

Bertelsmann has a ton of child companies such as RTL Group, which owns a ton of tv channels and radio stations. Penguin Random House , which as of 2013, published 15,000 titles annually under its 250 divisions and imprints. For example, i have a copy of the communist manifesto. which... surprise surprise, is published by Penguin Classics, 1 of the sub-sub companies of Penguin Random House.

Here is a little list of what they own:

• RTL Group The RTL Group is one of the leading European entertainment providers.
  
  
• Penguin Random House which is the world's largest book publishing company. Publishing everything from video game guides, to study books, to literature, to cooking books, self-help books, religious books, history, science, women's studies, sociology and fiction, LGBT etc...etc...etc...
  
  
• Gruner + Jahr Which publishes ALOT of magazines.
  
  
• BMG is a music publishing company based in Berlin. The BMG catalog encompasses rights to works by artists such as Céline Dion, Jennifer Lopez, Ronan Keating and Britney Spears.
  
  
• Arvato is an international service provider.
  
  
• Bertelsmann Printing Group which does something with digital printing, i don't even know.
  
  
• Bertelsmann Education Group is dedicated to the education sector. which owns a ton of university's and schools.
  
  
• Bertelsmann Investments This division bundles the startup investments of Bertelsmann. The main focus is on Brazil, China and India, along with Europe and the United States.
  
  And all of these divisions own a TON (and with a ton, i don't mean 10 or 20. no. i mean up to the 100's.) of companies, which also own dozens of companies.
  
  
  
  Almost everything you watch, read, hear, is brought to you by 1 of the handful of conglomerates in the world.
  
  They own newspapers, tv channels, radio stations, websites, schools, university's, food production etc..
  
  So yeah, this is not US exclusive. Its scary as fuck that everything we learn, watch, read etc.. comes from the mouths of a handful of companies.
  
  Its all way to much to type, but here try clicking on the links in my text, and see what they all own.
  
  We're absolutely fucked :)
  
  Here is an old but i guess, insightful image that shows a few of these conglomerates.

Since the Penguin edition of Capital is arguably the go-to version of the book in the English language I assume this one will also be good: https://www.amazon.com/Communist-Manifesto-Penguin-Classics/dp/0140447571

oh 100%, in fact (as far as i can tell) the anti-communist propaganda that the US pumped out was basically a direct response to the anti-capitalist propaganda being pumped out in russia. i’ve been reading this wonderful edition of the communist manifesto (i know i know just stick with me here) that comes with a VERY objective, in-depth historical preface that’s actually longer than the manifesto itself, and apart of that historical preface actually addressed how we in the US got our ideas of communism.

as it turns out, what basically happened was marx and engels wrote the manifesto in hopes of sparking ideas in people; people start to dig it and want to start a political party (which marx was against). they gain political traction and the word spreads. stalin reads the manifesto, takes bits and pieces he likes and ignores the rest (because when you actually read the source material, it’s easy to figure out that marx was probably very against what stalin did), becomes a fascist dictator and calls it “marxism-leninism”. this is where the anti-capitalist/american propaganda is pumped out. because stalin calls it marxist, the US falls for the propaganda and since then has associated communism/marxism with fascism.

so in the US, the main point of the communist manifesto that everyone seems to conveniently miss is it’s very anti-authoritarian message and how the power should be in the people. additionally, another huge point that everyone missed is that marx NEVER intended for this to be a forced ideology. in fact, it was never supposed to be a system or way of life comparable to capitalism or any other system. it was essentially a sociological take on society as a whole and basically just a theory that marx and engels came up with after studying societies. engels actually said at marx’s funeral something along the lines of “marx is to communism as darwin is to evolution; both are scientists who discovered something and created theories on it”. they just theorized that communism is an inevitable result of the system that we’re in, and that it’s a natural progression. basically, capitalism -> late stage capitalism -> system implodes on itself -> rebuild -> socialism -> communism. that’s their theory. but then stalin and mao done fucked it up for everyone and labeled their fascist regimes as such >:(((