Chapter 97 [Case Analysis] <Eating determines the ideological system>

The Russian anarchists before the October Revolution attempted to refute the Marxist theory of historical materialism. They distorted an important Marxist thesis that people's economic status determines people's consciousness, and distorted it as food determines the ideological system.Then they refuted this absurd argument they themselves made up, arguing that eating cannot determine the ideological system, and using this to slander Marxist historical materialism as a theory of filling the stomach, satirizing and ridiculing.They say: If eating can determine the ideology, then those big-bellied men who are gluttonous and gluttonous are the most thoughtful geniuses.

As you all know, people's economic status determines people's consciousness and food determines their ideology are two completely different topics.Out of hatred for Marxism, the anarchists deliberately confuse the two and replace the refutation of the former with the refutation of the latter. This is a very bad sophistry. Stalin strongly refuted this.He said: Gentlemen, please tell us: when, where, and on which planet, which Marx said that eating determines the ideological system?Why do you not cite a sentence or a word from Marx's writings to confirm your thesis?It is true that Marx said that people's economic status determines people's consciousness and their thinking, but who told you that food and economic status are the same thing?Don't you know that a physiological phenomenon such as eating is fundamentally different from a social phenomenon such as people's economic status? ("The Complete Works of Stalin" Volume I, pages 298-299)

When exposing the sophistry of subverting the opponent's topic in refutation, Lenin pointed out: It is a common practice of less intelligent people to add obviously stupid ideas to his opponent and then refute them. (Volume 28 of "The Complete Works of Lenin", 1958 edition, p. 269)