Seize the Means of Production

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About

Seize the Means of Production is a widely recognized reference to one of the central tenets in Communism proposed by German philosopher Karl Marx, which prescribes the working-class and revolutionaries to repossess and centralize the ownership of the infrastructure that produces goods and capital. It has become a popular, politically left-leaning punchline for image macros and other joke formats.

Origin

In 1867's Das Kapital, Karl Marx^[1] wrote that should a laborer "own (his) means of production, and was satisfied to live as a labourer, he need not work beyond beyond the time necessary for the reproduction of his means of subsistence, say 8 hours a day." The full phrase "seize the means of production" first appeared in black activist W. E. B. DuBois' posthumous autobiography published in 1968,^[2] when he wrote that he considered himself a communist:

"It is a historical fact that blacks were brought to this country for the profit of the ruling class which at the time were landowners. They needed someone to till the soil and grow profitable crops. Today we have shifted from an agrarian economy to a goods-production economy. But the same relationships exist between the private owner and the worker. Nothing has changed. Therefore, for working people to be free, they must seize control of the means of production."

Spread

Communist humor remained a mostly niche area of the internet, appearing in subreddits such as /r/FULLCOMMUNISM,^[3] until the 2016 United States Presidential Election, particularly the candidacy of Democratic Socialist Bernie Sanders helped communist memes grow more popular. The advent of Barnie Sandlers and Bernie Sanders Dank Meme Stash] which as of January 9th, 2017 has over 436,000 members, attracted a left-leaning fanbase that made leftist political ideas such as "seize the means of production" a common punchline within the groups. The humor also grew into a staple of Weird Facebook, appearing in dozens of popular pages.

In late 2015, /r/Me_IRL began posting Communist-themes images, leading Reddit user GuessMeNow to post a thread to /r/OutOfTheLoop^[6] asking about the rise of Communist memes on the subreddit. On March 30th, 2016, silverben10 posted to /r/OutofTheLoop^[7] asking specifically about "Seize the means of production."

On March 25th, 2016, redditor FutureFormerRedditor posted to /r/LateStageCapitalism an edit of a webcomic to show the toy Bop It to show a picture of Marx exclaiming "Seize the Means of Production" (shown below).^[8]

In the coming months, many edits to existing meme templates employing "seize the means of production" as a punchline appeared, causing The Daily Dot^[5] to covered the spread of "communist Facebook" jokes and Weird Facebook pages in August of 2016.