# Where Communism Really Started Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-discourses-187975/where-communism-really-started Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-discourses-187975/where-communism-really-started.md Podcast: [New Discourses](https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-discourses-187975) Published: 2026-05-29T15:43:42+00:00 Episode link: https://soundcloud.com/newdiscourses/where-communism-really-started Audio file: http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/feeds.soundcloud.com/stream/2329724597-newdiscourses-where-communism-really-started.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/new-discourses-187975/episodes/where-communism-really-started Duration seconds: 7529 ## Resource The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Ep. 205 Where did Communism really come from? Did it originate with Karl Marx? Is it... "Jewish"? The answers to these latter questions are no. Communism arose out of a combination of German idealism and French socialism, and the first documents on the subject were composed in France. In fact, not only that, the first revolutionary Communist was a Frenchman as well, Francois-Noel "Gracchus" Babeuf, who derived many of his ideas for communist life from an obscure French thinker and tax official named Etienne-Gabriel Morelly. Morelly wrote a tract called The Code of Nature (https://www.marxists.org/subject/utopian/morelly/code-nature.htm ) in 1755 outlining what we recognize today as Communism. Babeuf took these ideas and tried to install them through his "Conspiracy of the Equals," which had a manifesto, "The Manifesto of Equals," (https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/sylvain-marechal-manifesto-of-equals) written by his collaborator Sylvain Marechal in 1796. In this episode of the New Discourses Podcast, host James Lindsay takes you through these documents and makes it abundantly clear that the Communist Manifesto Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote in 1848 had these ideas at their core. Join him to learn the true origins of Communism. Join us for the Preserving Liberty Conference at Sea!: https://ndcruise.com Support New Discourses: https://newdiscourses.com/support Follow New Discourses on other platforms: https://newdiscourses.com/subscribe Follow James Lindsay: https://linktr.ee/conceptualjames © 2026 New Discourses. All rights reserved. #NewDiscourses #JamesLindsay #Communism ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/new-discourses-187975/episodes/where-communism-really-started/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-discourses-187975/where-communism-really-started.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.