And this is why materialism, Marxism or possibly otherwise, is worth defending.

Next, Marxists recognize 2 central forms of value:

Use value is abstract, but not subjective.

Exchange value is contextual.

That's it. That's what you need to argue with, instead of your ridiculous straw men above.

Additionally, it can hardly be stressed enough how unimportant labor theory of value is for Marxism as a whole.

Excuse me? The overwhelming majority of Marx's published work was literally advocacy of concrete plans.

See his work with the International Workingmen's Association for some of the most well-known letters and articles arguing for explicit political positions and concrete labor actions: https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1864/iwma/index....

Realize capital has no market value without labor to work it. This goes for real estate too, which workers require to rest themselves just in time to return to work to turn a profit for those that control capital.

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/View_Transi...

https://www.moergo.com

> There, Captain Higgins told his story to the marine reporters. Loathe to blame the owners, Higgins speculated that the schooner’s hull may have been cut by ice in the Straits of Mackinac. However, a review of the vessel’s career suggests that she was little more than a floating coffin by the time of her final voyage. Most vessels of the Trinidad’s era lasted twice as long as she did, but they also received regular recaulking and replacement of decayed or rotten wood and rigging. The insurance records suggest that Trinidad received little of the normal maintenance and was essentially sailed into the bottom of the Lake.

A classic tale of capitalist barbarism and how American workers are manipulated and propagandized into shilling for their masters. Disgusting stuff, and sadly nothing has fundamentally changed in over 150 years.