Is reading The Communist Manifesto required?

It’s a good work, I don’t know why you wouldn’t read it. People recommend it for a reason

Because it's 30 pages long so can't prove anything of contemporary political value.

The part btfoing SocDems is pretty relevant.

There’s plently of value in there on class struggle being a feature of history, the nature of the bourgeois state, what the proletariat needs to do, etc. You’ve never read it so you can’t just claim that there is nothing of value in it

I have read Das Kapital in German (Volume 1 finished, started Volume 2) and have never read Das Manifest der kommunistischen Partei either. I know what is said in the manifesto though because it's so short.

I talkes to a guy once who claimed his buddy was a very knowledgable hardcore marxist

Top Kek
Guy was a Zig Forums chapo type too

If you can't read the manifesto, you probably just can't read.

Tbh my nr 1 recommendation would be Ernest Mandel's An Introduction to Marxist Economics, above the Manifesto, above Wage Labor and Capital. I convinced a socdem who has read the Manifesto via the Mandel summary to become a communist. He now is a Cockshottian ML socialist thanks to me

With this i mean: The manifesto alone is ineffective.

Knowing about labor value, about surplus value, about the means of production, about the two classes - those concepts alone are already powerful enough to turn a man communist. So a summary of Marxist economic analysis is enough IMO.

I was starting it today and i plan on finishing it later, i can understand it, it's just that it doesn't feel like anything very eye opening.

Sounds nice, thanks.

The thing is i spend more time reading people discuss these things than actually reading essays or theory, i have seen small resumes that came during conversations and i just find myself agreeing with communist principles.

it was inspirational propaganda for it's time. It's mostly read for historical value. It might help to give someone who knows absolutely nothing about communism a hint of insight into what it's about, but that's it. It's purpose is to motivate workers, not analyze societal mechanisms, history or propose the precise steps to bring about communism.