'Last Man Standing' Star Tim Allen Posts Confusing Tweets Criticizing 'Carl Marx'

Comedian Tim Allen shared a series of confusing tweets about German philosopher Karl Marx Friday [...]

By Daniel S. Levine

Comedian Tim Allen shared a series of confusing tweets about German philosopher Karl Marx Friday afternoon. The Last Man Standing actor shared a quote from the Wikipedia entry on Marx and Friedrich Engels' The Communist Manifesto as an "honest progressive position." Allen incorrectly referred to Marx as "Carl Marx" first. The actor is conservative politically and narrated a commercial for a Republican candidate in Michigan during the 2020 election.

Allen first posted the Wikipedia quote, suggesting it was written by Marx himself. The quote came from the list of "short-term demands" included in one part of The Communist Manifesto. The list reads, "a progressive income tax; abolition of inheritances and private property; abolition of child labor; free public education; nationalization of the means of transport." Allen later added, "Guess who wrote this?"

Next, Allen tweeted the attribution to the quote. "Carl Marx. Communist Manifesto. Wikipedia." Rather than delete this tweet with the inaccurate spelling of Marx's first name, he published another tweet that simply read, "Oops. Karl."

Allen's followers pounced on the comments, with many confused. If he believed Marx's demands were bad, was he saying abolishing child labor was bad, some wondered. "Tim are you taking a pro-child labor stance here," one person wrote. "Are you implying the abolition of child labor is bad Tim," another asked. "I'm not sure what your point is, all these things sound great," one fan chimed in.

"I am sure Mr. Marx would have made adjustments to his position had he been exposed to our country's advanced evolution of worker unions and our protection of child labor," Allen later wrote in a possible attempt to clarify his tweets. In another tweet on the Marx subject, he wrote, "One of you tweeted which Marx brother was Karl, I burst out laughing. Wished I had said that."

Allen is a political conservative. During the election, he narrated an ad for John James, the Republican candidate for one of Michigan's U.S. Senate seats. The actor has also claimed his politics played a role in ABC canceling Last Man Standing. The show was picked up by Fox, which recently announced the show's upcoming ninth season overall will be its last. The new season will premiere on Sunday, Jan. 3 at 8:30 p.m. ET before it moves to Thursdays at 9:30 p.m. ET on Jan. 7.

"As we approach the ninth season, I just admire and feel grateful for all the hard work our wonderful cast and crew have done," Allen said in a statement about the show ending in October. "We had all considered to end the show after last season, but together with Fox, we decided to add a year so we could produce a full season to create the gentle and fun goodbye. I'm looking forward to a memorable and hilarious final season."

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