The potentials of dialogue, and what follows from constraining such potentials, possibly got its most thorough treatment by Marxist idealists. This can initially seem odd to those who fast track from Marxist ideas to the repressive regimes of Stalin or Mao. But on closer examination one finds affinities between Marx's ideas and concerns and social constructionist ideas and practices. In particular, Marx was concerned with what people produced socially, and how they could become estranged from the products of their social interactions. Over-determined forms of language-use and restricted communications between people offer striking examples of Marx's concerns. In today's post-Soviet age any consideration of Marx seems dismissible, largely because of the failed cultural experiments where adaptations of his thinking were used.