It also happens in reverse, you frequently find liberal "Marxists" that make claims about Marx that aren't true, for instance calling Marx an Anarchist when in reality Marxism is about centralization rather than Decentralization, yet make these claims based on an understanding of Marx found through Wikipedia introductions and Vaush videos.
"Read theory" is a half-meme because it would fix a bunch of problems with the Western Left in particular.
nail on the head. a lot of western leftists sometimes feel like liberals who are stuck on the halfway step of wondering to themselves what is even happening and how could they possibly fix it.
its all been there for decades, but even the mention of some of the words and ideas brings a visceral rejection in some.
Conditions point to certain universal conclusions, but a big issue with the Western Left in particular is being the beneficiaries of Imperialism and having to go against that system to truly be internationalist.
they are the "middle class" of the world, ha
Oh absolutely, it's relatively easy to accept the benefits of Socialism over Capitalism in a vacuum, but when you extrapolate that to the real world it requires uncomfortable recognition of benefiting from a system that supports you. Now, that system is crumbling, so that jump gets easier and easier.
Well of course I haven't read Marx. Communism's evil, duh.
I mean the logic isn't entirely wrong... though at least familiarize with snippits. I mean I don't have to read Mein Kamph to say Naziism is evil.
Of course, there is a huge difference, even in snippits and small amounts of information it's quite clear that all nazi followers, support racism.
While modern marxists do not call for violence etc... and specifically is calling for changing of things that, are not physical traits that require bloodshed.
your (and many people's) assumptions about modern marxists shows how unrepresentative and distorting these snippets are, in a way that i often find difficult to even articulate. similarly with nazism: if you correctly identified it to be evil and want to know how to defeat it, you have to understand it.
or blindly trust the people fighting them, but thats an obvious slippery slope, which is why marxists insist so much on not letting yourself be informed by just the few pieces that fall through the cracks of the system and read theory.
Marxism and Marxists have always called for revolution. Reformist Marxism is considered a deviation from Marx, just like those who wish to remove Dialectical and Historical Materialism from the Economic analysis of Marx are considered.