I’m in my campus library studying with one of the other students in my program and there’s a group of students behind us engaged in conversation. They’re far enough away that I can’t pick up exactly why they’re talking about this (it could be they’re disagreeing with a prof or a classmate or they’re working on a paper together, idk) but I’m overhearing snippets every now and then. My favorite one so far being “Marxist theory is less about class analysis and more about how to control your subjects.”
The wild part is every time someone says something deranged everyone else in the group applauds them for their “great thinking.” Like no lmao you’re just regurgitating the same propaganda almost everyone else also believes. You’re not saying anything worthwhile bruhhh. I can smell the insides of their colons from across the room because of the amount of stuff they’re collectively pulling from their asses.
It’s so much easier - and feels smarter - to just come up with your own opinion on a subject. If you’re a reasonably intelligent person otherwise you might even produce a consistent idea. But this consistent idea is not original. Everyone is informed by the ideology they grew up in and our specific neoliberal ideology grooms critical thought in a specific way.
It’s not their fault, though. The only way they could possibly be cognizant of this is if they read political theory - oh wait.
I’m talking based on my interpretation of my own journey. Even when I started absorbing marxist talking points from youtube videos and shit I still told myself I didn’t need to ready the theory. I assumed any sufficiently good idea can be summarized. So when I ran against barriers in my thinking, I just assumed Marxism was too outdated to be applied, or that they were just bad ideas.
It was years until I actually picked up Marx’s works, dusted off the notes section, and spent the time actually reading it. It was only then that I realized I had no actual understanding of Marxism before. I just had buzzwords and talking points. It would have been so easy for me to manipulate those buzzwords and talking points to serve whatever worldview I pleased. Like, for example, that Marxism is about controlling subjects and not class analysis.
I probably would have even seemed really smart doing it.
I get what you’re saying, but I feel like for any given thing, you should have at the very least a basic understanding before trying to give an analysis of it. Maybe I’m just finding it difficult to empathise with people who know exactly 0 about something that’s become a core part of who I am.
I guess the issue is that to them they already have a lot of information about the subject and are unaware that it’s incorrect, which is fair. I’m sure I do the same thing when I talk about physics, seeing as how I’m not a physicist.
Don’t get me wrong, that’s pretty much my take away from it too. They want to have an opinion on political theory without reading political theory. It’s intellectual incuriosity at its best.
I just think it’s an extremely common approach to Marxism from people based in western countries, specifically because they get to dismiss a contradictory worldview and feel smart at the same time.