Are The Woke Actually Marxists?

“Marxism” is a common charge on the Right and is especially used against the current crop of Woke activists – i.e., supporters of critical race theory, transsexualism, destroying monuments to Washington and Jefferson, and anything else that was basically unheard of 15 years ago. But, are they actually Marxists or is it just another overused insult? The answer is both yes and no.

However, to understand why, we must first look at the core of Marxism and, more specifically, the way orthodox Marxists view history. For orthodox Marxism, history is driven by material economic conditions, so what really drives history is economic interests and anything else, be it religion, honor, etc. is really just a cover for economic concerns. To give a brief example, in the Marxist mind, the Crusades were not an attempt to win back the Holy Land for Christ, but rather was an attempt for nobles to acquire more land.

The way these economic interests are sorted though is by class; thus, class becomes the core component of historical development. This means that people are more united by class than something like religion and nation – a Frenchman or Arab, of the same class, have more in common than with another Frenchman or Arab of a different class. The same goes for religion as well, and the only reason the masses cannot see this is because they have been deceived by the upper-class in an attempt to maintain their rule. This is at the core of the Marxist hatred of both nation and religion, both are considered a blinding fog that keeps the masses from recognizing class-oppression. History then moves by a series of class conflicts. The French Revolution, in the orthodox Marxist mind, was a revolution of the middle-class against the nobility to establish a government that was more in line with what the middle-class desired – a liberal, democratic, and capitalistic order against the feudalism of the ancient regime. According to Marx, eventually the working-class would do the same, establishing a socialist order that was more to their liking.

Before I go any further, let me say that I do not deny that economic conditions are a major driving force in history. And, class also matters. Economics is important and sometimes economic motivations can be hidden. I wrote an article about how Antifa doxxings are motivated by economics, namely failed elites taking down their competition. But the problem is that, while economic conditions are important, as is class, not all of history can be reduced to such things. Take the “Scramble for Africa” as an example. The classic Marxist explanation is that it was motivated by a desire for new markets. Still, the facts to not back this up. In reality, African colonies cost Europe a tremendous amount of money and were too poor for them to dump products. The “Scramble for Africa” was more motivated by national pride and a genuine feeling that it was the duty of the White race to lift up the other races.

With the orthodox understanding of history, economics, and class out of the way, we can now see the difficulty in calling the Woke as Marxists – they don’t appear to care about economics all that much and certainly don’t care about class. How else do they get the frankly absurd notion that I, as a White, Christian, Southern male, am the oppressor of the likes of LeBron James, Elton John, and Nicole Kidman, even as they make more money in a year than I, or likely anyone reading this article, will make in a lifetime? Why are they so keen to rat out working-class people to their plutocratic bosses for thoughtcrime and then call it justice? How do the likes of Robin diAngelo and Ibram X. Kendi make millions from billionaires by telling people making under $70,000 a year that the real problem is White men rather than the ruling-class? These do not appear to be the actions of the orthodox Marxists that mistakenly reduced everything to class, but rather ideologues that have made a new error of completely ignoring class.

Nevertheless, in a certain way, the Woke are Marxists, they are just not orthodox Marxists. In order to understand this, we must comprehend a particular obsession of all Marxists – the promised revolution that never happened. Drawing from the writings of Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci, a theory crept into Marxism that the capitalist class had created a smokescreen of ideological hegemony that made the working-class consider their values as aligned with the ruling-class, specifically on race, religion, family, etc. The task at hand was to create a competing ideology that could slowly but surely take over the existing society. This is the “long march through the institutions” and the origins of Cultural Marxism.

Throughout the 20^th century, a greater number of Marxists shifted from the economic focus of classical Marxism to one that put greater emphasis on race, sex, family, etc. – it was considered as the needed step in ushering a Marxist revolution. This became even more apparent thanks to two trends in the 20^th century: (1) the Soviet Union not becoming the paradise they had hoped for and (2) the rightward shift from the American working-class core, that is White, male, and mostly Catholic or Evangelical. While Marx predicted that the working-class would move to the Far Left and overthrow capitalism during a time of great crisis, that is not what the working-class in the most advanced capitalist nation on earth did when the turmoil of the late 1960s and early 1970s hit. Instead, they moved to the Right, supporting Richard Nixon and George Wallace. This trend would be later observed in the 1980s when the White working-class supported Ronald Reagan and again in the 1990s with Pat Buchanan and, to a lesser extent, David Duke. We’ve seen this trend continue with Trump and beyond. Antifa is a movement of the Professional Managerial Class (PMC), or at least their children are, while the Proud Boys are the actual working-class. To say that history has not turned out the way Marx envisioned is an understatement.

While the Woke Left long ago stopped caring about class warfare in favor of race, sexual orientation, and gender identity, they are still agitating in hopes of triggering a revolution, but now with oppressed races (especially blacks) and the alphabet soup of weirdos taking center stage rather than the working-class. By understanding this, we can also realize what the stakes are for the White and conservative working-class. It is a common refrain from White Nationalists that White Nationalism is needed because all Whites are hated the same amount (a claim I find absurd). I cannot believe that Russians and Southerners are hated the same amount as Swedes and White Canadians. Some White nations are hating more because they have done a better job fighting back against globohomo. But, this is also not true on a class level – the White working-class really is hated significantly more than the White PMC class. Part of this is because, much like certain White nations, the White working-class has put up a greater amount of resistance.

However, it also goes deeper than that and there are more valuable insights as to why the White working-class is so despised – they are, in the eyes of Marxists, worse than open enemies, they are traitors. Hating a traitor more than an open enemy is very common throughout all of human history. Just look at how Dante was willing to name Saladin among the “righteous pagans,” but condemned the traitors not merely to hell but the lowest circle of hell.  Therefore, the White working-class becomes a particular target for the Woke Left’s vitriol due to their Marxist roots. The working-class was given the task to overthrow capitalism and usher in a socialist utopia. Instead, they stuck with their nations and religion, forcing the Marxists to adopt a new playbook.

It is from that shift that the Woke were born. They will never forgive the White working-class for that, hence the hatred for them and the desire to destroy everything they hold dear.