One of the leading lights of national conservatism, Yoram Hazony, devotes a chapter of his new book to the “Marxist challenge.” But like so many other conservatives, he seems to think Marxism means “anything conservatives find frightening.”
Curious thing is, if you hang out in conservative online spaces where they retain some belief that they retain anonymity, once they start talking amongst themselves (instead of hyping themselves up on talking points shoved their way from think tanks) they express strong desires for reforms which, unbeknownst to them, are well in line with Marxist thought.
That doesn’t mean they suddenly lose all of their horrible views about many other things, just that the working-class conservative is perhaps wholly out of reach than we imagine?
And, notably, when they’re expressing grief that society is so dystopian, they often state that they’d basically be fine with everyone they currently hate, and happy for everyone to do their own thing, were society to be radically reformed.
I don’t think that means they can be brought around to becoming allies in meaningful numbers, and as a group they remain dangerous, but it suggests they do experience profound unease with the trajectory of their own conservatism, and that in turn may offer clues as to why they cling so wildly to being the footsoldiers of oppression.
Curious thing is, if you hang out in conservative online spaces where they retain some belief that they retain anonymity, once they start talking amongst themselves (instead of hyping themselves up on talking points shoved their way from think tanks) they express strong desires for reforms which, unbeknownst to them, are well in line with Marxist thought.
That doesn’t mean they suddenly lose all of their horrible views about many other things, just that the working-class conservative is perhaps wholly out of reach than we imagine?
And, notably, when they’re expressing grief that society is so dystopian, they often state that they’d basically be fine with everyone they currently hate, and happy for everyone to do their own thing, were society to be radically reformed.
I don’t think that means they can be brought around to becoming allies in meaningful numbers, and as a group they remain dangerous, but it suggests they do experience profound unease with the trajectory of their own conservatism, and that in turn may offer clues as to why they cling so wildly to being the footsoldiers of oppression.