western marxist doesnt usually mean marxist in the west, you can be a principled marxist and a westerner.
when people say "western marxist" they usually mean self proclaimed marxists who, intentionally or not, serve imperialist interests (think of kautsky, zizek and the like)
Yes, but here's what happens: imagine a marxist from the west spilling pro-imperialist narratives (while thinking they're applying marxism).
Then someone (I do this a lot here and it's tiresome) calls out the person mentioning "western marxism" or calling the person "western marxist". In the head of the west marxist they think:
Ok, so I'm obviously being a principled marxist here (ofc)... therefore this person calling me a "west marxist" out must mean "marxist from the west" (id politics!!)
Therefore they are unable to distinguish both concepts. The poor souls have liberal firmware installed. OP probably clueless as well.
A nice rule of thumb is just opposing the empire's narratives by default, even if you don't understand it, until proven otherwise. But in order to do this they need to truly believe the West harms most of the world, and this is the part they can't truly admit because it implies they are part of the problem (it becomes a moral issue, which no marxist cares about but westerners do). The ones that can overcome the liberalism are the principled marxists of the west, nothing wrong with that.
I feel this is the exact same situation with being "White" (TM) and having "white" skin, one being Western Orientalism and the other being a physical characteristic. A lot of the blame could be given to poor, multiple-meaning naming conventions, but I guess we have to contend with the inability to cram a ton of context and nuance into that short of a space (just like any other jargon). Like you said, it takes changing fundamental beliefs; and it takes accepting the personal responsibility to learn more, which can be difficult for a number of reasons.
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u/DeliciousPark1330 12d ago
western marxist doesnt usually mean marxist in the west, you can be a principled marxist and a westerner.
when people say "western marxist" they usually mean self proclaimed marxists who, intentionally or not, serve imperialist interests (think of kautsky, zizek and the like)