Leftists who are dunking on the idea that you can be a socialist without being a Marxist really need to read "For America To Live Europe Must Die" by Russell Means. Especially white leftists. I'm just saying. Check yourself before you start throwing accusations around, please.

"Distilled to it’s basic terms, European faith — including the new faith in science — equals a belief that man is God. Europe has always sought a Messiah, whether that be the man Jesus Christ or the man Karl Marx or the man Albert Einstein."

"To cling to capitalism and Marxism and all the other 'isms' is simply to remain within European culture. There is no avoiding this basic fact. As a fact, this constitutes a choice...And understand that the choice is yours, not mine."

Marxism, for all its positives, remains, indubitably, an ideology that originated in Europe. It is therefore limited. Means believed, and I believe, that you can never destroy white supremacy and imperialism using European ideology alone. You must base yourself in something else.

This is why when it comes to labeling myself politically I use the term "Buddhist socialist." Although I believe that, yes, it is necessary and important to read Marx, Kropotkin, and all the others, I believe that the core of my identity as an anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist

...rests in my upbringing as a Thai-American in a blue collar, Theravada Buddhist household, and that my radicalization sprung originally from that experience, not from anything I've read in a book written by a white man. They only gave me the words. I gave myself the beliefs.

It's just like Audre Lorde said. "The master's tools will never dismantle the master's house." White leftists will spout this quote day after day, again and again, and fail to see the irony as soon as somebody dares to say that they reject the label of Marxist?

This is why I think it is not just a half-measure, but ultimately dangerous, to act like the buck stops with Marx, Lenin, and Gramsci when it comes to political education. This is how class-reductionists are created.

This is not to say you shouldn't be allowed to call yourself a Marxist. If you are a Marxist then you should say you are a Marxist and you should be proud of it. Just like...don't be weird at people who don't want to call themselves Marxists.