A lot of the angry right cry 'Marxist'! every time they're triggered by the left and liberal. I do like to clear things up for confused folk, so today I would like to talk you through the key points of Marxism. (A thread, by me, a socialist babe at heart with some marxist values)

Essentially, the core Marxist view is that economic and social conditions, and the 'class' system (working, middle, upper etc), affects every aspect of someone's life, -from their experience in legal systems, to cultural frameworks and religious beliefs.

Marxism is the theory that because of capitalism, we are divided into slaves/masters -the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. Karl Marx believed there should (and would) be a revolution that would see the ‘means of production’ shared by EVERYONE rather than controlled by the elite.

Sounds nice, right? Yeah, I know, I dig it too. It's what we know as socialism. It's super pro working class, but unfortunately, it gets wrapped up in confusion with communism quite a bit, which is a different concept. Here is an over simplification of the differences:

Marxism; You have 2 cows. You own both, your neighbour has none. They are both yours. You give one to your neighbour, because you can, and you don't need both.

Communism; You have 2 cows. The State takes both and gives you some milk, and gives some to your neighbour.

Capitalism: You have two cows. You sell one, buy a bull. Your herd multiplies. You sell them, retire on the income. Sounds nice! But the problem is, is that it's unfair to your neighbour, who can't afford one cow, and you won't just give them one, -you've become attached to money

Meanwhile, the extremely wealthy at the top are taxing your cows, and encouraging you to get greedy, to make them more money.
So naturally, marxism is *quite* the problem for them, not wanting to lose their power and their vast, unspendable wealth. They have a solution.

They seed vicious propaganda about Marxism, create a world that benefits the fellow rich, and a legal system that targets those that can't fight back (e.g don't have money for legal fees) to squish them down and stop them rising up. They tell you your neighbour wants your cows..

When in reality, you don't actually have any cows, 'cos you've lived through too many economic crashes that _only the elite_ recovered from, but you're hooked on this dream that one day, you'll have cows, maybe when your nanna dies (who bought cows back when they cost ninepence)

Just for fun, Fascism: The state takes both your cows, sells you the milk, you run into debt trying to afford it. Sound familiar? (That's something we genuinely run the risk of, right now, if we continue to be exploited by the elite.)

Marxism is the view that a socialist state is one that serves us all. It means (of course) political/goverment leadership, and state ownership, but because those in that position aren't on overinflated wages, it's in their own interest to do their best for the state.

It doesn't mean anyone wants YOU to have any less. It means we want people less fortunate to have enough, and the elite to have less. It means we want a government owned by the state, and answerable to the state.
Now, how is Marx' theory still visible today?

Education. Marxism says that in education, capitalists encourage high achievers, and punishes those who do not achieve academically. High achievement = high flying jobs = better profits for company owners and more exploitation for the workers. Unfortunately, this leads to:

Schools contributing to the idea people get what they deserve in education. True for some, but mostly, educational achievement is heavily impacted by the chance circumstances of your birth i.e. who your parents are.
Next up: The MEDIA (this one is fun)

The the mainstream media exists to promote capitalism and therefore maintain the bourgeoisie’s wealthy position in society. This encourages people to accept the exploitation of workers as normal. We consume reality TV publicising lavish lifestyles and shock programmes on the poor

Everything you see has been cleverly curated to keep you exactly where you are - striving for more money to pay them taxes, being horrified at the 'benefit scroungers' so you shun a more socialist model. Why should you help the scroungers? That doc showed they had iphones!

They show us the bad to seed a hateful attitude in us. 'I worked hard so why do they get a free ride?'. True, we have a problem with that. People will always play the system. But the BIGGER problem is kids going to school hungry. Homelessness. And media sneakily blames the victim

So there we have it, my lovelies. Don't get mad because people want equality. They want it for you, too.
Hopefully you understand Marxism a little more, and realise it's not the same as communism, or fascism, and also realise it's really not an insult to yell on twitter ^_^