Marxist Criticisms of AOC and 'Latinx'

[Satchmo Distel]

Marxist and 'Jacobin' regular writer Ben Burgis has just had this published in the Daily Beast, criticizing AOC for pushing 'Latinx' instead of focusing on socialist economics in the manner of Bernie Sanders:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/bernie-sanders-democratic-successors-are-failing-his-leftist-legacy

I think he's right on the specifics here because Latinx does not seem popular among the community itself:

https://www.billboard.com/music/latin/latinx-term-latin-community-9514370/

However, his deeper claim that socialists should avoid culture war topics is dubious. Class is lived through culture and so to engage about class we must go through culture. It's also basic intersectionality: you can't expect people to engage with you on class if you ignore how they are marginalized by ethnocentrism, misogyny and racism.

[TonTon]

He doesn't write like a Marxist. I wonder what kind of Marxist he thinks he is.

[Bizarre Löw Triangle]

'x' as a gender neutral spanish ending explicitly comes from lgbt north american spanish speakers - like a minority within a minority. the fact that most spanish speakers in north america don't identify as latinx is neither here nor there really. I don't identify as "they" but i also recognise the existence and need for gender neutral terminology. and like the x not existing in spanish is sorta the point - it does exist in various north american indigenous languages which coincide with areas most spanish speakers live.

there are other alternatives like 'e' (which is more used in South American and '@' in Spain and I imagine most spanish speakers in South America don't identify as "latine" either?

[TonTon]

I mean yeah he's wrong specifically, for all those reasons and more. But his approach is really very...thin? I mean, I know there are lots of people who identify as "Marxist" and it doesn't mean much beyond having read some books. But there's no analytical method there, is there?

[Hot Pepsi]

Everything you say is true. No notes.

[ursus arctos]

USian "Marxism" is notoriously weak on analytical method.

It is mostly just vibes.

[sw2borshch]

The Richard Madeley School, eh?

[Lang Spoon]

USian "Marxism" is notoriously weak on analytical method.

It is mostly just vibes.

Everything I see from Jacobin seems to be a whole load of vibes. The dirtbag left without swears.

[Discordant Resonance]

Apart from Eoghan Gilmartin, but then he writes exclusively about the Spanish left.

[Flynnie]

As somebody who has written extensively here in how Latinx sucks, it’s rather through the looking glass to say AOC is not an effective communicator of social democratic ideology because she participates in online culture wars when you’re making such the subject of your article.

Twitter doesn’t fucking matter.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

However, his deeper claim that socialists should avoid culture war topics is dubious. Class is lived through culture and so to engage about class we must go through culture. It's also basic intersectionality: you can't expect people to engage with you on class if you ignore how they are marginalized by ethnocentrism, misogyny and racism.

I'm not going to look him up, but let me guess. He's a white middle class male. Probably heterosexual.

[ursus arctos]

Not sure about middle class (at least in the AngloIrish sense), but the rest is spot on.

One of the more self-indulgent bios on WordPress

https://benburgistest.wordpress.com/about/

[TonTon]

Good lord - do people actually read all that guff?

(Hard enough to believe that real life actual people might write it)

[Bizarre Löw Triangle]

Reading it definitely made me feel much better about my own writing.

[Lang Spoon]

Not sure about middle class (at least in the AngloIrish sense), but the rest is spot on.

One of the more self-indulgent bios on WordPress

https://benburgistest.wordpress.com/about/

That is a terrible indictment of grad school. He writes like a child.

[Flynnie]

That is a terrible indictment of grad school. He writes like a child.

Pol Pot was right about academics

[Satchmo Distel]

He did his PhD in Miami but still rejects intersectionality in favour of class determinism.

Rate My Professor reviews claim that he turns up to class late and throws on a video of someone else giving a lecture while he takes a nap (I suspect that a professor without white male CIS privileges would be too fearful of the sack to try that shit).

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

That biography blurb is notable for its repeated mentions of deep pan pizza. I don't know, I generally just get the vibe off it that he's a gobshite rather than a cunt.

[Incandenza]

Ben Burgis writes for Jacobin, but he finds a lot of common ground with the right on "cancel culture" and I believe even defended Andy Ngo when he was on Joe Rogan's show. Not someone to pay too much attention to.

[TonTon]

More of a red-brown type then.

[Satchmo Distel]

You'd hope that Burgis might have some self-reflection today but of course he won't.

[Nefertiti2]

Pol Pot was right about academics

unacceptable thing to say

[Bruno]

Yeah I believe he murdered at least several academics for being academics.

[Hot Pepsi]

Yeah I believe he murdered at least several academics for being academics.

Literally?

[ursus arctos]

They murdered people for wearing eyeglasses . . .