The Challenge of Marxism

Although many liberals and conservatives say that Marxism is "Nothing but a great lie," this isn't quite right.

Liberal societies have repeatedly proved themselves vulnerable to Marxism, and now we are seeing with our own eyes how the greatest liberal institutions in the world are being handed over to Marxists and their allies.

If Marxism is nothing but a great lie, why are liberal societies so vulnerable to it? We must understand the enduring attraction and strength of Marxism.

My liberal friends tend to believe that oppression and exploitation exist only in traditional or authoritarian societies, whereas liberal society is free from all that.

The pornography industry is nothing but a horrific instrument for exploiting poor women, although it is justified by liberal elites on grounds of "Free speech" and other freedoms reserved to "Consenting adults." And in the same way, indiscriminate offshoring of manufacturing capacity is considered to be an expression of property rights by liberal elites, who benefit from cheap Chinese labor at the expense of their own working-class neighbors.

In a liberal society, Marxist criticism brings many liberals to progressively abandon the conceptions of freedom and equality with which they set out, and to adopt new conceptions proposed by Marxists.

The collapse of the bonds of mutual legitimacy that have tied liberals to conservatives in a democratic system of government will not make the liberals in question Marxists quite yet.
 

https://quillette.com/2020/08/16/the-challenge-of-marxism/