'Radical Chic': Is the Left's Embrace of Marxism the Ultimate Virtue Signal?

RedState 

Inarguably, the most well-known quote about the critical importance of learning from history is "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it," which is often attributed to Spanish American philosopher and essayist George Santayana

However, as Winston Churchill put it in 1948 — in between his two terms as Prime Minister of Great Britain — "Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it" is more applicable, today, given that those who embrace radical leftism today weren't alive during the days of Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, and Mao Zedong. 

The problem is, many if not most of today's radical leftists who take to the streets, deface or destroy statues, burn flags, and defile university campus in support of Hamas, Antifa, illegal aliens, et al. — and against Israel, ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), capitalism, and democracy (lower-case "d") — do so, not because of learning actual history, but because of having been indoctrinated by radical professors in the no-longer-hallowed halls of academia, on social media, on radical message boards and in other such forums.

In other words, many of today's radicals are driven more by a naive misconception of totalitarianism and a sense of camaraderie with other naive radicals than by the real lessonsof history.

As political commentator and author Jonathan recently put it:

[T]he rise of American armchair revolutionaries, particularly among young, affluent college graduates. It is part of the “radical chic” fostered from higher education to Hollywood for citizens who have no memory of the failures of socialism and communism in the 20th Century.

"Radical chic." How can you not love that derisive description?

What Turley calls "a new wave of armchair revolutionaries" is emerging, calling for everything from the dismantling of the U.S. government and law enforcement departments to the takeover of factories and private property. 

The current darling of the faux-Marxist left, of course, is New York City Democrat Zohran Mamdani, who, I suppose, nearly every even semi-interested person on the planet is by now somewhat aware of due to his embrace (make that, embodiment) of his interpretation of Marxism or full-blown communism.  

Turley nailed it — delightfully, so:

Mamdani represents this crop of so-called “Latte Leninists” and “trust-fund Trotskyites.” As the privileged son of a radical Columbia professor and a Hollywood producer, Mamdani attended the elite Bowdoin College, where annual tuition exceeds $70,000. He is part of the “radical chic” in American academia, where extreme leftist views have become commonplace.

Mamdani exemplifies the trend of quoting Marxist catchphrases as though they were self-evident truths. This is Marxism-lite, offering sweeping promises—from rent control to cheaper halal food. At a Young Democratic Socialists of America conference, Mamdani even plainly declared that one of their goals is to “seize the means of production” in the United States.

The phrase "seize the means of production," one of Karl Marx's most remembered theories, was in opposition to what he called historical materialism. 

Marx argued that societal change must be driven by class struggle — specifically, the conflict between the bourgeoisie (business owners and upper class) and the proletariat (working class), who he argued were forced to sell their labor to survive.

The problem was — and remains — that Marx "forgot to mention" in his little utopian vision that the all-knowing party (dictatorial government) rules over everyone and everything, to the detriment of the very people Marxism claims (lies about) to benefit. 

As a result, it's both ironic and ignorant that Zohran Mamdani — and other “Latte Leninists” and “trust-fund Trotskyites" — can so effectively use their followers (useful idiots) to shill for their lies. 

So, how did we get here? 

As an November 2022 article published by The Heritage Foundation reads:

In 1989, as the Soviet empire was crumbling, The New York Times noted an interesting new development: While millions who had lived under the brutal rule of communism for decades were finally throwing off their yoke, Marxist professors were taking over American academia.

[...]

The strategy to achieve the new cultural Marxism was no longer predicated on Marx’s original prescription, the violent overthrow of the system by the working class, or in Marx and Engel’s own words, “formation of the proletariat into a class, overthrow of the bourgeois supremacy, [and] conquest of political power by the proletariat.” 

Rather, the strategy now draws on [the] concept: Ideologues must infiltrate institutions and all of society and “raise the consciousness of” the “oppressed” with a new cultural worldview, or narrative.

So there it is. 

The American left's disdain for wealth — except for wealth redistribution, of course — is fueled by the aforementioned “Latte Leninists” and “trust-fund Trotskyites," with intentionally low-information rioters ("mostly peaceful protesters") in the streets giving zero thought to the horrors of the past in the name of the very causes they now champion.

The Bottom Line

Speaking of "useful idiots," during the Cold War, Soviet Communists reportedly referred to American liberals as “useful idiots.” 

While the USSR is no more, American "liberals" have, by and large, given way to radical leftists, and the song remains the same. Only this time, the useful idiocy is more ominous for America's way of life than that of present-day Russia or any other country on the planet.