Or when "corporatism" doesn't work, they'll just make up words like "leveragism"
this post was submitted on 03 Jul 2026
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anything but admitting that capitalism is working exactly as intended
Or they'll say "crony" capitalism as if that is somehow a qualitative difference.
Badguyism
Seeing how correct Marx was about everything, he really understood how history moved. IE, Marx is the real Psychohistorist
"We don't need socialism, we need stakeholder capitalism".
Gorillion dead vuvuzela tankie
Or because they recognize that optics affect the reception of the message and with America pumping out decades of anti-communist propaganda during and after the cold war, using Marx's language will get you ignored at best by a lot of people.
using Marx's language will get you ignored at best by a lot of people.
Marx didn’t use the term “late-stage capitalism”. Nor even “late capitalism” which, at least has a proper definition and some theory behind it. “Late-stage capitalism” is an undefined internet term from the last 10-15 years
Certainly not “Marx’s language”
Optics
We shouldn't concede defeats to the anti-communist witch hunters in any field, especially language. To do otherwise would be implicitly accepting their worldview as the correct one. Instead we should dismantle the weak supports for their anti-communism / anti-marxism in the first place, which isn't difficult for any person whose attention can be drawn to the mass suffering capitalism causes.
It takes a bit more effort to engage with people using language that will be more likely to reach them but if you want to get someone to understand, and are capable of it, speaking to them in their native tongue is more effective. When talking to someone who has never been given a basic understanding of communism, or who has been given an intentionally misleading false understanding, while you have, you can say things that do not translate because you are effectively speaking a different dialect of English from them. When you say 'I'm a Stalinist-Marxist Communist,' that translates as 'I am a genocider-terrorist mother-fucker.' They are less likely to understand you than a person from Kazakhstan because at least the Kazakh hasn't been trained to hate you. Learning to say things in the local tongue is the only way to bypass the filter long enough to get them to learn the better definitions of all those words.
Meanwhile in the real world, even libertarian cato institute found that communism and socialism are popular among anybody who's not a fossil https://www.cato.org/blog/new-poll-nearly-half-americans-dont-know-what-americas-250th-celebrating
Not only that, but the numbers are rising since their poll last year https://www.cato.org/blog/young-americans-socialism-too-much-thats-problem-libertarians-must-fix
So, it's pretty clear that there is no optics problem in practice. The reality is that liberals are just opposed to socialism because they represent the left wing of fascism.
I sympathize with this argument, but think that it's relevance is mostly behind us. People will only believe what they're told to believe and hate what they're told to hate as long as they buy in to the ideology, as long as their ruling class provides enough comfort to keep them satisfied and distracted. Now that capitalism is failing to do that, people are explicitly looking for alternatives, and in a time like this it does us no favors to hide. Now is the best time to be an out and proud communist.
We're in the tail. The cold warriors are dying, but not dead. Their legacy will remain for a while longer.
Their legacy may remain, but every day that legacy gets more tattered, tarnished and stained in the public eye. The current crop of capitalists may not realize it, but right now they're some of communism's best ambassadors.