The title is a quote from Italian Antonio Gramsci, the Marxist theorist, ideologue, philosopher and journalist, has long been associated exclusively with communism and socialism. And yet his thoughts are showing up in the strange places….the far Right talking points…
The entire quote is….”Everyone is a bit of a Marxist….without being aware of it”
We see this in the presence of Gramsci’s theories and his phrases in speeches and publications.
Viktor Orban, Hungary’s authoritarian prime minister who studied Gramsci in the 1980s, rarely misses an opportunity to speak of the need to fight liberal-left ideas, parties and movements.
Elsewhere, Gramsci’s presence is more implicit. In the 900-page Mandate for Leadership, a document published by Project 2025 — the staffing and policy planning organization aimed at institutionalizing “Trumpism” — there’s no shortage of Gramsci talking points expressed in the inimitable style of the New Right in the United States.
Right-wing Gramsci adherents simplify and vulgarize Gramsci’s thought, reducing it to slogans and simple formulas. In doing so, they are doing what Gramsci expected right-wingers to do under democratic conditions — protect the capitalist status quo while framing “the left” as the cause of all manner of social, economic and geopolitical ills.
This should be another reason to read Gramsci.
The existential climate crisis aside, many of the problems that concerned Gramsci then are eerily similar to the problems that concern us today — a failing global economic system, multiplying military conflict, massive geopolitical shifts and the hollowing of representative political institutions.
A little more background may be helpful….
Gramsci undertook a series of historical and theoretical reflections on the conditions for revolution in modern states—such as Italy’s—where degrees of popular consent had been achieved. He employed the concept “hegemony” to describe a process of “intellectual and moral leadership” that embedded a ruling class across society. He rejected the economic determinism of classical Marxism in favor of a nuanced political analysis attuned to contingent variation in historical circumstance. Gramsci brought Marxism into dialogue with neo-idealist insights into practical subjectivity and he sketched a revolutionary strategy aimed at preparing a new collective identity.
Interesting how a group that hates ‘Marxists’ turns to them for their inspiration.
Really should not be a surprise since the Trumpites have been doing a Stalin-esque style of political purges to get the ‘proper’ people in places they need.
You should read Gramsci maybe you will learn something.Or not…you see one needs to be able to think to see the conflict and most of those supporters gave up thinking and let the ‘rulers’ do it for them.
Be Smart!
Learn Stuff!
Educate, Agitate
I Read, I Write, You Know
“cognito ergo agito”
Daily Agitator 
This is not unlike Elon Musk (and others) constantly asserting that Hitler was a Socialist because the German name of the NAZI party was Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei which translates to National Socialist German Worker’s Party. Musk constantly hammers this on social media, in the hope of disproving that Trump and his allies are far-right Nazis.
Best wishes, Pete.
He is not the only one…I have had visitors that keep saying nazis were socialists..,..wrong on so many levels. chuq
Ironic, considering they claim that Gramsci is behind their cultural Marxism conspiracy theory. Thanks for the link!
Tina I have so many at any time you need some guidance let me know……chuq
I’ve already added Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks to my reading list which is quite full right now. I’ll probably get to it later this year.
During the early post-WWI period (i.e. the Interbellum) communism and socialism were gaining ground with working class people pretty much everywhere and especially in Germany. Hitler and his associates in the anti-Marxist German Workers’ Party (Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, DAP) added the terms “National” and “Socialist” to the party’s name to appeal to German nationalism (which was becoming increasingly anti-Semitic) and to the plight of German workers. So, the renaming of the party was a rather shrewd and apparently enduring propaganda move.
I appreciate your visits and your thoughts…..chuq
I am 88 years old and I believe that I much prefer a form of government that leans toward the Left more than I do a government that learns toward the Right — call it Marxism or what the hell ever you want to call it, I think it is much preferable to the Nazi-esque horrors of right wingers– especially right wing extremists …because I have always thought of governments in general as being ona specral curve— the move it moves to the left the more Marxist it becomes and the more it moves to the right, the more Nazi it becomes ….all the wonderful benefits we have as Americans (Pblic schools, public highways, social security, medicare, medicaid, aid for dependent children, welfare, you name it… these have always come to us at the benevolence of a Left leaning ideology — it is the right wingers that love to take away our benefits and our freedoms.
It is a good way to be….people should always come first…..chuq