A Functional Class Framework for Modern Western Leftists

NinaIllingworth May 4, 2019November 5, 2022 anarchism, antifascism, bosses, bourgeoisie, bourgeoisie values, CA4, capitalism, casino lottery, class, class in America, class politics, class theory, class war, definition of class, Essays, exploitation, extraction, global capitalism, labor, labor class, left wing theory, Leftist Theory, living conditions, manager class, Marxism, Marxist Theory, middle class, modern class, neoliberalism, Nina Illingworth, no war but class war, Occupy Wall Street, Offsite Writing, overseer class, Patreon, Patreon Blog, petite bourgeoisie, pig empire, PMC, Politics, poverty, Professional Class, ruling classes, slavery, Socialism, ST2, the class war never ended, the owner class, Theory, wage slavery, you are probably not middle class

Editor’s note: as part of a project to turn ninaillingworth.com into a central hub for all of my writing (thanks to ongoing censorship of my work by giant tech companies,) I’m spending the next little while gradually cross-posting older material from other platforms. Please accept my apologies for any potentially unwanted email notifications; there might be several today as I try to catch up on my backlog in a reasonable amount of time.

This article is also part of the “Leftist Theory” collection here on ninaillingworth.com.

The Class War Is America’s Dirty Hidden Secret

Ah yes – class, the unacknowledged third rail in Pig Empire politics; a word so dangerous that minions and propagandists alternately twist its meaning, or even deny its existence. The plain truth is that there is literally nothing you need to know about class that you can’t learn from Karl Marx, or Emma Goldman, if you understand how to translate their contemporary terminology into accessible modern day language. The problem of course is that rich people in the Pig Empire, and their esteemed lackeys in the media, are very much dedicated to preventing you from doing that through a myriad of deceptions, coded language and arguments designed to artificially atomize and isolate the labor class. In this May 4th, 2019 essay I sat down to explain why it’s important to understand what the labor class really is, why the constantly shifting chimera of ruling class orthodoxy corrupts the language of class struggle, and how you can identify the class concepts discussed in Marxist and anarchist literature, in our present day (largely neofeudalist) society. If I may say so myself, this is probably one of my most important, foundational essays, and it essentially hasn’t aged a bit since I first published it. After all, how can you win a class war you never had any choice but to fight, if you don’t understand what class even means, and perhaps even more importantly – which one you’re a part of?

“Additionally, reducing the term “middle class” to a simple calculation of what is essentially median average income has the effect of strongly discouraging class solidarity, or even recognition of the existence of class tensions, among the labor class. The insidious beauty of this technique is that it actually works on two levels that are wholly beneficial to elite capital and the classes that reside above labor in our hierarchy; it alienates well off members of the labor class from their comrades who are less well compensated and it encourages those same people to adopt the attitudes, desires and struggles of the true middle class, as their own.”

Read more on my (free) Patreon Blog by clicking on the quotation block above, or the title header below:

A Functional Class Framework for Modern Western Leftists

nina Illingworth

Independent writer, critic and analyst with a left focus. Please help me fight corporate censorship by sharing my articles with your friends online!

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