this post was submitted on 07 Oct 2025
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Well in the First world, marxism can be argued to not be populism, but in the global south it definitely is populism. The idea that the global north has lost its revolutionary potential due to wealth and imperialism is called “Third Worldism.”
I get that but that's not why it is not populism.
Science to a scientifically literate society maybe popular but it is not science because it is populist.
The point of a vanguard is to have social scientists guide the masses; the proletariat may hold reactionary ideals, residuals from capitalism/feudalism/slavery, but they are liberated through science.
Marxism is a science.
Social scientists cannot liberate the masses, the error of the Narodniks, only the masses can liberate themselves - the vanguard is just the tool used to achieve this.
Understanding this significance is partly how marxists can avoid tailism - Marxism is neither workerism nor populism though it may be popular amongst the proletariat, especially of the global south.