Editing Midwestern Marx

[[File:Midwestern Marx logo.png|thumb|241x241px|YouTube logo]]
'''Midwestern Marx''' is a [[United States of America|US]]-based [[Socialism|socialist]] educational online publishing house. Its content includes online articles, book series, academic journals<ref>''[https://www.midwesternmarx.com/journalofamericansocialiststudies.html Journal of American Socialist Studies (JASS)]''</ref> (ISSN 2769-1055), and online videos. The organization erroneously pushes [[patriotic socialism]], and thus supports [[United States imperialism|U.S. imperialism]].<ref name=":1">{{Web citation|author=Kayla Popuchet|newspaper=Midwestern Marx|title=In Defense of U.S. Proletarian Patriotism: A comradely response to Danny Haiphong’s “Marxist” Polemic on Patriotic Socialism.|date=2021-12-05|url=https://www.midwesternmarx.com/articles/in-defense-of-us-proletarian-patriotism-a-comradely-response-to-danny-haiphongs-marxist-polemic-on-patriotic-socialism-by-kayla-popuchet|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230602182445/https://www.midwesternmarx.com/articles/in-defense-of-us-proletarian-patriotism-a-comradely-response-to-danny-haiphongs-marxist-polemic-on-patriotic-socialism-by-kayla-popuchet|archive-date=2023-06-02|quote=Put simply, the United States, as every country, is not a product of genocide and slavery, nor is it a product of freedom and liberty, it is a product of class antagonisms and struggle, in this regard it is not exceptional.}}</ref><ref>{{Web citation|author=Roderic Day|newspaper=Twitter|title=Untitled Twitter Thread|date=2023-06-06|url=https://twitter.com/RodericDay/status/1666063389733298176}}</ref> 

== Staff ==
The staff consists of 6 members of the editorial board, more than 30 writers, and 3 Spanish-English translators. Additionally, there are more than a dozen writers for the Youth League.<ref>{{Web citation|author=Midwestern Marx|newspaper=Midwestern Marx|title=Midwestern Marx Staff|date=2024-01-23|url=https://www.midwesternmarx.com/staff.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240123083144/https://www.midwesternmarx.com/staff.html|archive-date=2024-01-23|retrieved=2024-01-23}}</ref> 

=== Editorial board ===

* Thomas Riggins: Chief Editorial Counselor, retired philosophy teacher, and 1960s-era activist and writer
* [[Carlos Garrido|Carlos L. Garrido]]: [[Republic of Cuba|Cuban]] philosophy graduate student focused on [[Marxism]], [[Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel|Hegel]], and early 19th century US socialism 
* [[Eddie Liger Smith|Edward (Eddie) L. Smith]]: Director, US political scientist.
* Mitchell K. Jones
* Calla Winchell 
* Noah Khrachvik

=== Other members ===
* Alex Zambito

== Chauvinistic and reactionary behavior ==
Midwestern Marx agreed with [[Jackson Hinkle]], a notorious patriotic socialist and Revisionist, that Marxism-Leninism was compatible with loyalty to the United States.<ref>{{Web citation|author=@MidwesternMarx|title=The ultra-left reactions to this tweet show they’ve never read any Marx, Engels, or Lenin - and perhaps worst, they’ve never met a working class American in their life.|date=2021-09-06|url=https://twitter.com/MidwesternMarx/status/1435038558717419525|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240110053159/https://twitter.com/MidwesternMarx/status/1435038558717419525|archive-date=2024-1-10|retrieved=2024-1-10}}</ref> A number of members have been noted for having a history of bullying.<ref>{{YouTube citation|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6HKfc_U8Q4|channel=Comrade Confucius|title=The Social Chauvinists of America are now Marxists (don't laugh)|date=27-01-2024}}</ref>

One of its directors, [[Eddie Liger Smith|Eddie Liger]], frequently engages in [[Tailism|tailist]] and [[Class collaboration|class collaborationist]] tactics by defending association and partnership with open [[Fascism|fascists]] akin to the [[Black Hundreds]], rather than trying to win over misguided [[Proletariat|proletarians]] away from their leadership.<ref>{{Web citation|author=@EdbieLigerSmith|title=If Modern day Western communists lived in Russia|url=https://twitter.com/EdbieLigerSmith/status/1673102904436113409|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230626023258/https://twitter.com/EdbieLigerSmith/status/1673102904436113409|archive-date=26 Jun 2023|quote=If Modern day Western communists lived in [[Russian Empire|Russia]] they would have tweeted pictures of the [[Bolsheviks]] reaching out to the [[Black Hundreds|black hundreds]] and demanded that people cancel them for it.}}</ref>

Eddie deliberately misrepresents [[Marxism]]. For example, in a February 3 Twitter post, he said that "[he] had 10 farmers on [his] college wrestling team, and they all f**** love Trump".<ref>{{Web citation|author=@EdbieLigerSmith|newspaper=Twitter|title=This person does not live in Iowa lol. I think I had 10 farmers on my college wrestling team alone 😂|date=2024-|url=https://twitter.com/EdbieLigerSmith/status/1753789852334629195}}</ref> User @bidetmarxman replied to this post, noting there is a difference between farm owners and farm workers that Eddie didn't make, and that "farmers" usually refers to farm owners specifically. Owners are a "petty bourgeois reactionary group", while workers are "are much more numerous and are proletariat, thus forming part of the revolutionary subject". They go on to explain that Eddie, being a director of Midwestern Marx, should or would not be making such a basic mistake if he were not being disingenuous on purpose to cater to the reactionary tendencies of his audience.<ref>{{Web citation|author=Professional hog groomer|newspaper=Twitter|title=“Farmers” is typically short hand for farm *owners* (or in Eddie’s case the sons of farm owners)|date=2024-02-04|url=https://twitter.com/bidetmarxman/status/1754059983640261026|retrieved=2024-02-05|quote=“Farmers” is typically short hand for farm *owners* (or in Eddie’s case the sons of farm owners). They’re a petit bourgeois and reactionary group. Farm *workers*, otoh, are much more numerous and are proletariat, thus forming part of the revolutionary subject.

Confusing the two is a very basic error that you might expect from someone first grappling with Marxist concepts of class and relations of production. But not from someone positioning themselves as the director of an org teaching Marxist theory.}}</ref>

== Ideology ==
Midwestern Marx generally supports patriotic socialism and is against the [[decolonization|decolonisation]] of the United States.<ref>{{Web citation|author=[[Paul Cockshott]]|newspaper=Midwestern Marx|title=Marxism and the Nationalisation of Land|date=2021-10-03|url=https://www.midwesternmarx.com/articles/marxism-and-the-nationalisation-of-land-by-paul-cockshott|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230606094113/https://www.midwesternmarx.com/articles/marxism-and-the-nationalisation-of-land-by-paul-cockshott|archive-date=2023-06-06|quote=That is because the mass of the direct producers in the USA are not from the indigenous population. Under these circumstances where [sic] they to acquire ownership of all land[,] they would inevitably become and [sic] exploiting minority.}}</ref> It accuses the opponents of patriotic socialism of being [[American exceptionalism|American exceptionalists]]<ref name=":1" /> even though they also oppose patriotism in other imperialist countries.<ref>{{Citation|author=[[Mao Zedong]]|year=1966|title=Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung|title-url=http://www.marx2mao.com/Mao/QCM66.html|chapter=Patriotism and Internationalism|chapter-url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/works/red-book/ch18.htm|quote=The specific content of patriotism is determined by historical conditions. There is the "patriotism" of the Japanese aggressors and of [[Hitler]], and there is our patriotism. Communists must resolutely oppose the "patriotism" of the Japanese aggressors and of Hitler. The Communists of Japan and [[Nazi Germany|Germany]] are defeatists with regard to the wars being waged by their countries. To bring about the defeat of the Japanese aggressors and of Hitler by every possible means is in the interests of the Japanese and the German people, and the more complete the defeat the better...For the wars launched by the Japanese aggressors and Hitler are harming the people at home as well as the people of the world. [[Republic of China|China]]'s case, however, is different, because she is the victim of aggression.|pdf=http://www.marx2mao.com/PDFs/QCM66.pdf|city=Beijing|publisher=Foreign Languages Press|mia=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/works/red-book/index.htm}}</ref>{{Better source needed}} It also incorrectly defines [[nationalism]] as loyalty to the state and [[patriotism]] as loyalty to the people and absurdly claimed the [[United States of America|Statesian]] [[Settler colonialism|settler state]] is not a product of genocide.<ref name=":1" />

== Censorship ==
In 2020, after the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]]-connected company [[Oracle Corporation|Oracle]] bought TikTok, it banned Midwestern Marx's account that had 375,000 followers.<ref name=":0">{{Web citation|author=Carlos L Garrido|newspaper=[[Monthly Review]]|title=The U.S. censors Dissenting Voices: On the attacks against the Midwestern Marx Institute|date=2023-06-02|url=https://mronline.org/2023/06/02/the-u-s-censors-dissenting-voices/|retrieved=2023-06-01}}</ref> In 2022, the video sharing platform TikTok banned Midwestern Marx's second account,<ref>{{News citation|journalist=Eddie Smith|date=2022-03-03|title=Tik Tok BANNED us. Freedom of Speech under Capitalism.|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJdSIYipEzs}}</ref><ref>@MarxMidwest on Twitter: [https://twitter.com/MarxMidwest/status/1499396557258559489?s=20&t=LlZCFJG08LMvPuRnQDtclg "Tik tok banned our second account today. They are completely silencing us. Not letting us have any kind of voice on their platform. Creating a neoliberal echo chamber."] ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20220303215000/https://twitter.com/MarxMidwest/status/1499396557258559489 (Archived)]''</ref> and it has banned five more accounts since then.<ref name=":0" />

== Content ==
Midwestern Marx covers many different topics. They have discussed how the CIA was involved in promoting the [[Frankfurt School]]'s Critical Theory ideology.<ref>{{News citation|newspaper=[[Midwestern Marx]]|title=The Frankfurt School and the CIA - Interview W/ Gabriel Rockhill|url=https://youtu.be/_FztGkdoO0I}}</ref>

== Links ==

* [https://www.youtube.com/midwesternmarx YouTube]
* [https://www.instagram.com/midwesternmarx/ Instagram]
* [https://twitter.com/MarxMidwest Twitter]
* [https://linktr.ee/Midwesternmarx LinkTree] (Their curated list of links) 
*[https://www.tiktok.com/@eddieligersmith @EddieLigerSmith on TikTok] (censored)  

== References ==
<references />
[[Category:Communist YouTube channels]]
[[Category:Targets of censorship]]
[[Category:Socialist media outlets]]
[[Category:Online left]]
[[Category:Patriotic socialism]]