>In my experience, the Marxist critique of capitalism is common sense
>to most working people; it's pretty obvious that the rich run
>things, that democracy is a joke, that work is drag because the
>bosses exploit us, etc. These ideas can gain wide currency if
>expressed without Marxist technical vocabulary,w hich is offputting.
>The basic ideas of socialism, that democracy would be extended to
>the economy, that we can run things ourselves without bosses to tell
>us what to do, can also be "sold" to a lesser degree if expressed in
>plain, commonsense terms. The "opulist" overtone is a matter of
>playing on class resentments. Is this a petit bourg spin?
Opulist? Like Donald Trump?
Socialism is about collective control of the economy. Isn't populism instead saturated with the consciousness of small producers (and the fantasies of those who want to be)? Oh, that's me; does that make me a populist?
Doug