Also "marxist professor" could mean they're an econ ghoul who knows all about Marx in theory, but are not a Marxist themselves. There's a lot of those.

As a marxist who studied economics, I can assure you that there are almost no econ-professors who know anything about Marx at all. During my entire degree, I saw +/-5 pages about marx, which was given in a "history of economics"-course in a "Economics used to be shitty like this, but now, we have figured out the best way to model everything: the neoclassical way"-way. The fact that I even had a "history of economics"-course means that my university is considered quite heterodox and openminded compared to the standard situation in many econ)departments.

The rare marxist econmist you do see, is someone who I would consider very valuable, even if they're not engaging with activism or party building. For example, Anwar Shaikh, produces extremely interesting stuff.

[–] Inui@hexbear.net 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Fair, I could have been off base with that last comment. He was talked about quite a bit in my philosophy degree, and I know was also discussed in religion classes, sociology, and even a little bit in business to the point that one of my business major friends was reading Capital. But he was completely uninterested in the "social or moral" content, and wanted only to know what as said about "the economy". So I know it happens where some majors are exposed, maybe think they know a lot about Marx, but don't engage with his work in any meaningful context or in a very deep manner.

[–] purpleworm@hexbear.net 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

To be fair, while ignoring the social content is ridiculous, a central element of Marxism is that it doesn't base itself on moral arguments, however morally passionate its authors obviously are.

[–] Inui@hexbear.net 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Sure. They just pretty explicitly rejected the idea of reading anything else because they weren't interested in what people interpreted form his work or anything. Like reading Marx was pure and appropriate to their finance degree, but reading anything based on his work was not because then it entered the forbidden realm of politics.

[–] aqwxcvbnji@hexbear.net 1 points 9 hours ago

That person should really be encouraged to keep reading Marx, you cannot not learn anything from it :)