because all I've heard for some years now from the American right wing is "Marxism is taking over the public schools."

This, of course, has nothing whatsoever to do with the classic Marxism that I have espoused for as long as you've known me. Marx and Engels never supported anything akin to identity politics, as they would have considered it highly divisive to the working class they supported, which it is. Marx would turn in his proverbial grave if he ever saw his name misused and twisted away from class unity to group identity loyalty that eschews most anything to do with unification or anything related to money and class. That is why some refer to postmodern Wokeism as "Cultural Marxism" or "Neo-Marxism", since it's really twisting classical Marxism like a pretzel to hijack its name. It's fine for the Libertarians among us to turn away from classic Marxism, of course, but they should at least acknowledge what it isn't.

The regressive left was quick to evoke Marx's name, as were the authoritarian Stalinists, due to his cred among the working class, to get the Left on their side. The Right, of course, are also quick to capitalize on that by trying to pigeonhole supporters of economic democracy and the Left in general with the lunatic identity politics of the Woke in an attempt to discredit them both in a "two birds with one stone" sort of strategy, i.e., conflate two unrelated things you dislike and attempt to connect them. This is tragically ironic, since the classic left are often united with the Right and the Libertarians in opposing Wokeism. The latter two should be well aware that the lip service given by the Woke towards hating capitalism is nothing but bluster, since the corporations and big tech love the Woke, and the latter are quick to use this system to their advantage. This has resulted in an increasingly uncomfortable relationship between the Right and corporatists over the past decade, thus resulting in the emergence of the New Right we see with figures such as Tucker Carlson.

Your long absence while this has been going on was both surprising and confusing to me, not to mention a little disappointing. I wanted to come to you with all sorts of questions, and I couldn't.

My apologies for that, as always, but I'm here now :)

So over the weekend I will give my best shot at a good response to your reply above, but I will also have a few questions that hopefully don't make you feel grilled about your personal beliefs, nor any hurt feelings that I'd even be asking my questions at all. I am trying to learn, as I know you and others here have tried to do over the years.

No problem. I am confident you will ask me reasonable questions to learn from my POV rather than attack me and misrepresent my beliefs as others here have done just to vent at me over political disagreements related to economic issues.