Yes, I think about this often. Many parties, especially in the global north. Decades of propaganda, infighting, and distance from the masses have led to a lot of irrelevance.

Yes. But there is a clear difference in the imperial core from one who makes the median wage or less and an aristocrat who can insulate themselves from the class struggle.

I have no idea tbh. I went only to trade school, and I’m doing okay. I enjoy my blue collar job working with my hands sort of. Pursuing higher education distances oneself from the masses of lower paid working class people, so ymmv.

Richard Wolff often just calls himself a Marxist/Marxian Economist, listened to him a lot but can’t say I’ve ever heard himself a Leninist, but he always seems to be in “professor mode” so who know what he truly believes. He always speaks positively of the USSR