I think you’re spot on, Marx specifically has a lot of connotations the general, uninformed public is terrified of.

I remember when I had to read it for a class the first time and the vibes in the room was exactly like you’re opening some of book of sin. I was scared of a book, as a college student at the time. Then we actually started reading it, and it was like “wow this guy gets the issues of the system”.

While I personally have agreements and some disagreements with Marx, I think he helped give me a lot of solid ideas that the system itself could be reformed and reforged.

I think it’s a shame that his ideas had carried a public taint to them for so long, due to several authoritarians co-opting his message. I have no clue why it’s not required high school reading at this point, since I feel it’d go a long ways towards helping more people get curious about improving and changing the system for the better.

You should unironically read Mein Kampf though, at least once

The funny thing about that book is if you tell a neo-Nazi you've read it and have a criticism, they'll immediately ask which translation and claim most of them are a "Jewish trick".

Olivier Mannoni, who translated the 2021 French critical edition, said about the original German text that it was "An incoherent soup, one could become half-mad translating it", and said that previous translations had corrected the language, giving the false impression that Hitler was a "cultured man" with "coherent and grammatically correct reasoning". He added "To me, making this text elegant is a crime." [snip]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mein_Kampf#Criticism_by_translators

Evola is kinda fun, for how utterly batshit he was. He called himself a Super-Fascist, and would go on walks during bombing raids to, "test his fate". Like, buddy, your fate could be a lot different of you stayed the fuck inside?!

The bombs didn't kill him, sadly.