@Fawn_Over_Fun oh, taken alone that part doesn't mean quite as much.

but in conjunction with its second half "and insofar as it prescribes a condition in which society should govern itself"

what i'm saying is that there are certain people, people that i would consider reactionary/conservative/sometimes outright fascist who call themselves marxists. but that the only marxist thing about them is that they believe 2 things.

1. that right now our society isn't controlled by the conscious decisions of the members involved, but is instead controlled by the will of capital.

*and*

2. that our society *should* be controlled, consciously, by the members of society.

when old timey marxists said that "society should be controlled by the members of society" they were saying that workers/worker parties should be the decision makers of society. this often meant that certain kind of people's got left out (disabled/queers/mentally ill)

(here, it should be noted that who marxists consider "the real members of society" aka. the workers, determines which "society" should be controlling society)

when reactionaries who call themselves marxists say it, they don't mean "people should work together, coordinate their power" like marxists do. they instead mean "this despot doing horrible things is actually just finally wresting his country and his people away from the clutches of capital, and is finally enacting THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE" even though its just fashy bullshit