White Straight Guys with Beards (and/or Diplomas); or, Western Marxism and Its Flaws: Transphobia (and Other Bigotries) in the Anti-Zionist Movement

Fascism makes you dumb, so here's some food for thought while combating fascism-in-disguise: "Are beards evil?" Joking aside, this question specifically concerns Western Marxism and its flaws, namely transphobia in the anti-Zionist movement (among white straight guys with beards and/or degrees playing the hero and the victim in bad faith). I'll give examples from my own work (a trans woman with a degree who is also anti-Zionist), but also other peoples' work, too (trans or otherwise). We'll consider examples from academic and non-academic registers; e.g., YouTube, but feel free to add your own (as Lost Futures does, below)! I know hair smells bad when you light it on fire, but time to barbecue some sacred cows!

For the visually impaired: I read this essay on my YouTube channel.

Disclaimer Regarding Essay Contents: All opinions are my own; i.e., as part of my research, conducted alongside my book series, Gothic Communism (2023). The material within is written/speaks about public figures and popular media for purposes of (sex) education, satire, transformation and critique, hence falls under Fair Use regarding copyright and free speech regarding defamation/obscenity laws.

CW: racism, transphobia, whorephobia, SA, fascism, genocide, and beard abuse

(source screencap: Lost Future's "AI Is Watching," 2026)

"To beard or not to beard?" is a question for the philosophers. For praxis and for us, the question of today's discussion concerns Western Marxism and its flaws; or, transphobia (and other bigotries) in the anti-Zionist movement: "Are reactionary and/or moderate straight white guys with a beard and/or degree* always right?" Put differently, can such people sell out behind different status symbols; re: white skin, straightness, degree and/or beard?

*Our focus here is white straight guys with beards, insofar as Western Marxism is predominantly white straight guys with beards... who tend to means test/exclude other groups in bad faith (e.g., non-white people, women, unpaid labor as a whole, Indigenous Peoples, etc). See: George Rockhill's Who Paid the Pipers of Western Marxism? (2025). Also, this blogpost originally appears on Reddit: r/anarchocommunism and r/Socialism_101 (where some MLs punch down to stymie discourse; e.g., Clear-Result-3412 in r/Socialist_101, above).

This has historical precedence within Marxism, ergo Socialism as a whole. Marx was a white straight guy with a beard; Marx was homophobic* (and born Jewish, but rejecting that side of things). Norm Finkelstein is a white straight(?) Jewish guy with a degree; Norm is transphobic. Marx died before Zionism could manifest (and before the world-first homosexual trial with Oscar Wilde), but Norm is queerphobic—meaning in ways that sacrifice identity politics on the altar of class reductionism: he is class-reductionist, using his status as a PhD to punch down at trans people during their own genocide; i.e., furthering one genocide (and the abjection process) while claiming to fight another genocide. Sucks for trans Palestinians, I guess, but also trans anti-Zionists as a whole. Simply put, you don't stop one genocide by waging another (slurs or otherwise) to play the hero and the victim—what my friend and mentor Sandy Norton calls "the Imperialism of Theory" (1994).

*As I write in "Making Marx Gay" (2024), but also others before me; e.g., Peter Drucker's "Gays and the Left" (1997).

This extends to people outside of academia proper. Take YouTube: Bad Empanada has both a beard and BA in history, and (not Jewish) is subsequently transphobic, antisemitic, racist and exclusionary of Indigenous Peoples, etc, from the anti-Zionist movement he demonstrably monopolizes (as an Ozzie expat living in Argentina, no less). However, the example I'll give isn't so much Bad Empanada (as I've said enough about him, as is), but rather simply white straight dudes with beards downplaying bigotry in ways that highlight the flaws of Western Marxism (re: from Marx, onwards); i.e., vis-à-vis Zionism as something to enact in bad faith: so-called "anti-Zionism" with a literal beard (and not the gay kind).

The example I'll give is The Kavernacle. Kav is a white Irish guy living in London who, after ignoring Bad Empanada for years, is suddenly defending him versus F.D. Signifier. F.D. Signifier is a black man calling out Bad Empanada's laundry list of bigoted behaviors, mid-genocides (trans and Palestinian)—and all while Kav discredits my work, making false statements about me as a fellow anti-Zionist: if you scratch a moderate, a fascist bleeds (and Kav, a token Irishman, bleeds the soup—same difference).

In short, he excludes me much how Bad Empanada did, but also as Norm Finkelstein would do, or Marx: the white straight savior with a degree and/or beard who apparently trumps my own credentials, and right to exist/defend myself and my friends from bad actors. Doing so is predatory and Western Marxism (and Marxist-Leninism) are not exempt from such behaviors—especially when invoking state power as something to defend from so-called "degenerates"; i.e., various strongmen (e.g., Stalin, Marx, or anyone acting like them to various degrees) declaring people like me as "corrupting" the movement: predominantly one that defends different in-group members, said members historically monopolizing oppression for themselves. Saying you're smart doesn't automatically make you smart, anymore than saying you're "oppressed," "under attack" or anything else does. Context matters.

(source: "Recognizing and Performing Empathy," 2025)

The point being—and one addressing the central question, here—is I am and have been for years a queer author, academic, and activist (who can easily grow a beard but chose not to*), but the moment I critique the white straight guy with a beard, another white straight guy with a beard comes to Bad Empanada's defense; re: Kav lying about me and ignoring evidence despite my going to bat for them multiple times, both on my own channel and on someone else's, and despite my being a rape survivor, granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor, and fervent anti-capitalist, anti-fascist, and anti-Zionist eco-Socialist (stressing intersectional consciousness/solidarity to avoid class, culture and race reductionism). Kav doesn't care, defending Bad Empanada and the status quo of Western Marxism in the process. The problem isn't white straight guys with beards, per se, but bad actors bearing those qualities who refuse to face facts and criticism; re: Kav taking the soup to myopically defend Bad Empanada from valid criticism, be it mine or F.D. Signifier's.

*I hate beards because they itch, first-and-foremost (and only seem to exist in cis-het culture for straight men to compete and celebrate like peacocks). But also, not having one makes me feel more femme but that's just me (and has gotten me laid a lot, though plenty of beard-havers lay pipe, too).

And while F.D. is far from perfect and I repeatedly say as much, he'll at least admit he's wrong once confronted with evidence (e.g., Bad Empanada calling a black ML "Z*Gslave, which The Kavernacle unironically defends, citing the usual free speech bullshit). By comparison, the usual benefactors of Western Marxism—online and/or at university—only appear to double down when confronted; re: white straight guys (with or without beards) clutching pearls and using their credentials like a shield from criticism. This goes for Norm Finkelstein or for Bad Empanada and The Kavernacle, none of whom take accountability about furthering transphobia (and other bigotries) during the Palestinian genocide. Instead, they only use and/or stubbornly defend the use of slurs from ivory towers—meaning in moderate-to-reactionary ways that further genocide "for some" (and generally ones they don't directly experience themselves). Toothless and flaccid but also bad-faith, they lie and downplay things to posture as saviors exempt from criticism; re: playing the hero and the victim, while preying on others behind their diplomas, beards or anything else. They're Evil Santa, basically.

I would counter that trans people are people and should be heard alongside other minorities (and their modularities); i.e., when holding bad actors accountable. To it, bad actors don't monopolize anti-Zionism, which—when gatekept as it is, here—only weakens the movement to serve Zionism, thus cast Marxism and Socialism in a bad light.