Something that needs to be understood about modern leftism is that the ideological basis for it was not formulated in majority by the working class. Marx never worked in the factories that he criticized. While he did have good observation of how the worker lived in his time, he did not anticipate that the capitalism will evolve. That pensions will be instituted in his native Germany, that an eight hour work day will be brought in, that holidays for the workers and facilities for recreation will be developed in the decades following the publishing of Das Kapital and the Communist Manifesto.
Communist revolutions were mostly successful in semi-developed places like Russia and China. In Czechoslovakia the Commies seized power only after the stressful and disastrous WWII. In many other East European countries the Communist regimes were imposed from above with the help of the Soviets. And many of the revolutions were military coups rather than working class uprisings. Another good examples are Castro and Che Guevara, who both came from rather privileged backgrounds and while they were successful in Cuba, Bolivian farmers had no time for Che Guevara’s antics. Pol Pot is another such example, who studied in Paris and then implemented an extreme version of what he heard there in his native Cambodia.
The working class is seen as a traitorous group especially by the intellectual left that emerges after the Great War, and is a reaction to the failure of Bolshevik revolutions in Western Europe, and the displeasure with the repressive policies of the Soviet regime. What some call Cultural Marxism shifts the focus from the working class to the presumably marginalized groups of the society like coloured people, immigrants, homosexuals, women. Strangely enough, this ideology has found supporters among the rich. Immigrants and working women cheapen the workforce. Promotion of feminism and homosexuality puts an accent on individualism. Individualism fuels consumerism.
The above meme is ridiculous but in our timeline the traditional testosterone left that did Communist revolutions in the twentieth century is very much gone. Bolshevism has pretty much failed, and the ideology is no longer attractive. But the contemporary left no longer relies on the working class or masculinity. In fact, it is rather opposed to these groups, seeing them as an obstacle to creating their utopia. Today, many people are attracted to socialist ideas because they are saddled with student loans, can’t find a job, and buying your home is off limits. This will be only exacerbated in the following years with rising prices of food and fuel, which will benefit the haves and will fall heavily on the have nots.
Insomniac Resurrected 