Marx’s ‘Evil Philosophy’: MP Scheer Marks Communist Leader’s Birthday by Noting His Poor Personal Finances

A statue of Karl Marx is seen in the building of the Corvinus University in Budapest on Sept. 4, 2014. Attila Kisbenedek/AFP/Getty Images

Former Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer marked the birthday of economist and political philosopher Karl Marx by denouncing his “evil philosophy” and citing a book on Mr. Marx’s life in which his mother was quoted as wanting her son to make money, rather than write about it.

Mr. Scheer observed the birthday of the German-born philosopher on social media May 5, saying, “It’s Marx’s birthday. This page, from a biography, is a metaphor for governments (like Trudeau’s) inspired by Marx.”

“Racking up debt, living off the production of other people, owing more than he originally thought, spending money on foolish things to keep up the illusion,” he added, drawing a parallel between the policies of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mr. Marx.

Mr. Scheer also posted an image of an excerpt from the book “Karl Marx: His Life and Thought,” published in 1973 and authored by political scientist and Marxist scholar David McLellan.

The passage noted that Karl Marx had many personal financial problems during his life while living in England and highlighted a quote from Mr. Marx’s mother in which she stated that she would rather her son made capital instead of “just writing about it,” a reference to “Das Kapital,” Mr. Marx’s seminal work.

The passage also noted that although Mr. Marx wanted to declare bankruptcy due to mounting debts, he would purchase champagne and gymnastics lessons and at one point even considered leaving England to travel to Geneva, Switzerland.

Mr. Marx’s financial difficulties are not largely well-known in comparison to his major works, the Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital.

Another relatively unknown aspect of Mr. Marx’s life was his apparent anti-Semitism, with some commentators referencing his essay “On the Jewish Question,” in which Marx states “Money is the jealous god of Israel” and “The god of the Jews has become secularized and has become the god of the world.”

In an article published in 2018, Spectator magazine claimed that Mr. Marx saw Judaism and capitalism as being linked to the point that he wrote being Jewish would be “impossible” once capitalism had been abolished.

Some left-leaning publications, such as Jacobin, have defended Marx against accusations of anti-Semitism and racism but did admit that in at least one letter Mr. Marx had used racist language and that he had used “casually anti-Semitic language and metaphors” in his “On the Jewish Question” essay.

Anti-Semitism has surged at university campuses and on the streets of cities across Canada since Hamas attacked Israel last October, sparking the ongoing war in Gaza.

Some reports have linked students and activists participating in the protests with Marxist leanings. Other reports have claimed that overtly communist groups are attempting to instigate physical confrontations at university occupations in the United States.