I think the logic is that many people will assume that if a poor person reads the german ideology and doesn't get it/doesn't understand why it's useful it's somehow their fault, and not their lack of education. "Theory" is more accessible to those who are more educated, who in turn are more wealthy. My Marx class was one of the most rigourous classes I took in college, as well as being literally the highest level philosophy class offered. It's not that poor people CAN'T understand 150 year old political philosophy, it's that they're less likely to experience it within their education meaning they have a higher hill to climb in understanding it. I don't think the actual action of telling someone to read theory is classist, but having the opinion that poor people are poor bc they don't read theory is certainly classist (not saying you're making that argument, just an example of a classist argument)
I think the logic is that many people will assume that if a poor person reads the german ideology and doesn't get it/doesn't understand why it's useful it's somehow their fault, and not their lack of education. "Theory" is more accessible to those who are more educated, who in turn are more wealthy. My Marx class was one of the most rigourous classes I took in college, as well as being literally the highest level philosophy class offered. It's not that poor people CAN'T understand 150 year old political philosophy, it's that they're less likely to experience it within their education meaning they have a higher hill to climb in understanding it. I don't think the actual action of telling someone to read theory is classist, but having the opinion that poor people are poor bc they don't read theory is certainly classist (not saying you're making that argument, just an example of a classist argument)