I honestly don’t mind if someone bases their beliefs based on flawed theory or books, as that does show some degree of engagement with actual texts and leaves the room open for recognizing why it might be flawed via future reading or discussion.

What I was mostly referring to were people who claim to be Marxists/Anarchists/whatever, proceed to not read any theory whatsoever and just roll with what they imagine the theory to be, usually based on some surface-level discourse floating online. Now that’s where one can find true incoherent bangers

The right also has some prominent socio-economic writers such as Thomas Sowell and other writers adjacent to Austrian school thought, so it’s not just media slop but also book slop.

It’s just a bit unfortunate that the right doesn’t read any theory, even ones that agree with their worldview, they just like talking about the authors because book = smart. Same with the left - there’s lots of people who proclaim themselves to have some theoretically heavy position (e.g. communism or anarchism) then proceed to say the most stupid shit.