I prefer to not use -ist's and -ism's. I read that Marx wrote he was not a Marxist. Surely his studies and literature got used as a frame of reference for a rat

I prefer to not use -ist's and -ism's. I read that Marx wrote he was not a Marxist. Surely his studies and literature got used as a frame of reference for a rather wide set of ideologies. Maybe someone with a deeper background on the topic can chime in with ideas?