The term "Cultural Marxism" refers to a
far-right
Far-right politics, also referred to as the extreme right or right-wing extremism, are political beliefs and actions further to the right of the left–right political spectrum than the standard political right, particularly in terms of being ...
antisemitic
Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism.
Antis ...
conspiracy theory
A conspiracy theory is an explanation for an event or situation that invokes a conspiracy by sinister and powerful groups, often political in motivation, when other explanations are more probable.Additional sources:
*
*
*
* The term has a nega ...
which claims that
Western Marxism
Western Marxism is a current of Marxist theory that arose from Western and Central Europe in the aftermath of the 1917 October Revolution in Russia and the ascent of Leninism. The term denotes a loose collection of theorists who advanced an int ...
is the basis of continuing academic and intellectual efforts to subvert
Western culture
Leonardo da Vinci's ''Vitruvian Man''. Based on the correlations of ideal Body proportions">human proportions with geometry described by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius in Book III of his treatise ''De architectura''.
image:Plato Pio-Cle ...
.
The conspiracy theory misrepresents the
Frankfurt School
The Frankfurt School (german: Frankfurter Schule) is a school of social theory and critical philosophy associated with the Institute for Social Research, at Goethe University Frankfurt in 1929. Founded in the Weimar Republic (1918–1933), dur ...
as being responsible for modern
progressive
Progressive may refer to:
Politics
* Progressivism, a political philosophy in support of social reform
** Progressivism in the United States, the political philosophy in the American context
* Progressive realism, an American foreign policy par ...
movements,
identity politics, and
political correctness
''Political correctness'' (adjectivally: ''politically correct''; commonly abbreviated ''PC'') is a term used to describe language, policies, or measures that are intended to avoid offense or disadvantage to members of particular groups in socie ...
, claiming there is an ongoing and intentional
subversion
Subversion () refers to a process by which the values and principles of a system in place are contradicted or reversed in an attempt to transform the established social order and its structures of power, authority, hierarchy, and social norms. Sub ...
of Western society via a planned
culture war that undermines the Christian values of
traditionalist conservatism
Traditionalist conservatism, often known as classical conservatism, is a political and social philosophy that emphasizes the importance of transcendent moral principles, manifested through certain natural laws to which society should adhere ...
and seeks to replace them with the culturally liberal values of the 1960s.
Although similarities with the
Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
propaganda term "
Cultural Bolshevism" have been noted, the contemporary conspiracy theory originated in the United States during the 1990s.
Originally found only on the far-right political fringe, the term began to enter mainstream discourse in the 2010s and is now found globally.
The conspiracy theory of a Marxist culture war is promoted by
right-wing
Right-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position on the basis of natural law, economics, authorit ...
politicians,
fundamentalist religious
Fundamentalism is a tendency among certain groups and individuals that is characterized by the application of a strict Biblical literalism, literal interpretation to scriptures, dogmas, or Ideology, ideologies, along with a strong belief in th ...
leaders, political commentators in mainstream print and television media, and
white supremacist
White supremacy or white supremacism is the belief that white people are superior to those of other Race (human classification), races and thus should dominate them. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any Power (social and polit ...
terrorists,
and has been described as "a foundational element of the
alt-right
The alt-right, an abbreviation of alternative right, is a far-right, white nationalist movement. A largely online phenomenon, the alt-right originated in the United States during the late 2000s before increasing in popularity during the mid-2 ...
worldview". Scholarly analysis of the conspiracy theory has concluded that it has no basis in fact.
Origins
Michael Minnicino and the LaRouche Movement
The essay ''New Dark Age: The Frankfurt School and 'Political Correctness''
by Michael Minnicino was the starting point for the contemporary conspiracy theory in the United States.
Minnicino argued that late twentieth-century America had become a "New Dark Age" as a result of the abandonment of
Judeo-Christian
The term Judeo-Christian is used to group Christianity and Judaism together, either in reference to Christianity's derivation from Judaism, Christianity's borrowing of Jewish Scripture to constitute the "Old Testament" of the Christian Bible, or ...
and
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...
ideals, which he claimed had been replaced in
modern art
Modern art includes artistic work produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the styles and philosophies of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the tradi ...
with a "tyranny of ugliness". He attributed this to an alleged plot to instill
cultural pessimism in America, carried out in three stages by
Georg Lukács, the Frankfurt School, and elite media figures and political campaigners.
![Lyndon LaRouche 1976](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4f/Lyndon_LaRouche_1976.jpg)
According to Minnicino, there were two aspects of the Frankfurt School plan to destroy
Western culture
Leonardo da Vinci's ''Vitruvian Man''. Based on the correlations of ideal Body proportions">human proportions with geometry described by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius in Book III of his treatise ''De architectura''.
image:Plato Pio-Cle ...
. Firstly, a cultural critique, by
Theodor Adorno and
Walter Benjamin
Walter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin (; ; 15 July 1892 – 26 September 1940) was a German Jewish philosopher, cultural critic and essayist.
An eclectic thinker, combining elements of German idealism, Romanticism, Western Marxism, and Jewish mys ...
, to use art and culture to promote
alienation and replace Christianity with
socialism
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...
. This included the development of
opinion poll
An opinion poll, often simply referred to as a survey or a poll (although strictly a poll is an actual election) is a human research survey of public opinion from a particular sample. Opinion polls are usually designed to represent the opinions ...
ing and advertising techniques to
brainwash
Brainwashing (also known as mind control, menticide, coercive persuasion, thought control, thought reform, and forced re-education) is the concept that the human mind can be altered or controlled by certain psychological techniques. Brainwashin ...
the populace and control political campaigning. Secondly, the plan supposedly included attacks on the traditional family structure by
Herbert Marcuse
Herbert Marcuse (; ; July 19, 1898 – July 29, 1979) was a German-American philosopher, social critic, and political theorist, associated with the Frankfurt School of critical theory. Born in Berlin, Marcuse studied at the Humboldt University ...
and
Erich Fromm
Erich Seligmann Fromm (; ; March 23, 1900 – March 18, 1980) was a German social psychologist, psychoanalyst, sociologist, humanistic philosopher, and democratic socialist. He was a German Jew who fled the Nazi regime and settled in the U ...
to promote
women's rights
Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st centuries. In some countries, ...
, sexual liberation, and
polymorphous perversity Polymorphous perversity is a psychoanalytic concept proposing the ability to gain sexual gratification outside socially normative sexual behaviors. Sigmund Freud used this term to describe the sexual disposition from infancy to about age five.
Fre ...
to subvert
patriarchal authority
Patriarchy is a social system in which positions of dominance and privilege are primarily held by men. It is used, both as a technical anthropological term for families or clans controlled by the father or eldest male or group of males a ...
.
Minnicino claimed the Frankfurt School was responsible for elements of the
counterculture of the 1960s
The counterculture of the 1960s was an anti-establishment cultural phenomenon that developed throughout much of the Western world in the 1960s and has been ongoing to the present day. The aggregate movement gained momentum as the civil rights mo ...
and a "
psychedelic
Psychedelics are a subclass of hallucinogenic drugs whose primary effect is to trigger non-ordinary states of consciousness (known as psychedelic experiences or "trips").Pollan, Michael (2018). ''How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of ...
revolution", distributing
hallucinogenic drugs to encourage sexual perversion and promiscuity.
Minnicino's interest in the subject derived from his involvement in the
LaRouche movement.
Lyndon LaRouche began developing conspiracy theories regarding the Frankfurt School in 1974, when he alleged that
Herbert Marcuse
Herbert Marcuse (; ; July 19, 1898 – July 29, 1979) was a German-American philosopher, social critic, and political theorist, associated with the Frankfurt School of critical theory. Born in Berlin, Marcuse studied at the Humboldt University ...
and
Angela Davis were acting as part of
COINTELPRO
COINTELPRO ( syllabic abbreviation derived from Counter Intelligence Program; 1956–1971) was a series of covert and illegal projects actively conducted by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) aimed at surveilling, infiltrati ...
.
Other features of the conspiracy theory developed across the 1970s and 80s in the movement's magazine, ''
EIR
In Norse mythology, Eir (Old Norse: , "protection, help, mercy"Orchard (1997:36).) is a goddess or valkyrie associated with medical skill. Eir is attested in the ''Poetic Edda'', compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources; the ...
''.
After the
2011 Norway attacks
The 2011 Norway attacks, referred to in Norway as 22 July ( no, 22. juli) or as 22/7, were two domestic terrorist attacks by neo-Nazi Anders Behring Breivik against the government, the civilian population, and a Workers' Youth League (AUF) ...
, Minnicino repudiated his own essay,
writing, "I still like to think that some of my research was validly conducted and useful. However, I see very clearly that the whole enterprise—and especially the conclusions—was hopelessly deformed by self-censorship and the desire to in some way support Mr. LaRouche’s crack-brained world-view."
Paul Weyrich and William Lind
In a speech to the
Conservative Leadership Conference of the Civitas Institute in 1998,
Paul Weyrich equated Cultural Marxism to
political correctness
''Political correctness'' (adjectivally: ''politically correct''; commonly abbreviated ''PC'') is a term used to describe language, policies, or measures that are intended to avoid offense or disadvantage to members of particular groups in socie ...
.
Paul Weyrich argued that "we have lost the culture war" and that "a legitimate strategy for us to follow is to look at ways to separate ourselves from the institutions that have been captured by the ideology of Political Correctness, or by other enemies of our traditional culture."
For the
Free Congress Research and Education Foundation
The Free Congress Research and Education Foundation, also known as the Free Congress Foundation or FCF, was a conservative think tank founded by Paul Weyrich. It was based near Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.
After Paul Weyrich's death in 200 ...
, Weyrich commissioned
William Lind to write a history of Cultural Marxism, defined as "a brand of
Western Marxism
Western Marxism is a current of Marxist theory that arose from Western and Central Europe in the aftermath of the 1917 October Revolution in Russia and the ascent of Leninism. The term denotes a loose collection of theorists who advanced an int ...
... commonly known as '
multiculturalism
The term multiculturalism has a range of meanings within the contexts of sociology, political philosophy, and colloquial use. In sociology and in everyday usage, it is a synonym for "Pluralism (political theory), ethnic pluralism", with the tw ...
' or, less formally, Political Correctness."
In the speech ''The Origins of Political Correctness'', Lind wrote, "If we look at it analytically, if we look at it historically, we quickly find out exactly what it is.
Political correctness
''Political correctness'' (adjectivally: ''politically correct''; commonly abbreviated ''PC'') is a term used to describe language, policies, or measures that are intended to avoid offense or disadvantage to members of particular groups in socie ...
is cultural Marxism. It is Marxism translated from economic into cultural terms. It is an effort that goes back not to the 1960s and the
Hippies
A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to different countries around ...
and the
peace movement
A peace movement is a social movement which seeks to achieve ideals, such as the ending of a particular war (or wars) or minimizing inter-human violence in a particular place or situation. They are often linked to the goal of achieving world peac ...
, but back to
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. If we compare the basic tenets of Political Correctness with
classical Marxism
Classical Marxism refers to the economic, philosophical, and sociological theories expounded by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels as contrasted with later developments in Marxism, especially Marxism–Leninism.
Karl Marx
Karl Marx (5 May 1818, ...
, the parallels are very obvious."
According to Lind's analysis, Lukács and
Gramsci
Antonio Francesco Gramsci ( , , ; 22 January 1891 – 27 April 1937) was an Italian Marxist philosopher, journalist, linguist, writer, and politician. He wrote on philosophy, political theory, sociology, history, and linguistics. He was a fou ...
aimed to subvert Western culture because it was an obstacle to the Marxist goal of
proletarian revolution. According to Lind, the Frankfurt School under
Max Horkheimer aimed to remove social inhibitions (and destroy Western culture) using four main strategies. First, Horkheimer's critical theory would undermine the authority of the traditional family and government institutions, while segregating society into opposing groups of victims and oppressors. Second, the concepts of the
authoritarian personality
The authoritarian personality is a personality type characterized by a disposition to treat authority figures with unquestioning obedience and respect. Conceptually, the term ''authoritarian personality'' originated from the writings of Erich Fro ...
and the
F-scale, developed by Adorno, would be used to accuse Americans with right-wing views of having
fascist
Fascism is a far-right, Authoritarianism, authoritarian, ultranationalism, ultra-nationalist political Political ideology, ideology and Political movement, movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and pol ...
principles. Third, the concept of polymorphous perversity would undermine Western culture by promoting
free love and
homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to peop ...
.
Lind said that
Herbert Marcuse
Herbert Marcuse (; ; July 19, 1898 – July 29, 1979) was a German-American philosopher, social critic, and political theorist, associated with the Frankfurt School of critical theory. Born in Berlin, Marcuse studied at the Humboldt University ...
considered a coalition of "
Blacks
Black is a racialized classification of people, usually a political and skin color-based category for specific populations with a mid to dark brown complexion. Not all people considered "black" have dark skin; in certain countries, often in s ...
, students,
feminist
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...
women, and homosexuals" as a feasible
vanguard
The vanguard (also called the advance guard) is the leading part of an advancing military formation. It has a number of functions, including seeking out the enemy and securing ground in advance of the main force.
History
The vanguard derives fr ...
of cultural revolution in the 1960s.
Marcuse's
Repressive Tolerance is interpreted by Lind as an argument to silence the right, and allow only the left to be heard.
Lind also wrote that Cultural Marxism was an example of
fourth-generation warfare.
Pat Buchanan
Patrick Joseph Buchanan (; born November 2, 1938) is an American paleoconservative political commentator, columnist, politician, and broadcaster. Buchanan was an assistant and special consultant to U.S. Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, an ...
brought more attention among
paleoconservatives to Weyrich and Lind's iteration of the conspiracy theory.
Jérôme Jamin refers to Buchanan as the "intellectual momentum"
of the conspiracy theory, and to Anders Breivik as the "violent impetus".
Both of them relied on William Lind, who edited a multi-authored work called "Political Correctness: A Short History of an Ideology" that Jamin calls the core text that "has been unanimously cited as 'the' reference since 2004."
Lind and the
Council of Conservative Citizens
The Council of Conservative Citizens (CofCC or CCC) is an American white supremacist organization. Founded in 1985, it advocates white nationalism, and supports some paleoconservative causes. In the organization's statement of principles, it st ...
produced a video documentary ''Political Correctness: The Frankfurt School'' in 1999.
The film includes decontextualized clips of historian
Martin Jay, who was not aware of the nature of the production at the time.
Jay has since become a recognized expert on the conspiracy theory.
He wrote that Lind's documentary was effective Cultural Marxism
propaganda
Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...
because it "spawned a number of condensed, textual versions, which were reproduced on a number of radical, right-wing
ebsites."
Jay further writes:
These, in turn, led to a plethora of new videos, now available on YouTube
YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...
, which feature an odd cast of pseudo-experts regurgitating exactly the same line. The message is numbingly simplistic: All the 'ills' of modern American culture, from feminism
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...
, affirmative action, sexual liberation
The sexual revolution, also known as the sexual liberation, was a social movement that challenged traditional codes of behavior related to sexuality and interpersonal relationships throughout the United States and the developed world from the 1 ...
, racial equality, multiculturalism
The term multiculturalism has a range of meanings within the contexts of sociology, political philosophy, and colloquial use. In sociology and in everyday usage, it is a synonym for "Pluralism (political theory), ethnic pluralism", with the tw ...
and gay rights
Rights affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people vary greatly by country or jurisdiction—encompassing everything from the legal recognition of same-sex marriage to the death penalty for homosexuality.
Notably, , 3 ...
to the decay of traditional education, and even environmentalism
Environmentalism or environmental rights is a broad philosophy, ideology, and social movement regarding concerns for environmental protection and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seek ...
, are ultimately attributable to the insidious intellectual influence of the members of the Institute for Social Research who came to America in the 1930s.
Frankfurt School
![Ludwig Binder Haus der Geschichte Studentenrevolte 1968 2001 03 0275](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/be/Ludwig_Binder_Haus_der_Geschichte_Studentenrevolte_1968_2001_03_0275.4222_%2817084685812%29.jpg)
Predating any conspiratorial usage, the phrase "cultural Marxism" has been occasionally used in accepted academic scholarship to mean the study of how the production of culture is used by elite groups to maintain their dominance.
It is sometimes treated as synonymous with "
Critical Theory
A critical theory is any approach to social philosophy that focuses on society and culture to reveal, critique and challenge power structures. With roots in sociology and literary criticism, it argues that social problems stem more from soci ...
" that originated in the
Frankfurt School
The Frankfurt School (german: Frankfurter Schule) is a school of social theory and critical philosophy associated with the Institute for Social Research, at Goethe University Frankfurt in 1929. Founded in the Weimar Republic (1918–1933), dur ...
.
A group of
Western Marxists
Western Marxism is a current of Marxist theory that arose from Western and Central Europe in the aftermath of the 1917 October Revolution in Russia and the ascent of Leninism
Leninism is a political ideology developed by Russian Marxist r ...
including
Felix Weil
Félix José Weil (; 8 February 1898 18 September 1975) was a German-Argentine Marxist, who provided the funds to found the Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt am Main, Weimar Republic, Germany.
Biography
Weil was born in Buenos Aires, Arg ...
,
Karl Korsch
Karl Korsch (; August 15, 1886 – October 21, 1961) was a German Marxist theoretician and political philosopher. Along with György Lukács, Korsch is considered to be one of the major figures responsible for laying the groundwork for Western ...
, and
György Lukács founded the
Institute for Social Research
The Institute for Social Research (german: Institut für Sozialforschung, IfS) is a research organization for sociology and continental philosophy, best known as the institutional home of the Frankfurt School and critical theory. Currently a part ...
in Frankfurt around 1922 and 1923.
Seeking to explain the failure of the
German Revolution of 1918–1919
The German Revolution or November Revolution (german: Novemberrevolution) was a civil conflict in the German Empire at the end of the First World War that resulted in the replacement of the German federal constitutional monarchy with a dem ...
, they combined Marx's economic analyses with other lines of thought about psychology and culture, especially the
works of Sigmund Freud.
Around 1929,
Max Horkheimer began the school of thought that came to be known as the Frankfurt School or Critical Theory, which grew to encompass numerous contributors directly engaged with the Institute for Social Research and others outside it.
Recognizing the imminent danger of
Nazism
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...
, in 1935 Horkheimer relocated the institute to
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
in New York.
Thereafter, it became a driving force of the Frankfurt school to understand the rise of
totalitarianism
Totalitarianism is a form of government and a political system that prohibits all opposition parties, outlaws individual and group opposition to the state and its claims, and exercises an extremely high if not complete degree of control and reg ...
so that it could be prevented from repeating.
In works including Horkheimer and
Theodor Adorno's book ''
Dialectic of Enlightenment
''Dialectic of Enlightenment'' (german: Dialektik der Aufklärung) is a work of philosophy and social criticism written by Frankfurt School philosophers Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno. The text, published in 1947, is a revised version of wh ...
'' and
Herbert Marcuse's ''
Eros and Civilization
''Eros and Civilization: A Philosophical Inquiry into Freud'' (1955; second edition, 1966) is a book by the German philosopher and social critic Herbert Marcuse, in which the author proposes a non-repressive society, attempts a synthesis of the t ...
'' they analyzed the
culture industry in terms of Marxist labor theory and Freudian psychoanalysis. They were concerned about
mass media
Mass media refers to a diverse array of media technologies that reach a large audience via mass communication. The technologies through which this communication takes place include a variety of outlets.
Broadcast media transmit information ...
's ability to instill
false consciousness, and Adorno proposed the concept of an
authoritarian personality
The authoritarian personality is a personality type characterized by a disposition to treat authority figures with unquestioning obedience and respect. Conceptually, the term ''authoritarian personality'' originated from the writings of Erich Fro ...
that rendered citizens in liberal democracies vulnerable to being swept up in fascist movements.
After the war, Adorno and Horkheimer returned to Germany, and the Frankfurt School continued on in a second generation exemplified by
Jürgen Habermas
Jürgen Habermas (, ; ; born 18 June 1929) is a German social theorist in the tradition of critical theory and pragmatism. His work addresses communicative rationality and the public sphere.
Associated with the Frankfurt School, Habermas's wor ...
.
Herbert Marcuse remained in America, where he became a controversial public figure associated with the
New Left
The New Left was a broad political movement mainly in the 1960s and 1970s consisting of activists in the Western world who campaigned for a broad range of social issues such as civil and political rights, environmentalism, feminism, gay rights, g ...
.
Through his writing on
Repressive Tolerance and advising students such as
Angela Davis and
Rudi Dutschke, Marcuse played a dramatic role in the
civil rights movement
The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, Racial discrimination ...
and
West German student movement.
In contrast, most members of the Frankfurt School avoided such involvement, with Habermas suggesting a "strategy of hibernation."
After the New Left declined in the 1970s,
critical pedagogy — a concept with origins in the Frankfurt School — became a major current in American universities.
Critical pedagogy contributed to controversy about
political correctness
''Political correctness'' (adjectivally: ''politically correct''; commonly abbreviated ''PC'') is a term used to describe language, policies, or measures that are intended to avoid offense or disadvantage to members of particular groups in socie ...
in the 1990s.
Conspiratorial interpretations
Conspiracy theories claim that an elite of Marxist theorists and Frankfurt School intellectuals are subverting Western society. Although some theories make reference to actual thinkers and ideas selected from the Western Marxist tradition, they severely misrepresent the subject, and they give an exaggerated interpretation of their effective influence.
None of the Frankfurt School's members were part of any kind of international conspiracy to destroy
Western civilization.
According to Marc Tuters, "the analysis of Marxism proffered by this literature would certainly not stand up to scrutiny by any serious historian of the subject."
Conspiracy theorists misrepresent the nature of Theodor Adorno's work on the
Princeton Radio Project, wherein Adorno sought to understand the ability of mass media to influence the public, which he saw as a danger to be mitigated, rather than a plan to be implemented.
Some of the many ways the various versions of the conspiracy theory diverge from reality include:
* Whether individuals associated with the Frankfurt School are responsible for particular acts at particular times, or whether they are responsible for trends across large spans of space and time
* The goals of the Frankfurt School — whether it was to free the oppressed, or to destroy those institutions they criticized for having an oppressive quality
* How successful or unsuccessful the Frankfurt School was in achieving its goals
Conspiracy theorists position themselves as defending "
Western civilization",
which serves as a
floating signifier A floating signifier (also sometimes referred to as an empty signifier, but Ernesto Laclau separates both concepts) is a signifier without a referent in semiotics and discourse analysis, such as a word that points to no actual object and has no agre ...
often focusing on
capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for Profit (economics), profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, pric ...
and
freedom of speech
Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recogni ...
.
The conspiracy theory is an extreme assessment of political correctness, accusing the latter of being a project to destroy
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...
,
nationalism
Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a in-group and out-group, group of peo ...
, and the
nuclear family
A nuclear family, elementary family, cereal-packet family or conjugal family is a family group consisting of parents and their children (one or more), typically living in one home residence. It is in contrast to a single-parent family, the larger ...
.
Scholars associated with the Frankfurt School sought to create a better society by warning against patriarchy
and capitalist exploitation, goals that could seem threatening to others who have an interest in maintaining the status quo.
This has been disputed by some critics, who have suggested that the Frankfurt School's theory of historical development gives tacit support to patriarchy and imperialism.
Conspiracy theorists exaggerate the real influence of Western Marxists. By contrast, Stuart Jeffries noted their "negligible real-world impact", while Jürgen Habermas criticized what he called their "strategy of hibernation", noting that Frankfurt School figures were mostly content to complain about the world rather than attempting to change it.
Jeffries wrote: "The Frankfurt conspiracy theory, which has captivated several alt-right figures including
onaldTrump,
Jordan Peterson
Jordan Bernt Peterson (born 12 June 1962) is a Canadian media personality, clinical psychologist, author, and professor emeritus at the University of Toronto. He began to receive widespread attention as a public intellectual in the late 2010s ...
and the late
Andrew Breitbart
Andrew James Breitbart (; February 1, 1969 – March 1, 2012) was an American conservative journalist, and political commentator who was the founder of ''Breitbart News'' and a co-founder of ''HuffPost''.
After helping in the early stages of '' ...
, founder of the eponymous news service, turned this history on its head. Rather than impotent professors issuing scarcely comprehensible
jeremiad
A jeremiad is a long literary work, usually in prose, but sometimes in verse, in which the author bitterly laments the state of society and its morals in a serious tone of sustained invective, and always contains a prophecy of society's imminen ...
s from the academy, the likes of Adorno, Horkheimer,
Erich Fromm
Erich Seligmann Fromm (; ; March 23, 1900 – March 18, 1980) was a German social psychologist, psychoanalyst, sociologist, humanistic philosopher, and democratic socialist. He was a German Jew who fled the Nazi regime and settled in the U ...
and Herbert Marcuse were a crack cadre of subversives, who, during their American exile, performed a cultural takedown to which '
Make America Great Again
"Make America Great Again" or MAGA is an American political slogan popularized by Donald Trump in his successful 2016 presidential campaign. The slogan became a pop culture phenomenon, seeing widespread use and spawning numerous variants in ...
' is a belated riposte."
According to Joan Braune, Cultural Marxism in the sense referred to by the conspiracy theorists never existed, and does not correspond to any historical school of thought. She also states that Frankfurt School scholars are referred to as "Critical Theorists", not "Cultural Marxists". She points out that, contrary to the claims of the conspiracy theorists,
postmodernism
Postmodernism is an intellectual stance or Rhetorical modes, mode of discourseNuyen, A.T., 1992. The Role of Rhetorical Devices in Postmodernist Discourse. Philosophy & Rhetoric, pp.183–194. characterized by philosophical skepticism, skepticis ...
tends to be wary of or even hostile towards Marxism, including towards the
grand narratives
A metanarrative (also meta-narrative and grand narrative; french: métarécit) is a narrative ''about'' narratives of historical meaning, experience, or knowledge, which offers a society legitimation through the anticipated completion of a (as yet ...
typically supported by Critical Theory.
Terrorism
On July 22, 2011, Anders Breivik murdered 77 people in the
2011 Norway attacks
The 2011 Norway attacks, referred to in Norway as 22 July ( no, 22. juli) or as 22/7, were two domestic terrorist attacks by neo-Nazi Anders Behring Breivik against the government, the civilian population, and a Workers' Youth League (AUF) ...
. About 90 minutes before enacting the violence, Breivik e-mailed 1,003 people his manifesto ''2083: A European Declaration of Independence'' and a copy of ''Political Correctness: A Short History of an Ideology''.
Cultural Marxism was the primary subject of Breivik's manifesto. Breivik wrote that the "sexually transmitted disease (STD) epidemic in Western Europe is a result of cultural Marxism", that "Cultural Marxism defines Muslims, feminist women, homosexuals, and some additional minority groups, as virtuous, and they view ethnic Christian European men as evil" and that the "
European Court of Human Rights
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR or ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights. The court hears applications alleging that a ...
(ECHR) in Strasbourg is a cultural-Marxist-controlled political entity."
A number of other far-right terrorists have espoused the conspiracy theory.
Jack Renshaw, a
neo-Nazi
Neo-Nazism comprises the post–World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazism, Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and Supremacism#Racial, racial supremacy (ofte ...
child sex offender
Child sexual abuse (CSA), also called child molestation, is a form of child abuse in which an adult or older adolescent uses a child for sexual stimulation. Forms of child sexual abuse include engaging in sexual activities with a child (wheth ...
convicted of plotting the assassination of Labour MP
Rosie Cooper, promoted the conspiracy theory in a video for the
British National Party. John T. Earnest, the perpetrator of the 2019
Poway synagogue shooting
The Poway synagogue shooting occurred on April 27, 2019, at Chabad of Poway synagogue in Poway, California, United States, a city approximately north of San Diego, on the last day of the Jewish Passover holiday, which fell on a Shabbat. Armed w ...
, was inspired by
white nationalist ideology. In an online manifesto, Earnest stated that he believed "every Jew is responsible for the meticulously planned
genocide of the European race" through the promotion of "cultural Marxism and communism."
Reactions
Concerning the real-life political violence caused by the conspiracy theory, law professor
Samuel Moyn wrote: "That 'cultural Marxism' is a crude
slander, referring to something that does not exist, unfortunately does not mean actual people are not being set up to pay the price, as
scapegoat
In the Bible, a scapegoat is one of a pair of kid goats that is released into the wilderness, taking with it all sins and impurities, while the other is sacrificed. The concept first appears in the Book of Leviticus, in which a goat is designate ...
s, to appease a rising sense of anger and anxiety. And for that reason, 'cultural Marxism' is not only a sad diversion from framing legitimate grievances but also a dangerous lure in an increasingly unhinged moment."
Antisemitism
The author Matthew Rose wrote that arguments by the American neo-Nazi
Francis Parker Yockey
Francis Parker Yockey (September 18, 1917 – June 16, 1960) was an American fascist and pan-Europeanist ideologue. A lawyer, he is known for his neo- Spenglerian book '' Imperium: The Philosophy of History and Politics'', published in 1948 u ...
after World War II were an early example of the conspiracy theory.
![Ausstellung entartete kunst 1937](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/90/Ausstellung_entartete_kunst_1937.jpg)
According to Samuel Moyn, "
e wider discourse around cultural Marxism today resembles nothing so much as a version of the
Jewish Bolshevism myth updated for a new age." Maxime Dafaure likewise states that ''Cultural Marxism'' is a contemporary update of antisemitic conspiracy theories, such as the Nazi concept of "Cultural Bolshevism", and is directly associated with the concept of "Jewish Bolshevism". According to philosopher
Slavoj Žižek
Slavoj Žižek (, ; ; born 21 March 1949) is a Slovenian philosopher, cultural theorist and public intellectual. He is international director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities at the University of London, visiting professor at New Y ...
, the term ''Cultural Marxism'' "plays the same structural role as that of the 'Jewish plot' in anti-Semitism: it projects (or rather, transposes) the immanent antagonism of our socio-economic life onto an external cause: what the conservative alt-right deplores as the ethical disintegration of our lives (
feminism
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...
, attacks on
patriarchy
Patriarchy is a social system in which positions of dominance and privilege are primarily held by men. It is used, both as a technical anthropological term for families or clans controlled by the father or eldest male or group of males a ...
,
political correctness
''Political correctness'' (adjectivally: ''politically correct''; commonly abbreviated ''PC'') is a term used to describe language, policies, or measures that are intended to avoid offense or disadvantage to members of particular groups in socie ...
, etc.) must have an external cause—because it cannot, for them, emerge out of the antagonisms and tensions of our own societies."
Dominic Green wrote a conservative critique of conservatives' complaints about Cultural Marxism in ''
Spectator USA
''The Spectator'' is a weekly British magazine on politics, culture, and current affairs. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving weekly magazine in the world.
It is owned by Frederick Barclay, who also owns ''The ...
'', stating: "For the Nazis, the Frankfurter
'sic''School and its vaguely Jewish exponents fell under the rubric of , 'Cultural Bolshevism.'"
Andrew Woods in the essay "Cultural Marxism and the Cathedral: Two Alt-Right Perspectives on Critical Theory" (2019), acknowledges comparisons to Cultural Bolshevism, but argues against the idea the modern conspiracy theory was derived from Nazi propaganda. He writes instead that its antisemitism is "profoundly American".
In ''Commune'' magazine, Woods detailed a genealogy of the conspiracy theory beginning with the LaRouche movement.
Kevin MacDonald has written several anti-semitic texts centering on the Frankfurt School. MacDonald criticized Breivik's manifesto for not being more hostile to Jews.
Circulation in the alt-right
Neo-Nazi
Neo-Nazism comprises the post–World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazism, Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and Supremacism#Racial, racial supremacy (ofte ...
and
white supremacists promoted the conspiracy theory and help expand its reach. Websites such as the ''
American Renaissance'' have run articles with titles like "Cultural Marxism in Action: Media Matters Engineers Cancellation of Vdare.com Conference".
''
The Daily Stormer'' regularly runs stories about "Cultural Marxism" with titles such as "Jewish Cultural Marxism is Destroying Abercrombie & Fitch", "Hollywood Strikes Again: Cultural Marxism through the Medium of Big Box-Office Movies" and "The Left-Center-Right Political Spectrum of Immigration = Cultural Marxism".
Neo-nazis associated with
Stormfront have strategically used the Frankfurt School as a euphemism to refer to Jewish people more generally, in venues where more forthright anti-semitism would be censored or rejected.
[
Timothy Matthews criticized the Frankfurt School from an explicitly Christian right perspective in the ]Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
weekly newspaper '' The Wanderer''. According to Matthews, the Frankfurt School, under the influence of Satan
Satan,, ; grc, ὁ σατανᾶς or , ; ar, شيطانالخَنَّاس , also known as Devil in Christianity, the Devil, and sometimes also called Lucifer in Christianity, is an non-physical entity, entity in the Abrahamic religions ...
, seeks to destroy the traditional Christian family using critical theory and Marcuse's concept of polymorphous perversity, thereby encouraging homosexuality and breaking down the patriarchal family. Andrew Woods wrote that the plot Matthews describes does not resemble the Frankfurt School so much as the alleged aims of communists in ''The Naked Communist
''The Naked Communist'' is a 1958 anti-communist book by W. Cleon Skousen, a former FBI employee. The book has been reprinted several times and it has sold more than one million copies.
Content
''The Naked Communist'' is a 1958 anti-communis ...
'' by W. Cleon Skousen
Willard Cleon Skousen (; January 20, 1913 – January 9, 2006) was an American Conservatism in the United States, conservative author with the John Birch Society and a faith-based conspiracy theorist. A notable anti-communist and suppor ...
.[The article accused the Frankfurt School of having eleven primary aims:
#The creation of ]racism
Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism ...
offences
#Continual change to create confusion
#The teaching of sex and homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to peop ...
to children
#The undermining of schools' and teachers' authority
#Huge immigration
Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, and ...
to destroy identity
#The promotion of excessive drinking
Alcohol abuse encompasses a spectrum of unhealthy alcohol drinking behaviors, ranging from binge drinking to alcohol dependence, in extreme cases resulting in health problems for individuals and large scale social problems such as alcohol-r ...
#Emptying of churches
#An unreliable legal system with bias against victims of crime
#Dependency on the state or state benefits
#Control and dumbing down of media
#Encouraging the breakdown of the family
Nonetheless, Matthews' account was circulated credulously by right-wing
Right-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position on the basis of natural law, economics, authorit ...
and alt-right
The alt-right, an abbreviation of alternative right, is a far-right, white nationalist movement. A largely online phenomenon, the alt-right originated in the United States during the late 2000s before increasing in popularity during the mid-2 ...
news media as well as in far-right
Far-right politics, also referred to as the extreme right or right-wing extremism, are political beliefs and actions further to the right of the left–right political spectrum than the standard political right, particularly in terms of being ...
internet forums such including Stormfront.
Following the Norway attacks, the conspiracy theory was taken up by a number of far-right
Far-right politics, also referred to as the extreme right or right-wing extremism, are political beliefs and actions further to the right of the left–right political spectrum than the standard political right, particularly in terms of being ...
outlets and forums, including alt-right
The alt-right, an abbreviation of alternative right, is a far-right, white nationalist movement. A largely online phenomenon, the alt-right originated in the United States during the late 2000s before increasing in popularity during the mid-2 ...
websites such as AltRight Corporation
The AltRight Corporation is an alt-right organization based in Alexandria, Virginia. It began operations in January 2017, and runs the website "altright.com". The site claims to feature "the best writers and analysts" of the alt-right, and lists t ...
, '' InfoWars'' and VDARE
VDARE is an American far-right website promoting opposition to immigration to the United States. It is associated with white supremacy,Sam FrizellGOP Shows White Supremacist's Tweet During Trump's Speech Time, July 21, 2016 white nationalism, ...
which have promoted the theory. The AltRight Corporation's website, altright.com, featured articles with titles such as "Ghostbusters and the Suicide of Cultural Marxism", "#3 — Sweden: The World Capital of Cultural Marxism" and "Beta Leftists, Cultural Marxism and Self-Entitlement". ''InfoWars'' ran numerous headlines such as "Is Cultural Marxism America's New Mainline Ideology?" VDARE ran similar articles with similar titles such as "Yes, Virginia (Dare) There Is A Cultural Marxism—And It's Taking Over Conservatism Inc."
Richard B. Spencer
Richard Bertrand Spencer (born May 1978) is an American neo-Nazi, antisemitic conspiracy theorist, and white supremacist. A former editor, he is a public speaker and activist on behalf of the alt-right movement. He advocates for the ...
, head of the National Policy Institute
The National Policy Institute (NPI) is a white supremacist think tank and lobbying group which is based in Alexandria, Virginia. It lobbies for white supremacists and the alt-right. Its president is Richard B. Spencer.
It has been largely inac ...
, has promoted the conspiracy theory. Spencer's master's thesis
A thesis ( : theses), or dissertation (abbreviated diss.), is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings.International Standard ISO 7144: ...
was on the topic of Theodor Adorno.
Jewish supporters
There are some notable Jewish supporters of the conspiracy theory. Paul Gottfried
Paul Edward Gottfried (born November 21, 1941) is an American paleoconservative political philosopher, historian, and writer. He is a former Professor of Humanities at Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania. He is editor-in-chief of the paleocons ...
was at one time a student of Herbert Marcuse (with whom he disagreed) and edited ''Telos
Telos (; ) is a term used by philosopher Aristotle to refer to the final cause of a natural organ or entity, or of a work of human art. Intentional actualization of potential or inherent purpose,"Telos.''Philosophy Terms'' Retrieved 3 May 2020. ...
.'' Under Gottfried's tenure, ''Telos'' became far-right in its outlook, writing favorably about Carl Schmitt and Alain de Benoist. Gottfried influenced Richard Spencer and has been called the " godfather" of the alt-right. He defended William Lind against accusations that "Cultural Marxism" has anti-semitic undertones. Gottfried identifies as reactionary
In political science, a reactionary or a reactionist is a person who holds political views that favor a return to the ''status quo ante'', the previous political state of society, which that person believes possessed positive characteristics abse ...
and questions the value of political equality
Political equality is the quality of a society whose voluntary members are of equal standing in terms of political power or influence. A founding principle of various forms of democracy, political egalitarianism was an idea which was supported by T ...
.
Other Jewish supporters include Ralph de Toledano, Andrew Breitbart
Andrew James Breitbart (; February 1, 1969 – March 1, 2012) was an American conservative journalist, and political commentator who was the founder of ''Breitbart News'' and a co-founder of ''HuffPost''.
After helping in the early stages of '' ...
, Ben Shapiro, David Horowitz, and Stephen Miller.
Jewish supporters of the conspiracy theory are generally more paleoconservative (a term coined by Gottfried) than neoconservative. Martin Jay calls the number of Jewish proponents of the conspiracy theory "puzzling and uncomfortable."
Entering the mainstream
Rachel Busbridge, Benjamin Moffitt and Joshua Thorburn describe the conspiracy theory as being promoted by the far-right, but that it "has gained ground over the past quarter century" and conclude that " rough the lens of the Cultural Marxist conspiracy, however, it is possible to discern a relationship of empowerment between mainstream and fringe, whereby certain talking points and tropes are able to be transmitted, taken up and adapted by 'mainstream' figures, thus giving credence and visibility to ideologies that would have previously been constrained to the margins."
Andrew Breitbart, founder of Breitbart News, was a proponent of the conspiracy theory. His 2011 book ''Righteous Indignation: Excuse Me While I Save the World'' represents one of the conspiracy theory's moves towards the mainstream. Breitbart's interpretation of the conspiracy is similar in most respects to that of Lind. Breitbart attributes the spread of the ideas of the Frankfurt School from universities to a wider audience to "trickledown intellectualism", and claims that Saul Alinsky introduced cultural Marxism to the masses in his 1971 handbook ''Rules for Radicals
''Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals'' is a 1971 book by community activist and writer Saul D. Alinsky about how to successfully run a movement for change. It was the last book written by Alinsky, and it was published ...
''. Woods argues that Breitbart focuses on Alinsky in order to associate cultural Marxism with the modern Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to:
*Democratic Party (United States)
Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to:
Active parties Africa
*Botswana Democratic Party
*Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea
*Gabonese Democratic Party
*Demo ...
, and Hillary Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...
. Breitbart claims that George Soros funds the alleged cultural Marxism project. Breitbart News has published the idea that Theodor Adorno's atonal music was an attempt at inducing the population to necrophilia
Necrophilia, also known as necrophilism, necrolagnia, necrocoitus, necrochlesis, and thanatophilia, is sexual attraction towards or a sexual act involving Cadaver, corpses. It is classified as a paraphilia by the World Health Organization (WHO) ...
on a mass scale.
In the late 2010s, Canadian clinical psychologist Jordan Peterson
Jordan Bernt Peterson (born 12 June 1962) is a Canadian media personality, clinical psychologist, author, and professor emeritus at the University of Toronto. He began to receive widespread attention as a public intellectual in the late 2010s ...
popularized "Cultural Marxism" as a term, moving it into mainstream discourse. Several writers stated that Peterson blamed "Cultural Marxism" for demanding the use of gender-neutral pronouns
A third-person pronoun is a pronoun that refers to an entity other than the speaker or listener. Some languages with gender-specific pronouns have them as part of a grammatical gender system, a system of agreement where most or all nouns have a va ...
as a threat to free speech, often misusing ''postmodernism
Postmodernism is an intellectual stance or Rhetorical modes, mode of discourseNuyen, A.T., 1992. The Role of Rhetorical Devices in Postmodernist Discourse. Philosophy & Rhetoric, pp.183–194. characterized by philosophical skepticism, skepticis ...
'' as a stand-in term for the conspiracy without understanding its antisemitic
Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism.
Antis ...
implications, specifying that "Peterson isn't an ideological anti-Semite; there's every reason to believe that when he re-broadcasts fascist propaganda, he doesn't even hear the dog-whistles he's emitting". Former Breitbart
''Breitbart News Network'' (known commonly as ''Breitbart News'', ''Breitbart'', or ''Breitbart.com'') is an American far-rightMultiple sources:
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
* syndicated news, opinion, and commentary website founded in mid-2007 by ...
contributors Ben Shapiro and Charlie Kirk
Charles J. Kirk (born 1993) is an American conservative activist and radio talk show host. He founded Turning Point USA with Bill Montgomery in 2012, and has served as its executive director since. He is the CEO of Turning Point Action, Stude ...
, founder of Turning Point USA, have promoted the conspiracy theory, especially the claim that Cultural Marxist activity is happening in universities.
Concerns for false balance
Spencer Sunshine, an associate fellow at the Political Research Associates
Political Research Associates (PRA), formerly Midwest Research, Chicago (1981–87) is a non-profit research group located in Somerville, Massachusetts.
Mission
PRA studies the U.S. political right wing, as well as white supremacists, and para ...
, stated that "the focus on the Frankfurt School by the right serves to highlight its inherent Jewishness." In particular, Paul and Sunshine have criticized traditional media such as ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', ''New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
'' and ''The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' for their coverage of the conspiracy theory, arguing that they have either not clarified the nature of the conspiracy theory or "allow dit to live on their pages." An example is an article in ''The New York Times'' by David Brooks, who Paul and Sunshine argue "rebrands cultural Marxism as mere political correctness, giving the Nazi-inspired phrase legitimacy for the American right. It is dropped in or quoted in other stories—some of them lighthearted, like the fashion cues of the alt-right—without describing how fringe this notion is. It's akin to letting conspiracy theories about chem trails
The chemtrail conspiracy theory is the erroneous belief that long-lasting condensation trails are "chemtrails" consisting of chemical or biological agents left in the sky by high-flying aircraft, sprayed for nefarious purposes undisclosed to t ...
or vaccines
A vaccine is a biological preparation that provides active acquired immunity
The adaptive immune system, also known as the acquired immune system, is a subsystem of the immune system that is composed of specialized, systemic cells and pro ...
get unearned space in mainstream press." Another is Andrew Sullivan
Andrew Michael Sullivan (born 10 August 1963) is a British-American author, editor, and blogger. Sullivan is a political commentator, a former editor of ''The New Republic'', and the author or editor of six books. He started a political blog, ' ...
, who went on "to denounce 'cultural Marxists' for inspiring social justice
Social justice is justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society. In Western and Asian cultures, the concept of social justice has often referred to the process of ensuring that individuals fu ...
movements on campuses." Paul and Sunshine argued that failure to highlight the nature of the conspiracy theory "has bitter consequences. 'It is legitimizing the use of that framework, and therefore it's iccoded antisemitism.'"
Sociologists Julia Lux and John David Jordan assert that the conspiracy theory can be broken down into its key elements: " misogynist anti-feminism, neo- eugenic science (broadly defined as various forms of genetic determinism
Biological determinism, also known as genetic determinism, is the belief that human behaviour is directly controlled by an individual's genes or some component of their physiology, generally at the expense of the role of the environment, whether ...
), genetic and cultural white supremacy
White supremacy or white supremacism is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races and thus should dominate them. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any power and privilege held by white people. White su ...
, McCarthyist
McCarthyism is the practice of making false or unfounded accusations of subversion and treason, especially when related to anarchism, communism and socialism, and especially when done in a public and attention-grabbing manner.
The term origina ...
anti-Leftism fixated on postmodernism
Postmodernism is an intellectual stance or Rhetorical modes, mode of discourseNuyen, A.T., 1992. The Role of Rhetorical Devices in Postmodernist Discourse. Philosophy & Rhetoric, pp.183–194. characterized by philosophical skepticism, skepticis ...
, radical anti-intellectualism
Anti-intellectualism is hostility to and mistrust of intellect, intellectuals, and intellectualism, commonly expressed as deprecation of education and philosophy and the dismissal of art, literature, and science as impractical, politically mo ...
applied to the social sciences, and the idea that a purge is required to restore normality." They go on to say that all of these items are "supported, proselytised and academically buoyed by intellectuals, politicians, and media figures with extremely credible educational backgrounds."
Political discourses
In "Taking On Hate: One NGO's Strategies" (2009), the political scientist Heidi Beirich said that the Cultural Marxism theory demonizes the cultural '' bêtes noires'' of conservatism
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilizati ...
such as feminists
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male poi ...
, LGBT social movements, secular humanists
Secular humanism is a philosophy, belief system or life stance that embraces human reason, secular ethics, and philosophical naturalism while specifically rejecting religious dogma, supernaturalism, and superstition as the basis of morality an ...
, multiculturalists
The term multiculturalism has a range of meanings within the contexts of sociology, political philosophy, and colloquial use. In sociology and in everyday usage, it is a synonym for "Pluralism (political theory), ethnic pluralism", with the tw ...
, sex educators, environmentalist
An environmentalist is a person who is concerned with and/or advocates for the protection of the environment. An environmentalist can be considered a supporter of the goals of the environmental movement, "a political and ethical movement that se ...
s, immigrants
Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, and ...
and black nationalists
Black nationalism is a type of racial nationalism or pan-nationalism which espouses the belief that black people are a race, and which seeks to develop and maintain a black racial and national identity. Black nationalist activism revolves arou ...
.
Jamin writes on the flexibility of the conspiracy theory to serve the rhetorical purposes of different groups with diverse sets of enemies:
In "Liberalism and Socialism Mortal Enemies Or Embittered Kin?" (2021), professor Aaron Hanlon said that "the objectives of proponents of conspiratorial views about Cultural Marxism were (and are) not to give a current account of Critical Theory, but to advance a conservative version of US liberalism against the scapegoat of global conspiracy theory." and "In short, what Critical Theory provides to those who use 'critical theory' to signal a socialist threat to liberalism is not only a link to Marxist thought, but also a straw man against which to advance neoliberal
Neoliberalism (also neo-liberalism) is a term used to signify the late 20th century political reappearance of 19th-century ideas associated with free-market capitalism after it fell into decline following the Second World War. A prominent fa ...
politics."
Australia
Shortly after the Norway attacks, mainstream right-wing politicians began espousing the conspiracy. In 2013, Cory Bernardi, a member of the ruling Liberal Party, wrote in his book ''The Conservative Revolution'' that "cultural Marxism has been one of the most corrosive influences on society over the last century." Five years later, Fraser Anning, former Australian Senator, initially sitting as a member of Pauline Hanson's One Nation
Pauline Hanson's One Nation (PHON or ONP), also known as One Nation or One Nation Party, is a Right-wing populism, right-wing populist List of political parties in Australia, political party in Australia. It is led by Pauline Hanson.
One Nat ...
and then Katter's Australian Party
Katter's Australian Party (KAP) is an agrarian political party in Australia. It was founded by Bob Katter, an independent and former Nationals MP for the seat of Kennedy, with a registration application lodged to the Australian Electoral Co ...
, declared during his maiden speech in 2018 that "Cultural Marxism is not a throwaway line but a literal truth" and spoke of the need for a " final solution to the immigration problem."
Brazil
In Brazil, the government of Jair Bolsonaro
Jair Messias Bolsonaro (; born 21 March 1955) is a Brazilian politician and retired military officer who has been the 38th president of Brazil since 1 January 2019. He was elected in 2018 as a member of the Social Liberal Party, which he turn ...
contained a number of administration members who promoted the conspiracy theory, including Eduardo Bolsonaro
Eduardo Nantes Bolsonaro (born 10 July 1984) is a Brazilian politician, lawyer and federal police officer. He is the third child of Jair Bolsonaro, the 38th President of Brazil.
Career
He has been a member of the Chamber of Deputies since 20 ...
, the president's son who "enthusiastically described Steve Bannon as an opponent of Cultural Marxism." Jair Bolsonaro sought to expunge the influence of Paulo Freire from Brazilian universities. This had the opposite effect, driving sales of Freire's book '' Pedagogy of the Oppressed''.
Cuba
In 2010, former head of state Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (; ; 13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban revolutionary and politician who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and president from 1976 to 200 ...
called attention to a version of the conspiracy theory by Daniel Estulin, which proposed that the Bilderberg Group sought to influence world events via the spread of rock and roll
Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or rock 'n roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from Africa ...
music. Estulin's work was based on Minnicino's 1992 essay which emphasized Adorno's involvement in the Radio Research Project
The Radio Research Project was a social research project funded by the Rockefeller Foundation to look into the effects of mass media on society.
In 1937, the Rockefeller Foundation started funding research to find the effects of new forms of mass ...
. Martin Jay described Estulin's text as "risible" and explained that, although some in the Frankfurt School wrote about the potential for mass media to pacify labor movements, it was something they lamented rather than planned to implement. Castro invited Estulin to Cuba, where they issued a joint statement claiming Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden (10 March 1957 – 2 May 2011) was a Saudi-born extremist militant who founded al-Qaeda and served as its leader from 1988 until Killing of Osama bin Laden, his death in 2011. Ideologically a Pan-Islamism ...
was a CIA asset and that the United States was planning a nuclear war against Russia. In 2019, Jay wrote that Castro's interest in the conspiracy theory had no long-term consequences.
United Kingdom
During the Brexit
Brexit (; a portmanteau of "British exit") was the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February 2020 CET).The UK also left the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or ...
debate in 2019, a number of Conservatives and Brexiteer
In the wake of the referendum held in the United Kingdom on 23 June 2016, many new pieces of Brexit-related jargon entered popular use.Al Jazeera. (2018)''Brexit jargon: From backstop to no deal, 17 key terms explained'' (Al Jazeera) Retrieved 2 ...
s espoused the conspiracy theory.
Suella Braverman, the Conservative Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...
(MP), said in a pro-Brexit speech for the Bruges Group, a Eurosceptic
Euroscepticism, also spelled as Euroskepticism or EU-scepticism, is a political position involving criticism of the European Union (EU) and European integration. It ranges from those who oppose some EU institutions and policies, and seek reform ...
think tank, that " are engaging in many battles right now. As Conservatives, we are engaged in a battle against cultural Marxism, where banning things is becoming ''de rigueur'', where freedom of speech is becoming a taboo, where our universities — quintessential institutions of liberalism
Liberalism is a political and moral philosophy based on the rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality and equality before the law."political rationalism, hostility to autocracy, cultural distaste for c ...
— are being shrouded in censorship and a culture of no-platforming." Her usage of the conspiracy theory was condemned as hate speech
Hate speech is defined by the ''Cambridge Dictionary'' as "public speech that expresses hate or encourages violence towards a person or group based on something such as race, religion, sex, or sexual orientation". Hate speech is "usually thoug ...
by other MPs, the Board of Deputies of British Jews
The Board of Deputies of British Jews, commonly referred to as the Board of Deputies, is the largest and second oldest Jewish communal organisation in the United Kingdom, after only the Initiation Society which was founded in 1745. Established ...
and the anti-racist organization Hope Not Hate. After meeting with her later, the Board of Deputies of British Jews said that she is "not in any way antisemitic." Braverman was alerted to this connection by journalist Dawn Foster
Dawn Hayley Foster (12 September 1986 – 9 July 2021) was an Irish-British journalist, broadcaster, and author writing predominantly on social affairs, politics, economics and women's rights. Foster held staff writer positions at ''Inside Housi ...
, but she defended using the term. Braverman denied that the term ''Cultural Marxism'' is an antisemitic trope, stating during a question and answer session "whether she stood by the term, given its far-right connections. She said: 'Yes, I do believe we are in a battle against cultural Marxism, as I said. We have culture evolving from the far left which has allowed the snuffing out of freedom of speech, freedom of thought.'" Braverman further added that she was "very aware of that ongoing creep of cultural Marxism, which has come from Jeremy Corbyn
Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020. On the political left of the Labour Party, Corbyn describes himself as a socialist ...
."
Nigel Farage has promoted the cultural Marxist conspiracy theory, for which he has been condemned by Jewish groups such as the Board of Deputies of British Jews as well as a number of Members of Parliament who said he used it as a dog-whistle code for antisemitism in the United Kingdom. Farage said that the United Kingdom faced "cultural Marxism", a term described in its report by ''The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' as "originating in a conspiracy theory based on a supposed plot against national governments, which is closely linked to the far right and antisemitism." Farage's spokesman "condemned previous criticism of his language by Jewish groups and others as 'pathetic' and 'a manufactured story.'"
In ''The War Against the BBC'' (2020), Patrick Barwise
Patrick Barwise (born June 1946) is emeritus professor of management and marketing at London Business School. He joined the business school in 1976 after an early career at IBM and has published widely on marketing and media.
He is an honora ...
and Peter York write how the Cultural Marxism conspiracy theory has been pushed by some on the right as part of an alleged bias of the BBC. Yasmin Alibhai-Brown
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown (''née'' Damji; born 10 December 1949) is a British journalist and author, who describes herself as "a leftie liberal, anti-racist, feminist, Muslim...person". A regular columnist for the I (newspaper), ''i '' newspaper a ...
cites Dominic Cummings
Dominic Mckenzie Cummings (born 25 November 1971) is a British political strategist who served as Chief Adviser to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson from 24 July 2019 until Cummings resigned on 13 November 2020.
From 2007 to 2014, he was a ...
, Tim Montgomerie and the right-wing website ''Guido Fawkes
Guido Fawkes is a right-wing political website published by British-Irish political blogger Paul Staines.
History
In September 2004, Staines began writing an anonymous blog about British politics under the name of Guido Fawkes, an alternative ...
'' as examples of "relentlessly omplainingabout the institution's 'cultural Marxism' or left-wing bias. This now happens on a near-daily basis."
In November 2020 a letter signed by 28 Conservative MPs published in ''The Telegraph
''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are popular names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include:
Australia
* ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaide, South Australia, publ ...
'' accused the National Trust
The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...
of being "coloured by cultural Marxist dogma, colloquially known as the ' woke agenda'". The use of this terminology in the letter was described by the All-Party Parliamentary Group Against Antisemitism
The All-Party Parliamentary Group against Antisemitism is a group in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The group exists to "To combat antisemitism and help develop and seek implementation of effective public policy to combat antisemitism". The ...
, Jewish Council for Racial Equality
The Jewish Council for Racial Equality (JCORE) is a Jewish organisation that works to provide a Jewish voice on race and asylum issues in the UK.
JCORE aims to deliver race-equality education for all ages, provides action to support refugees a ...
, anti-racist charity Hope Not Hate and the Campaign Against Antisemitism
Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) is a British non-governmental organisation established in August 2014 by members of the Anglo-Jewish community. It publishes research, organises rallies and petitions, and conducts litigation.
History
CAA was ...
as antisemitic.
United States
Cultural Marxism discourse was found in several strands of U.S. right-wing politics post-2000, including the religious right and the Tea Party movement
The Tea Party movement was an American fiscally conservative political movement within the Republican Party that began in 2009. Members of the movement called for lower taxes and for a reduction of the national debt and federal budget defic ...
.
Shortly after the election of Donald Trump
The 2016 United States presidential election was the 58th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 8, 2016. The Republican ticket of businessman Donald Trump and Indiana governor Mike Pence defeated the Democratic ticket ...
, Alex Ross wrote an article in ''The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'' titled, "The Frankfurt School Knew Trump was Coming". It argued that Trump represented the kind of authoritarian identified by Theodor Adorno's F-scale. This idea prompted academic conferences on the same theme at the New School for Social Research
The New School for Social Research (NSSR) is a graduate-level educational institution that is one of the divisions of The New School in New York City, United States. The university was founded in 1919 as a home for progressive era thinkers. NSSR ...
and the Leo Baeck Institute.
In 2017, it was reported that advisor Richard Higgins was fired from the United States National Security Council
The United States National Security Council (NSC) is the principal forum used by the President of the United States for consideration of national security, military, and foreign policy matters. Based in the White House, it is part of the Execu ...
for publishing the memorandum '"POTUS & Political Warfare" that alleged the existence of a left-wing conspiracy to destroy Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...
's presidency because "American public intellectuals of Cultural Marxism, foreign Islamicists, and globalist bankers, the news media, and politicians from the Republican and Democratic parties were attacking Trump, because he represents an existential threat to the cultural Marxist memes that dominate the prevailing cultural narrative in the US." Higgins also asserted that the Frankfurt School "sought to deconstruct everything in order to destroy it, giving rise to society-wide nihilism." The memo was read by Donald Trump Jr. who passed on a copy of it to his father.
Matt Shea
Matthew Thomas Shea (born April 18, 1974) is an American far-right lawyer, pastor, and politician. A Republican, he represented the 4th legislative district in the Washington House of Representatives from 2009 to 2021. A 2019 report published ...
, a Washington Representative from the Republican Party
Republican Party is a name used by many political parties around the world, though the term most commonly refers to the United States' Republican Party.
Republican Party may also refer to:
Africa
*Republican Party (Liberia)
* Republican Part ...
, is a proponent of the conspiracy theory.
Gamergate
Gamergate
Gamergate may refer to:
* Gamergate (ant), a worker ant that can store sperm and reproduce sexually
* Gamergate (harassment campaign), targeting women in the video game industry
* Lt. Gamergate, a character in the ''Adventure Time'' episode " Den ...
was an online harassment campaign beginning in 2014, particularly targeting women, that had the purported aim of promoting ethics in video games journalism. Participants in Gamergate referred to their opposition as cultural Marxists, and cited free-speech grounds to justify harassing their targets. Noted harassment associated with the online movement included doxing, swatting, and threats of rape and death. Torill Mortensen and Tanja Sihvonen described one Gamergate figure's connection of cultural Marxism with the Frankfurt School as "to a certain degree correct" but conflated with old and unfounded conspiracy theories. Michael Salter noted the role of new online platforms in the abuse and hostility toward women; his analysis used elements of critical theory including technological rationality Technological rationality or technical rationality is a philosophical idea postulated by the Frankfurt School philosopher Herbert Marcuse in his 1941 article, "Some Social Implications of Modern Technology," published first in the journal Studies i ...
. The Southern Poverty Law Center
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit legal advocacy organization specializing in civil rights and public interest litigation. Based in Montgomery, Alabama, it is known for its legal cases against white su ...
described the Gamergate campaign as one in a number of examples of male supremacy, which it said views society as "a matriarchy propped up by 'cultural Marxism' meant to eradicate or subjugate men".
See also
* Andinia Plan
The Andinia Plan ( es, Plan Andinia) is a conspiracy theory that alleged plans to establish a Jewish state in parts of Argentina and Chile. It is partly based on an exaggeration of historical proposals for organized Jewish migration to Argentina ...
* Antisemitic canard
Antisemitic tropes, canards, or myths are " sensational reports, misrepresentations, or fabrications" that are defamatory towards Judaism as a religion or defamatory towards Jews as an ethnic or religious group. Since the Middle Ages, such repo ...
* Blood libel
Blood libel or ritual murder libel (also blood accusation) is an antisemitic canardTurvey, Brent E. ''Criminal Profiling: An Introduction to Behavioral Evidence Analysis'', Academic Press, 2008, p. 3. "Blood libel: An accusation of ritual mur ...
* Cultural Bolshevism
* Doctors' plot
The "Doctors' plot" affair, group=rus was an alleged conspiracy of prominent Healthcare in Russia, Soviet medical specialists to murder leading government and party officials. It was also known as the case of saboteur doctors or killer doctors. ...
* Great Replacement
* Pizzagate conspiracy theory
"Pizzagate" is a conspiracy theory that went viral during the 2016 United States presidential election cycle. It has been extensively discredited by a wide range of organizations, including the Washington, D.C. police.
In March 2016, the pe ...
* The Eternal Jew (art exhibition)
* '' The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century''
* Franklin Prophecy
The Franklin Prophecy, sometimes called the Franklin Forgery, is an antisemitic speech falsely attributed to Benjamin Franklin, warning of the supposed dangers of admitting Jews to the nascent United States. The speech was purportedly transcrib ...
* ''The International Jew
''The International Jew'' is a four-volume set of antisemitic booklets or pamphlets originally published and distributed in the early 1920s by the Dearborn Publishing Company, an outlet owned by Henry Ford, the American industrialist and aut ...
''
* '' The Protocols of the Elders of Zion''
* Jewish Bolshevism
* Judeo-Masonic conspiracy theory
* Kosher tax conspiracy theory
The "Kosher tax" (or "Jewish tax") is the idea that food companies and unwitting consumers are forced to pay money to support Judaism or Zionist causes and Israel through the costs of kosher certification. The claim is generally considered a co ...
* QAnon
* Rootless cosmopolitan
* Stab-in-the-back myth
The stab-in-the-back myth (, , ) was an antisemitic conspiracy theory that was widely believed and promulgated in Germany after 1918. It maintained that the Imperial German Army did not lose World War I on the battlefield, but was instead ...
* Well poisoning
* White genocide conspiracy theory
The white genocide, white extinction, or white replacement conspiracy theory is a white supremacist conspiracy theory which states that there is a deliberate plot, often blamed on Jews, to promote miscegenation, interracial marriage, mass non- ...
* Zionist Occupation Government conspiracy theory
The Zionist occupation government, Zionist occupational government or Zionist-occupied government (ZOG), sometimes also referred to as the Jewish occupational government (JOG), is an antisemitic conspiracy theory claiming Jews secretly contr ...
* Żydokomuna
Notes
References
Further reading
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{{conspiracy theories
1992 neologisms
2011 Norway attacks
Alt-right
Antisemitic canards
Conspiracy theories in Europe
Conspiracy theories involving Jews
Conspiracy theories in the United States
Criticism of multiculturalism
Fascist propaganda
LaRouche movement
Marxism