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Cultural Marxism is a far-right antisemitic conspiracy theory that identifies the Frankfurt School as the origin of an ongoing academic and intellectual movement, which intends to undermine and destroy Western culture and values. According to the theory, the Frankfurt School and other Marxist theorists were part of a conspiracy to attack Western society by undermining traditionalist conservatism and Christianity using the 1960s counterculture, multiculturalism, progressive politics and political correctness, which are portrayed as outgrowths of critical theory. Contrary to what is claimed by the conspiracy theorists, there is no academic school of thought or movement known as "Cultural Marxism". As Joan Braune writes, scholars of the Frankfurt School are called "Critical Theorists", rather than "Cultural Marxists", and various postmodernist and feminist scholars, who are often referred to by conspiracy theorists as "Cultural Marxists", have limited association with the Frankfurt School, Marxism, or critical theory, and do not refer to themselves as such. "In short", writes Braune, "Cultural Marxism does not exist—not only is the conspiracy theory version false, but there is no intellectual movement by that name".

This conspiracy theory is associated with American religious fundamentalists and paleoconservatives such as William S. Lind, Pat Buchanan, and Paul Weyrich; but also includes the alt-right, white nationalists, Neo-Nazi organizations, and the neo-reactionary movement. It originated with Michael Minnicino's 1992 essay "New Dark Age: Frankfurt School and 'Political Correctness'", published in a Lyndon LaRouche movement journal. In 1998, Weyrich presented his version of the Cultural Marxism conspiracy theory in a speech to the Conservative Leadership Conference of the Civitas Institute and then published the speech in his syndicated Culture war letter, where the term "Cultural Marxism" is identified as a synonym for political correctness. At Weyrich's request, William S. Lind wrote a short history of his conception of Cultural Marxism for the Free Congress Foundation. Lind defined "Cultural Marxism" as "a brand of Western Marxism...commonly known as 'multiculturalism' or, less formally, Political Correctness". Lind identified the presence of openly gay people on television as proof of Cultural Marxist control over the mass media and claimed that Herbert Marcuse considered a coalition of "blacks, students, feminist women, and homosexuals" as a vanguard of cultural revolution.

In 2014, Lind pseudonymously published Victoria: A Novel of 4th Generation Warfare, by Thomas Hobbes, about a societal apocalypse in which Cultural Marxism deposes traditional conservatism as the culture of the Western world. Ultimately, a Christian military victory deposes social liberalism and reestablishes a traditionalist and theocratic socioeconomic order based upon British Victorian morality of the late 19th century. The anti-Marxism of Lind and Weyrich advocates political confrontation and intellectual opposition to Cultural Marxism with "a vibrant cultural conservatism" composed of "retro-culture fashions", a return to railroads as public transport, and an agrarian culture of self-reliance, modeled after the Amish. In the Dialectic of Counter-Enlightenment: The Frankfurt School as Scapegoat of the Lunatic Fringe (2011), the historian Martin Jay said that Lind's Free Congress Foundation documentary video of conservative counter-culture, called Political Correctness: The Frankfurt School (1999), which promoted the theory, was effective propaganda because it "spawned a number of condensed textual versions, which were reproduced on a number of radical, right-wing sites". Jay further stated:

These, in turn, led to a plethora of new videos, now available on YouTube, 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, affirmative action, sexual liberation, racial equality, multiculturalism and gay rights to the decay of traditional education, and even environmentalism, are ultimately attributable to the insidious intellectual influence of the members of the Institute for Social Research who came to America in the 1930s.

Aspects of the conspiracy

Cultural pessimism

In the essay "New Dark Age: The Frankfurt School and 'Political Correctness'" (1992), Michael Minnicino presented a precursor of the Cultural Marxism conspiracy theory on behalf of the LaRouche political movement's Schiller Institute. Minnicino said the "Jewish intellectuals" of the Frankfurt School promoted modern art to make cultural pessimism the spirit of the counter-culture of the 1960s, based upon the counter-culture of the Wandervogel, the socially liberal German youth movement whose Swiss Monte Verità commune was the 19th-century predecessor of Western counter-culture.

In Fascism: Fascism and Culture (2003), professor and Oxford fellow Matthew Feldman traced the etymology of the term "Cultural Marxism" back to the anti-Semitic term Kulturbolschewismus (Cultural Bolshevism), which Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party used to assert that Jewish cultural influence was the source of German social degeneration under the liberal régime of the Weimar Republic (1918–1933), and the cause of social degeneration in the West.

Othering of political opponents

In the article titled Hate Crimes, Vol. 5, Heidi Beirich stated that the conspiracy theory is used to demonize various conservative "bêtes noires" including feminists, homosexuals, secular humanists, multiculturalists, sex educators, environmentalists, immigrants, and black nationalists.

In Europe, the Norwegian far-right terrorist Anders Behring Breivik quoted Lind's usage of the term "Cultural Marxism" in his political manifesto 2083: A European Declaration of Independence, writing 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 (ECHR) in Strasbourg is a cultural-Marxist-controlled political entity." About 90 minutes before killing 77 people in his terrorist attacks in Norway on July 22, 2011, Breivik e-mailed 1003 people his 1500-page manifesto and a copy of Political Correctness: A Short History of an Ideology, which was edited by Lind and published by the Free Congress Research and Education Foundation.

In the article titled Collectivists, Communists, Labor Bosses, and Treason: The Tea Parties as Right-wing, Populist Counter-subversion Panic, Chip Berlet identifies the Cultural Marxism conspiracy theory as an ideological basis of the Tea Party movement within the Republican Party. The Tea Party identifies as a right-wing populist movement; its claims of social subversion echo earlier white-nationalist claims of racial, social, and cultural subversion. The economic elites use populist rhetoric to encourage counter-subversion panics; a large, middle-class white constituency is politically deceived into siding with the ruling-class social and economic elites to defend their relative and precarious socioeconomic position in the middle class. Cultural scapegoats, such as collectivists, communists, labor bosses, and nonwhite citizens and immigrants are to blame for the economic, political, and social failures of free-market capitalism. Under the guise of patriotism, economic libertarianism, traditional Christian values, and nativism, right-wing accusations of Cultural Marxism defend the racist and sexist social cliques opposed to the Obama administration's "big government" policies.

In the essay Cultural Marxism and the Radical Right, the political scientist Jérôme Jamin said that "next to the global dimension of the Cultural Marxism conspiracy theory, there is its innovative and original dimension, which lets its racist authors avoid racist discourses, and pretend to be defenders of democracy in their respective countries". The essay titled How Trump's Paranoid White House Sees 'Deep State' Enemies on all Sides reported that an employee within the Trump administration by the name of Richard Higgins was dismissed from the U.S. National Security Council because he published a memorandum called POTUS & Political Warfare, wherein Higgins claimed the existence of an alleged left-wing conspiracy to destroy the Trump presidency and that "American public intellectuals of Cultural Marxism, foreign Islamicists, and globalist bankers, the news media, and politicians from the Republican and the Democrat parties were attacking Trump because he represents an existential threat to the cultural Marxist memes that dominate the prevailing cultural narrative in the U.S."

"Political correctness" and antisemitic canards

In the speech titled "The Origins of Political Correctness" (2000), William S. Lind established the ideological and etymological lineage of the Cultural Marxism conspiracy theory:

If we look at it analytically, if we look at it historically, we quickly find out exactly what it is. Political correctness 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 and the peace movement, but back to World War I, to Kulturbolshewismus. If we compare the basic tenets of Political Correctness with the basic tenets of classical Marxism, the parallels are very obvious.

Lind's history of the term and its meanings were described in "The Alt-right's Favorite Meme is 100 Years Old" (2018), a New York Times piece in which professor of law Samuel Moyn reported that social fear of Cultural Marxism is "an American contribution to the phantasmagoria of the alt-right"; while the conspiracy theory is "a crude slander, referring to Judeo-Bolshevism, something that does not exist".

References

1. Sources:
   • Jay, Martin. "Dialectic of Counter-Enlightenment: The Frankfurt School as Scapegoat of the Lunatic Fringe". skidmore.edu. Salmagundi Magazine. Archived from the original on 24 November 2011.
   • Jamin, Jérôme (2014). "Cultural Marxism and the Radical Right". In Shekhovtsov, A.; Jackson, P. (eds.). The Post-War Anglo-American Far Right: A Special Relationship of Hate. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 84–103. doi:10.1057/9781137396211.0009. ISBN 978-1-137-39619-8. {{cite book}}: External link in |chapterurl= (help); Unknown parameter |chapterurl= ignored (|chapter-url= suggested) (help)
   • Richardson, John E. (10 April 2015). "'Cultural-Marxism' and the British National Party: a transnational discourse". In Copsey, Nigel; Richardson, John E. (eds.). Cultures of Post-War British Fascism. ISBN 9781317539360.
   • Berkowitz, Bill (15 August 2003). "'Cultural Marxism' Catching On". Intelligence Report. Southern Poverty Law Center. Archived from the original on 30 September 2018. Retrieved 2 October 2018.
2. ^ Berkowitz, Bill. "Ally of Christian Right Heavyweight Paul Weyrich Addresses Holocaust Denial Conference". Southern Poverty Law Center. SPLC 2003. Retrieved 19 April 2016.
3. ^ Lind, William S. "What is Cultural Marxism?". Maryland Thursday Meeting. Retrieved 9 April 2015.
4. Stuart Jeffries, Grand Hotel Abyss, pp.6-11 , Verso 2016
5. Richardson, John E. (2015). "'Cultural-Marxism' and the British National Party: a transnational discourse". In Copsey, Nigel; Richardson, John E. (eds.). Cultures of Post-War British Fascism. ISBN 9781317539360.
6. Jamin, Jérôme (2014). "Cultural Marxism and the Radical Right". In Shekhovtsov, A.; Jackson, P. (eds.). The Post-War Anglo-American Far Right: A Special Relationship of Hate. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 84–103. doi:10.1057/9781137396211.0009. ISBN 978-1137396198. {{cite book}}: External link in |chapterurl= (help); Unknown parameter |chapterurl= ignored (|chapter-url= suggested) (help)
7. ^ Braune, Joan (2019). "Who's Afraid of the Frankfurt School? "Cultural Marxism" as an Antisemitic Conspiracy Theory" (PDF). Journal of Social Justice. 9.
8. Sources:
   • Weyrich, Paul. "Letter to Conservatives by Paul M. Weyrich". Conservative Think Tank: "The National Center for Public Policy Research". Archived from the original on 11 April 2000. Retrieved 30 November 2015.
   • Richardson, John E. (10 April 2015). "'Cultural-Marxism' and the British National Party: A Transnational Discourse". In Copsey, Nigel; Richardson, John E. (eds.). Cultures of Post-War British Fascism. ISBN 9781317539360.
   • Wodak, ed. by Ruth; KhosraviNik, Majid; Mral, Brigitte (2012). Right-wing populism in Europe: Politics and discourse (1st. publ. 2013. ed.). London: Bloomsbury Academic. pp. 96, 97. ISBN 978-1-7809-3245-3. Retrieved 30 July 2015. {{cite book}}: |first1= has generic name (help)
9. Rosenberg, Paul (2019-05-05). "A user's guide to "Cultural Marxism": Anti-Semitic conspiracy theory, reloaded". Salon. Retrieved 2019-06-11.
10. ^ Jay, Martin (2010), "Dialectic of Counter-Enlightenment: The Frankfurt School as Scapegoat of the Lunatic Fringe". Salmagundi (Fall 2010–Winter 2011, 168–69): 30–40.
11. Sources:
    • Weyrich, Paul. "Letter to Conservatives by Paul M. Weyrich". Conservative Think Tank: "The National Center for Public Policy Research". Archived from the original on 11 April 2000. Retrieved 30 November 2015.
    • Moonves, Leslie. "Death of the Moral Majority?". CBS news. The Associated Press. Retrieved 19 April 2016.
    • Koyzis, David T. (2003). Political Visions and Illusions: A Survey and Christian Critique of Contemporary Ideologies. Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press. p. 82. ISBN 978-0-8308-2726-8. Retrieved 5 March 2016.
12. Lind, William S. "Political Correctness: A Short History of an Ideology". Discover The Networks. David Horowitz. Retrieved 5 March 2016.
13. Lind, William S. (17 June 2009). "Washington's Legitimacy Crisis". The American Conservative. Retrieved 4 May 2015.
14. Lind, William S. (2015-04-18). Victoria: A Novel of 4th Generation Warfare. Castalia House. ISBN 978-952-7065-45-7. Retrieved 30 November 2015.
15. Sources:
    • Lind, William S.; Weyrich, Paul M. (12 February 2007). "The Next Conservatism". The American Conservative. American Ideas Institute. Retrieved 5 March 2016.
    • Lind, William S.; Weyrich, Paul M. (2009). The Next Conservatism (1 ed.). South Bend, Ind.: St. Augustine's Press. ISBN 978-1-58731-561-9. Retrieved 5 March 2016.
    • O'Meara, Michael (2010-12-10). "The Next Conservatism? a review". Counter Currents Publishing. Counter-Currents Publishing, Ltd. Retrieved 5 March 2016.
    • Terry, Tommy (2012). The Quelled Conscience of Conservative Evangelicals in the Age of Inverted Totalitarianism. p. 9. ISBN 978-1-105-67534-8. Retrieved 5 March 2016.
    • Lind, William S. "The Discarded Image". Various. Retrieved 5 March 2016.
16. The historian Martin Jay (2010) pointed out that Daniel Estulin's book cites Minnicino's essay as political inspiration for the Free Congress Research and Education Foundation.
17. "New Dark Age: Frankfurt School and 'Political Correctness'", Schiller Institute
18. Freud and the Frankfurt School (Schiller Institute, 1994), in the conference report "Solving the Paradox of Current World History" published in the Executive Intelligence Review.
19. Matthew, Feldman; Griffin, Roger (Ed.) (2003). Fascism: Fascism and Culture (1. publ. ed.). New York: Routledge. p. 343. ISBN 978-0-415-29018-0. Retrieved 28 October 2015.
20. Perry, Barbara (ed.); Beirich, Heidi (2009). Hate crimes [vol.5]. Westport, Conn.: Praeger Publishers. p. 119. ISBN 978-0-275-99569-0. Retrieved 30 November 2015. {{cite book}}: |first1= has generic name (help)
21. "'Breivik Manifesto' Details Chilling Attack Preparation". BBC News. 24 July 2011. Retrieved 2 August 2015.
22. Trilling, Daniel (18 April 2012). "Who are Breivik's Fellow Travellers?". New Statesman. Retrieved 18 July 2015.
23. Buruma, Ian. "Breivik's Call to Arms". Qantara. German Federal Agency for Civic Education & Deutsche Welle. Retrieved 25 July 2015.
24. Shanafelt, Robert; Pino, Nathan W. (2014). Rethinking Serial Murder, Spree Killing, and Atrocities: Beyond the Usual Distinctions. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-317-56467-6.
25. Berlet, Chip (July 2012). "Collectivists, Communists, Labor Bosses, and Treason: The Tea Parties as Right-wing Populist Counter-Subversion Panic". Critical Sociology. 38 (4): 565–587. doi:10.1177/0896920511434750. Archived from the original on 15 November 2015.
26. Kimball, Linda. "Cultural Marxism". American Thinker. Retrieved 11 March 2016.
27. Jamin, Jérôme (2014). "Cultural Marxism and the Radical Right". In Shekhovtsov, A.; Jackson, P. (eds.). The Post-War Anglo-American Far Right: A Special Relationship of Hate. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 84–103. doi:10.1057/9781137396211.0009. ISBN 978-1-137-39619-8. {{cite book}}: External link in |chapterurl= (help); Unknown parameter |chapterurl= ignored (|chapter-url= suggested) (help)
28. "How Trump's Paranoid White House Sees 'Deep State' Enemies on all Sides". The Guardian. 13 August 2017.
29. "Here's the Memo That Blew Up the NSC". Foreign Policy. 10 August 2017.
30. "An NSC Staffer Is Forced Out Over a Controversial Memo". The Atlantic. 2 August 2017.
31. Lind, William S. (2000-02-05). "The Origins of Political Correctness". Accuracy in Academia. Accuracy in Academia/Daniel J. Flynn. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
32. Samuel Moyn (13 November 2018). "The Alt-Right's Favorite Meme is 100 Years Old". The New York Times. Retrieved 4 November 2018.

• Antisemitic canards
• 2011 Norway attacks
• Conspiracy theories in Europe
• Conspiracy theories in the United States
• Alt-right