What, exactly, is "Cultural Marxism"?

[Coventina]

I don't want to buy Ted Cruz' book to find out.
Plus, I doubt he knows what it is either.



on edit: Please see answers below. Basically, it's an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory.

[SCantiGOP]

1. It's a made-up term

using the scary word Marxism.
Makes no sense at all.

[Caliman73]

20. Everything is basically "a made up term". Like why do we call "eyes" eyes instead of schmertz?

The origin and context are important.

As the OP said, "Cultural Marxism" is a modernization of an old anti-Semitic trope used heavily by the Nazis in the 1930's and 40's. They called it Cultural Bolshevism. The implication was that "the Jews" were trying to control the world using cultural influences that the antis called "degenerate" like multiculturalism, homosexuality, the "feminization" of men, etc... The Nazis said that through influences in Hollywood, Jazz Music, and other degenerate ideas, the Jews were basically trying to weaken "Western Culture". Nazis and other fascists were really BIG into mythological Greek, Spartan, and Roman culture as well as Anglo-Saxon and Viking or Norse mythology. They portrayed those things as manly and good, while the Jew were weak and degenerate, but strong enough to rule the world at the same time (that contradiction always gets me).

Nothing that fascists and their allies seeks to "make sense", despite what you hear from people like Shapiro, they do not operate in "fact" or logic. It is all emotion. Their ideas on "Cultural Marxism" are designed to invoke fear and hatred. They are meant to make their adherents and those susceptible to the message feel "surrounded" and vulnerable so that they feel they have to "fight" for their culture (whatever the hell that is).

[Achilleaze]

2. It's what Ron DeSanctimonious (R) is doing to Florida

Thanks for asking.

[underpants]

3. He's just mimicking Jonah Goldberg and using touchstone words

Goldberg wrote a book called “Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning” back in 2008.

[jls4561]

4. Cultural Marxism, as practiced by the GQP is

when the state (at least their side of it) seizes the means of producing bullshit, and declares that they have done it for the greater good of all.

[mopinko]

5. they just arent getting the milage out of 'socialism' that they used to.

prolly tired of being asked to define crt, too. so they have to keep making up new bullshit.

[Hortensis]

21. Yup. "Woke" also doesn't seem to be working as hoped for them.

Maybe they'll hitch "woke" to Marxists so people at least know it's definitely bad.

[underpants]

6. It's an old right wing antisemitic theory.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_Marxism_conspiracy_theory

[Coventina]

7. I also found it at SPLC

Television commentator Pat Buchanan says it is being used to "de-Christianize" America. Washington heavyweight William Lind claims it is turning U.S. college campuses into "ivy-covered North Koreas." Retired naval commander Gerald Atkinson fears it has invaded the nation's military academies. Immigration activist John Vinson suggests it aims "to distort and destroy" our country.

"Cultural Marxism," described as a conspiratorial attempt to wreck American culture and morality, is the newest intellectual bugaboo on the radical right. Surprisingly, there are signs that this bizarre theory is catching on in the mainstream.

The phrase refers to a kind of "political correctness" on steroids — a covert assault on the American way of life that allegedly has been developed by the left over the course of the last 70 years. Those who are pushing the "cultural Marxism" scenario aren't merely poking fun at the PC excesses of the "People's Republic of Berkeley," or the couple of American cities whose leaders renamed manholes "person-holes" in a bid to root out sexist thought.

Right-wing ideologues, racists and other extremists have jazzed up political correctness and repackaged it — in its most virulent form, as an anti-Semitic theory that identifies Jews in general and several Jewish intellectuals in particular as nefarious, communistic destroyers. These supposed originators of "cultural Marxism" are seen as conspiratorial plotters intent on making Americans feel guilty and thus subverting their Christian culture.

https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2003/cultural-marxism-catching

Good gawd, these people!

[underpants]

12. Thanks.

[Thomas Hurt]

8. Christofascist newspeak, bumper sticker sloganeering, a political epithet.

Woke, fake news, witch hunt, hoax, socialist, marxist, they don't care what those actually mean, they are just propaganda.

[LostOne4Ever]

9. Equality/ Egalitarianism

Marxism, in overly simple terms, is an economic philosophy that does away with classes and makes everyone equal economically.

Therefore “cultural” Marxism is making everyone equal in our culture/society. Ie it is the philosophy that we should all be seen as equal- Equality and Egalitarianism.

The right does NOT want to explicitly say they are against Equality so they took their favorite buzzword, “Marxism,” and applied it to culture to replace it. So anytime they say they want to stop “cultural Marxism” they actually mean they oppose equality.

[The Magistrate]

10. A Picture Worth A Thousand Words, Ma'am...

printed in 1951....

[DFW]

11. I always thought it was this, to quote Marx's words:

[kairos12]

13. The love of Groucho.

[Coventina]

14. Hey man, I'm a Harpo fan!!!

[emulatorloo]

15. I love them all!

[GGoss]

16. Caught One In My Net The Other Day

[Celerity]

17. While the term "cultural Marxism" has been used in a general sense, to discuss the application of

Marxist ideas in the cultural field, the variant term "Cultural Marxism" generally refers to an antisemitic conspiracy theory.

Parts of the conspiracy theory make reference to actual thinkers and ideas selected from the Western Marxist tradition, but they severely misrepresent the subject.

Conspiracy theorists exaggerate the actual influence of Marxist intellectuals, for example, claiming that Marxist scholars aimed to infiltrate governments, perform mind-control over populations, and destroy Western civilization. Since there is no specific movement corresponding to the label, Joan Braune has argued it is not correct to use the term "Cultural Marxism" at all.

In Norway, Anders Behring Breivik quoted the conspiracy usage of "Cultural Marxism" in his political manifesto 2083: A European Declaration of Independence, which he emailed to 1,003 people just 90 minutes before killing 77 people in his bomb and gun attacks in Oslo and on Utøya.

In more mainstream political parlance, cultural conservatives claim to have identified "Cultural Marxism" as the theoretical basis for aspects of cultural liberalism.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marxist_cultural_analysis

[moondust]

18. Another GQP hate trigger.

[Carlitos Brigante]

19. Academic sounding term for "Jewwwwws!" nt

[Initech]

22. Two words: some bullshit.

Also, some bullshit that Fox News made up to sell merchandise.

[Xolodno]

23. Well, I have a degree in Economics....

...and can tell you this.



I don't have fucking clue.

Marxist Socialism (and there are many forms of Socialism, just like Capitalism) is an economic system. Of course Marx believed Communism would be superior (yes, its a different economic system) and it is a nice idea on paper, but in application, yeah, not so much.

Now are there cultural implications? Probably, but that just goes with society evolving, we can make guesses on how that happens, but they will probably be wrong. For example, for Communism to work, we probably need a society that mimic's Star Trek both in ideals and technology, and we are nowhere close to that.

[11 Bravo]

24. No one knows, but I'll bet it's "woke".

[Igel]

25. It means one of two things.

Which, exactly, depends upon what's being said.

I've seen both used.

2. The assumption made here. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_Marxism_conspiracy_theory
Wiki has it right, "Although similarities with the Nazi propaganda term "Cultural Bolshevism" have been noted, the contemporary conspiracy theory originated in the United States during the 1990s." Similarity =/= identity. Ancient Romans had fish sauce, I have Vietnamese fish sauce in my cupboard, neither I nor the Vietnamese produces are ancient Romans--yet we all have something that's fermented fish. (I suspect that grosso modo the descriptions are similar but they tasted different.)

1. What I've always understood it to mean, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marxist_cultural_analysis.
Not that a conservative or traditionalist would find this especially non-subversive or old-school liberal.

Critique the two. Find overlaps and find dissimilarities and then, a third category, find instances of intentional misinterpretation based upon ill-will. Consider it a fun exercise for an otherwise unintellectual evening.

[iemanja]

26. Marxist cultural analysis is a real thing. "Cultural Marxism" is right wing hate mongering.

Marxist cultural analysis is a form of cultural analysis and anti-capitalist cultural critique, which assumes the theory of cultural hegemony and from this specifically targets those aspects of culture which are profit driven and mass-produced under capitalism.[1][2][3]

The original theory behind this form of analysis is commonly associated with Georg Lukacs, the Frankfurt School, and Antonio Gramsci, representing an important tendency within Western Marxism. Marxist cultural analysis, taken as an area of discourse, has commonly considered the industrialization and mass-production of culture by the "culture industry" as having an overall negative effect on society, an effect which reifies the reactions of the audience, driving them away from developing a more authentic sense of human values.[1][4]

The tradition of Marxist cultural analysis has occasionally also been referred to as "cultural Marxism", and "Marxist Cultural theory", in reference to Marxist ideas about culture.[5][6][7][8][9][10] However, since the 1990s, this term has largely referred to the Cultural Marxism conspiracy theory, an influential discourse on the far right without any clear relationship to Marxist cultural analysis.[7] . . .

"Cultural Marxism" conspiracy theory
Main article: Cultural Marxism conspiracy theory
While the term "cultural Marxism" has been used in a general sense, to discuss the application of Marxist ideas in the cultural field,[10][26][27] the variant term "Cultural Marxism" generally refers to an antisemitic conspiracy theory.[28][29][30][31] Parts of the conspiracy theory make reference to actual thinkers and ideas selected from the Western Marxist tradition,[32][33][34] but they severely misrepresent the subject.[34][35] Conspiracy theorists exaggerate the actual influence of Marxist intellectuals,[36] for example, claiming that Marxist scholars aimed to infiltrate governments, perform mind-control over populations,[32][33][34][37] and destroy Western civilization.[28] Since there is no specific movement corresponding to the label, Joan Braune has argued it is not correct to use the term "Cultural Marxism" at all.[36]

In Norway, Anders Behring Breivik quoted the conspiracy usage of "Cultural Marxism" in his political manifesto 2083: A European Declaration of Independence, which he emailed to 1,003 people just 90 minutes before killing 77 people in his bomb and gun attacks in Oslo and on Utøya.[38][39][40][41][42] In more mainstream political parlance, cultural conservatives claim to have identified "Cultural Marxism" as the theoretical basis for aspects of cultural liberalism.[43][44][45][46][47]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marxist_cultural_analysis