'Cultural Marxism,' a conspiracy theory being pushed by the right

[procopia]

From Southern Poverty Law Center

REFRAMING THE ENEMY by Bill Berkowitz



"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."

http://www.splcenter.org/cgi-bin/goframe.pl?refname=/intelligenceproject/ip-4z4.html

[LittleApple81]

1. Why always demonizing thinking people?

That is what totalitarian regimes always do: get the intelligentsia first and leave only the easily controlled sheeple.

[DBoon]

2. You gotta be kidding?

The Frankfurt School? I was inflicted with this stuff in college. Absolutely impossible to read this stuff, and their conclusion almost seemed a sort of fatalistic quietism.

They are really scraping the bottom of the barrel here, trying to find bogey-men.

[procopia]

3. Sorry about the link; try this one:

http://www.splcenter.org/intelligenceproject/ip-index.html

Then click on "Intelligence Report" and then "Reframing the Enemy."

[dani]

4. I've heard righties invoke cultural Marxism

since maybe 6 or 7 years ago. It's not a very common ploy but it's been around for a while, probably since the start of the Cold War. I hope it's not actually making a comeback of some sort.

I guess decrying good ole fashioned "class war!" is much more common amongst rightwing kooks and probably the most effective smear.

[Fovea]

5. The problem with this incarnation of anti-intellectualism

Is that we are already paying a huge price for it.
Ask Paris and the rest of Europe about wether global warming is a cultural marxist rallying cry, or a leisurly drive to hell.

We need to heed what science tells us. And remake the world along sustainable parameters. Untill we do that, the NeoConservative values of wealth and power are worse than irrelevant, they are essentially meaningless.

And because they are such a letterless bunch of lysenkoists, they will have no idea what I am talking about when I say --
"Look upon my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"

[kwolf68]

6. Marxism

They need to find a place to re-incorporate the word Marxist. Come up with some new catchy phrase ... and invoke Marxism within it and you keep the sheep in line.

Almost 100% of the rise of the third reich was a facade...It was nothing but lies, distortions, propaganda and a fixation on real (or imagined) enemies.

This is simply fascism working its course.

[quaker bill]

7. Cultural Marxism

Don't know much about it, but it sounds like a rather lame way to make "political correctness" seem more of a threat. They do love the red-baiting bit.

Curious, but it seems like there are a lot of free thinkers here.

I find conservative "victim speech" more than a bit inappropriate, as after all, they are running things now.

How a group run in the larger part by wealthy white males pulls off sounding like an oppressed minority is fascinating.

[Name removed]

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