The Myth of Cultural Marxism – Anatomy of a conspiracy theory
Welcome to another Origin Story bonus episode. This week we’re discussing the conspiracy theory of Cultural Marxism. In the 1990s, cultural conservatives in America began pinning everything they hated, from feminism and gender studies departments to pop music and horror movies, on the legacy of the Frankfurt School, a group of German intellectuals who came together at Frankfurt University in 1923 and resettled in New York in 1935. The theory claims that these Teutonic eggheads, most of whom were Jewish, used critical theory and social studies to infiltrate American life and undermine “Judeo-Christian culture” from within. Hence, allegedly, political correctness and much else besides.
The delusion of Cultural Marxism was made famous by Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik in 2011 but it is not confined to neo-Nazis. As a pseudo-intellectual justification for the anti-woke backlash, it has been cited by Jordan Peterson, Paul Dacre, Viktor Orbán, Ron DeSantis and Suella Braverman, making it perhaps the clearest bridge between the far
right and “respectable” conservatism: a modern Red Scare for a cultural Cold War.
Dorian takes Ian through the evolution of the theory, from post-war fascist Francis Parker Lockey via conspiracy theorist Lyndon LaRouche to the paranoid fringes of conservatism and ultimately the mainstream. Is Cultural Marxism just a rebranding of Hitler’s antisemitic obsession with “cultural bolshevism” or something more ornate? Who were the Frankfurt
School and what were they really trying to do? Why do conservative politicians keep using a phrase popularised by a fascist terrorist? And what does this have to do with the Beatles or A Nightmare on Elm Street? Join us as we unravel one of the most perniciously influential conspiracy theories in the world.
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Reading list
The History of Political Correctness (1999)
Moses Apostaticus, ‘Cultural Marxism Is Destroying America’, The Daily Caller (2016)
Hannah Barnes, ‘The Intolerant Age’, New Statesman (2024)
Bill Berkowitz, ‘“Cultural Marxism” Catching On’, Southern Poverty Law Center (2003)
Paul Gottfried, Antifascism: The Course of a Crusade (2021)
Martin Jay, ‘Dialectic of Counter-Enlightenment: The Frankfurt School as Scapegoat of the Lunatic Fringe’, Salmagundi (2010)
Stuart Jeffries, Grand Hotel Abyss: The Lives of the Frankfurt School (2016)
Stuart Jeffries, ‘Why Theodor Adorno and the Frankfurt School failed to change the world’, New Statesman (2021)
William S. Lind, ‘Understanding Oklahoma’, Washington Post (1995)
William S. Lind, ‘What Is Cultural Marxism?’ (undated)
William S. Lind, ‘The Origins of Political Correctness’ (2000)
William S. Lind (ed.), ‘“Political Correctness”: A Short History of an Ideology’ (2004)
Sarah Manavis, ‘What Is Cultural Marxism? The alt-right meme in Suella Braverman’s speech in Westminster’, New Statesman (2018)
Matt McManus, ‘On Marxism, Post-Marxism, and “Cultural Marxism”’, Merion West (2018)
Michael Minnicino, ‘The New Dark Age: The Frankfurt School and “Political Correctness”, Fidelio (1992)
Samuel Moyn, ‘The Alt-Right’s Favorite Meme Is 100 Years Old’, New York Times (2018)
David Niewert, ‘The new age of chain terrorism: White far-right killers are inspiring each other sequentially’, Daily Kos (2019)
Ari Paul, ‘“Cultural Marxism: The Mainstreaming of a Nazi Trope’ (2019)
The Red Phoenix, ‘Debunking William S. Lind & “Cultural Marxism”’, The Red Phoenix (2011)
Matthew Rose, ‘A World After Liberalism: Philosophers of the Radical Right’ (2021)
... reading list continues – full list available on Patreon
Written and presented by Dorian Lynskey and Ian Dunt. Produced by Simon Williams. Music by Jade Bailey. Art by Jim Parrett. Logo by Mischa Welsh. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Origin Story is a Podmasters production
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