Cultural Marxism is an academic force, not a right-wing conspiracy
Recently, I was told by the Editor of Libertarianism.org that cultural Marxism was, and I quote, “a theory made up by racists, which they claim Jews and blacks and others subscribe to and that is part of a plan by non-white, non-male, non-Christian groups to undermine the West.”
This was news to me, as it was no doubt to many. I feel the need to address this not only because it is just wrong, but especially because it is being pushed by someone prominently writing under the title of “Libertarian.”
Many of us may have seen the term thrown around these days by those who are increasingly sceptical of the ideology that is often found in the American “Left”. But the term is by no means “made up by racists”. The term was actually coined in the 1970s by Trent Schroyer (who his contemporaries suggest was a Marxist himself) in a book about Critical Theory and its application to the United States (Schroyer, 1975); checkout the Internet Archive’s copy here.
The book got fascinating and great reviews in journals such as British Journal of Law and Society (Wiles, 1976) and Philosophy of the Social Sciences (Wilson, 1975). Many of his critics did not take issue with his term, or his definition of the term, or even his linking the term with Critical Theory. The biggest issue that I found that reviewers noted with the book was the strength of radical undertones presented in the book.
However, the term did not live and die with that book either. The term even formed part of the title of a paper in the journal “Social Text”, which is the pinnacle of postmodernist and critical theory.[i]
The term Cultural Marxism has apparently become a punching bag for many, particularly liberals who wish to discredit the label as it has been ascribed to the central tenants of critical theory that define the modern left (such as intersectionality, systematic inequality, and victimization narratives) and then exposed as nonsense by academics such as Jordan Peterson (Professor of Psychology at University of Toronto) and Evolutionary Biologist Bret Weinstein (who was effectively fired for not adhering to a racist policy of segregation at Evergreen College). These prominent intellectuals have found that the cultural Marxism in their universities has led to what they believe amounts to extremism.
The second aspect of “cultural Marxism” thrown about seems to come from the depths of the internet’s capacity for conspiracy theories that states that minorities such as Jews subscribe to a belief system that is “part of a plan by non-white, non-male, non-Christian groups to undermine the West.” This seems patently absurd. In fact, a term search revealed no instances of the word “jew” even being included in Schroyer’s book. Black liberation issues do feature in the text, but they are praised as “exemplary models and constant reminders of the separatist tendency resulting from emancipatory struggles” (Schroyer, 1975, p. 249); these hardly seem to be the words of a racist who is worried that minorities are hell-bent on destroying the white male patriarchy.
The fact is that “Cultural Marxism” is a term embraced and worn proudly by many academics, particularly in the social sciences and humanities, where Marxist ideals run rampant and unchecked by the reality of the millions of dead bodies who lie at the feet of those who have espoused the ideology for nearly a century. Those scholars who do question why it is that we allow for Marxists to hold prominent academic positions without question are ridiculed and personally attacked rather than responded to with rational debate.
Ultimately, “Cultural Marxism,” like any ideology, is something that is dynamic and undergoing change. As such it may be hard to define. But looking at its origins, and its use today, there seems to be no evidence that cultural Marxism is some alt-right boogeyman that is there to defend racism as its detractors would (apparently) like to claim. Rather, it is a long tradition that utilizes Marxist ideals in combination with “Frankfurt School” critical theory to perpetuate the thinking about “Marxist” problems to try and understand our modern world. Quite the opposite, Cultural Marxism is the hallmark of what defines hard-line leftist thought today.
Nevertheless, if you want to know where the danger and oppression toward minorities can be found, we need look no further than the body count of those who espouse Marxism as an answer to inequality.
References (yes, you can cite sources on the the internet)
Schroyer, T. (1975). The Critique of Domination: The Origins and Development of Critical Theory. Boston: Beacon Press. Retrieved from https://archive.org/details/critiqueofdomina00tren
Wiles, P. (1976). Review: The Critique of Domination: The Origins and Development of Critical Theory. British Journal of Law and Society, 3(1), 131–133. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/1409806
Wilson, H. T. (1975). Review: The Critique of Domination. The Origins and Development of Critical Theory. Philosophy of the Social Sciences, 5(3), 496–500.
[i] Yes, the one made famous by the Sokal Affair: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokal_affair
