[intro music]
I've heard the phrase "cultural Marxism" being used by self-proclaimed centrists, ...
"If you look at cultural Marxism, it's not quite as Sargon painted. There is a cultural Marxism..."
... moderates, ...
"And it's called a conspiracy theory. This is retarded for so many reasons."
... and cultural conservatives, who adopted the term from the far-right
to demonize anything that they don't like, such as feminism and critical theory, ...
"... And they came up with, at the end of the day, we could call it cultural Marxism."
... to actual fascists, white nationalists, and neo-Nazis.
"... allied himself with the national socialists; always called the Nazis,
because we wouldn't want to discourage the good name of socialism."
Though there is slight variation from person to person,
the most accepted definition among those who use the phrase is that it describes:
Things like immigration, video game critiques, third wave feminism, the concept of privilege, political correctness,
anti-capitalism, challenging the sex or gender binary, and identity politics
are often countless examples of cultural Marxism. When you go down the rabbit hole far enough,
you start getting into a grand conspiracy around "regressive leftists" who have infiltrated
academia, the media, politics, and science, to forward a sinister plan to undermine Western culture and values,
leading to social decay and the eventual destruction of the West.
The goal of this video is to thoroughly examine and refute the term cultural Marxism,
piss off every ideologue and useful idiot who uses this phrase, and
hopefully give people a better understanding of Marxist theory.
I don't expect to change the minds of those who find this phrase valuable
or educate those who are looking to spam my comment section
with arguments copy pasted from Stormfront,
nor am I attempting to stop the use of the word. In fact, I think the term cultural Marxism is extremely useful.
It lets you know who has been brainwashed by white supremacists on YouTube.
When I was first called a cultural Marxist, it was in a long drawn-out debate about Black Lives Matter
with a faceless stranger In a YouTube comment section. We went back and forth and back and forth
for about a week, and soon we reached a dead end. Out of frustration, the person labeled me a cultural Marxist,
and said that I should kill myself for the good of humanity.
Putting the encouragement of suicide aside, being called a cultural Marxist piqued my interest.
What the hell does that mean, where does this term come from, who invented it, and why?
So out of morbid curiosity, I went to the depths of internet to find out.
Now there are extremely rare cases of the term "cultural Marxism" being used to refer
to the application of Marxist theory to the social sciences and critical theory.
However, you are more likely to be struck by lightning than the term "cultural Marxism"
leading to a discussion about the work, theories, and methodology of Karl Marx.
Instead, the phrase is most likely to be used in the way cultural conservative pundit William Lin did
in his speech "the Origins of Political Correctness", given in July 1998,
which is the first documented use of the phrase.
In "Inaccuracy in Academia", which is a nonprofit organization dedicated
to fighting against a liberal bias in education, Lin stated the following:
In its very conception, cultural Marxism is used in a conspiratorial manner, referring
to an agenda being pushed within academia in the larger sphere of life by members of the Frankfurt School,
who happen to be Jewish.
At a campaign stop in Denver of the Reform Party in October of 2000, Pat Buchanan,
a fascistic anti-Semitic white supremacist, accused native Americans,
attempting to block the Columbus Day parade, of cultural Marxism in the Rocky Mountains News.
A year later, he released a book entitled "Death of the West" and described in it cultural Marxism as:
"a regime to punish dissent and to stigmatize social heresy as the Inquisition punished religious heresy.
Its trademark is intolerance."
As time went on, the term found itself in conservative circles, such as the Tea Party movement in 2009.
Soon it made its way into the vocabulary of Anders Breivik, a Norwegian far right terrorist who murdered 69 people.
In his manifesto, Breivik placed a copy of Lin's 2004 pamphlet on the topic, further popularizing the term.
The phrase is now ingrained in the vocabulary of white nationalists, with their preferred dictionary of choice,
Metapedia, defining it as follows:
In this definition, we can see the term "cultural Bolshevism", and specifically "degenerate culture",
being used, which has roots in the Weimar Republic and in Nazi Germany.
Now the far right may protest the terminology being linked to Nazis,
but when you look at how "cultural Bolshevism" was used during the 1920s and 1930s,
and how "cultural Marxism" is used today, they're practically identical.
"Cultural Bolshevism" was a term widely used by traditionalist German critics and pundits in Nazi Germany,
to denounce the modernist movement within the arts, politics, and academia,
by linking them to communists in the Bolshevik Party, claiming that they were pushing
a degenerate culture on the German people.
Of course, most of us are aware of the fact that culture can't be seen as being part of a hierarchy.
No culture is superior to one another.
Instead, they are plural and adapted to expressing connections between societies and peoples.
In 1935, German officials banned jazz music from being played on the radio.
That same year, the Swedish Daily Svenska Dagbladet wrote that the Nazis
were removing cultural Bolshevism from German culture.
Looking in Nazi propaganda and media from the 1920s to the 1940s, one can often find
the word "cultural Bolshevism" and references to the Frankfurt School.
Nazi book burnings were also a part of attempt to cleanse Germany of degeneracy.
One may have asked: "Well, where is all this degeneracy  coming from?"
The Nazi would have answered: "The degenerates, of course." And who are the degenerates? Well,
let's talk about the Jews.
Now, all of this degeneracy and upheaval of traditional society had to be coming from somewhere.
The Nazis claimed that German culture was being destroyed by a Jewish conspiracy.
This led to the creation of the term "Jewish Bolshevism".
The conflation of Jews and revolution emerged after the Russian Revolution.
The conspiracy theory can be traced to Alfred Rosenberg, an influential ideologue in the Nazi Party
that argued that altruism was:
In Nazi Germany, this concept of Jewish Bolshevism reflected the common perception
that the Jews were behind communism.
They argued that the Jews of the Russian Revolution made up the majority of the Bolsheviks.
Hitler described Jewish Bolshevism as a disease that would weaken the Germans
and leave them prey to the Jews, with Marxism being just another part
of their international Jewish conspiracy.
Through this conspiracy, the Nazis justified the purification, otherwise known as the Holocaust,
to eliminate alien influences in order to protect German culture. Of course,
the Nazis not only associated communism with the Jewish people,
they blamed the problems with capitalism on them as well. In short, anything and everything
can be blamed on the Jews, no matter how blatant the contradiction.
The Frankfurt School plays a crucial role in the cultural Marxism / cultural Bolshevism conspiracy theory.
The Frankfurt School is not a physical school, but a group of academics
who fled from Nazi Germany to the USA, and arose from dissident Marxists
who believed that some of Marx' followers were narrowly interpreting his teachings,
and were spending too much time discussing the base of human society,
and not enough time on the superstructure or ideology that upholds it.
These criticisms at the Frankfurt School, had of some Marxists, was practically one of the few things
that tied them together, as they had no unified theory or a collective political agenda.
Despite this, some use the existence of the Frankfurt School as an explanation for political correctness.
People on the far right believe that members of the Frankfurt School promoted post-modernism,
which contributed to the social upheaval of the 1960s., a decade ruled by the black civil rights movement,
the feminist movement, and the anti-war movement.
Somehow, this is all tied back to Marx.
Because Karl Marx covered such a wide range of topics and ideas, many people could be called technically Marxists.
There are people who believe in the concept of historical materialism,
while others subscribe to Marx' ideas around machines and automation,
and some analyze various societies through classes. You don't have to subscribe
to all of Marx's theories and beliefs, but if you agree with a couple or even one, you could be described
as a post-Marxist. However, cultural Marxism is a contradiction in and of itself.
As to understand why, we've got to delve into some actual Marxist theory.
To explain the relationship between culture and the society that creates it,
we must first discuss the base and the superstructure.
According to Marxist theory, human societies are divided into two parts: the base and the superstructure.
The base of a society comprises of the relationship between the people
and the means or relations to production. The means of production includes the tools, businesses, factories,
land, raw materials, etc.. The relations of production are the capital, commodities, property relations,
employer/employee, work conditions, division of labor, etc.. Are the social relations within the means of production?
The superstructure, also known as the phenomenon of a society, includes the law, media, education and religion,
philosophy, power structures, rituals, the state, and specifically the culture.
At the center of all this is ideology, which upholds the culture and provides justification for all within it.
Marxist theory sees culture as a part of the phenomenon.
Culture superstructure is created by the people's relation to the means of production, the base.
To analyze this relationship, we must use the analytical framework called dialectical materialism, or dimat.
Dimat is the combination of dialectics and a determinist approach to materialism,
as a way of understanding our reality and ourselves, is an overarching analytical framework,
not a specific analytical framework. These ideas are fundamental to Marxist ideology,
and why the term cultural Marxism makes no sense.
To examine culture using dialectical materialism is wrong, as it is not a specific analytical framework,
and culture already has a place within the analysis.
Marxist theory is deterministic in nature, where Marx emphasizes that ideas have no significant consequences.
Examining culture deterministically would then turn it from dialectical idealism, not materialism.
Beyond the Frankfurt School conspiracy and its roots in Nazism, cultural Marxism
fails to grasp a basic understanding of Marxist dialectics.
This is why it has no real position in scholarly debate, but in propagandizing.
The term hasn't exactly entered the mainstream discourse, but its growing popularity online
is something that needed to be discussed. To answer the question of how the phrase "cultural Marxism"
has gained some popularity, I believe that it is because not too many people are familiar with Marxism.
Karl Marx and his teachings have become little more than a boogeyman that the far right
uses to incite anger and fear out of people.
Then when you add "culture", it makes it seem like it's a direct attack against Western culture and values,
which is something we'll be discussing later.
Ironically, the same people who created and used this term hate almost all aspects associated with the West,
amidst liberal democracy, freedom of speech, religion, and expression, etc..
This is why conspiracy theories, surrounding shadowy figures on the left
pushing cultural Marxism and globalism, is so important to their worldview.
It lets them pretend that they are just maligned patriots who love their country
and are in a never-ending battle with people trying to destroy it from the inside.
In reality, however, these people are fighting for a version of their country that never existed.
Many people like to describe online discourse as a free marketplace of ideas,
where anyone and everyone can spread their ideas and beliefs. Even the smallest of voices
can be verily amplified, whereas in the real world, their perspectives wouldn't see the light of day.
We are told that the best ideas will win out in the competition, however, the free marketplace of ideas
doesn't allow the most rational, truthful, and best idea to win in order to better our society.
It simply gives attention to the loudest ideas, that often validate our limited perspectives and worst impulses and desires.
To treat the discourse as a capitalist market allows for propagandists to slip under the radar
like a crooked snake oil salesman, who has an agenda to sell it will do so by any means necessary.
This may mean taking statistics out of context or completely making them up,
relying on pseudoscience, and creating an entire industry built around legitimizing
bigoted conspiracy theories, that are simply the first step to ethnic cleansing, otherwise known as genocide.
As a more extreme example, Holocaust deniers have funded research, institutes, journals, books,
magazines, video essays, documentaries, professional quote-on-quote debates, websites,
and newspapers, all designed to give an appearance of academic respectability.
Of course, they have to have a way to spread this information within the public,
as they don't plan to reside within the dark corners of the internet forever.
This is the first video for my ongoing series tackling conspiracy theories and dog whistles.
Next time, we'll tackle one of the most misused words in the dictionary: post-modernism.
Thank you all for listening. Don't forget to like this video and click subscribe if you want more videos similar to this one. And check out my Patreon below. Thank you.
