Cultural Marxism differs from Classical Marxism in its consideration of what constitutes the primary agent of social change that underpins its ideology. The classical variant embraces economic determinism and the social relations that stem from the factors of production. Once Karl Marx’s and Friedrich Engels’ predictions failed to materialize, such as the increasing misery of the workers and class solidarity to start a global socialist revolution, other communist thinkers amended the founder’s ideological structure.
Antonio Gramsci, Georg Lukács and a group of German Marxist’s that represent the Frankfurt School which include Theodor Adorno, Walter Benjamin, Erich Fromm, Max Horkheimer and Herbert Marcuse, considered culture to be the dominating force of change. Gramsci furthered the notion of Cultural Hegemony, Lukács put forth the Theory of Reification and the Frankfurt School promoted Critical Theory, with the latter formulating the core of its beliefs with the infusion of Freudianism and other major psychoanalytical tenets, all altering elements of the main Marxian framework, while preserving its general cosmovision of constant conflict between opposing forces. The result has been what we understand as Cultural Marxism.
In practice, this amended formulation of Marxism can be identified in practical observation going back to the counterculture of the 1960’s and steadily expanding its influence through the institutions of education (all levels), pop culture, law and politics. This Marxist extension of power has been detrimental to other institutions such as the family, religion, the democratic system of government, rule of law and notions of patriotism and nation.
Key to this ideological reformulation of Cultural Marxism was the reconstruction of the two-tiered key protagonists in the traditional model: the worker (exploited) and the capitalist (exploiter). Cultural Marxist’s paradigm conserved the exploited/exploiter binomial principle but amplified the “exploited” to include essentially anyone who could be identified as a marginalized, even if only self-perceived and erroneously so and subdivided into identity groups or subgroups. The only excludible group would be white, heterosexual males. Victimhood is fundamental to Cultural Marxism. Thus, the proliferation of stratums of society separated from the cohesive social fabric which are inherent in the concept of nation, of citizenship and of religion. Examples of these branches of Cultural Marxism include: Multiculturalism, Gender Ideology, Eco-Socialism, Critical Race Theory, Political Scientism, Radical Feminism and Mass Immigration.
It is important to note that the far-left has frantically attempted to label Cultural Marxism as a “conspiracy theory”, typically of an “antisemitic” variant. This is factually absurd and defies all objective reason and empirical evidence. Some popular influential information sites have been coopted. This slanderous campaign by the radical left is nothing less than a gross disinformation effort to try and obscure an accurate understanding of Marxism’s development and adjustment into its current subversive methodology for obtaining political power.
