# Can someone define "Cultural Marxism" Please? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [July 25, 2011, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-define-cultural-marxism-please/590262 "2011-07-25T13:26:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![SherwoodAnderson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@SherwoodAnderson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SherwoodAnderson)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2011, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-define-cultural-marxism-please/590262/21 "2011-07-25T19:39:18Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > How nefarious of them! Don’t want to blow your mind here buddy but the world is shock-full of people who feel that being expected to say “african-american” rather than “black” in polite company infringes on their most core liberties. Why, I’m sure you could even find some who feel that way on this very message board. And then when they find out it’s all been a big stinking communist plot all along - well should have figured. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2011, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-define-cultural-marxism-please/590262/22 "2011-07-25T21:38:48Z")
> [@SherwoodAnderson](#): > > Don’t want to blow your mind here buddy but the world is shock-full of people who feel that being expected to say “african-american” rather than “black” in polite company infringes on their most core liberties. Why, I’m sure you could even find some who feel that way on this very message board. And then when they find out it’s all been a big stinking communist plot all along - well should have figured. Probably the same people – or considerable overlap with those – who imagine a [“New World Order”](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_World_Order_%28conspiracy_theory%29) and, moreover, seem to have something **against** it. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2011, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-define-cultural-marxism-please/590262/23 "2011-07-25T21:46:09Z")
Yeaaaarrrgh! _Novus Ordo Seclorum_ The Allah Seeing Eye on the pyramid! Freemasons, Rosicrucians, and the Caliphate! Wake up, America! Connect the dot! Nurse? Nurse? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2011, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-define-cultural-marxism-please/590262/24 "2011-07-25T21:50:02Z")
Cultural Marxism is a little bird twittering in the meadow! Cultural Marxism is a bouquet of pretty flowers, that smell **bad!** ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2011, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-define-cultural-marxism-please/590262/25 "2011-07-25T22:04:04Z")
Cultural Marxism is a limp watch draped over a barren tree limb, screaming… ---
**Author:** ![marshmallow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@marshmallow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marshmallow)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2011, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-define-cultural-marxism-please/590262/26 "2011-07-25T22:34:36Z")
> [@SherwoodAnderson](#): > > In that modern sense “Cultural Marxism” is really a conspiracy theory where Cultural Marxists (understood as a secret cabaal) have imposed values like tolerance, equality and multiculturalism on modern society. Those values in the aggregate are called “political correctness”. Sounds exactly like the Turner Diaries, just replace Jews with Muslims/communists. > [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Probably the same people – or considerable overlap with those – who imagine a [“New World Order”](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_World_Order_%28conspiracy_theory%29) and, moreover, seem to have something **against** it. 😕 These guys are crazy, yes. But as a lib the last thing you should want is world government. Because it definitely wouldn’t be social democratic. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2011, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-define-cultural-marxism-please/590262/27 "2011-07-25T23:04:26Z")
> [@marshmallow](#): > > These guys are crazy, yes. But as a lib the last thing you should want is world government. Because it definitely wouldn’t be social democratic. Neoliberal, more likely. Like the EU writ large, more or less. But, that would be a step in the right direction and put an end to wars. And it might become something social-democratic eventually – or, if not, then at least evolve into a federation of social-democratic countries, like the EU writ large. ---
**Author:** ![SherwoodAnderson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@SherwoodAnderson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SherwoodAnderson)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2011, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-define-cultural-marxism-please/590262/28 "2011-07-26T00:19:14Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Neoliberal, more likely. Like the EU writ large, more or less. But, that would be a step in the right direction and put an end to wars. And it might become something social-democratic eventually – or, if not, then at least evolve into a federation of social-democratic countries, like the EU writ large. Let’s not have presidents, though. The thought of electing one world president and finding out the lowest common denominator among seven billion people… A bit frightening :eek: ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2011, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-define-cultural-marxism-please/590262/29 "2011-07-26T00:30:58Z")
> [@SherwoodAnderson](#): > > Let’s not have presidents, though. The thought of electing one world president and finding out the lowest common denominator among seven billion people… A bit frightening :eek: Nah. Let’s have a figurehead emperor (we can use Japan’s, why not?) and a parliamentary system with a dismissable P.M. ---
**Author:** ![SherwoodAnderson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@SherwoodAnderson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SherwoodAnderson)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2011, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-define-cultural-marxism-please/590262/30 "2011-07-26T00:31:32Z")
I really recommend watching at least a bit of that youtube video by the way: it’s hilarious how they placed Lind in a Victorian study with a pipe in his hand to make him out like some great scholar. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![SherwoodAnderson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@SherwoodAnderson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SherwoodAnderson)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2011, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-define-cultural-marxism-please/590262/31 "2011-07-26T00:32:55Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Nah. Let’s have a figurehead emperor (we can use Japan’s, why not?) and a parliamentary system with a dismissable P.M. And a global version of the Eurovision song contest! ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2011, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-define-cultural-marxism-please/590262/32 "2011-07-26T01:02:57Z")
> [@SherwoodAnderson](#): > > And a global version of the Eurovision song contest! Now you’re talkin’! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2011, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-define-cultural-marxism-please/590262/33 "2011-07-26T01:22:16Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > That assumes that the people who use the term disapprove of what he did. Killings by the anti-abortionist extremists certainly haven’t led to the movement changing its rhetoric. Much of the Right likes the idea of mass murdering its opponents. Anybody who uses “Cultural Marxist” rhetoric isn’t comparable to Brevik anymore than all pro-lifers are comparable to abortion clinic bombers or all abolitionists to John Brown. ---
**Author:** ![SherwoodAnderson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@SherwoodAnderson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SherwoodAnderson)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2011, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-define-cultural-marxism-please/590262/34 "2011-07-26T01:48:54Z")
There used to be a few western intellectuals on the left who supported Stalin or Mao or argued that the revolutionary struggle against the bourgeoisie allowed for the use of any means necessary. They deserved to be discredited because of the atrocities committed by Mao, Stalin and the RAF. And by analogy I believe that some abortion opponents - those that use particularly inflammatory speech - and people who trade in conspiracy theories like Cultural Marxism, or general Xenophobia and Islamophobia deserve to be discredited by abortion clinic bombings, and Breiviks terrorism respectively… The same goes for the promoters of Takfiri Salafism for that matter. Some ideas and some ways of putting them are simply more prone to result in violence. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2011, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-define-cultural-marxism-please/590262/35 "2011-07-26T02:12:12Z")
> [@SherwoodAnderson](#): > > There used to be a few western intellectuals on the left who supported Stalin or Mao or argued that the revolutionary struggle against the bourgeoisie allowed for the use of any means necessary. They deserved to be discredited because of the atrocities committed by Mao, Stalin and the RAF. I expect that most or all are by now are dead enough that discrediting them doesn’t accomplish much. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2011, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-define-cultural-marxism-please/590262/36 "2011-07-26T13:17:49Z")
> [@SherwoodAnderson](#): > > There used to be a few western intellectuals on the left who supported Stalin or Mao … Back in the 1970s, after the leadership of the Communist Party of Australia had left the Russian line, and had taken a independent socialist position – what you might call a Czech Spring line – some die-hard Stalinists split off from the CPA and formed the Socialist Party of Australia. (And about 20 years later, the CPA dissolved itself, and the SPA continued to exist, and took over the name of the Communist Party of Australia. But I digress.) Back then, I had a girlfriend whose parents had belonged to the CPA, and had joined the splitters in the SPA. I knew them quite well – I’d actually known them before I started going with their daughter – and they were really nice, idealistic people, not the sort that you’d associate with Stalinism. So I asked them why they’d joined the SPA, and the answer was just, “We are who we are.” Yes, there were some idealistic leftists who adopted communism for intellectual reasons – who didn’t really know what Stalin was doing in the Soviet Union while it was happening, and who really didn’t want to know about it after it became bleeding obvious to everyone, including pretty well everyone on the left. They were just nice people, who believed in their ideals, and turned a blind eye to what Stalin had done. Fortunately, by that time in Australia they had zero political influence. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2011, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-define-cultural-marxism-please/590262/37 "2011-07-26T13:20:51Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > I expect that most or all are by now are dead enough that discrediting them doesn’t accomplish much. We still have **Commissar** to kick around. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2011, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-define-cultural-marxism-please/590262/38 "2011-07-26T13:41:16Z")
Now adding “Cultural Marxism” to [the list of terms whose earnest use is a declaration of idiocy.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=593910) ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2011, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-define-cultural-marxism-please/590262/39 "2011-07-26T13:44:35Z")
> [@Giles](#): > > Back in the 1970s, after the leadership of the Communist Party of Australia had left the Russian line, and had taken a independent socialist position – what you might call a Czech Spring line – some die-hard Stalinists split off from the CPA and formed the Socialist Party of Australia. (And about 20 years later, the CPA dissolved itself, and the SPA continued to exist, and took over the name of the Communist Party of Australia. But I digress.) So **that’s** where [this movie](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children_of_the_Revolution_(film)) came from! ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2011, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-define-cultural-marxism-please/590262/40 "2011-07-26T13:53:51Z")
The possibilities are endless. Jackie Robinson and Happy Chandler are sporting Marxists! Bill Cosby is a situational comedy Marxist! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-define-cultural-marxism-please/590262.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-define-cultural-marxism-please/590262.md?page=3)