# Cultural Marxism > Cultural Marxism is a late-1990s online conspiracy theory originating from sociologist Trent Schroyer's 1973 term, popularized on 4chan's /pol/ board and conservative forums claiming left-wing intellectuals plotted Western civilization's destruction from within. "Cultural Marxism" is a term first used by sociologist Trent Schroyer in 1973 to describe the Frankfurt School's approach to cultural critique, later repurposed in the late 1990s by American conservative activists into a conspiracy theory claiming that left-wing intellectuals deliberately set out to destroy Western civilization from within[7]. Online, the phrase became a fixture of 4chan's /pol/ board, conservative forums, and right-wing YouTube, used both sincerely by those promoting the conspiracy and ironically by those ridiculing it[5]. Scholarly analysis has consistently found the conspiracy theory version has no factual basis and draws on antisemitic tropes with roots older than Marxism itself[1]. ## Origin The term "cultural Marxism" was coined by American sociology professor Trent Schroyer in his 1973 book *The Critique of Domination: The Origins and Development of Critical Theory*[7]. Schroyer used it to describe the Frankfurt School's critical theory, which he characterized as identifying a "culture industry" that imposed "socially unnecessary constraints of human freedom"[5]. This was a legitimate academic label for a real intellectual tradition, one focused on analyzing how mass culture could function as a tool of social domination. Other scholars built on Schroyer's framework. Richard Weiner published *Cultural Marxism and Political Sociology* in 1981, and the term circulated in mainstream academic discourse through the 1970s and 1980s[7]. The academic usage described Western Marxism's departure from Soviet-style economic determinism toward cultural analysis, a genuine shift within Marxist thought. The conspiracy theory version has a different lineage. Michael Minnicino's 1992 essay "New Dark Age: Frankfurt School and 'Political Correctness,'" published through the LaRouche movement's Schiller Institute, laid much of the groundwork[8]. Minnicino argued that the Frankfurt School carried out a deliberate plot to instill "cultural pessimism" in America, claiming Adorno and Benjamin used art to promote alienation while Marcuse and Fromm attacked the traditional family through sexual liberation[14]. Years later, after the 2011 Norway attacks by Anders Breivik, Minnicino publicly repudiated his own essay, calling it "hopelessly deformed by self-censorship and the desire to in some way support Mr. LaRouche's crack-brained world-view"[8]. Paul Weyrich and William S. Lind then picked up and popularized the conspiracy theory through the Free Congress Foundation in the late 1990s[2]. Weyrich equated political correctness with Cultural Marxism in a 1998 speech to the Civitas Institute, declaring "we have lost the culture war"[8]. He commissioned Lind to write a formal history of the concept, and Lind's 2000 address "The Origins of Political Correctness" laid out the core thesis: "Political correctness is cultural Marxism. It is Marxism translated from economic into cultural terms"[11]. - **Platform:** Academic publishing (term origin), Free Congress Foundation / conservative media (conspiracy theory), 4chan /pol/ (online spread) - **Creator:** Trent Schroyer (coined term), William S. Lind (conspiracy theory popularizer), Paul Weyrich (co-promoter) - **Date:** 1973 (term coined) / late 1990s (conspiracy theory form) ## Overview In its conspiracy theory form, Cultural Marxism posits that a group of Marxist intellectuals, primarily the Frankfurt School philosophers who fled Nazi Germany for the United States, hatched a deliberate plot to undermine Western culture and Christianity through academia, media, and social institutions[2]. Believers claim this plot explains everything from political correctness and multiculturalism to feminism, gay rights, and secular education[3]. The narrative frames these social changes not as organic developments but as the calculated result of a decades-long infiltration campaign[12]. The actual Frankfurt School, the Institute for Social Research founded in 1923 at the University of Frankfurt, was a group of scholars who combined Marxist theory with psychoanalysis and empirical social science to analyze culture and society[6]. Key figures included Max Horkheimer, Theodor Adorno, Herbert Marcuse, Erich Fromm, and Walter Benjamin[15]. Their work focused on understanding how culture, media, and social institutions could constrain individual freedom, not on engineering a secret plan to dismantle civilization[7]. Online, Cultural Marxism functions as both a serious ideological rallying cry and an object of mockery. On 4chan's /pol/ and similar imageboards, it's deployed in arguments about political correctness, immigration, and social change[5]. Critics use it sarcastically on left-leaning platforms, often pointing out the gap between the conspiracy's grandiose claims and the actual writings of a handful of mid-century academics. ## How It Spread During the early 2000s, the concept spread rapidly through American conservative media. The Free Congress Foundation, American Thinker, World Net Daily, and Free Republic all published articles promoting or explaining the theory[13]. Pat Buchanan brought it to Fox News audiences in 2005, telling Bill O'Reilly that "cultural Marxism and militant secularism are clearly winning in the United States of America" and attributing the decline of traditional values to Antonio Gramsci's strategy of a "long march through the institutions"[10]. The Southern Poverty Law Center flagged the trend as early as 2004, identifying William Lind as "a key popularizer" and warning that the theory, while "bizarre," was showing signs of crossing into the mainstream[3]. The SPLC noted that the concept functioned as an updated version of antisemitic conspiracy narratives, pointing to how it assigns outsized significance to a group of "mostly Jewish" Frankfurt School intellectuals[3]. On YouTube, videos explaining or promoting Cultural Marxism racked up significant view counts, with the most popular reaching nearly 253,000 views by August 2015[5]. The concept gained further traction with the emergence of the Tea Party movement in the late 2000s, triggering a new wave of op-eds and essays from right-leaning outlets[5]. The July 2011 Norway attacks marked a turning point. Anders Breivik, who killed 77 people, invoked "cultural Marxism" repeatedly in his 1,500-page manifesto *2083: A European Declaration of Independence*, writing: "It wants to change behavior, thought, even the words we use. To a significant extent, it already has"[1]. The attacks brought intense scrutiny to the concept and its online distribution networks. In 2014, a controversy erupted on Wikipedia when the standalone Cultural Marxism article was deleted by moderators, with its content merged into the Frankfurt School entry under a subsection labeled "conspiracy theory"[4]. The decision became a flashpoint in online culture war debates, with critics calling it ideologically motivated censorship[4]. Meanwhile, the concept was discussed heavily on communities like Conservapedia and Metapedia, as well as on extremist forums like Stormfront and 4chan's /pol/ board, where it was woven into broader narratives about immigration, feminism, and political correctness[3]. ## How to Use Cultural Marxism isn't a visual meme template but rather a rhetorical device used in online political arguments. In practice, it typically appears in a few forms: 1. **As an explanation for social change:** Commenters attribute developments like diversity initiatives, speech codes, or progressive education to the influence of Cultural Marxism rather than organic cultural shifts. 2. **As a dismissal:** The phrase is used to label and reject progressive arguments without engaging with their specific claims, framing them as part of a larger coordinated agenda. 3. **As ironic mockery:** On left-leaning spaces, users invoke Cultural Marxism sarcastically to mock the conspiracy theory, often by blaming it for absurdly mundane situations like a bad movie or a restaurant changing its menu. 4. **On imageboards:** The term appears in 4chan /pol/ discussions about immigration, feminism, and media bias, often alongside infographics claiming to map the Frankfurt School's influence through modern institutions. ## Cultural Impact The concept crossed from online forums into mainstream political discourse in ways that few internet-born conspiracy theories have managed. Pat Buchanan discussed it on Fox News prime time in 2005[10]. The Daily Mail's editor used it in a nationally covered 2007 speech about BBC bias[9]. A White House aide incorporated it into a national security memo before being fired[1]. Politicians in the U.S., Brazil, and Europe adopted the language in their public rhetoric[1]. Academics and journalists pushed back in force. The Guardian published a detailed debunking in January 2015[2]. The New York Times ran an op-ed in November 2018 connecting it to historical antisemitic conspiracy theories[1]. The SPLC tracked its spread through far-right networks beginning in 2004[3]. Russell Blackford wrote a two-part analysis in The Conversation distinguishing between the legitimate academic concept and the conspiracy theory, calling Breivik-style narratives "grand, semi-conspiratorial" fabrications that bear "only a slight resemblance" to the scholarly usage[4]. Wikipedia's 2014 decision to delete the standalone Cultural Marxism article and fold it into the Frankfurt School entry drew significant attention and became its own mini-culture-war episode[4]. The move was praised by some as responsible editorial judgment and condemned by others as ideological censorship, depending on which side of the culture war the commenter occupied[4]. ## Fun Facts - Michael Minnicino, whose 1992 essay is considered a starting point for the modern conspiracy theory, publicly disavowed his own work after the Breivik attacks, calling it "hopelessly deformed" by LaRouche ideology[8]. - Antonio Gramsci's *Prison Notebooks*, which Lind cites as foundational to the Cultural Marxism plot, weren't published until the 1950s and weren't available in English until 1971, making it impossible for them to have influenced the early Frankfurt School as the theory claims[7]. - Bill O'Reilly, during his 2005 interview with Pat Buchanan about Cultural Marxism, admitted on air that he didn't understand why media elites would want to change society: "I have to confess, don't know why"[10]. - Lawrence Auster, a traditionalist conservative sympathetic to the broader critique of liberalism, argued in 2003 that blaming the Frankfurt School was as counterproductive as Catholics who blamed all the world's problems on the Freemasons[17]. - The Frankfurt School's Institute for Social Research was originally going to be called the "Institute for Marxism" but its founders chose a neutral name to avoid political scrutiny, a decision that conspiracy theorists later cited as evidence of deliberate deception[12]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Cultural Marxism? Cultural Marxism has two distinct meanings. In academia, it's a term coined by Trent Schroyer in 1973 to describe the Frankfurt School's cultural critique of capitalism[7]. In online and political discourse, it's a conspiracy theory claiming that left-wing intellectuals deliberately set out to destroy Western civilization through cultural subversion[2]. ### Where did Cultural Marxism come from? The academic term originated in Schroyer's 1973 book *The Critique of Domination*[7]. The conspiracy theory version was developed by Michael Minnicino in 1992, then popularized by William S. Lind and Paul Weyrich through the Free Congress Foundation in the late 1990s[8]. ### What does Cultural Marxism mean? For conspiracy theory proponents, it means that political correctness, multiculturalism, feminism, and other progressive movements are part of a deliberate Marxist plot to undermine Western and Christian values[3]. Scholarly analysis has consistently found this claim has no factual basis[8]. ### How do you use Cultural Marxism? Online, the phrase is used in political arguments to attribute progressive social change to a coordinated Marxist agenda. It is also used ironically by those mocking the conspiracy theory[5]. ### Is Cultural Marxism still popular? The term was widely used in political discourse through the 2010s, appearing in mainstream media, political speeches, and online debates. It gained renewed attention through figures like Jordan Peterson and in connection to events like the 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue shooting[1]. ### Who were the Frankfurt School? The Frankfurt School was a group of scholars at the Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt, Germany, founded in 1923. Key members included Max Horkheimer, Theodor Adorno, Herbert Marcuse, and Walter Benjamin. They developed critical theory, combining Marxist philosophy with psychoanalysis and empirical social science[6]. ### Is the Cultural Marxism conspiracy theory antisemitic? Multiple scholars and organizations, including the SPLC and the New York Times, have identified the conspiracy theory as drawing on antisemitic tropes, given its focus on a group of mostly Jewish intellectuals allegedly plotting to undermine Western civilization[1]. The NYT described it as "a version of the Judeobolshevik myth updated for a new age"[1]. ### What did Anders Breivik have to do with Cultural Marxism? Breivik, who killed 77 people in Norway in July 2011, invoked Cultural Marxism repeatedly in his 1,500-page manifesto, writing that it "wants to change behavior, thought, even the words we use"[1]. The attacks brought intense scrutiny to the concept and its online distribution channels[4]. ### Why did Wikipedia delete its Cultural Marxism article? In December 2014, Wikipedia moderators deleted the standalone article and merged its content into the Frankfurt School entry under a "conspiracy theory" subsection. The decision was controversial, with critics on both sides arguing over whether it was responsible editing or ideological censorship[4]. ### What is the difference between Cultural Marxism and actual Marxism? Classical Marxism focuses on economic class struggle and ownership of the means of production. The conspiracy theory version of Cultural Marxism claims these dynamics were translated from economic classes to cultural identity groups like race, gender, and sexuality, a framing that scholars of Marxism reject as inaccurate[11]. ### Did the Frankfurt School actually try to destroy Western culture? No. The Frankfurt School's critical theory was an academic project aimed at understanding how culture and institutions function under capitalism. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy describes their tradition as having "the practical aim of furthering emancipation," not cultural destruction[6]. ### Who is William S. Lind? Lind is a paleoconservative activist who worked with Paul Weyrich's Free Congress Foundation. He wrote several key texts popularizing the Cultural Marxism conspiracy theory in the late 1990s and 2000s[2]. He also published a 2014 novel in which crusader knights slaughter "politically correct" professors at Dartmouth College[1]. ### What is "Cultural Bolshevism"? Cultural Bolshevism was a propaganda term used in Nazi Germany to attack modernist art and progressive social movements as Jewish-communist plots against German culture. Scholars have identified the modern Cultural Marxism conspiracy theory as a revival of this older concept[8]. ## References 1. [The BBC's cultural Marxism will trigger an American-style backlash | Paul Dacre | The Guardian]() 2. ['Cultural Marxism': a uniting theory for rightwingers who love to play the victim | Jason Wilson | The Guardian]() 3. [The Frankfurt School]() 4. [Cultural Marxism - Know Your Meme]() 5. [Cultural Marxism conspiracy theory]() 6. [Cultural Marxism - Urban Dictionary]() 7. [Frankfurt School]() 8. [Critical Theory (Frankfurt School) (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)]() 9. [Opinion | The Alt-Right’s Favorite Meme Is 100 Years Old - The New York Times]() 10. [Frankfurt School and Critical Theory | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy]() 11. [Cultural Marxism—or Liberalism?]() 12. [Who stole our culture? * WorldNetDaily * by WND Staff]() 13. [Cultural Marxism - American Thinker]() 14. ['Cultural Marxism': a uniting theory for rightwingers who love to play the victim | Jason Wilson | The Guardian]() 15. [Cultural Marxism and our current culture wars: Part 2]() 16. [The Origins of Political Correctness ( t Is Cultural Marxism)]() 17. [Who Is Winning the Culture War? | Fox News]() 18. [So what's the deal with cultural marxism? - The Something Awful Forums]() 19. [CulturalMarxism.com is for sale | HugeDomains]() 20. [Cultural Marxism and our current culture wars: Part 1]() 21. [SPLCenter.org: Reframing the Enemy]() 22. [Schiller Institute—THE NEW DARK AGE The Frankfurt School and "Political Correctness"]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/cultural-marxism Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library