Thread by @zei_squirrel

evolution of right-wing and liberal bogeyman caricature of the left to divert attention from structural critiques of capitalism to culture war bullshit:

Kulturbolschewismus

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Political Correctness

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Social Justice Warriors

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Cultural Marxism

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Critical Race Theory

these function as empty signifiers, denoting contradictory, purely mythical things: the "sjw cultural marxists" dominate all major institutions in society, while simultaneously being weak, coddled, loser snowflakes who don't dare come out of their "safe spaces"

that's because the bogeyman caricature has to fulfil the double function of instilling fear and terror, while also being impotent and on the verge of collapse. all that's required is for The West, The Civilized, The Masculine, The White, The Bourgeoisie to stand up and fight it

this caricature, which historically and today is always infused with anti-semitism, islamophobia, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, every form of reactionary drivel, is, with some local variations, employed by the far right across the globe, aided and abetted by liberals

that is why you hear trump railing against "critical race theory" at every rally, echoed by bolsonaro in brazil, wilders in the netherlands, orban in hungary, modi in india. and of course liberal think tanks and professional media class hacks happily boost that fascist resentment

the manhattan institute, founded by reagan's CIA director and thatcher's ideological mentor, is the central node in the dissemination of this agitprop. they created charles murray and the anti-"PC" hysteria in the 90s, and over the past few years have shifted to its new version

an entire network of professional media class grifters is directly employed by the manhattan institute (eg coleman hughes, john mcworther, heater mac donald) to create and disseminate this agitprop, which anti-"woke" liberals gleefully launder for them and help mainstream

the manhattan institute's billionaire funded professional media class grifters are carefully chosen to produce the kind of reactionary agitprop that most appeals to the sensibilities of liberals like lee fang/glenn greenwald. a pseudo-sophisticated version of daily wire/prageru

because you see, the daily wire/prageru version of this agitprop is too crude, too obvious in its absurdity. it has to be dressed up in clever-sounding phrases, ivy-league rhetoric, with some liberal jargon sprinkled on top. that's how it ultimately gets to the new york times

whenever you see anyone bandying about these terms and acting hysterical about the supposed Civilization-Ending Threat they pose, you're dealing w/ a grifter. one best described by sartre when the bogeyman caricature was the original "kulturbolschewismus" or "judeo-bolshevism"

see this thread for a detailed overview of just how odious the manhattan institute is

https://twitter.com/zei_squirrel/status/1293080555999973377

I'll end on this: entire rags are founded to wage war against this bogeyman caricature (eg quillette, also funded by billionaires), and people make lucrative grift careers off battling these mythical foes (eg jordan peterson). and what lies at the end of it? support the fascist!

oh btw, if you thought the manhattan institute is odious, wait till you hear about the pioneer fund, literally founded by nazis to push eugenics, then in the 1980s and 90s responsible for murray's "the bell curve" nazi screed (which went too far for manhattan). I'll get to them

oh and I highly recommend watching innuendo studio's entire "alt-right playbook" series for a more detailed analysis of the rhetorical styles employed in their agitprop. this episode in particular is very good:

additional readings:

sartre, anti-semite and jew (abahlali.org/files/Jean-Pau…)
umberto eco, ur-fascism (pegc.us/archive/Articl…)
weigel, Political correctness: how the right invented a phantom enemy (theguardian.com/us-news/2016/n…)
nwanevu, reactionary liberalism (newrepublic.com/article/158346…)