Thread by @deonteleologist

Time for a thread on the Frankfurt School/"Cultural Marxism" conspiracy theory, which flared up again with the anti-CRT moral panic we're seeing.

It's hardly changed at all. Let's compare segments from a Free Congress Foundation video (c. '99) & Fox News segment from 2021 🧵 1/

I'll assume some familiarity with the conspiracy theory; if you're completely new to this, I suggest a primer such as that by @DavidNeiwert here dailykos.com/stories/2019/1… 2/

Bill Lind calls it cultural Marxism or "political correctness"; Steve Hilton calls it "wokeism." Both repeat the same talking points: Marxists had to explain why there wasn't a proletarian revolution after WWI. They settled on the idea "Western culture" had to be "destroyed" 3/

Let me make this absolutely clear: the conspiracy theory is antisemitic to the core. It has roots in the Elders of Zion hoax, Nazism, and American antisemitism.

This fabricated list of plans attributed to the Frankfurt school philosophers connects to "destroy Western culture" 4/

That comes from an essay by UC Berkeley historian Martin Jay, which you can read here: canisa.org/blog/dialectic…

An extended, post-Trump version of the essay is reprinted in his most recent book, "Splinters In Your Eye: Essays on the Frankfurt School" 5/

Because Herbert Marcuse became something of an academic celebrity for his involvement in the New Left, he's commonly describedas , as Lind puts it, "inject[ing]" cultural Marxism "into the New Left."

Hilton rehearses this line, parroting James Lindsay's lies about Marcuse. 6/

James Lindsay's wholesale adoption of the Frankfurt School conspiracy theory, as well as his complete misreading of Marcuse (which was then taken up by Rufo) have been instrumental in rekindling the embers of this conspiracy theory. 7/

If you want more on that point, see the thread that begins here:

https://twitter.com/deonteleologist/status/1405976144789217280?s=20

8/

Rufo played a crucial role in manufacturing the anti-CRT moral panic, which was made possible by nonstop Fox News anti-CRT content. Hilton's genealogy of CRT was so similar to Lindsay's I couldn't imagine where else he got it; he confirms I was right at the end of this clip. 9/

Hilton doesn't acknowledge Helen Pluckrose, much less that she was the LEAD AUTHOR. The ironic part: Cynical Theories hardly even mentions the Frankfurt School, centering instead on "postmodernism." James says this is the best criticism of the book. 10/

https://twitter.com/deonteleologist/status/1384574047359442947?s=20

I'm currently working on a co-authored piece that will flesh this out in more detail. For the time being, you can check out my debunking of Christopher Rufo's absolutely awful reporting in this article flux.community/samuel-hoadley… & the thread that starts here

https://twitter.com/deonteleologist/status/1422223105791959048?s=20

And for some of my criticism of Cynical Theories, this review liberalcurrents.com/the-cynical-th… is a good start. 12/12

Oh yeah, also, for those curious about how James responded to such criticism: see the thread that begins here [13/12 sorry]

https://twitter.com/deonteleologist/status/1398699127152783365