Cultural Marxism and the Radical Right

This chapter will analyze the place of the threat alleged of Cultural Marxism in the discourse of the radical and extreme right, in the United States as well as in continental Europe and the United Kingdom. The underlying aim of this chapter is to examine the determinant role that this ‘threat’ plays in the Anglo Saxon extreme right, in particular at the intellectual, ideological and doctrinal levels, in comparison to other countries. Certainly if the Netherlands, France or other countries have parties or political groups which borrow the rhetoric of ‘fighting’ against Cultural Marxism, or its more nebulous variant, ‘political correctness’, it certainly finds its origins in the United States, and more broadly the Anglo-Saxon world.

To achieve this, the chapter will begin by unpicking the meanings behind the notion of Cultural Marxism, from its origins to its use in Anders Breivik’s manifesto released shortly before the Oslo and UtØya massacres. It will show that the term emerged from the literature of American ultraconservatives following the fall of the Berlin Wall as a consequence of the disappearance of the ‘red menace’ of Communism. Secondly, it will focus on two important moments in the development of the term. It will describe the phrase’s usage from the beginning of the 2000s within the discourse of Pat Buchanan, a political commentator and multiple U.S. presidential candidate. Then it will illustrate the re-emergence of the term some 10 years later, in the manifesto of Anders Breivik and in the subsequent justification of his acts throughout his trial. In both cases, we will see that Buchanan and Breivik emphasize the same basic theme, Cultural Marxism, in their denouncement of what they see as two different threats. Finally, from these explorations of the usage of the term, the discussion will examine other current uses of the notion of ‘Cultural Marxism’ in the British and American radical right. To conclude, it will show how the ‘Cultural Marxism’ threats are used by a variety of activists to argue for the defence of their political standpoints, setting this in a language of preserving freedom and democracy, but ultimately only within a framework designed to defend Judeo-Christian values.