The phenomenon of fake news has become a major story in itself. CNN constantly dishing the dirt on Donald Trump with no pretence of impartiality; the Guardian blaming Russian interference for Brexit; conspiracy theories abound. Economy of truth and sensationalism are not new, but undoubtedly the problem has worsened with the internet, which has spawned thousands of news websites. These unregulated outlets often expose what governments don't want their people to know, but some are of dubious credibility.
A left-wing website, Vice News, headlined throughout last weekend the alleged dangers of a book written by Robert Oulds and I. Moralitis: a Cultural Virus is our conceptualization of the relentless spread of identity politics and puritanical censorship. We describe the pervasive influence of Cultural Marxism, and this was enough for Vice to accuse us of anti-Semitism. This cannot go unchallenged.
It's an absurd claim, as anyone reading our monograph will see. There is no mention of Jews or Judaism anywhere in the text, although there may be writers of Jewish background in our citations (Melanie Phillips for sure). As social conservatives, we are proud of our Judeo-Christian heritage. I have written several supportive articles about the Jewish community in Britain (mostly in response to nasty behavior by the Left) and attended a rally against anti-Semitism earlier this year.
The apparent reason for this slur is that the historical origins of Cultural Marxism are in the Frankfurt School and critical theory. Several of these scholars were Jewish. Those who escaped from Nazi persecution included Herbert Marcuse (pictured), who taught at Columbia University in the USA and later became the founding father of the New Left. Marcuse is rarely mentioned in British and European texts, as on our side of the Atlantic we are most aware of Antonio Gramsci (who inspired Rudi Dutschke's phrase of the "long march through the institutions").
Whether or not the subversive agents of radical theory had any Jewish blood is immaterial. It is not reasonable to define Cultural Marxism as an anti-Semitic trope, any more than Marxism itself (the latter may be more justifiable, given the contempt of Karl Marx for his brethren). This is a typical tactic of the Left: control the language to control the debate.
Vice is barking up the wrong tree here. This is not only fake news but a smear of libellous proportion. I suggest that if Vice is really interested in anti-Semitism it should be less defensive of Jeremy Corbyn and Labour. As shown by the scandal that has featured prominently on mainstream news throughout 2018, the most pervasive hatred for Jews is on the hard Left. Meanwhile, Vice has implicated Israel as a pariah state and has written positively of the BDS campaign. People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.
[This article was first published by Republic Standard at https://republicstandard.com/cultural-marxists-dont-like-being-called-cultural-marxists/]