Cultural Marxism and White Genocide Theory

Example 41: Cultural Marxism conspiracy theory and White Genocide/Replacement theory:

We feature here two right-wing conspiracies with strong antisemitic components.

The Cultural Marxism conspiracy theory seems to have originated in far-right circles in the USA in the 1990s. Its very name suggests an attack on the left, and indeed this conspiracy theory is the preserve of the hard right of the British Conservative Party and parties further to its right, including those with a fascist or neo-Nazi ideology.

Although the theory specifically emerged in the US in the 1990s, it appears to be a direct descendant of the Nazi conspiracy theory ‘Kulturbolschewismus’, which blamed Communists (‘Bolsheviks’) for plotting to foist modernist and progressive principles on the arts, and thereby to cause social degeneration and loss of traditional values. At the same time, Bolshevism was seen in Nazi Germany as Jewish-inspired and led by Jews seeking world domination, so ‘Kulturbolschewismus’ was intrinsically antisemitic.

The modern conspiracy theory claims that there is an elite of Marxist theorists and Frankfurt School intellectuals (predominantly of Jewish origin, it is said, and indeed a number e.g. Horkheimer, Adorno, Marcuse and Fromm were Jewish) who are said to be subverting Western society with a culture war that undermines traditional values of conservatism and promotes the liberal values of the 1960s counterculture and multiculturalism. There is of course no such organised group or conspiracy to ‘undermine’ society. The theory entered mainstream discourse in the 2010s, is promoted by right-wing politicians, fundamentalist religious leaders and white supremacists, and has prompted terrorist attacks. For example, Anders Breivik justified his 2011 murder of 77 young Norwegian socialists as a fight against ‘cultural Marxism’.

In recent times, ‘cultural Marxism’ seems to be making inroads into the language of traditionalist Tories in place of previous favourites such as ‘political correctness (gone mad)’. However, while the users of the term frequently are non-fascists from the respectable Conservative right, the origins of the term are clear; it has come from the Nazis' playbook via the US far-right scene. While several anti-racist groups, including those which campaign against antisemitism, have made the phrase's Nazi and far-right origins clear to the non-fascist right, it is still gaining currency as we write this in December 2020. It is an example of a phrase which needs to be avoided because of its antisemitic implications even if its users in many cases do not have actual antisemitic intent.

In the example below, for example Sir John Hayes MP refers to ‘cultural Marxist dogma’ and to ‘a clique of powerful, privileged liberals’ in his November 2020 letter to The Telegraph objecting to various heritage bodies offering reinterpretations of history in the light of Black Lives Matter. (Perhaps it is not necessary to state that the authors of this Gallery strongly disagree with these sentiments even without the cultural Marxism reference.)https://www.edwardleigh.org.uk/news/letter-telegraph

However, when (below) Nigel Farage refers to ‘cultural Marxism’ in the same video as he accuses his opponents of being funded by Soros, we have no doubts about calling out his antisemitism.

https://twitter.com/Nigel_Farage/status/1272978490611073024

https://www.facebook.com/socialistsagainstantisemitism/posts/681542732696721

https://twitter.com/Nigel_Farage/status/1272978490611073024

White genocide conspiracy theory is perhaps more clearly antisemitic in form, and is likewise a descendent of similar theories in Nazi Germany. It was popularised by neo-Nazi David Lane around 1995, and has spread in Western far-right and white supremacist movements. Broadly speaking, white genocide conspiracy states there is a deliberate plot to promote non-white immigration, interracial marriage, and violence to cause the extinction of whites through forced assimilation or violent genocide. This deliberate plot is often, though not always, blamed on Jews. For example, the Aryan Nations’ 1996 Declaration of Independence stated that the ‘Zionist Occupation Government’ (ZOG) sought the eradication of white race and culture, and among other crimes, worked to loosen restrictions on immigration and drug trafficking, denying Aryan cultural heritage, and inciting immigrant insurrections. However, Renaud Camus’s 2011 ‘Great Replacement Theory’ aimed at Muslims in France, and blaming this on ‘global and liberal elites’ is not specifically antisemitic, though of course very dangerous to Muslims. In March 2019 the mass shooter who killed 51 people at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, called the online manifesto he prepared for the occasion ‘The Great Replacement’.

White genocide/replacement conspiracy theory inspired the Poway, California synagogue shooting in 2019. A letter posted by the suspect on 4chan stated that Jews were preparing a "meticulously planned genocide of the European race”. In the UK, such ideas have spread on the right in milder form e.g. Douglas Murray’s 2017 book The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, Islam raises the spectre of loss of traditional values through Muslim immigration, though does not posit any conspiracy, but such Islamophobia creates the conditions for conspiracist views to enter from the far right.

We recommend the Hope Not Hate website for up-to-date news about the every-mutating modes of racist activity, especially on the far-right and in the UK. One variant of white genocide theory which has gained popularity is the 'Kalergi plan' https://www.hopenothate.org.uk/2019/04/18/exposed-for-britain-and-white-genocide-conspiracy-theory/