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The term "cultural marxism" appears to be only used by right wing commentators. I have never seen a left wing person use this term.
I'm not sure how to accurately label social justice enthusiasts these days. They are called marxists but I find this description inaccurate because marxists strongly link the economic means of production to sociological effects.
Most SJ is focused on the details of grievances and isolate themselves from the economic source.
"Critical theory", critical philosophy, "deconstruction", feminism, multiculturalism, "gender studies", political correctness, social engineering, safe spaces, globalism/universalism, forcing immigration at all costs, scapegoating the "white cis male" - these all branches of cultural marxism, to subvert and disorganize culture and society.
Communist governments proudly called themselves "proletarian - peasant governments". When those marxists like Gramsci, the people of the Frankfurt School and others realized that they won't be able to achieve revolution in the western countries by the economy, they decided that they need to come into power by occupying the culture and the institutions. And sadly they made it, the outcomes can be seen now. They can't speak anymore about the oppression and exploitation of the proletariat, so they found new targets: minorities. Women (how come they are a minority?), immigrant minorities, LGBTQWERTY people.
I've just read an article by Michael Moore, and he wrote "we won the cultural war". Maybe they call now that winning the cultural war.
But in Europe one can see a cultural counter-revolution. I deem the "alt-right" part of that, the immune-reaction of the normal people. Brexit can be seen part of that. Maybe Trump will be part of that. (Neocon Anne Aplebaum wrote in March this year: Brexit, Trump as POTUS, Marine le Pen as French president, if this three things befall, the western world as we know it is over. I'm eager to see Le Pen as president :} )
I can't say that I believe in those theories. I believe it's more "emergent" so to speak. The movement of these things towards the left after the 1950s was self-inflicted. People that live in comfort naturally shift their attention towards social justice/spirituality/intellectualism/arts/environmentalism and once they have money, will organize into groups to agitate for their own interests.
For instance, the Chinese don't give a crap about environmentalism; they are still struggling to meet basic needs like Americans were in the 1930s.
But you bring up interesting things:
1. I would not say that mass artistic, political and entertainment culture in the US is dominated by marxism; it's dominated by social justice (but without much economic justice), which is a much more primitive type of thinking. Even certain types of animals display this type of instinct. The older generation, who grew up in the 1960s and 1970s were the ones that read Marx and soviet/socialist/communist literature and far left idealism. I studied these things on my own time and for self-knowledge but I never was taught these things.
2. It is interesting that the term Alt Right has appeared to replace the more awkward description: far right conspiracy theories. I suspect that an Alt Left may emerge as a response to the failures of the Democrats and their equivalents in Europe.
3. I agree with Mike Moore that the left has won the culture wars. It will take a lot of time, perhaps 1-2 more decades before things change- if they change, that is. But most definitely, the educational system has made men more like eunuchs, people as conformist sheep, etc. and created this negative feeling of being a permanent victim of circumstance, where interest groups (whether united by race, lifestyle, industry, etc.) compete to take a bigger share of the slow growth society but do not focus on growing the size of the pie.
4. With the Right winning more and more, it seems that Reality is starting to trump the falsehoods of the establishment but there is still a lot of confusion of where to aim for in order to get a better future.
5. A close study of history, such as those that cataloged the rise and fall of civilizations (eg. the Roman empire) and the dynamics of economic/financial cycles show eerie connections to present day. Some times, history does rhyme. The Democrats can be compared to the degenerating Roman aristocracy during the fall of Rome, for instance.
"Social justice" is just a broad leftist-liberal term for {feminism / minorities / LGBTQWERTY / limitless migration} and discriminating white-cis-males.
The alt left exists for a long time, there are plenty of those parties in Europe ( eg. Pirate Party in Sweden, green parties in Germany and elsewhere etc.).
edit: Perhaps Syriza in Greece, Podemos in Spain and Five Star Movement in Italy can be seen as new alt left parties.
In the 1930s-1970s there was the "old liberal order"- personified by JFK, FDR, etc. This is when most of the US middle class population had union membership and society was the most egalitarian. The Republicans were once the party of the super rich and usually lost throughout the 20th century until they changed their strategies.
There may be some reversion to some of the messages of this order.
I would be more interested in politics if there existed a Democratic party that actually tried to improve society rather than feed off of it.
On 11/11/2016 at 8:17 AM, Cult Icon said:Two awesome, 500 page books that I just got:
(shipped from the UK)
I'm really impressed with these two works.
Nebolsin and Szambeber are both skilled at what they do and relatively young (early 40s). They will likely to be prolific authors. They're cutting new ground here in military history. Stalin's favorite II continues to break new ground and ends as the 2 Tank Army plays a leading role in the apocalyptic battle of Berlin, and fights through some the thickest tactical defense of the war. The highlight before that is its role in the Vistula-Oder Offensive- the Soviet Blitzkrieg and an outstandingly conducted operation. Prior to that, they struggle against German elite panzer troops at Warsaw.
Szambeber has two books about the battles in Hungary and this one is perhaps the best out of the ones that he made. He tends to focus a lot on the details of the German Army but gives unprecedented detail about Soviet actions. The Germans attempt to save their forces trapped in the capital with a set of concentrated assaults against formidable soviet defense.
1 minute ago, Cult Icon said:
Szambeber has two books about the battles in Hungary and this one is perhaps the best out of the ones that he made. He tends to focus a lot on the details of the German Army but gives unprecedented detail about Soviet actions. The Germans attempt to save their forces trapped in the capital with a set of concentrated assaults against thick and formidable soviet defense.
this one too may be interesting for you:
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2005/04/07/the-siege-of-budapest/
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/876636.The_Siege_of_Budapest
@17
Yes I have this book as well. It's a good general book about the battle.
In Bulgaria and in Moldova, pro-Russia candidates have just won presidential election against pro-EU candidates.
And we're going to have an eventful December:
It came to me: the term is proto-marxist. I've heard it only once, used by a German.
" Maybe you notice a certain commonality with the left here. In the 19th century, the Marxists whipped themselves up in a frenzy about the allegedly inherent conflict between labor and capital. Their successors fret incessantly about race, ethnicity, ability, gender, and so on, pushing Marxian conflict theory into ever more exotic realms. "
Primitive, primeval..Marxism- lite these make sense to describe pop culture. Marxism, as describe by Marx would be the 'advanced stage'- what a highly conscious, cultured, and intelligent individual would possess while social justice/pop culture of today is uneducated and roots from base human instincts.
The latter has far surpassed the former, partially due to their adoption by the Democrats but also due to their low entry barriers and high practical utility in political action.
https://fee.org/articles/five-differences-between-the-alt-right-and-libertarians/
This is an interesting article that describes various forms of the right.
The Alt-Right TBH seems to be proto-facism or facism-lite.
15 hours ago, 17 Moments of Spring said:In Bulgaria and in Moldova, pro-Russia candidates have just won presidential election against pro-EU candidates.
And we're going to have an eventful December:
General Flynn (a political General) has been offered the role of national security adviser by Trump
^ no surprise there, Secretary of State is the question now
this guy too started with the "we won the cultural war" leftist-liberal self-complacence, but starting to learn something:
5 hours ago, Cult Icon said:This is an interesting article that describes various forms of the right.
The Alt-Right TBH seems to be proto-facism or facism-lite.
Maybe some of them is fond of fascism, but I don't think drawing a parallel like this explains to much.
This article is from a libertarian point of view, a bit narrow-minded to me.
If someone is on the political right and still not a libertarian, that does not mean that (s)he is a fascist. Maybe that person is conservative, maybe (s)he is communitarian. Would you call the christian democrat founding fathers of post-WW II Europe, (Adenauer, De Gasperi, Schuman) fascist?
Never heard of "communitarianism".
But all the Alt-Right inclinations of the article are the absolutely the foundations of fascism as practiced by Hitler's Reich. It is definitely not the American form of conservatism in any way.
Fun fact: in last year Poland's right wing - libertarian party and government was defeated by the rival conservative - christian democratic party, and their new government right away opposed Merkel's agenda to deluge Europe with muslim invaders.
Fascism was in Mussolini's Italy, calling the national socialist III. Reich "fascist" was a communist propaganda lie to cut off reflected failure. And it's seems to be alive till nowadays, by leftist phraseology.
I'm rather knowledgeable about Hitler's Reich, its institutions, and especially the Wehrmacht.
Pretty much the stuff in the article were the basic way the Nazi leaders and the SS thought in- terms of biological struggle. Great man theory. Conspiracy. Anti-trade, anti-migration. Romancing feudalism- eg. the SS were to be the new elite class of the empire.
Trump seems to be fantasizing to become the next lee kuan yew. Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea were built up with industrial policy, buttressed by some things that critics relate to fascism.
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The McMahons are good friends with Donald Trump.
14 minutes ago, Stromboli1 said:The McMahons are good friends with Donald Trump.
McMahon is in amazing physical shape, especially for his advanced age!