Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

muriel_volestrangler

(101,154 posts)
Fri Feb 14, 2020, 03:31 PM Feb 2020

The new UK Attorney General believes in an anti-semitic conspiracy theory

The instinct for centralisation is not limited to removing obstacles and checks within the cabinet: the appointments of Oliver Dowden as culture secretary and Suella Braverman as attorney general signal Johnson’s intention to carry on the attacks against the BBC and the judicial apparatus. Dowden – who has never shown a discernible interest in culture or media – is a loyal Johnsonite, and will dutifully ratchet up the assault on the Corporation’s licence fee. A comparison with another Tory prime minister hostile to the BBC is instructive: many of Thatcher’s worst ideas on broadcasting were deflected by Douglas Hurd. No such tactful resistance is likely from Johnson’s new appointee.

It is Braverman, however, who best embodies the tilt of Johnson’s new Tories. She came to prominence in March 2019 after declaring to a Tory meeting that the party was ‘at war with Cultural Marxism’, the favoured antisemitic conspiracy theory of the alt-right; instead of apologising, she mocked people for being offended. In an article two weeks ago – an obvious audition for the cabinet – she levelled her ire at the Human Rights Act and declared the need to ‘take back control, not just from the EU, but from the judiciary.’ Then she popped up a few days ago in the Commons to castigate David Lammy for ‘shrill virtue-signalling’ over Windrush. Her elevation is a sign of Downing Street’s enthusiasm for the culture wars.

Braverman will not share her predecessor’s apparent reluctance to curtail the scope of judicial review and the capacity of the Supreme Court to restrain the government. She will doubtless find legal accommodation for Priti Patel’s threatened ‘review’ of human rights law. Whether so fervent a supporter of Johnson will be able – as the attorney general should – to give the government advice it does not want to hear is an open question. Like Dowden and Sunak, Braverman has only been an MP since 2015: with little parliamentary or ministerial experience, and dependent on Johnson’s patronage, they are hard to see as more than Downing Street appendages.

https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2020/february/cummings-s-bootprints

Anyone who invokes "Cultural Marxism" is, in my experience, a gullible and/or raving loon (or someone looking to actively manipulate such hopeless people).

It was against the backdrop of culture war narratives that ‘cultural Marxism’ as an anti-Semitic conspiracy was spread by the right in the 1990s. As Andrew Wood has recently described, the conspiracy was propagated by American cult leader Lyndon LaRouche in a bid to undermine leftist groups in the 1970s; Frankfurt School members and Angela Davis were implicated in conspiracies to infiltrate political groups through the CIA. However, the term later began to be used by American conservatives in the 1990s. Cited by Anders Breivik in his manifesto prior to the 2011 Norway attacks, American Conservative William Lind highlighted Marcuse’s ideas as the embodiment of ‘cultural Marxism.’ He suggested Marcuse’s views contributed to the decline of Western Judeo-Christian civilization. ‘Cultural Marxism’ conspiracies circulated in the 1990s as American right-wing commentators suggested that members of the Frankfurt School were responsible for the countercultural movements that emerged in the 1960s. As historian of the Frankfurt School Martin Jay comments, the narrative of this anti-Semitic conspiracy is ‘numbingly simplistic.’ The conspiracy theory is now prevalent amongst the far right and alt-right, particularly in online forums.

https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/4285-herbert-marcuse-and-cultural-marxism

That she's a conspiracy theorist is bad enough; that she uses an anti-semitic one deeply troubling:

A leading Jewish group has criticised a Conservative former minister for using the term “cultural Marxism” in a speech, a reference to a conspiracy theory often associated with the far right and antisemitism.

The Board of Deputies of British Jews said Suella Braverman should clarify what she meant, and pledge to not use the phrase again.

The Labour MP Wes Streeting said Braverman should apologise for using an “ugly and reprehensible term with antisemitic connotations”. He added: “Members of parliament should know better and she should apologise immediately or the whip should be removed.”

Hope Not Hate, which monitors far-right groups, said it was “deeply disturbing” to see an MP use such language.

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2019/mar/26/tory-mp-criticised-for-using-antisemitic-term-cultural-marxism
3 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
The new UK Attorney General believes in an anti-semitic conspiracy theory (Original Post) muriel_volestrangler Feb 2020 OP
Wow!!! atreides1 Feb 2020 #1
Kick and recommend for visibility of this evil bronxiteforever Feb 2020 #2
Whenever I see somebody use the term "Cultural Marxism" T_i_B Feb 2020 #3

atreides1

(16,046 posts)
1. Wow!!!
Fri Feb 14, 2020, 03:45 PM
Feb 2020

A fascist, anti-semitic, government with little regard for human rights!!! Sounds just like a movie I've seen...V for Vendetta...talk about life imitating art...

T_i_B

(14,734 posts)
3. Whenever I see somebody use the term "Cultural Marxism"
Sat Feb 15, 2020, 01:47 AM
Feb 2020

It's a sure sign that I can ignore everything that person has to say as they are clearly just a horrendous bigot.

The term doesn't just get dragged out in an anti semitic context either. It also gets used in homophobic, islamophobic, racist and anti anything remotely resembling left wing contexts.

There are many political terms that cause me to switch off, but cultural marxism might just be top of the list.

Latest Discussions»Region Forums»United Kingdom»The new UK Attorney Gener...