The Vagueness Of "Cultural Marxism"

"Cultural Marxism" is a popular accusatory phrase in conservative circles, a Republican equivalent to default charges of systemic racism in leftist circles even in a case where there is no such thing, especially during a time of particular political controversy.  Conservatives, vocal evangelical Christians included, tend to charge random people or ideologies as being guilty of association with "cultural Marxism" anytime that they feel threatened by something that is perceived to be connected with liberalism.  This is all that it might take to secure the support and praise of some conservatives, as they sometimes imagine that Marxism is hiding around every corner of American culture.

Some explanations of "cultural Marxism" equate the ideology with a blind attempt to categorize everyone's moral status according to their gender, race, economic class, or sexual orientation, as if a person is automatically an oppressor simply by being white or wealthy.  The liberal double standards surrounding the victimization of various demographics are utter bullshit, but so are the conservative straw men fallacies used to protect injustices and misrepresent liberals.  However, cultural Marxism, in the way that many conservatives use the phrase, is vaguely defined to the point of having almost nothing to do with actual Marxism.

It is also irrational to pretend like an ideology limited to a particular scope (such as Marxism) has two different manifestations.  Rationalism is rationalism, regardless of whether one individual or an entire culture embraces it.  The same is true of theism, atheism, capitalism, stoicism, or any other ideology, whether they are true or false.  To suppose that there is a different kind of Marxism that sprung up is to misunderstand what Marxism even is.  Of course any philosophical stance could be adopted by an entire culture or applied in a given culture in a specific way, but even this does not automatically change the ideology into a new version of itself.  It only means new people are applying it.  There is no separate ideology of "cultural rationalism," "cultural theism," "cultural stoicism," and so on.

In the same way, there is no ideology of "cultural Marxism" that is wholly distinct from "ordinary" Marxism.  Moreover, Marxism itself is about artificially eliminating class division, making the purest form of the idea about the exact opposite of what conservatives imply, if not say, that it entails. It follows that the relentless accusations of cultural Marxism from some conservatives are misleading, hollow, and thoroughly irrational.  The phrase becomes an emotionalistic set of words intended to appeal to existing rage or fear over miscellaneous ideologies that may or may not be illogical or vile.