Cultural Marxism

A contested concept used by critics of the left to describe the alleged project of applying Marxist class analysis to culture, identity, and education — deriving from the Frankfurt School and Antonio Gramsci's hegemony theory.

The term's contested status: 'Cultural Marxism' is used in two ways. (1) By critics: it names a purported strategy (derived from Gramsci, Lukács, and the Frankfurt School) to transform Western culture through control of education, media, and institutions, replacing class consciousness with identity politics. (2) By defenders of the targeted scholarship: the term is a conspiracy theory that misrepresents diverse academic traditions as a coordinated project. The debate about the term's legitimacy is itself a key battleground in culture-war discourse. The Anti-Defamation League has noted that some uses of 'Cultural Marxism' echo antisemitic tropes about Jewish cultural subversion.