It helps to understand how this "incoherent blind fear and paranoia about 'cultural marxism'" was manufactured and disseminated and what parallels it bears to other American instances of right-wing agitation. I posted today at Ecological Headstand on the relevance of the 1947 American Jewish Committee commissioned report, "Prophets of Deceit" to the contemporary political correctness/cultural marxism fable. Today's post is at http://ecologicalheadstand.blogspot.com/2011/08/cultural-conservatives-prophets-of.htmlbut see also "Confessions of a Cultural Marxist", "Martin Jay Spills Some Beans!" and "What is Cultural Conservatism?"
On Fri, Aug 5, 2011 at 1:16 PM, John Glastonbury <[email protected]>wrote: > I believe this is my first post to pen-l, though I've been poking my head > up and down every now and again on lbo and marxmail. > > The parallel with Weimar has limitations, as do all comparisons between > time periods. > > But, for a variety of reasons, I think that the Weimar analogy is more > suitable than some people give it credit for. > > Today, we do not have a militant organized 'left' to get into street > battles with the Tea Party, but that in itself doesn't deflect concerns > about the rise of fascism. The right wing in Germany at the time was fixated > on an extremely exaggerated and incoherent set of beliefs and fears about > the Jews, which sometimes included a world communist conspiracy, or a world > capitalist conspiracy. Both Trotsky and the Rothschilds served this blurred > scape-goat purpose. Today we see the same type of incoherent blind fear and > paranoia, about 'cultural marxism,' the UN and its coming Global > Government/New World Order, and also capitalistic groups of people like the > Bilderberg group and George Soros. > > Plus, in some sense, the latino, black, and gay constituencies are > stand-ins for the lack of a unionized left wing. The office-holding right > wing has already enacted a sizable 'concentration camp' policy with regard > to these groups, through the drug war, and through the imprisonment of > illegal immigrants. > > I'd also add that the post-WW1 split in the SPD, between reformism and > revolution, lead to a centre-left party that was deeply fixated on seeming > 'legitimate,' and was just as eager to crack down on the left as any other > party. Now, the Democratic Party never did have a revolutionary element > inside of it, but the effect of 'third way' policies, Clintonism, Obamaism > has been similar to this effect in that it has split the centre-left from > the left, and the far-left. And the choice between democratic and republican > is not unlike the bland range of 'centrism' that germans living under Weimar > would have had to choose from if they were loyal or committed to a > parliamentary bourgeoise republic. > > There is also the fact that the Weimar analogy is also much more readily > understood by more people than, say, the Gilded Age, or even the run-up to > WW1. It has a strong emotional appeal, and re;atively broad familiarity. > > Now, we can quibble over whether or not > totalitarianism/authoritarianism/fascism are the right terms to use, but, in > my short life as a politically conscious being, I've never seen 'democracy' > in America do anything remotely progressive, beneficial for me, or my age > cohort. I've also met many right wing people who, frankly, scare me with > their anger and vitriol and endless rage against liberals and blacks and > 'faggots' and pacifists. I cannot express my real political beliefs in > almost any public place or forum. Reactionary sentiment is deepening, > broadening, and becoming the de-facto consensus in many places in America. > > _______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l > > -- Sandwichman
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