On Marxism, Post-Modernism, and “Cultural Marxism”

The attempt to conflate Marxism and post-modernism under the label of “cultural Marxism” is, at the very least, highly problematic.

Today, it is increasingly common in some Anglo-American circles to conflate post-modernism and Marxism under the label of “cultural Marxism.” The most articulate promoter of this idea is University of Toronto psychology professor, Jordan Peterson. Through his popular online lectures and in his recent bestseller Twelve Rules for Life, Peterson argues that Marxism’s collapsing intellectual and moral credibility in the post-Stalinist era led to a crisis within left-wing thought.

Peterson’s Argument

It had become clear that Marxist communism was no longer a morally viable outlook for anyone with sensitivity to the horrific consequences of the gulag. Therefore, according to Peterson, many left-leaning intellectuals simply gave Marxism a new coat of paint to try to rejuvenate its credibility.

Post-modern authors, his thinking goes, simply broadened Marxist ideas about class oppression to encompass all forms of social interaction. These post-modern figures now claimed that oppression and power existed everywhere, even in the most innocuous behaviors and cultures. Therefore, he argues, the goal of left-wing activism has become not simply to overthrow an oppressive class structure or rectify drastic economic inequalities. Its newfound purpose is to overturn every aspect of Western culture through criticizing it as racist, sexist, homophobic and so on, replacing it with a vaguely defined egalitarian society, the post-modern equivalent of a communist utopia. Given this new emphasis on culture, and a perceived link with the past of leftist movements, Peterson and his counterparts have taken to suggesting that post-modernists are, in fact, “cultural Marxists.”

Peterson is joined in this appraisal by a litany of other commentators. Conservative Ben Shapiro has consistently called on his fellow conservatives and classical liberals to combat the growing influence of cultural Marxism. Matthew Continetti of the National Review recently wrote a column on “the coalition for cultural freedom” and praised Peterson (amongst others) for combatting a resurgent Marxism on university campuses. In my own country of Canada, the National Post’s Barbara Kay ridiculed “Marxism-marinated cultural elites obsessed with group rather than individual rights.” And the litany against cultural Marxism goes on.