Differences
| Traditional Marxism | Cultural Marxism |
| Economic Marxism aims for equality of economic class | Aims for equality of class, gender, sex, sexual orientation and gender identity |
is modernist and believes in rationality, science and proof. It claims its views are provable from evidence and the progress of history, but has spectacularly failed in that project. Marxist countries had more poverty, war, class division, inefficiency and oppression than Free market countries and eventually collapsed politically. Science and history disproved the theory. | is postmodernist, does not believe in rationality. It’s adherents don’t need to prove anything, they just need to subjectively ‘feel’ for example ‘oppressed’ or ‘micro-aggressions’. They may try to use what sounds like logic to convince fellow travellers but this is purely a rhetorical device for others. Trying to argue logic with a Cultural Marxist will not convince them. |
Both
With the failed appeal to economic class struggle Marxists diversified their appeal. With their failed appeal to rationality, they abandoned reason for emotion.
Both Traditional and Cultural Marxism…
- Hate Western Christian Civilization (including free market economics, religious freedom, the family) and aim to destroy it.
- Are totalitarian in methods, while using the language of democracy.
- They do not believe in free speech. They both restrict free speech and force people to say things against their will as a means to brainwashing (Marxist slogans, politically correct language respectively).
- Have utopian dreams of a better egalitarian society in this world.
- Develop Christian heresies to appeal to a Christian constituency (Traditional Marxism had ‘liberation theology’, while Cultural Marxism has the ‘Social Justice’ movement).
- Try to make successful people feel guilty as a means of manipulation.
- Support revolution and violence.
- Are focused on power struggles in this life.
- Use the language of individual rights but believe these can be trampled if they benefit the collective greater good.
- Believe they are the climax of a natural evolutionary process of progress and liberation in ideas and society in history. Those who oppose them are on the wrong side of the inevitable progress of history.
- Believe the core problem is systematic social environment rather than individual sin. They believe that if the social problems are fixed, individual people will come right.
- Are willing to make temporary compromises with opponents to gain time to push their agenda, which they will always later break.
- Were formulated by non-Talmudic white male Ashkenazi German Jewish intellectuals (principally Karl Marx, Herbert Marcuse respectively).
- Target the youth in academic institutions.
- Mostly overlap the same people. Cultural Marxists tend to believe the economic class struggle of Traditional Marxists but expand to a new range of issues. After the failure of Traditional Marxism became intellectually obvious in the 1960s and its political collapse in the late 1980s, most Traditional Marxists followed Herbert Marcuse and moved to Cultural Marxism.
- Are materialistic, rejecting the spiritual dimension.
- Tend to attract angry and frustrated rebel youth and academics without practical success in serving the needs of society.
Economic Marxist governments killed 100 million of their own citizens in the twentieth century. Cultural Marxism is promoting very similar ideas and if we don’t stop it, we risk similar consequences. Ironically the former Marxist countries are resisting Cultural Marxism, while the former Free World is being deceived.
As summarised by Philip Rosenthal. Subscribe to Philip Rosenthal’s newsletter or follow him on Facebook. He provides thoughtful biblical perspectives on many contemporary issues.