A Critique of the Alt-Right’s ‘Cultural Marxism’: A Conspiracy Theory for Inter-sectional Hate

A Blue Pill for the Alt-Right

In this audio-visual presentation, Tanner Mirrlees explores the history, content and political uses of the alt-right’s “cultural Marxist” conspiracy theory to contextualize Jordan Peterson’s slippery usage of the phrases “neo-Marxism,” “postmodern Marxism,” and sometimes, “cultural Marxism.” When Dr. Peterson deploys these terms to label and scrutinize Left movements, policies and practices related to “political correctness” and “social justice,” he, by wanton error or by choice, peddles a “blue pill” to his followers that dulls their capacity for rational thought and obstructs their pursuit of knowledge about the real world. While the alt-right’s “blue pill” of cultural Marxism is in mass supply, widely circulated and very addictive, its deleterious effects are being countered by a new “red pill.”

This talk was first presented as a pre-game session for the “Responding to Jordan Peterson: an Intervention in Lieu of a Debate” conference at Boise State University, October 20, 2018.

Tanner Mirrlees is a critical political economist of the ICT and cultural industries. He is the author of Hearts and Mines: The US Empire’s Cultural Industry (UBC Press, 2016) and Global Entertainment Media: Between Cultural Imperialism and Cultural Globalization (Routledge, 2013) and is currently co-editing Media Imperialism: Continuity and Change (with Dr. Oliver Boyd-Barrett). Mirrlees’s recent research focuses on the nexus of the “alt-right” and social media capitalism, or “platform fascism.” His most recent article is “The Alt-right’s Discourse on ‘Cultural Marxism’: A Political Instrument of Intersectional Hate.”