The New Ethno-Marxism (and How We Got Here)

It's difficult to keep up with the forces that have taken over America's institutions. 

In reality, these forces have been at work for decades now, and it's vitally important to understand where they came from.

Here at the Naked Dollar, we like to make it easy to understand these things, because the left makes it intentionally difficult. They love jargon and they love abstruse, campus-born concepts. 

Welcome to the Cliff Notes Guide to understanding All This Crap.

Let's start with Marx, because really, that's the right place. Most rational people might think we were done with Marxism after it got 100 million people killed in the 20th century, but no. To borrow from from Zoolander, "he's so hot right now."

Madman in a Library

Every bit the madman he appeared to be, holed up in the British Library, Marx based his radical new ideology almost entirely on economics. The oppressed, according to Marx's doctrine, were the working class, and they would inevitably rise up with violence against their bourgeois capitalist oppressors, seizing the means of production as well the profits otherwise earned at their expense.

They didn't, exactly, but that's another story.

Then came this guy, Antonio Gramsci.

Gramsci had a different take. He believed that the ruling elite used culture more than economics as their principle tool of oppression. He called it "cultural hegemony." Institutions - corporations, the media, churches, the entertainment industry - were purveyors of this culture and used its institutional organs to propagate a "capitalist zeitgeist." The common man was kept in his place with all the legal and societal structures that these institutions deliberately put in place.

Here are Gramsci's own words:

“Socialism is precisely the religion that must overwhelm Christianity. … In the new order, Socialism will triumph by first capturing the culture via infiltration of schools, universities, churches, and the media by transforming the consciousness of society.”

Here's what it was called: the Long March through the institutions.

Could Gramsci have imagined how successful he might be? Arguably, his vision has been achieved. Our schools, churches, sports leagues, major corporations, media industry...all have embraced far-left nostrums. 

But Gramsci himself couldn't have understood how his vision would be realized, because it happened with a uniquely American twist - through the crucible of race. 

Enter Critical Theory

Critical Theory was born in Germany in the 1930s and championed along the way mostly by bloviating Marxist philosophers in Europe. This included Gramsci, Michel Foucault, and Jacques Derrida, the latter two being darlings on today's campuses. (And yes, they are technically "deconstructionists," not critical theorists, but it's a distinction without a difference for 99% of the world's population.)

Ask ten people what Critical Theory is and you'll get ten answers. Seriously, Google it. Many of the explanations are ridiculously strangled, no doubt intentionally, progressive word salads designed to keep you out of the club. But the consistent theme is that truth is not an absolute, it stems from power - i.e. those with the power, the ones controlling society's institutions, can create whatever truths they want.

All truth stems from power.

(Keeping up? If this all sounds ridiculous, trust me, a lot of people take it very seriously.)

In a previous post, I detailed how some are now arguing that there shouldn't be correct answers in math, because correct answers are a "social construct." If you don't like who was doing the "constructing" (read: white mathematicians from a racist era), then does 2 + 2 really equal 4?

So, if you believe in critical theory, you not only have a shorthand way to dismiss everything you don't like from the past (i.e. anything to do with Western Civilization), but you also have an incentive to take over society's institutions. That way, you have the power, and the truth is what you say it is.

Which brings us to Critical Race theory.

Derrick Bell 

In the 1970s, Derrick Bell was a professor at Harvard Law School. His bright idea was to inject race into Critical Theory. In this take, race itself became the social construct, with whites (who had the power) constructing it in such a way as to permanently oppress blacks. Since whites had possessed the power since our country's founding, everything was therefore permeated with racism. All of it, most notable our institutions. Racism was systemic.

Well, if every institution was racist, the only solution was to burn it all down and start all over again.

That, or take them over, make them your institutions. Then you get to create the truth.

Critical Race Theory* was about to have its moment.

George Floyd

Gramsci's Long March had been making steady progress for decades, but the opportunity for its final victory arrived in the unlikely form of a felonious drug addict named George Floyd (with an assist for COVID). 

Floyd may prove as important to history as Gavrilo Princip, the 19-year old who assassinated Archduke Ferdinand. Both men, wittingly or not, unleashed forces they couldn't begin to fathom. Modern "thinkers" on all things race like Ibram Kendi stepped on the gas.

The visible side of this was the summer of riots, but beneath the surface, far more consequential things were happening. Curricula were being rewritten, charters altered, mandates revised. DEI exploded as an industry.

And so here we are.

If old Marxism defined the "oppressed" by economic status, the new Marxism defines the oppressed by skin pigmentation. Some call this "woke." Others call it "cultural" Marxism. 

But why not call it what it really is?

Ethno-Marxism.

This new variant is actually far more pernicious. In "old" Marxism, at least everyone was supposed to be treated equally (in theory).

This new Ethno-Marxism seeks to right historical wrongs by flipping the tables. The once oppressor class must now, itself, feel the pain. This is a vengeful ideology bent on conforming America to its will, and if all of our traditions and institutions are hollowed out or even burned to the ground in the process, so much the better.

Think I'm being alarmist, maybe exaggerating for effect? Then take the damn time to read what they say, because they are quite up front about it.  

Or perhaps you think you're safe? Maybe you hired a DEI consultant, or you scrubbed your socials. Maybe you are careful to only espouse the "right" opinions.

Think again. 

The rules of this game are constantly changing, and if you find yourself suddenly in the way, the rules will be changed enough to get you cancelled. 

They will not care who you are.

*If you hear the term "anti-racism," that is nothing more than the practical application of Critical Race Theory.