Marxismo Cultural/Cultural Marxism

“Cultural Marxism” is a right-wing conspiracy theory that accuses the Frankfurt School of infiltrating universities to spread left-wing ideology. Although this conspiracy theory was first deployed in the United States, “Marxismo Cultural” also became a potent ideological tool during the rise of the Brazilian New Right. This chapter contends that previous scholarly efforts to categorize Cultural Marxism as a “transnational conspiracy theory” rely on simplistic notions of transnationality. Building on decolonial theory, it theorizes Marxismo Cultural/Cultural Marxism as a civilizational discourse that serves to unify—ideologically and organizationally—the transnational Right around the task of defending “Western Values.”