What is Cultural Marxism? How did this conspiracy theory that reached it's peak during Argentina's 1976-83 dictatorship start spreading globally today?

"The extraordinary cop-out system that Argentines have invented is to blame inflation alternatively on the Peronists or the anti-Peronists, but never assuming a communal responsibility. It's got to the point that the adrenaline that this confrontation produces means that it's a loop, an addictive loop Argentina can't get out of."

Argentina's vice-presidential candidate Victoria Villarruel has spent a large part of her life visiting convicted rapists, torturers and killers in jail, not unlike those who visit convicted serial killers such as Ted Bundy and then defend them in the press. It's just that Villarruel has given a political twist to that deviation, couching it as part of her political campaign.

On the eve of the 40th anniversary of the return of democracy, the longest democratic period in the country's history, Argentina has made a sudden slide into hate speech and violence. Threats against political opponents of far-right candidate Javier Milei and against journalists who dare criticize him are becoming everyday occurrences. His vice-presidential running mate openly defends murderers and rapists of Argentina's 1976-83 dictatorship. How did this happen?

Argentina's ultra-libertarian presidential candidate Javier Milei portrays himself as a crusader against "Cultural Marxism". He outdoes in verbal violence Donald Trump of the US and Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro. In interviews and speeches he refers constantly to the conspiracy theories built up by far-right theoriticians around the writings of Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci. Milei believes in the existence of a Gramscian plot to take over the world. This Gramscian conspiracy theory has deep anti-Semitic undertones and carries an incitement to mass murder.

SS-Oberscharführer Louis Feutren was a Nazi fugitive, sentenced to death in France. He was also the French master at my school, St Conleth's College, Dublin, Ireland, where he subjected his students to violent physical and psychological abuse. I should know, I was in his class and was often beaten by the former SS man. Everyone knew Feutren was a condemned Nazi, nobody cared. I have presented an appeal to St Conleth's to issue a public apology for having employed Feutren for three decades.

The "Cultural War"

Extract from my lecture at London University, Senate House, on 18 May 2023.