The infograph I posted from last week got some good circulation, including objections from various SJWs who said it was a conspiracy theory.

Is it? As far as I can tell, it is completely accurate except for the point about the KGB funding the Frankfurt School, which I haven’t seen any direct evidence for.

Let’s zoom in:

I will number the points to make it easy.

1. Under the Weimar Republic, various “intellectuals” thrived. Some of them created the Frankfurt School. This is a known fact.

2. The Frankfurt School and its descendants are extremely influential in social science faculties across the West, especially in America. Adorno and Marcuse are well known names in social science academia.

3. Social science from the 60s onwards had a completely different flavor and ideological basis than social science prior to the 60s. This change is from Critical Theory, which is from Adorno and the Frankfurt School.

Is there any disagreement on the above points? If modern social science isn’t heavily influenced by or directly descended from Critical Theory, then why is the social science curriculum so saturated in it? Why were all the 60s radicals so inspired by it? Why do present-day radicals parrot Frankfurt School points word for word?

Wikipedia calls this the “Frankfurt School conspiracy theory,” but where is the evidence against it? A refutation of the theory certainly can’t be found on Wikipedia.

A journalist wrote:

The whole story is transparently barmy. If humanities faculties are really geared to brainwashing students into accepting the postulates of far-left ideology, the composition of western parliaments and presidencies and the roaring success of corporate capitalism suggests they’re doing an astoundingly bad job. Anyone who takes a cool look at the last three decades of politics will think it bizarre that anyone could interpret what’s happened as the triumph of an all-powerful left.

If we look at other metrics, such as fertility rates, popular beliefs, government transfer payments, and popular culture, they’ve done a rather good job. If Leftism doesn’t come from the Frankfurt School, where does it come from? Ideas rarely emerge de novo—they have intellectual descendants. The dominant strain of Critical Theory taught in universities derives from the Frankfurt School.

Read Marcuse’s “Repressive Tolerance”. Are his words not reflected directly in the attitudes, behaviors, and words of allegedly “centrist” leftists who read sites like Salon and Vox and dominate forums like Reddit?

Marcuse wrote:

Liberating tolerance, then, would mean intolerance against movements from the Right and toleration of movements from the Left. As to the scope of this tolerance and intolerance: … it would extend to the stage of action as well as of discussion and propaganda, of deed as well as of word.

Marcuse wrote this at a time when laws against “offensive” speech weren’t seriously considered in the West. Today, however, 51% of Democrats favor regulation of “hate speech”.

Did Marcuse get the future he wanted?