They tell us this all the time. We are out of the mainstream. We have become extremist. The liberal establishment is intent on painting those outside of their ideological mindset as extremist and threats to our democracy. All hogwash; it is them. It’s like the psychopath who denies others’ definitions of himself as a psychopath until his behaviors are too much for him to deny. It all catches up with him. It’ll all catch up to the fundamentalist liberals and the politics they support. It’s caught up.
Where did it begin? Aside from the urban residence of most Democrats where media and lifestyle have such an enormous effect on the population, the Democrat party itself is led by an intelligentsia immersed in European secular philosophy. Let’s begin.
Antonio Gramsci
Antonio Gramsci is probably the most influential European social and economic theorist of the 20th century. He is referred to as a neo-Marxist by proclaiming his opposition to capitalism and supporting public ownership of wealth and property. Since capitalist societies are controlled by ideology and cultural means, Gramsci called for the systematic attack on its ideology and breakdown of its culture. This included an attack on Christianity which Gramsci believed the glue of the culture. Only this could alter the people’s consciousness and thus pave the way toward a progressive civil society.
He referred to his theory as ‘Cultural Hegemony’. ‘Cultural Hegemony’ referred to the social forces supporting the capitalist ruling class control over the culture. He thus advocated the working class join forces with minorities in order to bring on revolutionary change and bring down the capitalist ruling class. The intelligentsia would have the responsibility to promote the change.
Herbert Marcuse
Historians give Herbert Marcuse [pronounced Mar-coosa] most of the credit for inspiring student uprisings and rebellions of the 1960s in both Europe and the United States. Referred to as ‘the guru of the new left’, and proud of his notoriety, Marcuse maintained that both continents, especially the United States were actually repressive societies – politically, economically, humanistically and sexually, and called for freedom seeking youth to rebel against it. This included criticism of the foundation of its culture, Christianity. He inspired media famous revolutionaries such as Abbie Hoffman, Rudy Deutschke, Angela Davis, and Daniel Cohn-Bendit. His works such as One Dimensional Man and Eros and Civilization were on top of the reading list for America’s Students for a Democratic Society [SDS] and Italy’s Le Brigatte Rosse. Democrat Party leaders today are students of the 60s. Marcuse was their intellectual hero.
George Hegel
George Hegel was a 17th-and-18th century German philosopher who was militantly atheistic and anti-Christian. A precursor to Karl Marx, he promoted concepts that he hoped would ultimately lead to national and world dictatorship. Based on the sociological concepts of phenomenology and cultural relativity, the idea was to create conflict within the culture in order to bring about government control as its remedy – one of those being a specific opposition to Christian religious values. State intervention would be necessary to resolve differences of religion, social mores, race, peace and war, ideologies, political groups, economic interests of workers and business owners. Conflict theory and critical race theory as taught in western university social and behavioral science classes have George Hegel’s dialectic as its foundation.
Ludwig Feuerbach
Ludwig Feuerbach was yet another German atheistic philosopher extremely critical of Christianity. He maintained we didn’t need religion any longer and could develop humanistic and rational philosophies without it. With atheism Feuerbach believed we can help man reach his potential because our lives were developed as much as could be given the economic circumstances. It was society where our potential and rights originate, not God. Thus, we don’t really need God and the ‘God is Dead’ movement began. Technological control would surely lead us out of our dependence of a man made creation, religion and Christianity. An industrial revolution visionary.
Karl Marx
Karl Marx restructured this dialectic referred to as a conflict of thesis and anti-thesis eventually leading through historical struggle to a synthesis of knowledge and perception. He focused on economic conflict between workers and owners of the means of production called dialectic materialism. Marx believed all of world history was a history of material want and class struggle between these groups. God and religion were in its way. He despised religion, especially Judaism and the Lutheran Church. The ‘opiate of the people’ was his mantra about religion.
The father of communism is a title often attributed to Karl Marx. Das Kapital and The Communist Manifesto are among his most famous works. The socialist and communist revolution of the working class against the bourgeoisie [management and middle class] was the only way to cure the ills of a capitalist society, and religion supported capitalism. Both must go. These ideas were instrumental in bringing about the communist countries of The Soviet Union, Peoples Republic of China, Cuba, North Korea and Khmer Rouge dictatorship in Cambodia. All were responsible for the killing of millions.
Sigmund Freud
Finally, we arrive at the infamous Sigmund Freud, an atheistic, anti-Christian philosopher, Jewish in name only. Freud not only hated Catholicism and Christianity in general, he was extremely fearful of Rome itself, refusing to visit there. The spectre of Catholicism in Rome haunted him as a threat to his authoritarian mindset and beliefs. He hated when people disagreed with him. A native of Austria, Freud disavowed any spirituality and focused on the physical aspects, especially sexual motivations, the mind, biology and behavior. Called the father of modern psychology, he coined phrases such as id and ego, conscious and subconscious, reality principle, and various defense mechanisms supporting sexual motivations. Essentially man was motivated by biological impulses of sex and aggression and any spirituality assigned to humans were limiting of freedom. Only by unleashing rather than repressing sexuality, as he believed religion did, could man realize his true self. He had to be released from the constraints of family and society which was too burdened by a Christian culture. The anti-Christian values of the free sex movement of the 60s and Gay marriage initiatives, though Freud was against homosexuality as a sort of arrested development, are attributed to the Freudian philosophy.
Conflicts within the ideas of these philosophies and with the social organization of western culture once dominated by Christianity are playing out to this day. Marxism, conflict theory, critical race theory, technological control, governmental and corporate totalitarian control, breakdown and change in sexual mores on a national and even global scale are the issues of the modern era. We can trace them to the above seven philosophers.
Source: Baglino, Michael J. 2023. From Gramsci to Freud: 7 Anti Christian Philosophers Who Ruined America. New York: LT Press.
