McCausland: Cultural Marxism misrepresented DUP

The term ‘cultural Marxism’, while often misused, refers to the approach taken by some communists to attempt to influence important societal institutions such as universities, government bureaucracies and the media.

It is an intellectual tradition that owes much to the Italian communist thinker Antonio Gramsci, about whom Mr McCausland penned an article just last month.

Over the weekend, Mr McCausland shared an article on social media that had been published on the website of the Christian Institute organisation.

The article accused the BBC of having “openly mocked the beliefs of millions of Christians and others with socially conservative views in its election commentary”.

Posting a link to the article on Facebook, Mr McCausland wrote: “The past week has highlighted the intolerance of the ‘liberal elite’ who dominate so much of the media today.”

The article itself referenced an interview between BBC Radio Four presenter John Humphrys and Mr McCausland on Monday, June 12.

In the interview, Mr Humphrys appeared to scoff at the former DUP MLA’s assertion that the DUP was a “compassionate party”.

Mr McCausland had said: “There are certainly differences (between the DUP and the Conservatives). The DUP would tend to be, I think what I would describe as, a fairly compassionate party.”

An incredulous Mr Humphrys asked: “The DUP? Oh, some, maybe most people might see it as an intolerant party.”

Undeterred, Mr McCausland continued: “Compassionate in that, if you are looking at austerity, they would be a party that would want to avoid extremes of austerity. So, for example, they would favour the retention of the triple lock on pensions. They favour the retention of winter fuel payments as a universal benefit. (They have) expressed concerns about the dementia tax, and so on. In those ways it would not be a party that is entirely in line with the Conservatives on some of those issues.”

Mr Humphrys said: “Well, indeed, but also on other issues. You say compassionate but I think if you were a gay person or a woman wanting an abortion you wouldn’t think of them (the DUP) necessarily as compassionate, would you?”

After posting the Christian Institute article on Facebook, Mr McCausland was asked by another social media user “what can be done about it?”.

Mr McCausland wrote: “There is no quick answer. It has taken decades for ‘cultural Marxism’ to dominate academia and media and it will take time to undo it and restore balance.”