cultural Marxists....Jews, correct?
whew lads
From what I've seen the term first appears in American political parlance in paleo-conservative thought in the 90s, notably Buchanan, Lind, and Weyrich. I don't think it necessarily needs the conspiratorial trappings it takes on here, though; I've seen it used innocently enough in Soc/Anth stuff that isn't preoccupied with unmasking the pernicious influence of hidden (((interests))) in contemporary America. Certainly, the idea that, in the first two thirds of the 20th century, certain thinkers were interested in wielding what they took to be Marxism to critique cultural products over against more materially minded Marxists is obviously true. The most prominent strain of these thinkers runs from Gramsci and Lukacs to the Frankfurt schoolers down to Habermas. That's pretty much where the factual merit of the use of the term 'cultural Marxism' ends.
In the wake of Anders Breivik and GamerGate, the term has been picked up by choice internet communities interested in diagnosing those same agents of 'cultural decline' that motivated paleo-conservatives ~15 years prior, although they might not identify themselves as conservative. wew lad, indeed.
spoiler (click to show/hide)
Yeah, the Jew thing seems to be a factor, but I think we're primarily the "globalists" and "bankers" in that memo.
At their worst, I've found the people who employ this kind of rhetoric don't particularly care to differentiate too much between their boogeymen of choice.