[dragonwriter]

> Are you not aware that there are thousands and thousands of active Marxists in the US who proudly call themselves Marxists

Yeah, I've been involved in coalitions where some of the members were Marxist. That doesn't make labelling generic leftist action as “Marxist” any less of a false label and attempt to to use the emotional loading of “Marxist” in the wider society as a technique of poisoning the well against leftism generally.

> It's not poisoning the well to call someone a term that they voluntarily adopt for themselves.

It is, on the other hand, poisoning the well to use a label adopted by a small subset of a broader group to refer to actions of the broader group generally, when that is done specifically because of the negative emotional loading in the target audience of the label I question. Which is, at best, what is at play with the use of the term “Cultural Marxism”.

[aexq36]

That's a good point. I'd be happy to admit that the term is somewhat vague and inaccurate, so as long people first acknowledge that it's not a conspiracy theory.

[chongli]

It is, on the other hand, poisoning the well to use a label adopted by a small subset of a broader group

Welcome to the synecdoche of online discourse, where the masses are responsible for everything done by the extreme fringe. Why deal with substantive arguments when there's a weak man [0] close at hand?

[0] http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/05/12/weak-men-are-superweapo...