James Lindsay, on his podcast, describes the oppressor vs. oppressed logic as an axis of social division that does not aim for reconciliation but for the perpetuation of conflict. This dynamic, however, is not merely a sociopolitical phenomenon, but the contemporary manifestation of a much older and deeper metaphysical tradition: the Gnostic-Cabalistic one, which operates through a dialectic of perpetual conflict.
Based on the book The Cultural Marxist Imposture by Jean-Marie Rioult, James Lindsay's analysis is the exact description of the practical result of a meticulously planned revolutionary strategy. However, this strategy was not born with Marxism; it is the secularization of a subversive impulse that dates back to the origins of civilization. Rioult would not see this dynamic as a spontaneous phenomenon, but as the ultimate goal of a social engineering project. Elaborating from his work, Lindsay's points would be explained as follows, enriched by the understanding that the modern conflict is the continuation of the war between the City of God and the City of Man (Meinvielle, 1970, p. 11):📜The Transposition of the Dialectic to Culture
The "oppressor vs. oppressed logic" that Lindsay describes is, for Rioult, the direct transposition of the Marxist dialectic from the economic field to the cultural field. Classical Marxism failed because the Western proletariat did not become the expected revolutionary agent. The New Left, especially the Frankfurt School, needed a new proletariat. They found it not in an economic class, but in a coalition of minorities (racial, sexual, etc.), transforming them into the new engine of revolution. The "oppressor" ceased to be the bourgeois to become the white, heterosexual, Christian man and, ultimately, Western civilization itself. This search for a new revolutionary agent is nothing more than the attempt to materialize the Gnostic impulse of subversion. The Cabalistic tradition has always operated by co-opting discontented groups to undermine the established order, which is seen as an imperfect and oppressive creation of a lesser demiurge, rather than the work of a good and transcendent God (Meinvielle, 1970, p. 138-141).
⚔️The Gnostic Inversion of Good and Evil
What Lindsay calls a "secularized rereading of the struggle between good and evil" is identified by Rioult as a Manichaean and Gnostic parody of religion. Christian civilization, with its structures (family, homeland, hierarchy) and its morality, is systematically demonized and classified as absolute evil, the source of all "oppression." In contrast, everything that opposes this order—transgression, subversion, deconstruction—is elevated to the category of good, of "liberation." There is no room for nuance, as it is a war of moral annihilation. This inversion is a pillar of Gnosis, where the Creator God of the Old Testament is often seen as evil, and the serpent of Genesis, which incites rebellion, is seen as a liberator who offers "knowledge" (gnosis) for man to become like God. The "liberation" promised is not redemption in Christ, but self-salvation through the destruction of the created order (Meinvielle, 1970, p. 31, 143).
🔬Critical Theory as a Tool of Dissolution
The tool to execute this war is Critical Theory. Lindsay observes that the dynamic "does not seek to reconcile, but to fuel conflict." Rioult explains that this is the main function of Critical Theory: it is not a neutral analytical tool, but a weapon whose sole purpose is to negatively criticize, undermine, and delegitimize all institutions and values of traditional society. It exists to find or invent oppression everywhere, ensuring that the conflict is permanent and unsolvable. This destructive function corresponds to the "magical, operative, and fabricative" culture of the Gnostic tradition, which opposes the "contemplative" culture of the Catholic tradition. Its goal is not to understand reality in order to conform to it, but to transform it and, ultimately, to dissolve it in order to rebuild it according to the will of the deified man (Meinvielle, 1970, p. 8).
⚖️Structural Guilt and the Impossibility of Redemption
The consequence that "if you are classified as 'oppressor', nothing can redeem you" is the key to the strategy. For Rioult, guilt is not personal (based on actions), but structural and existential (based on being). An individual is not guilty for what they did, but for what they are—a member of the oppressor group. Thus, forgiveness is theologically impossible in this system. The only "redemption" for the oppressor would be their complete cultural annihilation and the total repudiation of their own identity, which in practice means the destruction of civilization. This mirrors the Gnostic division of humanity into fixed natures (pneumatics, psychics, hylics), where salvation or damnation is predetermined by essence, not by free cooperation with grace. The Catholic doctrine of personal sin, repentance, and redemption offered to all through Christ is rejected, replaced by an inescapable group destiny where the only way out for the "oppressor" is self-destruction (Meinvielle, 1970, p. 150).
🎓The Conquest of Institutions as a Cabalistic Strategy
Finally, the exportation of this model via universities and NGOs, as Lindsay points out, is the realization of the Gramscian strategy of the "long march through the institutions." Rioult demonstrates that the theorists of cultural Marxism understood that the revolution would not be won in the streets, but in the capture of the means of cultural production: education, media, the arts. By dominating the universities, they formed generations of activists and bureaucrats who today disseminate this ideology capillarily throughout society. This tactic of infiltration is the modern form of the historical strategy of the Cabalistic tradition, which has always sought to penetrate and corrupt the structures of Christendom from within, from the Gnostic heresies of the early centuries to the occult movements of the Renaissance and the secret societies that prepared the modern revolutions (Meinvielle, 1970, p. 29, 212).
📚References
Meinvielle, J. De la cábala al progresismo. Salta: Calchaquí, 1970.
Rioult, J-M. A impostura do marxismo cultural. Paris, 2016.
Lindsay, J. https://newdiscourses.com/author/jameslindsay/