The Ghost in the Woke Machine: The CIA's Culture War Ops w/ Ryan Perkins

Ryan Perkins joins Morbid Symptoms to discuss how postwar intellectual movements and today’s “woke” politics were shaped — and in many ways engineered — by intelligence agencies and philanthropic networks like the CIA, Ford Foundation, and Open Society.
We trace how the anti-communist cultural Left was manufactured during the Cold War to neutralize class politics, turning revolutionary energy into cultural critique, identity, and individualism.
Perkins explains how the institutions that claimed to defend freedom and democracy helped create a Left that was divided, moralistic, and politically toothless — a Left radical in tone, but safe for capital.
15:32 Intro and CIA Report: Defection of Left French Intellectuals
26:34 CIA's Influence on Intellectual Movements
33:21 Origins of Modern Left and CIA's Role
48:05 The Frankfurt School, Critical Theory, Intersectionality
1:05:21 Yuri Bezmenov and Soviet Espionage Fantasy
1:11:40 The Role of Foundations in Shaping Theory and Cultural Divisions
1:22:00 What does China make of this “woke” left?
1:24:33 Challenges Facing the Modern Left
1:34:32 The Synthetic, Astroturfed Nature of the Post-War Left
1:39:00 Concluding Thoughts and Future Projects

Link to Ryan's article: https://ryanperkins.substack.com/p/th...
Link to CIA report on the deflection of French left intellectuals from socialism, communism, class politics...: https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/...