ANU Senior Research Fellow Dr Kevin Donnelly says the origins of cancel culture can be found just before the second world war in Germany – by Marxist academics from the Frankfurt School at Goethe University.

Dr Donnelly said these academics “realised” that to effect a cultural revolution they couldn’t “storm the barricades” but rather take the “long march” of overtaking the vital institutions of society – such as education, the government, the Church and the family.

“These academics, who are all Marxist – they argued that if there was going to be a revolution it had to be by taking over schools, university, political parties, even the family, the Church – and we’ve seen that happen over the last 40 to 50 years in particular, since the late 60’s and early 70’s … in what was called the culture wars,” he told Sky News host Cory Bernardi.