If you listened to the last episode of Citations Needed, you heard that the CIA funneled money into into cultural institutions like the Iowa Writers Workshop and the Paris Review to win the cultural war against communism. Much of this led to the emphasis on first-person writing and a focus on individual experience.
I don't know about you comrades, but I got Ds throughout secondary (high school) in English. I fucking hated 20th century lit. Are there any pretentious and overly individualistic writers that you blame on the CIA?
There are mostly likely very many, the Information Research Department (secret foreign office branch, still exists under a different name) did the same thing in the UK too, eg probably Orwell, probably lots of authors published by Penguin. Honestly any writer in the last 60 years whose work is more famous than it should be and whose work contains anti-communism on some level was probably intelligence funded/boosted.
I remember reading that Orwell was the early stage of anti communism propoganda. But it was too obvious. The CIA literally dropped copies of the book from CIA aircraft over Soviet block countries.
The Congress for Cultural Freedom was supposed to launder CIA money behind not for profit foundations and academic institutions. And people wonder why leftists are paranoid.
Right? It's hilarious for this supposed socialist to spend all his time parroting his capitalist government's line to criticize a socialist country, yet everyone bought it (including me a lil when I read it at school)
I almost bought it until the part about sociologists and teachers taking over the government. I grew up around sociologists and teachers, they have neither the time nor the energy to create a fascist state.
more on that here: https://redsails.org/on-orwell/
Orwell Apologists: "Nooo you don't get it 1984 is just against authoritarianism its equally dismissive of capitalism and socialist dictatorships"
Every single living normal person who has read 1984: "Oh this is obviously all about the Soviet Union and how awful it is compared to us"
CIA: "Hehe airdrops go brrr"