"This piece (and so many like them) floats on a sort of Star Wars fascination with the powers of the Dark Side."
Maybe more like a Dr. Evil and Mini Me fascination to be technical about it. While it is possible to exaggerate the influence of Cultural Marxism in either πάθος or Entgegenständlichung, probably not by very much. It has an affinity with the Fabian Socialism and Deweyite trends which were already present in American mass education. Most liberals in the media would be too stupid to be able to tell the difference. They think of it just as progressive. The marketing and repackaging of it as "postmodern" was interesting. It might be worth debating the presentation of Freudianism and Frankfurt School social theory by Deweyite methods in the American system since not much philosophy is taught in the classical sense.