The term makes it sound more conspiratorial than it is. It’s simply Marx’s framework of power imbalance and exploitation applied directly to social relations. That’s in contrast to Marx’s use of those ideas: applying them directly to economic relations, and seeing social relations as merely as the superstructure of economic relations.

“Critical theory” is a less loaded and more specific term, and there is no doubt that critical theory emerged from neo-Marxist thinkers of the Frankfurt School.

There are certainly conspiracy theories about critical theory, but critical theory scholars themselves used to use the term “cultural Marxism”. Modern day radical feminism and identity politics is without a doubt philosophically grounded in critical theory.